10-course
lutes
|
Hendrik ter
Brugghen, 1624 |
There is a large and varied repertoire for ten courses, using both the old renaissance tuning and also a variety of new tunings which started to appear in the early 17th century. The earliest printed music for ten courses is Kapsberger’s book of 1611 (actually one piece in the book requires eleven courses, suggesting perhaps an early liuto attiorbato). Many 17th century English manuscripts contain some ten-course music in a variety of tunings – see Spring (in Bibliography) for a list of the tunings (p.xxv) and guide to repertoire. Some ten-course lutes were converted from earlier lutes with six or more courses, so a variety of styles is evident. The title page of Fuhrmann’s Testudo Gallo-Germanica (1615) shows a multirib lute typical of late 16th century Venetian or Paduan origin:
Besard’s Novus Partus (1617) shows a similar multirib lute:
Number of
frets
John Dowland (1610) says
that the French lengthened
the necks of the lutes so that they could have ten (tied) frets. The conversion of an old
lute with fewer
courses involves cutting back the body to accommodate a wider neck, so
inevitably the neck would be a little longer if the string length was
maintained. However
this relatively small increase does
not really account for an extra two frets and I think string lengths
were
probably increased as well. In
the above
illustrations we can perhaps see a transitional stage.
In Fuhrmann’s lute we see eight tied frets
but labels which go up to fret “k”, the ninth fret,
suggesting that perhaps the
lute really had nine frets but the engraver only showed eight. In Besard’s lute
we have ten frets, correctly
labelled up to “l”, but the tenth fret comes right
on the body join, perhaps
indicating that this was not the original disposition of the lute (it
is very
hard to tie a fret in this position because of the angle of the
neck/body
joint, and it will not stay in place unless small notches are cut into
the edge
of the fingerboard).
Treble
rider
Instead of going into the pegbox, the treble string may go to a
“treble rider”
attached to the front of the pegbox (see the painting by Terbruggen
above). This
probably started as a
conversion feature, making it possible to add another string without
having to
make a new pegbox, but it also has the advantage that the treble string
is not
forced to travel through such a sharp angle to reach the peg and may
make
tuning easier and probably also increase the life of the string. With Fuhrmann’s
and Besard’s lutes (above) we
cannot see a treble rider and they both have 19 pegs but we cannot
assume that
one has not been added – several paintings (including the ter
Brugghen above)
show a treble rider despite the fact that they have enough pegs without
one (though it is not clear whether this is a 10- or 11-course lute!). The rider and its peg are
often a
different style and colour from the other pegs which suggests that it
was an
added feature.
My instruments:
1.
66.5cm, 13 ribs, after
Venere (Vienna C36, scaled down)
The body of this lute is a 4% reduction of the Venere C36
lute, which allows nine frets with ten courses.
£4250.
[American black walnut with holly spacers, ebony/holly
veneers, rose after Harton MI56]
2.
67cm, 13 ribs, after Venere (Vienna C36)
This is the same body as described in the 7-9
course section (no. 6), where the photos show a 9-course
version. It also makes a very good 10-course lute.
£4250.
3.
67cm, 35 ribs, after Paduan models
This is the same body as described in the 7-9
course section (no.7). £4800.
4.
69 cm, 9 ribs, after
Maler (Prague No. 654)
This is the same body as described in the 6-course
section (no.7). You can also find photos of the
11-course version in the 11-course
section (no.2). £4250.
5.
67.5 cm, 11 ribs, after
Frei (
The design, by Philip MacLeod-Coupe, uses the outline of the C34 lute
with the sections of the Warwick Frei (also shown in the 11-course section,
no.1). It works very well, but I now feel the rather unusual
sections of the Warwick Frei are not so suited to a shorter body and I
plan to offer a version of the C34 instead. One advantage of
this
model is that the body is short enough to allow ten tied frets, as
recommended by Dowland. £4250.
[birdseye maple ribs with ebony spacers, rose after Frei C33]
6.
69.5 cm, 11 ribs, after
Frei (Warwick)
The original lute is discussed in the 6-course
section
(no.5). The original (11-course) string length of 69.5cm
makes the ninth
fret quite close to the body join, so it is also possible to make it
slightly longer. Ten frets would of course require a still
longer string length. £4250.