Thanks Lex, Caccini can speak for himself: 'the chitarrone is better suited to accompany the voice, especially the tenor, than any other instrument'.(G. Caccini, Le Nuove Musiche (Florence, 1602), sig. C2V 'Ai Lettori ... del Chitarrone ... essendo questo strumento piu atto ad accompagnare la voce, e particolarmente quella del Tenore, che qualunque altro.')
Further, Piccinini(1623) tells us Caccini used a chitarrone to accompany himself before 1594. The chitarrone did not, of course, at first have numerous long extended basses. However it was tuned in a nominal A or G so, as previously pointed out, the same problem would arise even if tuned in G with a sung d and f# in the bass. I suspect Striggio was using the term lute in a generic sense: it is certainly not 'wrong' to use any form of lute from around this time to perform his songs. See Rob Dowland Var of lute lessons for example and Ms 704 Bib Con Brussels which contains intabulated settings of songs by Caccini and his contemporaries. regards Martyn PS Also see my recent message about email protocol, with which you may not agree............... --- On Sun, 18/12/11, Lex Eisenhardt <eisenha...@planet.nl> wrote: From: Lex Eisenhardt <eisenha...@planet.nl> Subject: [VIHUELA] Re: Strumming as basso continuo {was: Return to earlier question: {was: Agazzari guitar [was Re: Capona?]} To: "Martyn Hodgson" <hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk> Cc: "Vihuelalist" <vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu> Date: Sunday, 18 December, 2011, 11:11 Dear Martyn, I understand that there is a problem with the theorbo in A, in Caccini's 'Reggami.' According to Alessandro Striggio the elder Caccini could accompany from a bass on the lute and harpsichord. So, what would be the right instrument/tuning for this song? Lex > Other types of specific examples include Caccini's 'Reggami per pieta' > where the singer has a low F# which has to be played by the BC an > octave higher since there are necessary low F naturals elsewhere in the > piece. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html