Howard, I agree with everything you said, totally. That is exactly my practice with fret placement..... slightly diminish the 2nd & 4th frets, for renaissance tuning.
Well stated! ed At 12:30 PM 3/29/2006 -0800, Howard Posner wrote: >Monica Hall wrote: > > > I have got these two CDs of baroque guitar music to review. One of > > them says that the instrument is tuned to A=415 in mean-tone > > temperament; the other to A = 440 in mean tone temperament. No more > > information than that is given in the notes, but one of the CDs has 2 > > photos of the artists and it seems that this refinement is achieved by > > putting strips of something - cardboard? plastic?! partly under > > sections of some of the frets. The frets themselves look very thick > > and as if they were of a single thick strand of whatever - gut? nylon? > > rather than tied in a loop like I do mine. > > > As far as I'm aware the guitar was usually tuned to a sort of equal > > temperament - at least that is what Doisi de Velasco says and how else > > would they have been able to play in the 12 different major and minor > > keys - as they were wont to do? But I do vaguely remember also > > reading somewhere that lutenists sometimes did something like this > > and even that there was a name for the practice. > >This discussion seems to have gotten sidetracked, and indeed diverted >to another list. Tuning a fretted instrument in a basic functional >meantone is not difficult: place the second and fourth frets closer to >the nut than they would be in equal temperament, and you've done most >of the job. Most of the thirds of major chords fall on those frets, >and by shortening them you get thirds that are closer to pure, and much >more consonant and at rest than equally tempered thirds. The exact >process of fret placement is a season-to-taste process, not only >because different setups satisfy different ears, but because the >imprecisions inherent in fretting a string make it more art than >science. Tastini are not necessary. Whether you want them or not >depends on how much weirdness you want when the tonality goes far >afield. Unusual keys do not necessarily require equal temperament. > >HP > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html Edward Martin 2817 East 2nd Street Duluth, Minnesota 55812 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] voice: (218) 728-1202
