> > I don't think that any of the music is intabulated for one tuning rather > > than another. > > This really is no more than a supposition. It is well possible that some > composers held entirely different views on this.
But this also is no more than a supposition! > > > (I prefer not to call this method "French" as I don't think that it was > > exclusively French - another widespread fallacy), > > Maybe not, but there is no physical evidence for this tuning from Italy or > Spain. 1. There is a reference to this method of stringing in Nassarre who says "Although the five-course Spanish guitar has various tunings, the one which is most commonly used and has been the most permanent is as follows: the fifth course is a second above the third course, the fourth course a fifth above or a fourth below [the third course], the second a third [above the third course], and the first a fourth above the second course, or a sixth above the third course". 2. This method of stringing is also clearly set out in staff notation in the English ms of James Talbot together with a possible reference to Corbetta. 3. Corbetta's La guitarre royale (1671) has prefaces in Italian and French - clearly intended for different sets of readers. His comment "Take care to put a thin octave on the second string which is D sol re, because the two in unison do not make the harmony which my sonatas call for" is directed to Italian players who used the re-entrant tuning (it was quite common to number the courses in reverse order in Italy - by second string Corbetta means 4th course). Presumably Italian players would have done whaat he says. It is inconceivable that Italian guitarists would have been unaware of what Corbetta did or of the music of people like de Visee. > The re-entrant tuning of the first two courses of theorbo would have caused > a voicing of the bass, above the notes on those strings, in some occasions. > In fact the instrument that was intended may well have been the 'luth en > tuorbe', (a translation of 'liuto attiorbato') in archlute tuning. The > supposition could easily be based on a misunderstanding of how the theorbo > was used in France at that time. If the instructions by Grenerin (and > Bartolotti and Fleury) were intended for an instrument in archlute tuning, > the 'wrong' inversions would be absent. The title of Grenerin's book is "Livre de Theorbe" and Bartolotti's "Table pour apprendre facilement à jouer le théorbe sur la basse continue". No mention of any 'luth en tuorbe'. Presumably people who bought the books used them to learn how to accompany on the theorbo. You must be pretty desperate to prove your point of view if you have to resort to arguing that nobody ever accompanied a bass line on the theorbo in the way they describe. Re-entrant tunings were a fact of life in the 17th century - whether you like them or not! Monica To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
