Dear Alfonso,
A small theorbo is called a 'toy' theorbo when, because of its
relatively small size which only really requires the first course to be
at the lower octave, the second is also unnecessarily lowered: it's
all down to how the individual player strings it, not some inherent
characteristic of the instrument itself. Why some players do it is a
mystery; although, of course, the use of modern overwpound strings (if
you like them) allows a fairly strong bass even with a small fingered
string length. I believe Howard Posner favours these small instruments
in such a tuning - hence his advocacy of them I presume. There is much
more, with historical evidence etc, in the archives of this list.
Good to see, incidentally, that all the double-rentrant theorbos
Barber (amongst others) offers are large instruments (except for his
own design!) which do, indeed, require both courses to be lowered the
octave.
MH
--- On Mon, 16/2/09, howard posner <howardpos...@ca.rr.com> wrote:
From: howard posner <howardpos...@ca.rr.com>
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Theorbo by Nic. Nic. B. van der Waals for sale
To: "lutelist Net" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Date: Monday, 16 February, 2009, 5:36 PM
On Feb 16, 2009, at 6:35 AM, Alfonso Marin wrote:
> What do you mean by TOY theorbo?
> Have you seen the pictures? Do you think Nico van der Waals will
> ever make a TOY instrument?
>
> Sorry. I don't get it.
Where have you been? You missed all the fun. The "toy theorbo" is a
recurring topic around here, and something of a running joke.
If you're curious, you can start with:
http://www.lutesandguitars.co.uk/htm/cat10.htm and search
"inaccurate"
and then google "toy theorbo" or "Buchenberg containing a
shawm"
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