Not sure about that Mimmo... Mersenne is a scientist, therefore a precise observer and his observations are worth considering seriously. When he describes the duration of the sound of the bass stings of a lute, he takes care to precise ""...le son des grosses chordes de Luth est apperceu de l'oreille durant la sixiesme partie, ou le tiers d'une minute...", the sound is preceived by the ear for 10 to 20 seconds. And a few lines further he says : "...Il n'y a nul doute que la chorde se meut encore long-temps après que l'oreille en perd le son..." = there is no doubt that the strings still moves a long time after the ear has lost its sound. So he is not confusing vibration and sound, not at all ! Now, as Matthew remarked, we don't know about the conditions in which the test was done. If the lute is laid on a table, it might certainly influence the parameters of the experience...
Best, Jean-Marie -------------- >I am lucky: I have seen /installed strings on some hundreds od lutes in >these last years. Maybe I can be in mistake, but I have never seen a lute, >whose basses are roped strings or even loaded roped strings, whose sustain >is so long. Even with modern Pyramid nylon wound strings (they have in >absolute the higher density) . >I would like to know if here there is somebody that can have a positive >experience in matter. At present I would stick that Mersenne meant how >many time last the vibration, not the sound. >Mimmo > >-----Messaggio originale----- >From: Matthew Daillie >Sent: Monday, January 09, 2017 10:52 AM >To: Mimmo Peruffo >Cc: Rob MacKillop ; Lute List >Subject: Re: [LUTE] Re: Aquila Loaded Nylgut sustain > >One thing nobody seems to have mentioned is the vast differences in sustain >from one instrument to another. Maybe Mersenne's comments go to show just >how good some lutes were at the time. If one was to rest a lute on the edge >of a wooden table as they were wont to do at the time, then maybe those 20 >seconds are not so unrealistic. >Best, >Matthew= > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
