Dear Martin and Sterling,
I happened to have a copy of Barley to hand and have checked and his
two woodcuts of lutes don't show octaves on any of the six courses.
Also a quick glance through his version of Le Roy's rules doesn't
show any reference to octaves at all, though I may have missed
something.
Best wishes,
David
At 11:39 +0100 1/1/16, Martin Shepherd wrote:
Hi Sterling,
Here is what I wrote a little while ago in response to a question
from Robert Barto. I hope it helps.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an interesting question. Off the top of my head:
I don't think Spinacino (1507) mentions octaves in his introductory
material, but there are some classic examples of octaves in his
intabulations, especially in the opening of "Haray tre amours" (Book
2, f.15v.) where the opening flourish finishes, not on the open 2nd
course, but on the second fret of the 5th course.
Attaingnant's tuning instructions (1529) tell us to use octaves on
4-6. His arrangements of chansons for voice and lute also suggest
pretty unambiguously an octave on the 4th course (e.g. cadences
which go from c4a5 to d3a4).
Not sure whether Hans Newsidler's instructions (1536) talk about it,
but the woodcut of a lute showing the symbols of German tablature
clearly shows octaves on 4-6. There is also evidence of octaves in
his intabulations.
Adrian le Roy's Instructions (English translation, 1574), in
discussing the intabulation of "De corps absent" on f.42(?) mentions
using the octave on the 5th course to solve a problem in the
intabulation, and in passing mentions that this ruse would not be
possible with a lute strung in the manner of Fabritio Dentice and
his followers (which is where we get the idea that Dentice was a
leading proponent of unison stringing). I had a feeling that
somewhere Le Roy tells us to use octaves on 4-6, but I can't find it
at the moment.
I have a feeling that Waissel's instructions (1592 book?) use
octaves but I don't have the facsimile - can anyone help?
Barley (1596) prints a version of Le Roy's instructions and also has
a woodcut of a lute which seems to show octaves on 4-6. Can't
immediately find my copy of that either.
When Dowland is talking about octaves in 1610, he recommends using a
unison 6th course, and says that the practice of using an octave (on
the 6th course) was used "nowhere so much as here in England". In
fact there are many passages in John Johnson, Francis Cutting,
Anthony Holborne and even Dowland where octaves even up to the 4th
course seem to be implied, so it seems that use of octaves persisted
longer in England than elsewhere and may even have been common in
the 1590s.
I hope others can add to this list and confirm (or otherwise) some
of my references.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message ----- From: "sterling price"
<spiffys84...@cs.dartmouth.edu>
To: "Lutelist Net" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2015 11:04 PM
Subject: [LUTE] A Lute of Six Courses
Dear list--
Yesterday I got a new six course lute. This is the first time I have
really played one.
Question--is there an octave generally on the fourth course? Say for
Milano and such. But I also plan to play vihuela music on this, so then
no octaves?
Sterling
--
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
--
The Smokehouse,
6 Whitwell Road,
Norwich, NR1 4HB
England.
Telephone: + 44 (0)1603 629899
Website: http://www.vanedwards.co.uk
