Hello Meanies
As I told in an earlier thread, when I received my Warwick Dm
lute from Stephen G., it happened to be in 6th comma, and sounded far
better than it should have done on French 11c music. A visiting French
Baroque specialist was impresssed enough to try it on his Martin H.
Warwick, where it didn't work at all. He could just about get away with
8th comma.
I can't think the difference could have been down to the lute type, so
perhaps it was the stringing. The MH Lute was wirewound and synthetic
strung, while mine was loaded. Perhaps this slight damping made any
clashing a little less painful.
I then gravitated to ET, simply because it seemed to be what everyone
else thought I should do, and I began to think perhaps I was "tone
deaf", but I did miss some sweetness, even if there might have been
some clashing. I now realize I should try and be slightly more "mean"
again.
In fact, now the lute has been played in for over a year, it is sweet
even in ET, but I wonder whether tuning types can effect the time and
the way a lute plays itself in (I don't want to use the expression
"breaking-in the lute", as understandably, that always shocks Martin's
lute making sensibility).
Best wishes
Anthony
Hi All,
Well Arto you should have known better than to raise the subject of
temperaments, but flame wars aside I just wanted to point out that the
2nd, 3rd and 4th courses of the Dm lute (and therefore the 5th, 6th,
and first as well) are the same as on the G tuning of a renaissance
lute, so all the same possibilities and problems arise, the main one
being that Gb on the first fret of the 4th course when what you really
wanted was an F#. Personally I quite like my French 11c music a bit
"mean", but I agree the later you go the more you might want to
gravitate towards ET.
Best wishes,
Martin
wikla wrote:
Dear baroque lutenists,
getting into the d-minor tuned lute's secrets seems to be an
interesting
task! Among the many first impressions - partly good, partly not so
good -
was one of the latter: it looked like you really should get used to the
equal temperament - to me quite heavy a sacrifice. Anyhow, after asking
my
former lute teacher and taking a look to his 11-courser, I got the idea
that at least you can make your F-major and some other keys better by
tuning the a's a little bit lower and taking the 4th fret a little
lower;
then there you have the a(low), f# and c#. All of them good to be low
in
many important keys.
Anyhow g-minor seems to be problematic: eb's and f#'s seem always want
to
be on the same fret in the neigboring strings. And I guess there will
be no
good D-major unless you tune the 1st and 4th to f#. They also used that
scordatura in the 17th anf 18th centuries.
Any comments, experiences or hints in getting better intonation than
the ET
in d-minor tuned lutes?
Best,
Arto
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