"others can't understand why anyone would spend so much money on 6c 7c
and 10c lutes when they can just play everything on an 8c,"
This pretty much sums up how I feel, if you can only own one lute, an
8c makes sense to me. I do miss the low C from when I used to own a
10c, only because lately I have been playing some French lute songs
with a soprano and see that low note which I just play up an 8ve. But
it isn't worth the hassle/expense of either buying a 10c or re-tuning
the 8th on stage. Maybe if I splurge and get those geared pegs I might
consider re-tuning on stage, but not before then!
On Thu, Aug 21, 2014 at 9:47 AM, Joshua Burkholder
<[1]burkholder.jos...@gmail.com> wrote:
I also prefer the 7c; and only being able to have one lute (for
now), I wouldn't trade it for anything else. But it's a tough
question for the beginner, as I suspect this is sort of preference
is something you can develop only after you've played the lute for a
little while, and gotten to know the repertoire a bit. Some people
feel that playing 6c course music on 8c lute is highly
unsatisfactory, others can't understand why anyone would spend so
much money on 6c 7c and 10c lutes when they can just play everything
on an 8c, others still feel that if you're going to add any courses
after 6 you should just go straight to 10, and so on. You can only
really know what compromises are acceptable to you (and, indeed,
what you consider a compromise) after you've had a little experience
with lute playing. I suppose people like Martin, who has a lot of
experience not only as a player but also as a maker, will have a
more refined sensibility to the differences than, say, me, who has
onl!
A y played couple of lutes for enough time to really get to know
them, and has just 'tasted' others at lute get-togethers and
classes.
But I feel that lutenists are a bit to obsessed with counting
courses, perhaps because the music is in tablature which enhances
the perception of these sorts of distinctions, otherwise we would
would just see the notes and perhaps be a bit less occupied with
which course we played them on.
Joshua
On 21 Aug 2014, at 14:10, Martin Shepherd <[2]mar...@luteshop.co.uk>
wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> As Georges says, having the D on the 7th course gives you a 7c lute
with an optional F on the 8th, which is handy for playing those pieces
where the 7th course is fingered (some of Dowland's difficult solos,
and Danyel's lute songs come to mind).A No use for Molinaro, of
course.
>
> Many people (myself included) feel that there is a difference in
sound and feel between 7c and 8c lutes, which is perhaps more
noticeable with small instruments than big ones.A On an 8c lute, the
bridge is longer, and there is more total string tension.A From the
playing point of view I always feel I want either one or two less, or
one or two more, courses.A A 7c lute seems much more at home with 6c
music than an 8c, so in a way it covers more music.
>
> 9c lutes are not popular these days but seem to have been common
around 1600-1610.A One nice tuning is with the 9th at Bb and the 8th
at Eb, so you get a lovely tuning/stringing arrangement for playing in
Eb or Bb.A It's surprising how many pieces in "10c" sources (like
Ballard) are playable without modification on 9 courses.
>
> 10c lutes cover more music, of course, but you still have the E/Eb
tuning dilemma and it's really a "baroque" lute, a long way away from
6c music.A The great thing about it is the large repertoire for
transitional tunings.
>
> Martin
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> To get on or off this list see list information at
> [3]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
References
1. mailto:burkholder.jos...@gmail.com
2. mailto:mar...@luteshop.co.uk
3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
