| The baroque
baryton is principally a self accompanying solo instrument with its
plucked strings tuned one octave below those of the more familiar
classical instrument. This means the plucked strings provide a bass
line accompaniment to the bowed gut strings which are tuned in the
manner of a lute - A, d, f/f#, a, d', f'. The instruments that survive from the 17th century on the whole have 9 or 10 wire strings that are tuned with wrest pins set into the bridge. However, contemporary sources do mention instruments with up to 18 wire strings including some with a third manual of strings to the left of the fingerboard. The instrument pictured here has 16 enabling much of the repertoire to be played without having to retune too often. The body of this instrument is copied from an instrument by Hans Kögel (Vienna 1679) which is also very similar to one by Magnus Felden (Vienna 1656) now in the Royal College of Music Instrument Museum in London. The neck is to my own design and the figure sitting on the pegbox is from an instrument in the Victoria & Albert museum by Jacques Sainprae (c. 1720) I would be happy to work on instruments with more plucked/sympathetic strings including those with a third manual too. |
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