Equal feeling, equal tension – part 2

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2. The Experiment

...as they admit also in the treatises, pure math does not work!

“If the strings have the same thickness and length and one produces a low note, which is a C, when it is stretched with a weight of 1 pound, the other must be stretched with 4 pounds to make it rise of one octave, insofar as the wheights are twice the harmonic intervals to which one makes the string rise; now, the interval of the octave is 2 to 1, of which 4 to 1 is the square [...]
It is necessary to further add to the aforementioned weight the sixteenth part of the larger weight, or one forth of the smaller, to achieve a proper just chord.” 
from Mersenne....

So he also added a coefficient, even though he does not explain why...

Equal feeling, equal tension – part 3

3. Mystery unveiled: Strings Do Stretch!! …but… not in the same way, not of the same cohefficient… it depends on how are made and, first of all, from their gauge We need to consider the many factors affecting our pure math calculations: the first is, of course, the string! A string which is low twisted and maybe

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baroque music, double-bass strings, early music, equal tension, gut strings, gut strings history, gut strings maintenance, gut strings manufacture, viol strings, viola da gamba strings, viola strings, violin strings, violoncello strings


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Equal feeling, equal tension – part 5

5. Conclusions: Be Practical!! So far, you can probably guess my conclusion: If you aim to follow the treatises you shall not give a letteral interpretation but a practical one, and admit that equal feeling, equal tension, and scaled tension, had the same meaning: the aim is always playing on an even instrument. But if we cannot trust

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