We are pleased to announce that Erik Zuurbier’s webpage Just Intonation in Organ Music has migrated to FIU’s server at https://justintonation.fiu.edu. There you can find bountiful information and sound files with music by J.S. Bach, L. Boëllmann, A. Bruckner, G. Dufay, E. Elgar, J.F. Fasch, G. Frescobaldi, M. Reger, J. Rheinberger, and E Whitacre created by Erik Zuubier. It is a rich resource that I strongly recommend you experience for yourself.

After one of the IOS updates of Cleartune, I noticed that it became more difficult to get the needle to stop wavering even though I have it set to maximum damping. Recently, however, I discovered that the secret to a quiet needle was plucking ponticello, i.e., closer to the bridge.

I’d like to draw your attention to David Van Edwards’s Lute Iconography Database where you can view several thousand iconographical reproductions of fingerboards. In the realm of organology, he has also created a database for extant lutes: Extant Lutes Database. These are great resources for future research in tunings and temperaments on lutes and other lute-related matters.

My thanks to Fred Reinagel, the inventor of the beloved VioLab tuner, for sending me his essay on double frets on the viol. I highly recommend this paper particularly for viol players as it furnishes much more detail on double frets than I was able to provide in the book. Additionally, it provides a succinct, clear, and accurate explanation of meantone temperaments with recommendations specifically geared toward consort tuning. You can access it here: Double Your Pleasure—or Double Trouble?.

It’s come to my attention that the audio files on the IUP website can be somewhat cumbersome to use. If you are having difficulties with them, please send an e-mail message to dolatad@fiu.edu, and I can send you a zip file with the original files so that you can use them more easily on your computer.

When you’re playing a piece in G Major on a lute in G, you usually only need mis at the 1st fret. A good example of this would be “John Come Kiss Me Now” from the ML Lute Book. In such cases, to avoid having to use a tastino on the 4th and 5th courses you might want to slide your 1st fret down to the mi position, but it’s going to be too loose to be effective. I’ve found that if I tape the 1st fret into place on the back of the neck, it’s usually snug enough. I keep a length of scotch tape stuck to the back of the pegbox so that when I need the 1st fret only as a mi when I’m playing in a context in which there are no instances where I need a mi at a predominantly fa 1st fret, such as when you’re in G Minoir, it takes me just a second to tape it into place.

Quite frequently I find myself going back and forth between instruments in 440 and 415. The biggest hassle, whether using PitchLab or Cleartune, is having to type in the pitch level. I’ve solved this problem by dedicating Cleartune to 415 and PitchLab to 440. Maybe his will work for you too.

Please see the Color Illustrations page for illustrations that were not included in the book.