I understand... this is the point: we scholars have done a long list of
conceptual and practical mistakes done by Mersenne in his book.
This mean that he must be taken with a grain of salt. Of course, he done a
great job with his monumental treatise and it is very usefull also.
I am a strict follower of Galileo Galilei's thinking: any affermation
should be verified by pratical tests made by us.
Well, I done these tests. with a gut roped loaded string we are in order of
a few seconds, we are very far form a third of minutes mentioned by him.
it is a bit more with modern wound strings ( 10 seconds, or around it)
Now, why -a 5 time dense than gut- nylon wound string should have less
sustain than an all gut string whose density is a lot less? This is against
the phisics laws, not to our personal opinions. Mine too.
-
Maybe those strings were so well done to justify a lot of things: but they
cannot be done so good to be better than any modern wound string. This
because the sustain is relate to elasticity and density.
Ciao!
Mimmo
-----Messaggio originale-----
From: Jean-Marie Poirier
Sent: Monday, January 09, 2017 11:42 AM
To: Mimmo Peruffo ; Matthew Daillie
Cc: Rob MacKillop ; 'Lute List'
Subject: Re: [LUTE] Re: Aquila Loaded Nylgut sustain
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=
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