Actually the 4-course guitar was probably often tuned re-entrant. Mudarra says "Ha de tener bordon en la quarta" - it must have a bourdon on the fourth course. If it always had one would he have thought it necessary to mention it?
Monica ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Monday, May 16, 2005 6:22 PM Subject: re-entrant tuning, las sirenas, jarana > If we could somehow show Mudarra, Milan, Narvaez. etc. a charango, I doubt > if they would call it a vihuela. There was a very small plucked instrument > that they wrote for which had some similarities though. The charango is a > wonderful instrument in its own right, there's no need to show direct lineage from > some European ancestor to get respect for it. I'm sorry I can't quite agree > with you (yet) on this one, Bill; I always enjoy your posts, and you > definitely bring some fresh air to the atmosphere of the list. > Since the charango uses a re-entrant tuning, it might be a descendant of > the baroque guitar, but if it was derived from an instrument brought to the > South America in the 16th cent., then maybe not. This makes me wonder if there's > a record of when re-entrant (not scordatura) tuning began to be used. Are > there any pieces from the 16th cent. literature that use it? > There is an instrument in Mexico called the jarana which seems to be a > modern day baroque guitar in terms of stringing and tuning; I think you could just > pick it up and play Sanz, etc. on it. I believe someone on this list has > one; does it use a re-entrant tuning? > > James > > > -- > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >
