On Sep 18, 2007, at 9:36 AM, Arto Wikla wrote: > I have the same experience of nearly silence in Hopkinson Smith's > concert. That time it was a renaissance lute. As beautiful as it may > be, lute playing could not have been so quiet in the 16th and 17th > centuries... > > Opinions of that?
It reminds me of the "philosophical" question: if a tree falls in a forest and there's no-one there to hear it, does it really make any "sound"? i.e. is he still a virtuoso if no-one can hear him? :-) :-) Seriously, some players choose the lute because of its quietness, and many performers tend to take the introspective nature of the instrument onto the stage with them, causing the audience to have to strain their ears to hear it. If we're supposed to be giving HIP performances, then presumably the basic sound quality and quantity of lute playing haven't changed all that much since the old days. We have to keep in mind, though, that most of the solo music lutenists play in large concert halls was not originally intended to be heard that way. Actually, I've never had any trouble being able to hear lutenists in concert, albeit I've never heard Hoppy Smith in concert. I do remember sitting in a concert hall watching for fully 25 minutes while the lutenist sat there tuning! I remember clearly that I had no trouble hearing every note of that! DR > All the best, > > Arto > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html [EMAIL PROTECTED] --
