I like thinking about the evolution from 4 to 6 strings. I'm sure we
can only speculate, unless there are explicit statements made at the
time that we can uses as guides. Monica and Lex, you both use words
like "perhaps" and "likely"...
I'm not convinced that the requirement of barre chords is an
overarching impediment. The 5-course alfabeto includes barres, and
Sanz (for all his simplicity) often calls for them. Also, 12-string
guitars exist -- modern ones as well as those reaching back into
Mexico's past -- with music that includes barre's. (I don't agree with
excluding the living relatives from the discussion.) If the musical
requirements of a piece ask for more strings, we have many and
fantastic examples of builders adding on strings to meet the
requirements... Or even adding on another instrument joined at the
hip. I don't see an argument for a physical impediment to 6-course
instruments, either in construction, strings, or playing capabilities.
I see the impediment as conceptual, and not in any pejorative sense.
There's a practical tension between range and voicing that is captured
in this issue. The most difficult intervals to play on the modern
guitar are close intervals. Scordaturae exist to address this issue
because these voicings can be essential to a certain mood or
expression. Re-entrant tuning is one way to address this issue. But
with re-entrance, you sacrifice range on the scale. I see this as a
practical issue, not a historical one. The simple fact is, I can play
and compose music on a guitar tuned in the Sanz style that I cannot
play or compose on a modern guitar -- and vis versa. The issue is
historical to the extent that practice emphasized different things at
different times. But it's the practice that interests me.
I also believe ("perhaps" it is "likely") that with the tuning scheme
we have for the guitar, 5 courses is the limit for re-entrant tuning.
Any more becomes redundant -- you have to worry about it when
strumming, but it doesn't add anything new. So as long as players
think in terms of re-entrant tuning, they will not have any interest in
a 6-course instrument. That interest can only arise when they think in
terms of extending the range of the instrument, and that extension is
necessarily either up or down in pitch. It so happens for the guitar
it was down. But to me it indicates that at some point the practice
shifted from using the close intervals of re-entrant tuning to using
the extended range of bass strings. And I'm sure that shift occurred
before guitars became single-strung. I'm also sure it did not occur
over night.
In any event, you have to ask whether a bordon means bass, or just
loud. Or does it mean you get to choose? When talking about a
transition in practice and construction, I'm sure you can argue for
whichever you feel is most appropriate for the situation. You could
use a timeline to assign probability to one approach or another. But
that is a false friend, because even Darwin would tell you that
innovation isn't necessarily a smooth continuum. We can use musical
theory of the era, but that was also in transition -- I just learned
about a flame war between Monteverdi and Artusi that was not unlike
something you'd see on this forum. It was all about transitions in
taste, theory, and composition. What other guides do we have?
Physically, we're pretty much the same as people of the era, and our
instruments are fairly close replicas. We can use practical
limitations to guide us as well. In other words, what can you do
convincingly on the instrument?
I will add that for process and flow studies, the transitions are very
interesting. The boundary between still and boiling water, the eddies
and currents that arise before a flow becomes turbulent, the explosion
of forms when bicycles were first invented, or during the Cambrian
explosion of life forms...
By the way, I see no incompatibility in the 150 years it took for a
6-course instrument to become the norm. How long did it take for 5
course guitars to come on the scene? Also, I believe there are
contemporary examples of 4, 5, and 6 course guitar-like instruments --
their popularity rests on the popularity of their reportoir at least as
much as the problems or advantages of playing them. The 4-course
guitar is in use today in Portugal, the Pacific, and in lots of ukulele
clubs sprinkled across the US. I think Mexico has an example, and even
uses the old bridge style. Maybe these are decadant relative of the
original 4-course guitar, but my point is, we haven't killed it yet...
the evolution is still happening many centuries later. So 150 years
don't put me off in a terrible way.
cud
__________________________________________________________________
> When it comes to adding the sixth course you have to ask why it took
nearly
> 150 years before this development took place. The most likely
explanation
> is that for both practical reasons to do with stringing and because
re-entrant tuning has some intrinsic benefits it usually had a
re-entrant
> tuning.
The most practical reason to not use a 6 string/course instrument is
perhaps chord strumming.
The first seven chords of guitar alfabeto, plus the I, O and P chords,
all need no more than three fingers, while frequent harmonies (like E,
A or F-both major and minor) are impossible to play without barre's on
a six-course instrument tuned in G, at least if we wish to include all
courses. It raises the problem of strumming over a limited number of
strings, which introduces theoretical difficulties for the player.
With regard to what Sanz says about strumming the D minor chord and the
resulting 4/6 position (the A in the bass): a considerable portion of
his text is about how to play basso continuo on the guitar, and in
accordance with his advice to use bourdons for that his tablature
examples show only plucked textures, so that the bass will always be in
its proper position, which is below the other voices. This raises the
question if his remark about the D minor chord has anything to do with
basso continuo.
Besides, most bass instruments such as the bass viol and the theorbo
can produce the D below the A (the fifth course bourdon) of the guitar.
When playing together with a strummed guitar with bourdons, which is
not a situation described by Sanz (nor by any other writer), the
fundamental bass can still be taken care of on the bass line
instrument.
Lex
--
To get on or off this list see list information at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
