As for wire-drawing, it seems the ancient Celts were able to do it with gold - their torcs are made from twisted ropes of gold wire. Who knows how they did it, but it seems there was a technology for wire-drawing long before the 15th century.
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedgeford_Torc Bill From: Monica Hall <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk> To: Jaroslaw Lipski <jaroslawlip...@wp.pl> Cc: Lutelist <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Thursday, 12 July 2012, 17:38 Subject: [LUTE] Re: brass strings on 15th century lutes matter. The only thing > that is difficult for me to accept in the result of your translation is > the fact that it is not a practical solution. Can you imagine playing such > an instrument? Some people complain about octave stringing on instruments > equipped with gut only saying that it ruins voice leading, so how it would > be possible to play a tenor or alto voice crossing 2 addjacent courses - > one with unison guts and the other with a mixture of gut and wire in > octaves!!! I won't even mention problems with intonation and frets. It > sounds like a nightmare to me. I am sorry, but it is very difficult to > find any logic in this arrangement. Therefore I tend to think we are > missing something in the interpretation of Tinctoris's words, or he didn't > express himself clearly. For what its worth I'll stick my oar (or ore) in and say that some people today may complain that octave stringing ruins the voice leading - but there is very little doubt that plucked string instruments were strung in octaves. People in the past may have had no choice in the matter as the alternative may have been even worse. Octave doubling and voice leading is a major problem on the baroque guitar for players today but players in the past may not have found it a problem. As the distinguished musicalogist Howard Mayer Brown said "What we may think sounds "best" or "right" or "most musical" is not a safe guide to what was done in the past". (My favourite quote). Surely the only thing that is not clear in Tinctoris' comment is how exactly the strings he refers to were actually made or what they consisted of. Monica > > Best wishes > > Jaroslaw > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedgeford_Torc 2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
