Re: [LAU] "droning" project: 249-257

Am Mittwoch, 30. September 2015, 21:10:26 schrieb Tim Goetze:
> [Dave Phillips]
> > I pretty much agree with this POV. I'm reminded of Luis Milan's advice re:
> > tuning to the novice on the vihuela, it was something like "Tune the highest
> > string as high as it will go", a rather practical commentary on intonation from
> > the 16th century.
>
> Yes, this has a long tradition: the higher the tension, the more
> energy the string can handle, the louder the sound. Supported by
> advances in instrument making and in the materials used, this has lead
> to a continuous rise in pitch over the centuries.

Actually the advice to tune the highest string to *almost* its breaking tension is given in a lot of instructional essays in Renaissance and Baroque.
Fact is that we know next to nothing about the quality and production methods gut string materiel they had. John Dowland's treatise in his son's "A Varietie of Lute-Lessons" talks about strings from different provenance as being ideal for certain registers on the lute. Wire-wound gut was only invented at some point in the 18th century AFAIK.
Another fact is, that a string has a "sweet spot" in tension, where it sounds best. So when stringing an instrument you aim for that by choosing material and thickness (besides basic sound characteristics you wouldn't mix, like solid metal vs. gut).
But the highest, i.e. thinnest string was the one to break most easily, so this was indeed limiting how high an instrument at a given scale length could be tuned, and was probably the main reason for changing to re-entrant tunings on these large-scale orchestra theorboes they developed in Italy after 1600.

my 2c,

Edgar
>
> Incidentally, virtually none of the famous Guarneri or Stradivari
> violins is still in original shape. Almost all of them have been
> extensively modified and reinforced in order to accommodate the
> high-tension strings and playing necessary to produce the volume that
> can fill a modern concert hall.
>
> Cheers, Tim
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Received on Thu Oct 1 16:15:01 2015