I measured it many years ago.
handwritten label: Joh: Christ: Hoffmann //
Königl. Poln: und Churfl. // Sächs. Jnstrument //
und Lautenmacher. // Leipzig, 1720. //. plus a
repair label by Hoffmann dated 1732 Therefore
conceivable that the swan neck was added then,
but Hoffmann is usually specific about his
modifications with labels saying renoviert or
rebarirt.
14 Courses 2 x 1, 6 x 2 + 6 x 2 @777mm and 1159mm
13 ribs of birdseye maple with 1mm ebony strips between
Triple rose diameters 63 & 75 332mm from the bottom.
Unsually deep body. Pegbox decorated with
carvings at the sides and the rear. Present belly
by Hans Jordan of Markneukirchen in 1953; but
based on the original which still survives in a
cardboard box in the museum.
A huge German baroque lute with very beautifully
carved pegbox, fits Baron's description of a
"deep sack like shape" which he disliked..
According to Hans Jordan's notes there used to be
another handwritten label, now missing, which
read:
Dieser Corpus wurde von mir auf inständiges
Begehren des Herrn Lic. Warlitzen als erstem Besitzer
des Instrumentes so groß und hoch verfertigt."
"Upon the urgent request of Mr. Lic[entiat] Warlitz as the first
owner of this instrument, I have made its body so large
and high."
Better pictures and some details on the MIMO site
http://www.mimo-international.com/MIMO/doc/IFD/OAI_ULEI_M0000504
The museum have a drawing.
Best wishes,
David
At 22:18 +0100 12/2/18, Mathias Rösel wrote:
In the video, Sven tells the kid that it is a lute built in 1727.
Mathias
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] Im Auftrag
von Luca Manassero
Gesendet: Montag, 12. Februar 2018 19:07
An: baroque-lute
Betreff: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Johann Christian Hoffman n, 14 course swan-neck lute
in Leipzing
Dear common wisdom,
a couple of years ago I stumbled upon the Leipzig Museum website,
planned to visit their Hoffman exhibition (but had to pass on it,
unfortunately) - then one day realized that the pictured Hoffmann
swan-neck lute they recently acquired (2012, says the YouTube video)
mounts 14 courses: 8 fretted and 6 at the second pegbox (2x1, 6x2,
6x2).
See [1]http://mfm.uni-leipzig.de/dt/Forschung/hoffmannn.php: it's the
first instrument pictured under Johann Christian Hoffmann' section on
the page.
It's a really strange instrument with an incredibly deep body (it must
be uneasy to hold, or at least it looks so).
I'm sure the book about Hoffmann they sell
([2]http://www.hofmeister-musikverlag.com/martin-und-johann-christian-h
offmann.html) has all the measures about that instrument, but that book
is really kind of expensive. The Museum's website doesn't talk about
string length and date on this lute (I do read German and couldn't find
the infos anywhere on the website)
The YouTube video on the same page shows a German lutenist (Sven
Schwannberger, I think) playing a swan-neck lute, which is of course
not the original Hoffmann lute, as it shows 13 courses, as usual.
Anybody out there who has more details about it?
Thanks a lot,
Luca
--
References
1. http://mfm.uni-leipzig.de/dt/Forschung/hoffmannn.php
2.
http://www.hofmeister-musikverlag.com/martin-und-johann-christian-hoffmann.h
tml
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