Talk:Viola organista

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This is just nitpicking of the most insignificant kind, but the following passage felt just a bit awkward to me:

In one design, the strings were fretted with tangents, so that there were more keys than strings (several notes, for example C, C#, D, and D#, would all be played on one string).

The bracketed text is of course just an example, but I have some doubts that a note such as C# was really used at all during the lifetime of Leonardo da Vinci. Someone else might be able to confirm or dismiss my suspicions. In the meantime I'm changing it to mention only C and C#, because, at least in my mind, C and D# (and thus C and Eb) sharing the same string is ridiculously inconvenient. --EldKatt 16:04, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Leonardo has several drawings of a prototype viola organista. In one, there are five to nine tangents per string, i.e. five to nine notes would be played on a single string; in another, there is one string per note. There is no exact assignation of notes to strings in the former case.

Regarding your other comment, yes, the chromatic notes were most certainly in use during Leonardo's time. You can find examples of C# often when there is a cadence on a D. D# is a bit less commonly found than C#, and the chromatic notes in general are more likely to be found in keyboard figuration (the Harvard Anthology of Music has some good examples). Hope this helps. Antandrus (talk) 16:43, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)

In light of your comments, I resolutely take back everything I said. Leonardo's drawings are of course inarguable evidence, and I quite simply don't know what possessed me to be so doubtful of the use of chromatic notes in that time when I should've known better. Thanks for setting me straight. --EldKatt 14:42, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)