> My guess is > that the "general pitch" at this period was around a tone lower than modern, so > a "G lute" may have been around 67cm string length. I think one of the songs > uses a "bass" lute in (nominal) D, so this may have been quite a big beast. > > The strange tuning used for "The Leaves be Green" is a kind of conceit (first > pointed out by Tony Rooley many years ago - starting with a nominal G lute, the > only courses which have *not* been changed in tuning are A and G, standing for > "Anne Greene".
If nominal G lute means starting with the 1st course in G, then there is no A course with Danyel's tuning. 9c G-lute: G4 - D4 - A3 - F3 - C3 - G2 || F2 - Eb2 - C2 Danyel: G4 - D4 - Bb3 - F3 - Bb2 - Ab2 || F2 - Eb2 - Bb1 If your guess is right, that the "general pitch" at this period was around a tone lower than modern, that would cause problems with the lowest course even on a big beast, or so I should guess. The fundamental would simply be too thick a string. The only solution that I can think of would be loaded guts. Mathias To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
