Hi Martyn Thank you for this. I've read your article several times and I think I have understood it although when it comes anything mathematical I am seriously challenged.
What I was really wondering was - these instructions obviously apply to the chitarra atiorbata but should we assume that they also apply to a "standard" 5-course guitar without additional open basses? One of the reasons for raising this is that recently someone has suggested that these instructions indicate that there were no bourdons on the 4th and 5th courses. The 4th and 5th courses were re-entrant with high octave strings - instead of being aA d'd they were tuned a'a d" d'. This came as rather a surprise to me. As ever Monica > On 26 June 2019 at 09:10 Martyn Hodgson <hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote: > > > Dear Monica, > > Have a look at FoMRHI Comm 663 (Bulletin 41, October 1985) in which I > report on two early sources of recorded violin string diameters (Tartini's > and Riccati's) and their application to Strad's instructions for the > chitarra tiorbata. > > Here's the link > > https://www.fomrhi.org/uploads/bulletins/Fomrhi-041.pdf > > I presume Strad related more to the violin and hence their string sizes > since these were such a substantial part of his output and more common.... > I also briefly discuss the translation of his instructions which is generally > in line with what you say below. > > I applied these sizes to guitar stringing and arrived at average tension > of artound 3.2Kg per string and a total tension on the chitarra tiorbata of > around 34Kg. But I thought it prudent to express some caution then, as I'll > also do now: " The speculative nature of some of the previous analysis > means that few unequivocal conclusions may be drawn...." Nevertheless, I > believed then, and still do, it gives a reasonable indication of the tensions > employed. > > regards > > Martyn > > On Wednesday, 26 June 2019, 07:31:05 BST, Monica Hall > <mjlh...@cs.dartmouth.edu> wrote: > > > I have been puzzling over the Stradivarius stringing instructions for > the chitarra ttiorbata again. > > I have two queries. > > Why should he compare the strings of the third, fourth and fifth > courses to violin strings rather than those on the (presumably) > standard 5-course guitar. Does this imply that they should be of a > different thickness to the strings used on the guitar. > > Also - the first string of the violin is tuned more or less to e'' > whereas the third course of the guitar is tuned g - an octave & a 6th > lower. There is a considerable difference in string length between the > violin and guitar. Would this make it practicable to tune the strings > to completely different pitches. > > Here are the instructions. > > [First & second strings: These must be like two guitar first strings > (cantini) > Third & fourth strings: These must be like two guitar second strings > (sotanelle)] > > Fifth & sixth strings: These must be like two thick violin first > strings (cantini) g > > Seventh string: This must be a violin second string (canto) d > > Eighth string: This must be a guitar second string (sotanella) dâ > > Ninth string: This must be a thicker violin second string (canto) a > > Tenth string: This must be a violin first string (cantino) aâ > > They have never really seemed to make sense to me but perhaps I am > missing something. > > As ever > > Monica > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > --
