Mark,
The guitar isn't taken seriously in music departments because they don't
need it to play Beethoven... or Brahms... or Schubert... or the entire concert
band/symphonic winds repertoire. This is the reason scholarships are given out
to students playing other instruments over guitarists. This is a pity, because
if you look at the actual number of instruments sold, guitars outsell
everything else by a huge margin.
Guitarists are partly to blame, however. Most classical guitar instructors
insist on regurgitating the tiny handful of repertoire pieces they learned in
school as if they sacred scripture. No imagination. Some of those pieces are
good, but most are just mediocre and quite a few are downright bad. (And so
many transcriptions! When is the last time you heard a pianist play Tarrega?
When is the last time you heard a non-guitarist play anything by Ponce for that
matter?) It is a shame so few guitarists take the time to investigate their own
lesser known repertoire. There are many gems that rarely get heard. The guitar
would be taken more seriously if the emphasis was placed on quality music
instead of going through the motions with the spoon fed status quo.
Chris
Dr. Christopher Wilke D.M.A.
Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer
www.christopherwilke.com
--------------------------------------------
On Sun, 12/8/13, Mark Seifert <seifertm...@att.net> wrote:
Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: Bream Collection... I just noticed
To: "BAROQUE- LUTE Lutelist" <baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Date: Sunday, December 8, 2013, 11:48 AM
Recently heard a
momentarily despairing director of two local
university classic guitar programs mention
how the guitar is not taken
very seriously by academic music bosses
because it doesn't feature
much Beethoven. While watching a
recent huge and loud pipe organ
performance, I thought of "the king of
instruments." And the lute is
supposedly the "queen" of instruments
though largely defunct. The
piano has far surpassed the organ in
popularity and prevalence of use.
Does that make it the "Emperor of
instruments?" I think so, but I
instinctively oppose imperialism.
But what about the harpsichord,
which some books claim supplanted the
lute. "Prince of instruments??"
While watching instructional videos on
great Dutch painters of the 17th
century, the very knowledgeable fine arts
instructor referred to all
plucked string instruments in the
paintings as "lutes" regardless of
whether or not a cittern, lute, mandora,
bandora, harp, theorbo or
other instrument appeared in any
painting. When I saw a flat-backed
instrument which could have been a guitar
variant, the instructor
called it a lute. By golly, the
guitar is a lute if the term is
interpreted broadly! That means I
can assure the guitar instructor
that he teaches the queen of instruments,
though this will take him
aback for sure. He likes the lute,
but doesn't want to add another
instrument to his heavy workload.
Perhaps there should be shame upon
the academic music directors who overlook
the dozens! of classical
guitar students when giving school awards,
etc. Tuba, trombone, voice,
piano, flute all got awards, but the
guitar students got nothing last
year despite some classy performances of a
broad repertoire. None were
invited to a major gala event (not loud
enough?).
Dear Mr. Correia, have you heard any of La
Nef's CDs? Sylvain Bergeron
and Jeanette Sorrell have methods for
integrating lute into their
performances which seem almost
unique. When a harp, harpsichord, or
dulcimer is needed, a harp or harpsichord
is chosen, but the results
are always a delight to the ears.
As I dragged a lute from the car into
the house yesterday after my
short trip, a visiting lady asked me about
it. She had never before
seen or heard a "lute" senso stricto, but
last month recorded her own
singing with a Mariachi band.
Mark Seifert
From: William Brohinsky <tiorbin...@gmail.com>
To: howard posner <howardpos...@ca.rr.com>
Cc: Lute Dmth <l...@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Friday, December 6, 2013 2:00 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Bream Collection... I
just noticed
Ernesto said:
Generally speaking, we want to get
more guitarists into the lute, not
the other way around, isn't it?
yes, someone expressed that idea.
On Fri, Dec 6, 2013 at 4:09 PM,
howard posner
<[1][1]howardpos...@ca.rr.com>
wrote:
On Dec 6, 2013, at 12:52 PM,
William Brohinsky
<[2][2]tiorbin...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> I have to admit to not
understanding the idea that the purpose of
the
list or of lutenists should be to
try to force people's direction one
way or the other.
I don't think anyone has
actually expressed that idea.
--
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References
1. mailto:[3]howardpos...@ca.rr.com
2. mailto:[4]tiorbin...@gmail.com
3. [5]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
References
1. mailto:howardpos...@ca.rr.com
2. mailto:tiorbin...@gmail.com
3. mailto:howardpos...@ca.rr.com
4. mailto:tiorbin...@gmail.com
5. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
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