A Guide to Playing the Baroque Guitar

2. Tuning and Stringing

4 2 TUNING A ND STR INGING In the Baroque period, pitch level, or nominal pitch, varied with the source of the guitar music. Some sources indicated a top first course that was called and read as d’, but for most it was e’. The actual pitch, however, as measured by a modern tuning fork or electronic tuning device, could vary significantly depending on such factors as the size of the guitar and the other instruments one might be tuning it to. Early guitarists tuned and strung their instruments in various ways, and not many of the music sources they played from specified which one to use. Apparently it was common practice to leave this to the player. Common practice for them, maybe, but how are modern players supposed to know which tuning and stringing arrangement to use for the baroque guitar music they want to play? The same way early players did: from the music itself, of course—but also from the few music sources that do provide some instructions. And according to those sources, there were three main ones. The most common, which I call stringing A (see example 2.1), is re-entrant, i.e., without a bourdon on any of the courses. (The circled numbers in examples 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 indicate the course numbers. The first course is usually, though not always, a single string.) A re-entrant tuning is one in which the courses are tuned to a pattern of rising, then falling intervals rather than to successively higher pitches from the bottom up. A bourdon is a thick string tuned an octave below the other string in the course. It sounds at the pitch level of a modern guitar’s fourth (D) string and fifth (A) string. when a bourdon is used, it is the second string of the course (nearest to the first course) and not the first string, as one might find on a lute. In other words, when a course is played, it is the upper octave that is struck first by the thumb. This is important for technical and musical reasons, which will be explained in greater detail later. The second most common tuning and stringing arrangement, which I call stringing B, is partially re-entrant and uses a bourdon on the fourth course only (example 2.2). The third stringing arrangement uses bourdons on both the fourth and fifth courses. Although this stringing is closest to that of the classical guitar, it seems to have been the one least called for by composers of the more advanced baroque guitar music (stringing C, example 2.3). 5 TUNING A ND STR INGING Example 2.1. Stringing A Example 2.2. Stringing B Example 2.3. Stringing C ...