Re: Lute tablature

[David Raleigh Arnold]

On Friday 16 May 2003 04:58 pm, Laura Conrad wrote:
> >>>>> "Rune" == Rune Zedeler <address@hidden> writes:
>     >> Another problem is that I wasn't planning on figuring out
>     >> the pitch Dowland was specifying in order to enter the tab.
>     >> Why shouldn't I just be able to enter the tab (and the tuning
>     >> table for the strings), and have the computer figure out the
>     >> pitch?
>
>     Rune> Hmmm... This is impossible. How would you distiguish cis
>     Rune> from des?
>
> I don't think any tab format does distinguish cis from des.  If the
> string is tuned to C, either is fret 1 (or a).

a=0, b=1, etc.

For Dowland, a staff of six lines will suffice for seven courses, since
you are placing the letters in the spaces.  A cheat for archlutes with
six courses on the fingerboard is to write the basses as if they were
on a seventh course.  No worries as long as you don't go below D.

Because all tablature is written with one part, it isn't even 
performance notation, it is merely fingering.  Most complicated
lute music came with vocal/instrumental parts, otherwise there would be 
no way of figuring it out without hearing it.

One might suspect that the lute parts were there in some cases mainly 
to rehearse the players/singers.

Wouldn't it be best to include the piano notation for the lute part as 
well as the tablature?  Then you could leave out the stems altogether, 
and you would have a lot more people able to use the publication, and 
it's not going to be hard on a lute player at all.

As you know, the standard pitch was lower than today.  It is easy to 
see why it rose a lot faster for organs than for other instruments, 
because every half step means you make a cheap little pipe instead of 
another expensive monster.  DaveA

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