I checked my old Schott hard-copy facsimile, and in the lovely,
full-page tuning/interval table (on p. 19 of that edition, but you can
miss it) I see that "trebles" that are the first course, "small meanes"
the second, "great meanes" the third, and "Countertenor" the fourth.
On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 12:48 PM, howard posner
<[1]howardpos...@ca.rr.com> wrote:
On Feb 15, 2012, at 9:20 AM, David R wrote:
> I was talking to someone the other day about viol fretting,
specifically: using old strings as fret gut. Along with some
information on that, he sent me this quote from Dowland. He didn't
specify John or Robert:
>
> "therefore doe this; let the two first frets neerest the head of
the Instrument (being the greatest) be of the size of your
Countertenor, then the third and fourth frets must be of the size of
your great Meanes : the fift and sixt frets of the size of your
small Meanes : and all the rest sized with Trebles. These rules
serue also for Viols, or any other kinde of Instrument whereon frets
are tyed."
>
> I'm not familiar with the terms "countertenor," "great meanes" or
"small means." I assume Dowland is referring to lute strings, but
can anyone tell me which courses he's referring to?
I don't know the answer offhand, but the quote is from John D's
preface to A Varietie of Lute Lessons ("Other Necessary Observations
belonging to the Lute") on page "E." If you don't have Varietie,
you can download a pdf here:
[2]http://www.shipbrook.net/jeff/bookshelf/details.html?bookid=40
Your quote on is on page 16 of the pdf, so your question is
presumably answered before that.
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References
1. mailto:howardpos...@ca.rr.com
2. http://www.shipbrook.net/jeff/bookshelf/details.html?bookid=40
3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
