I don't have a date - I'm thinking back 20 years or so. I imagine I got
the information from Anne Hayman or Bill Taylor. Anne, if I remember
her correctly, had some madcap theory to do with folk-lore, pixies,
spiritual lay lines, and god-knows what else - although may be doing
her a disservice. But neither Anne nor Bill gave any credence to my
thory of b and b flat.
Rob
2009/12/26 <[1]dem...@suffolk.lib.ny.us>
> The Scots/Irish clarsach (medieval wire-string harp) of yore
had the
> two central strings tuned to b, and were referred to as the
'two
> sisters'. I have a couple of theories as to why this should be.
1) one
> of them was b flat
Thanks for the mention, this is the first I have heard of the 'two
sisters', dont recall it in Roslyn Rensch's book on harps (my copy
is the
1998 edition, I see a 2007 now). Any date for first mention?
I am inclined to agree with you, scholars lacking solid evidence in
either
direction will argue all round the barn, but I see the practical
side of
it, b-flat is the first accidental needed, so would be the first
provided.
Keyboards, harp, hammered dulcimer; regular spacing between the
courses
is a major aspect in play, to violate it would not be done casually,
there
had to be some reason favoring the use of the 'two sisters', and
having
both b and b-flat available seems to me the only reason.
--
Dana Emery
To get on or off this list see list information at
[2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
References
1. mailto:dem...@suffolk.lib.ny.us
2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
