I am afraid I agree with Ron. Tinctoris tells us about the German invention of brass strings which were added to enhance the sonority. He doesn't give precise instructions on how it was done, so it can be interpreted in 3 ways (as I wrote before). BTW, "Ore" is not equal to brass. Ore means Calamine and only with a copper addition it gives a proper brass. However Tinctoris probably had brass in mind when writing ore. Gimped gut is not exactly the same as gut on metal core. I won't discuss gimped strings in detail as the full info is available at Gamut website http://gamutmusic.squarespace.com/gimped-gut/ ,but gimped means that the wire is twisted with gut. The other type could have a metal core and gut twisted on brass. In this case a wire wouldn't be visible at all unlike gimped gut which gives a barber-pole or candy-stripe appearance. It would only enhance the mass of a string, diminish its diameter and add to sonority. Unfortunately no one makes this type of strings in Europe (as David mentioned). I think it could be beneficial to ask a Latin expert on exact meaning of Tinctoris's text.
All the best Jaroslaw Wiadomość napisana przez Mathias Rösel w dniu 11 lip 2012, o godz. 14:11: >> Thirdly, as I mentioned earlier, a translation from original Latin text >> doesn't give >> a clear idea whether Tinctoris writes about plain wire, gimped gut, or wire >> used >> as a core for a gut string. > > The text is pretty clear IMO. It says they added an octave string of ore > (i.e. bronze) to their lowest course (i.e. 5th). Plain metal, neither gimped > gut nor wire used as a core for a gut string (which is pretty much the same, > if I'm not mistaken). > > That may not imply, of course, that the author Tintoris was right. I for one, > though, tend to believe him. > > Mathias > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
