If you haven't yet ordered a lute, I would consider an 8 course,
which
in my opinion is more versatile.A It even allows you to cheat and
play
10 course music...
Very true, Bruno, I loved exploring the Vallet and Ballard books for
years on my 8c, turning singers on to Airs de cours and knowing that
nearly all the English was, at least, doable w/out retuning something.
That said, I've seen some lovely 7c instruments and they sound better
for resisting the extra course. Ed Martin's, for example, as well as
Jacob Herringman's 7c Gerle. The latter is interesting in that it
retains the earlier parabolic neck which, I think, would not support 8
courses. If that is your route you're well set up to go to the 6c.
Ed, I believe you have a gut bass w/ a metal filament on the 7th
course on that instrument. Could you weigh in on how it does re:
Joshua's question? I'm curious myself.
Dalza expected lutes to accept a one-step scordatura and in one
'suite' on the 5th course also. Could the extra half step really be
too much?
But truthfully, Joshua, a 7c is a fine place to start and I applaud
your resolution. You'll work out the D/F situation one way or another.
Sean
A
A
Bruno
On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 11:48 AM, Braig, Eugene <[1]brai...@osu.edu>
wrote:
It's beginning to sound like an 8-course might actually better suit
your needs. A While short lived in period, they seem pretty
ubiquitous today.
Best,
Eugene
-----Original Message-----
From: [2]lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu
[mailto:[3]lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of Joshua Burkholder
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2012 11:40 AM
To: [4]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
Subject: [LUTE] Re-tuning the diapason of a 7c
Dear lute-listers,
A question from a beginner:
First to introduce myself, my name is Joshua and I've been playing
the
lute for several months now; I have been on the list for a couple
weeks
and am really enjoying following your discussions. I have a rental
7-course and I am now in the process of taking the plunge and
buying a
lute of my own. After much reading, pondering and agonizing over the
best number of courses to start with, I've come to the conclusion
that
a 7-course best suits my needs. So onto to my question:
I know that some people re-tune the 7th course from D to F as needed,
but on my rental lute this seems quite impossible. The diapason is
stung to F and if I drop it down to D it becomes far too wobbly and
flabby. From this I assume that if I were to restring it to D, which
I'd prefer on the whole, it would likewise be impossible to raise
it to
F. Currently the lute is strung with Pyramid strings so the basses
are
metal wound. Is it only possible to change from D to F on the same
string if one uses gut strings (Poulton remarks to this effect in her
tutor that if it's strung to be tuned at D "it will only be
possible to
raise it to F if gut strings are used")? Otherwise I have to re-
string?
Or does someone use some other stringing solution, besides just
keeping
it D and fingering the third fret for F (or buying an 8-course
lute...)? I've read enough about stringing lutes to understand that
it
will be a while before I understand anything about stringing lutes...
Thank you for taking the time to help out a newcomer.
Best wishes,
Joshua
To get on or off this list see list information at
[5]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
A
Bruno Cognyl-Fournier
A
[6]www.estavel.org
A
--
References
1. mailto:brai...@osu.edu
2. mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu
3. mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu
4. mailto:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
5. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
6. http://www.estavel.org/
