VERY astute observation! 'On 8/21/2014 6:47 AM, Joshua Burkholder wrote: "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."'
-Otherwise, Martin Shepherd sums it up all perfectly to my satisfaction. As to reversing 7 & 8 to finger low D, I never could stick with it on an 8 course lute, but strangely enough found it to be a very satisfactory compromise on a 9 course lute; seems the low 9-C gave the whole lute stringing a proper foundation. That was my first lute, long gone; and as I don't much play the dedicated 10 course repertoire but do miss the occasional but important low C that occurs in Holborne, Daniel, & R. Johnson, I would love to have a real, 9-course lute again (Martin makes a beautiful one!)- the exact lute that Dowland preferred at the end of his career (1610, "Varietie..."). For what it's worth- and in line with what most are posting here, not one of my Renaissance lute students has settled on an 8 course. 7 courses or 6, even though they appreciate the quality of my 8 course. One last interesting bit, uncommented on so far: just for myself, when i'm playing my 7-course at home for no audience, i've been known to tune the two strings of the 7th course to F and D. yes, that's not a u nison, i know, and then i'm careful to hit only one string of the course when i need to, making for a sort of cheat 8-course... i wonder if anyone else has done this. cheeky, i know, but i can't imagine i'm t he only player in history to have tried this on the sly. Of course this option is out for those of us using 8ves on our bass courses, but I remember- but not the source- that the first experimental use of a 6th course was done this way in the mid/late 15th century. If anyone can confirm & expound on this, (or tell me I'm imagining things) I'd like to know! Dan -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
