Dear Martin, Waissel 1592 is a bit tricky: He says that all of the "Bomhart" have an octave - but he doesn't give a complete terminology for all the strings (excepted the names deriving from the tablature like "Tertia", which ist the third course, in the German tablature the cipher 3). So we can't say if he's speaking in the tradition of "grosser Bomhart / grössten Brummer" (= 6th course), "mittlerer Bomhart / mittel Brummer" (5th course) and "kleiner Bomhart / kleiner Brummer" (= 4th course) like older treatises as Newsidler.
If the tradition is broken, I don't know any German source in which this "new" tradition with only two "Bomhart / Brummer" appears. So without any new proofs for a broken tradition I would say that in the German countries the octave until the 4th course is living at least until Waissel in 1592 - but it's not certain. Have a nice 2016! Andreas Am 01.01.2016 um 11:39 schrieb Martin Shepherd <mar...@luteshop.co.uk>: > 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 > > Andreas Schlegel Eckstr. 6 CH-5737 Menziken +41 (0)62 771 47 07 lute.cor...@sunrise.ch --
