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SLWeiss - life- born Wreclau hl mesto Silesie, cesty Italie, Drazdany, Praha, Viden,

was able to play any lute instrument any tuning wonderfully.

as used by Silvius Leopold Weiss after about 1720. The six basic stoppedcourses (pairs of strings) of the instrument are tuned to a D-minor chord: f

d a f d A. Courses 1 and 2 consist of single strings; courses 3 to 5 areunison pairs and course 6 has one string tuned at the higher octave.Courses 7 to 13 are a series of octave-paired courses tuned in a diatonicoctave descending to AA.(Tim Crawford - the moscow weiss lute manuscript, 1995)

In a letter to Johann Mattheson written in 1723 Weiss describes the lutes he

used:

".I am of the opinion that after the keyboard there is no more perfectinstrument than this one (the lute) especially for Galanterie. The theorbo andArciliuto, which are quite different even from each other, cannot be used at all inGalanterie piecesI have adapted one of my instruments for accompaniment inthe orchestra and in church. It has the same size, length, power and resonanceof the veritable theorbo and has the same effect, only that the tuning isdifferent. This instrument I use on these occasions. But in chamber music, Iassure you that a cantata a voce sola, next to the harpsichord, accompanied bythe lute has a much better effect than with the Arciliuto or even theorbo, sincethese two latter instruments are ordinarily played with the nails and produce inclose proximity a coarse, harsh sound."

From this we can conclude that Weiss considered the theorbo as a thorough bass

instrument for use in large halls or in large ensembles. For his solo performances

his early compositions use an eleven course lute, after 1719 however he

consistently used a thirteen course lute.

The concerto for viola damore and lute RV540 is known to have been

performed at the Piet in 1740 in a concert for Frederick Christian, Prince

Elector of Saxony and Poland. It was almost certainly played by Chiaretta,

Anna Marias student and her successor as Maestra. Chiaretta is

documented as having performed in the concert in another work as a solo

singer. (Leon King, 2003)

The organ maker Pietro Nachini began using A+0 (tuttopunto), which then became known as corista Veneto. ii. Although A1 was used in Venetian

opera in the early part of the century, it

was A+0 that was to remain the

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principal pitch in Venice throughout thecentury, and which was adopted as thestandard instrumental pitch, firstly inVienna, and then all over Europe by theend of the 18th century.(newyorkuniversity handout)

18th century italy - mostly mezzo punto (464hz,favored by violins, cornets, organsaround 1580)or tutto punto (venice440hz)tuono corista (about 1/2 tone bellow

440Hz) was used in northern italy still in 18th centuryby insert as flute or corno mute. till around 1740 mezzopunt used as tuning of church organs in Venice (ademitone up from a=440) but by that time PietroNacchini in Venice retuned organs to a=440 (becameknown as Corista Veneto)in Rome corista wasabout one tone bellow 440 in time of Palestrina toabout 2 steps below around 1600that remained someof the roman organs pitch till late 19th century