[LUTE] Re: Theorbo Nicki don't lose that number

2009-02-19 Thread Martyn Hodgson


   Praetorius, Mace to name but two.

   --- On Wed, 18/2/09, howard posner howardpos...@ca.rr.com wrote:

 From: howard posner howardpos...@ca.rr.com
 Subject: [LUTE] Re: Theorbo Nicki don't lose that number
 To: lutelist Net lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
 Date: Wednesday, 18 February, 2009, 2:25 PM
On Feb 18, 2009, at 3:26 AM, Martyn Hodgson wrote:

 However without troubling yourself to trawl these, you will also see
from my recent postings that there's absolutely nothing
'wrong'
 with
small theorboes but just that the use of large theorbo tuning (ie
double reentrant in A or G) on the smaller instruments does not
 tally
with the historical record (see archives).

So Martyn keeps saying.  But if you were to trouble to trawl through
the archives that he always refers to generally but never
specifically, you'll see one post after another in which Martyn
resolutely refused to admit what everyone knows: that there is no
evidence tying any specific historical instrument of any specific
size to any specific tuning or stringing.  Mostly he did this by
referring to the archives generally but never specifically.


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[LUTE] Re: Theorbo Nicki don't lose that number

2009-02-19 Thread Roland Hayes
What about the Castaldi duets? What tuning for the smaller instrument? R


-Original Message-
From: Martyn Hodgson [mailto:hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk] 
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 2:58 AM
To: lutelist Net; howard posner
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Theorbo Nicki don't lose that number



   Praetorius, Mace to name but two.

   --- On Wed, 18/2/09, howard posner howardpos...@ca.rr.com wrote:

 From: howard posner howardpos...@ca.rr.com
 Subject: [LUTE] Re: Theorbo Nicki don't lose that number
 To: lutelist Net lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
 Date: Wednesday, 18 February, 2009, 2:25 PM On Feb 18, 2009, at
3:26 AM, Martyn Hodgson wrote:

 However without troubling yourself to trawl these, you will also see
from my recent postings that there's absolutely nothing
'wrong'
 with
small theorboes but just that the use of large theorbo tuning (ie
double reentrant in A or G) on the smaller instruments does not 
 tally
with the historical record (see archives).

So Martyn keeps saying.  But if you were to trouble to trawl through the
archives that he always refers to generally but never specifically,
you'll see one post after another in which Martyn resolutely refused to
admit what everyone knows: that there is no evidence tying any specific
historical instrument of any specific size to any specific tuning or
stringing.  Mostly he did this by referring to the archives generally
but never specifically.


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[LUTE] Re: possible scam warning!!!!! be careful.... from Anton Birula

2009-02-19 Thread Taco Walstra
On Wednesday 18 February 2009, Wayne Cripps rattled on the keyboard:

I send this kind of people an html email where I'm very interested in the 
purchase or selling of an instrument. There is also a nice question where I 
ask their opinion and they have to look at a nice website. In fact it's a 
super malware website that is hidden in a link with a totally different name. 
For people interested in a few dangerous names contact me off line. I will 
not repeat that here because with windows there is a chance you  get a nice 
trojan or whatever if you accidently click on it with IE. Don't know if it 
worked but gives me some satisfaction.
Taco
 Hello Anton -

  I got that message too, and I think that everyone selling a lute
 on my web page got a copy.  If you look closely at the guitars pictured
 (from the Barber and Harris web page) you will see that they are
 all different!  It is a scam.

  And I don't have a front door in Finland, either!

   Wayne

 bradbake...@yahoo.com



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[LUTE] Re: Theorbo Nicki don't lose that number

2009-02-19 Thread howard posner


On Feb 19, 2009, at 6:12 AM, Roland Hayes wrote:

What about the Castaldi duets? What tuning for the smaller  
instrument? R


Just like the big one, an octave higher



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[LUTE] Re: Theorbo Nicki don't lose that number

2009-02-19 Thread howard posner
Apparently by way of associating a specific historic instrument with
a specific tuning, Martyn Hodgson wrote:

Praetorius, Mace to name but two.

What surviving instrument does Mace describe?  What specific
measurements associated with what specific tuning does Mace give us?

Praetorius' 1620 Theatrum Instrumentorum is an encyclopedic work that
shows generic theorbos, not any specific identifiable instrument, but
what the heck:

Praetorius' Lang Romanische Theorba: Chitarron is 14-course double re-
entrant in G, with a length of about 89cm (roughly 3.1 Brunswick Feet
multiplied by 28.536cm per BF) for its six fingerboard strings and an
extension about twice that.  Scaled down for a theorbo in A it would
be about 79 cm.  Would such an instrument be a toy?

Praetorius' Paduanische Theorba is a 16-course instrument, also in G,
about 96cm for the eight fingerboard strings, and 128cm on the
extension, which goes down to a  contra D (i.e. a full octave lower
than the ninth course).  I'd be interested to know how such low notes
at such a short length would work, and how they would balance the
long fingerboard strings.

The lowest fingerboard string on the Paduan theorbo would have been
an E, and thus considerably shorter in relation to its pitch than the
lowest G on the fingerboard of the Roman theorbo; to match the pitch/
length proportion of the Roman theorbo's G, the E would need to be
about 106cm.  Put another way, a theorbo string tuned to A (the sixth
course of a theorbo in A) with the same relation of length to pitch
as a 96cm E string would be 75cm long.  So even the Paduan theorbo
has its toyosity problems.

Has any such instrument survived?  Did anyone else ever mention such
a thing?  Or was it a short-lived variant?  Or was Praetorius'
information faulty?  And is anyone playing such an instrument now?

Praetorius does not mention an absolute pitch level.


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[LUTE] Re: Theorbo Nicki don't lose that number

2009-02-19 Thread howard posner
On Feb 19, 2009, at 9:39 AM, Roland Hayes wrote:

 So much for no double reentrant tuning on small theorbos. R.

 On Feb 19, 2009, at 6:12 AM, Roland Hayes wrote:

 What about the Castaldi duets? What tuning for the smaller
 instrument?

 R

 Just like the big one, an octave higher

Well, if someone wanted to be obtuse about it (not that anyone around
here would be obtuse) he could argue that the tiorbino, like the
theorbo, was strung in double re-entrant tuning because the
instrument was built to such a size that it was impossible to tune it
as an octave lute in A.  There are such large holes in that argument
that we're be none the worse for skipping it.

You're right in that the tiorbino shows that someone liked double re-
entrant tuning for musical reasons, not because of necessity or
practicality.  On the other hand, there's not much evidence that
Europe was overrun by tiorbinos.
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[LUTE] Non-Toy Theorbo for rent

2009-02-19 Thread Stewart McCoy
   Dear Howard,


   Thank you for your reply to my email about theorboes. You ask many
   questions, and I shall do my best to answer some of them.


   You wrote, Nobody suggested anything of the sort, i.e. expecting a
   source to tell us, with specific wording, things we need to know about
   theorboes for a whole range of circumstances.


   Well, in your message of 17th February, you wrote:


   Does some historical source say both highest pitch possible and
   thinnest useable string in discussing theorbos?  And if so, is there
   any reason to believe that every theorbist subscribed to it?


   That sounds like quite a bit of the sort to me. You were asking Martyn
   Hodgson to produce a source with specific wording, for circumstances
   which must apply to every theorbo player. Unfortunately the implication
   is, that if he fails to do so, his arguments are specious, which is a
   bit unfair.


   You ask, Who was THEY?. Well, as far as my message is concerned, THEY
   was Thomas Mace and the musicians he was writing about.


   You also ask, When was THEN? Mace's book was published in 1676, so
   THEN, for me, would be Mace's lifetime up to 1676. You can't really
   hold him to account for not mentioning a theorbo man playing in one of
   Handel's operas in 1724. Mace does have a good word to say about
   Monteverdi though.


   Your next question was, What is the thinnest useable string?


   To find your thinnest useable string, simply measure the thickness of
   all the strings you possess, and pick out the thinnest one. If you find
   you can use it on the instrument of your choice, you will have found
   the thinnest useable string. If it breaks, it won't be much use any
   more, except possibly for smaller instruments or for frets.


   You seem disappointed that Mace does not mention Pittoni and Castaldi,
   that he doesn't discuss the tiorbino, that he doesn't give exact
   measurements of the size of instruments and their strings, and doesn't
   talk about pitch. The implication is that the information to be gleaned
   from Musick's Monument, is worthless, because Mace doesn't mention all
   these things. I think we would do better to consider what Mace actually
   wrote, not what we think he should have written. In fact he does
   mention pitch, but there is as much chance of him giving Hertz numbers,
   as there is of him knowing about theorbo players alive in 1724. He
   writes about the Pitch of Consort, and says that, if you want to play
   with other musicians, you have to tune up to their pitch; if that means
   having to re-tune the 1st string or two down an octave, so be it. It is
   the pitch of the people you want to play with, which determines the
   tuning of your theorbo.


   Mace talks about instruments of different sizes, and says that the size
   of your instrument will determine whether or not you have to tune the
   first string, or the first two strings, down an octave. He doesn't need
   to give exact measurements, because he expects players to use their
   common sense, and avoid broken strings.


   So far I have dwelt on the less contentious side of the question: large
   instruments require a re-entrant tuning, because otherwise there is a
   risk that their strings will break. I hope we are agreed on that. The
   more controversial aspect, is whether or not it is appropriate to
   string smaller instruments with a re-entrant tuning, when their size
   would allow them to have just one course (instead of two) down an
   octave, or even all courses at pitch as with an archlute (instead of
   one course down an octave).


   To this I would say that there is no law or commandment which tells us
   how we should tune our instruments. We can do what we like. For Mace to
   say that our tuning is determined by whether or not we are playing with
   others at Pitch of Consort, suggests that some players may have had
   all their strings at the higher octave (or just the 1st course down an
   octave), but had to change the tuning to match the change in
   circumstances, i.e. playing with others at a higher pitch. In other
   words, he is saying that more than one tuning may have been possible
   for an instrument, depending on pitch.


   One reason why Mace seems less than enthusiastic about re-entrant
   tunings, may be seen in his phrase, the Life and Spruceness of such
   Ayrey Lessons, is quite lost. In other words, have a re-entrant tuning
   if you must, but if you do, you will lose something valuable in the
   music. The implication is, that if your instrument is small enough to
   allow it, it would be better to keep as many strings tuned at the
   higher octave as possible.


   My previous message was simply to say that the evidence from Thomas
   Mace concurs with what Martyn Hodgson had written on 17th^h February,
   to wit:


   Of course pitch is relevant to instrument size: as pointed out

   earlier, it's precisely why the top one, or two, courses 

[LUTE] Re: Toyota Theorbo for rent, low mileage

2009-02-19 Thread Mark Wheeler


-Ursprüngliche Nachricht-
Von: howard posner [mailto:howardpos...@ca.rr.com] 
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 19. Februar 2009 22:52
An: Lute Net
Betreff: [LUTE] Re: Toyota Theorbo for rent, low mileage

On Feb 19, 2009, at 11:05 AM, Stewart McCoy wrote:

  Does some historical source say both highest pitch possible and
thinnest useable string in discussing theorbos?  And if so, is
 there
any reason to believe that every theorbist subscribed to it?


That sounds like quite a bit of the sort to me. You were asking
 Martyn
Hodgson to produce a source with specific wording, for
 circumstances
which must apply to every theorbo player. Unfortunately the
 implication
is, that if he fails to do so, his arguments are specious, which
 is a
bit unfair.

Sorry, no.  I was responding to Mark Wheeler's remark that one of
the fundamentals of historical lute stringing, the highest string is
tuned to the highest pitch that is possible with the thinnest useable
string.  (I quoted it with his name at the top.)

A fair reading of that remark is that it's posited as universal: this
is what most players did for centuries.  I don't believe it for a
moment, and I doubt anybody ever actually said it.  Hence my
question: did anyone ever say, use the thinnest string you can and
crank that sucker?

Even if Mace said such a thing, which he didn't, that does not
establish such a dubious proposition as one of the fundamentals of
historical lute stringing.  Your lengthy paragraphs oddly suggesting
that I fault Mace for not mentioning Pittoni or Handel or Stockhausen
are thus beside the point, except insofar as they acknowledge the
limited application of Mace's remarks.

Your next question was, What is the thinnest useable string?

It was kind of a rhetorical question...

   To find your thinnest useable string, simply measure the
 thickness of  all the strings you possess, and pick out the
 thinnest one. If you find  you can use it on the instrument of your
 choice, you will have found the thinnest useable string. If it
 breaks, it won't be much use any more, except possibly for smaller
 instruments or for frets.

Have you ever done this?  If you have, no offense intended, but it
strikes me as a strange use of time.  It's certainly not a recipe for
optimum sound.

I think historical players began with an idea of what was workable,
received from teachers, other players and then their own experience.
Why on earth would they be pushing the limits of practicality and
constantly flirting with strings breaking in the middle of performances?

I know Dowland emphatically prescribed the opposite, saying first
set on your Trebles, which must be strayned neither too stiffe nor
too slacke, but of such a reasonable height that they may deliver a
pleasant sound, and also (as Musitions call it) play too and fro
after the strokes thereon, and warning of strings that were too
thin: but let it not be too small, for those give no sound, besides
they will be either rotten for lacke of substance, or extreame false.

 So far I have dwelt on the less contentious side of the question:
 large instruments require a re-entrant tuning, because otherwise
 there is a risk that their strings will break. I hope we are agreed
 on that.

We're not.  There are plenty of big bass lutes out there that aren't
in re-entrant tuning (and it appears that the first chitarrones
started out as bass lutes).  Re-entrant tuning is not a result of
having a big instrument, but rather of having a big instrument with a
basic A or G lute tuning instead of D or E tuning.  Re-entrant tuning
was thus always an aesthetic choice, and remains an aesthetic
choice.  In the 18th century, gallichons/mandoras too big to be tuned
to lute pitch in G were tuned in non-rentrant tuning at lower
pitches.  These instruments were extremely common in Central Europe,
probably more so than theorbos.

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[LUTE] Re: Toyota Theorbo for rent, low mileage

2009-02-19 Thread Mark Wheeler
Sorry All,

I accidentally hit the send button before I got round to actually writing
anything in the last post...So here is what I wanted to write

As far as cranking the string up, there are historical accounts of this
Robinson says “so high as you dare venter for breaking”.

As far as Dowland goes, I do not see any problem, he meanes not too stiffe
that it breaks. Dowland and Robinson are not contradictory. 

Mace talks quite a bit about stringing and even using different gauges, but
stresses that equal tension among the strings is very important especially
when playing in consort so that you can be heard.

Taken the limited range of gut stringing, tuning the highest string to the
highest possible pitch is necessary to achieve an equal tension. Exactly
what this pitch was would certainly have not been exactly the same for every
lutenist, but a difference of a fourth, would be pushing it all too far.

Just as it is clear that bass lutes were tuned lower than tenor lutes, it
seems only logical that small theorbos were tuned higher (or less
re-entrant) than larger ones. 

It seems that the 2 main factors for the trend of toy theorbos (more a
definition of usage than size) and single strung archlutes are the
availability of modern string materials and the size of car boots. Both of
which are not evil, just modern factors that did not exist in the past. 

All the best
Mark



-Ursprüngliche Nachricht-
Von: howard posner [mailto:howardpos...@ca.rr.com] 
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 19. Februar 2009 22:52
An: Lute Net
Betreff: [LUTE] Re: Toyota Theorbo for rent, low mileage

On Feb 19, 2009, at 11:05 AM, Stewart McCoy wrote:

  Does some historical source say both highest pitch possible and
thinnest useable string in discussing theorbos?  And if so, is
 there
any reason to believe that every theorbist subscribed to it?


That sounds like quite a bit of the sort to me. You were asking
 Martyn
Hodgson to produce a source with specific wording, for
 circumstances
which must apply to every theorbo player. Unfortunately the
 implication
is, that if he fails to do so, his arguments are specious, which
 is a
bit unfair.

Sorry, no.  I was responding to Mark Wheeler's remark that one of
the fundamentals of historical lute stringing, the highest string is
tuned to the highest pitch that is possible with the thinnest useable
string.  (I quoted it with his name at the top.)

A fair reading of that remark is that it's posited as universal: this
is what most players did for centuries.  I don't believe it for a
moment, and I doubt anybody ever actually said it.  Hence my
question: did anyone ever say, use the thinnest string you can and
crank that sucker?

Even if Mace said such a thing, which he didn't, that does not
establish such a dubious proposition as one of the fundamentals of
historical lute stringing.  Your lengthy paragraphs oddly suggesting
that I fault Mace for not mentioning Pittoni or Handel or Stockhausen
are thus beside the point, except insofar as they acknowledge the
limited application of Mace's remarks.

Your next question was, What is the thinnest useable string?

It was kind of a rhetorical question...

   To find your thinnest useable string, simply measure the
 thickness of  all the strings you possess, and pick out the
 thinnest one. If you find  you can use it on the instrument of your
 choice, you will have found the thinnest useable string. If it
 breaks, it won't be much use any more, except possibly for smaller
 instruments or for frets.

Have you ever done this?  If you have, no offense intended, but it
strikes me as a strange use of time.  It's certainly not a recipe for
optimum sound.

I think historical players began with an idea of what was workable,
received from teachers, other players and then their own experience.
Why on earth would they be pushing the limits of practicality and
constantly flirting with strings breaking in the middle of performances?

I know Dowland emphatically prescribed the opposite, saying first
set on your Trebles, which must be strayned neither too stiffe nor
too slacke, but of such a reasonable height that they may deliver a
pleasant sound, and also (as Musitions call it) play too and fro
after the strokes thereon, and warning of strings that were too
thin: but let it not be too small, for those give no sound, besides
they will be either rotten for lacke of substance, or extreame false.

 So far I have dwelt on the less contentious side of the question:
 large instruments require a re-entrant tuning, because otherwise
 there is a risk that their strings will break. I hope we are agreed
 on that.

We're not.  There are plenty of big bass lutes out there that aren't
in re-entrant tuning (and it appears that the first chitarrones
started out as bass lutes).  Re-entrant tuning is not a result of
having a big instrument, but rather of having a big instrument with a
basic A or G lute tuning instead of D or E tuning.  Re-entrant 

[LUTE] Re: Ruthenicae

2009-02-19 Thread Stuart Walsh

Sauvage Valéry wrote:

   [1]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU83Wf1_8PM

   Cantio Ruthenica LXXI by Joannes Leopolita (alias of Roman Turovsky,
   the ukainian painter and composer living in New York). Unusual melange
   of romantic guitar and viella both played by Maurizio Manzon. 



   Look at this one... just beautiful...

   Val

  
Indeed! Roman's sources for this music (or some of them, anyway)  seems 
to be women's choirs in a sort of caller-response format: solo female 
voice for a phrase and chordal response from collected voices. The music 
is slow, rubato, pained! with titles beginning Achh! ...


So a realisation on a plucked instrument is quite a challenge. A bowed 
instrument can at least seethe a bit. I wonder why, along with the bowed 
thing, Maurizio used a 19th century guitar since he has played this 
music on lutes.


(And how did he get that video effect? I'd like to have a go at that!)


Stuart

   --

References

   1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU83Wf1_8PM


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[LUTE] Re: Toyota Theorbo for rent, low mileage

2009-02-19 Thread chriswilke

Everyone,


 Has it occurred to anyone that, in the contexts of density and tensions, 
we're missing one other important component in order to say anything certain 
about how stringing was done then or how we can re-create those conditions now? 
 How 'bout some actual surviving strings?


Chris


--- On Thu, 2/19/09, Mark Wheeler l...@pantagruel.de wrote:

 From: Mark Wheeler l...@pantagruel.de
 Subject: [LUTE] Re: Toyota Theorbo for rent, low mileage
 To: 'howard posner' howardpos...@ca.rr.com, 'Lute Net' 
 lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
 Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009, 5:59 PM
 Sorry All,
 
 I accidentally hit the send button before I got round to
 actually writing
 anything in the last post...So here is what I wanted to
 write
 
 As far as cranking the string up, there are historical
 accounts of this
 Robinson says “so high as you dare venter for
 breaking”.
 
 As far as Dowland goes, I do not see any problem, he meanes
 not too stiffe
 that it breaks. Dowland and Robinson are not contradictory.
 
 
 Mace talks quite a bit about stringing and even using
 different gauges, but
 stresses that equal tension among the strings is very
 important especially
 when playing in consort so that you can be heard.
 
 Taken the limited range of gut stringing, tuning the
 highest string to the
 highest possible pitch is necessary to achieve an equal
 tension. Exactly
 what this pitch was would certainly have not been exactly
 the same for every
 lutenist, but a difference of a fourth, would be pushing it
 all too far.
 
 Just as it is clear that bass lutes were tuned lower than
 tenor lutes, it
 seems only logical that small theorbos were tuned higher
 (or less
 re-entrant) than larger ones. 
 
 It seems that the 2 main factors for the trend of toy
 theorbos (more a
 definition of usage than size) and single strung archlutes
 are the
 availability of modern string materials and the size of car
 boots. Both of
 which are not evil, just modern factors that did not exist
 in the past. 
 
 All the best
 Mark
 
 
 
 -Ursprüngliche Nachricht-
 Von: howard posner [mailto:howardpos...@ca.rr.com] 
 Gesendet: Donnerstag, 19. Februar 2009 22:52
 An: Lute Net
 Betreff: [LUTE] Re: Toyota Theorbo for rent, low mileage
 
 On Feb 19, 2009, at 11:05 AM, Stewart McCoy wrote:
 
   Does some historical source say both
 highest pitch possible and
 thinnest useable string in discussing
 theorbos?  And if so, is
  there
 any reason to believe that every theorbist
 subscribed to it?
 
 
 That sounds like quite a bit of the sort to me. You
 were asking
  Martyn
 Hodgson to produce a source with specific wording,
 for
  circumstances
 which must apply to every theorbo player.
 Unfortunately the
  implication
 is, that if he fails to do so, his arguments are
 specious, which
  is a
 bit unfair.
 
 Sorry, no.  I was responding to Mark Wheeler's remark
 that one of
 the fundamentals of historical lute stringing, the highest
 string is
 tuned to the highest pitch that is possible with the
 thinnest useable
 string.  (I quoted it with his name at the top.)
 
 A fair reading of that remark is that it's posited as
 universal: this
 is what most players did for centuries.  I don't
 believe it for a
 moment, and I doubt anybody ever actually said it.  Hence
 my
 question: did anyone ever say, use the thinnest
 string you can and
 crank that sucker?
 
 Even if Mace said such a thing, which he didn't, that
 does not
 establish such a dubious proposition as one of the
 fundamentals of
 historical lute stringing.  Your lengthy paragraphs
 oddly suggesting
 that I fault Mace for not mentioning Pittoni or Handel or
 Stockhausen
 are thus beside the point, except insofar as they
 acknowledge the
 limited application of Mace's remarks.
 
 Your next question was, What is the
 thinnest useable string?
 
 It was kind of a rhetorical question...
 
To find your thinnest useable string,
 simply measure the
  thickness of  all the strings you possess, and pick
 out the
  thinnest one. If you find  you can use it on the
 instrument of your
  choice, you will have found the thinnest useable
 string. If it
  breaks, it won't be much use any more, except
 possibly for smaller
  instruments or for frets.
 
 Have you ever done this?  If you have, no offense intended,
 but it
 strikes me as a strange use of time.  It's certainly
 not a recipe for
 optimum sound.
 
 I think historical players began with an idea of what was
 workable,
 received from teachers, other players and then their own
 experience.
 Why on earth would they be pushing the limits of
 practicality and
 constantly flirting with strings breaking in the middle of
 performances?
 
 I know Dowland emphatically prescribed the opposite, saying
 first
 set on your Trebles, which must be strayned neither too
 stiffe nor
 too slacke, but of such a reasonable height that they may
 deliver a
 pleasant sound, and also (as Musitions call it) play too
 and fro
 after the 

[LUTE] Re: Ruthenicae

2009-02-19 Thread Rebecca Banks
   February 19th, 2009

   Dear Lutenists and Roman:

 What a wonderful presentation of Roman's music.  Quiet and
   beautiful, haunting presence, as if Russian steppes in the background.
   I am trying to get back in the studio again, struggling artist
   syndrome.  The Lute goes slowly, the guitar less so . . .

   love,

   Rebecca
   Tea at Tympani Lane Records
   [1]www.tympanilanerecords.com
 __

   So many new options, so little time. [2]Windows Live Messenger. --

References

   1. http://www.tympanilanerecords.com/
   2. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/products/messenger.aspx


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[LUTE] Re: Toyota Theorbo for rent, low mileage

2009-02-19 Thread howard posner
On Feb 19, 2009, at 2:59 PM, Mark Wheeler wrote:

 I accidentally hit the send button before I got round to actually  
 writing
 anything in the last post...

I thought you were just being extremely concise.

 As far as cranking the string up, there are historical accounts of  
 this
 Robinson says “so high as you dare venter for breaking”.

 As far as Dowland goes, I do not see any problem, he meanes not too  
 stiffe
 that it breaks. Dowland and Robinson are not contradictory.

They probably were not disagreeing, but they said different things  
that can be construed as disagreement.

Dowland was clear enough: not too stiff and not too slack, so they  
can vibrate freely, and don't use strings that are too thin, because  
they don't give much sound, have insufficient structural integrity,  
and go false.  If I told you to put a string on your instrument so as  
to comply with Dowland, you wouldn't say, Right! I'll get a string  
and crank it until I'm afraid it will break!  But you might say that  
if told you to string your lute according to Robinson's instructions.

Interpreting what Robinson means involves deciding what's reasonable,  
remembering that Robinson was a musician, not a literary giant famous  
for his precision with words.  And consider that Robinson's  
instructions appear to be addressed to a beginner who doesn't have a  
teacher (so do Dowland's, of course).  Neither an experienced player  
nor a beginner with a teacher would need them.  So the writer is  
fishing for words to explain something that the reader has never  
experienced.  (He would also be addressing someone incapable of  
playing the music in the book, but this is a problem with most  
historical instructions.)  Perhaps Robinson's own experience was that  
beginners tended to string their lutes too slack.  Who knows?

In any event, Crank it to just before the breaking point is not a  
reasonable reading: you'd break a lot of strings doing it.  Make it  
tight but don't crank it to the point where you're actually worried  
that it will break makes more sense, and also brings it more into  
line with the Big D's not-too-stiff-or-slack instruction.
--

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