[LUTE] Re: Jon Banks lute trios and early bass lutes

2006-02-21 Thread Martin Shepherd
Dear Stuart and All, When Jon Banks gave a talk to the Lute Society a few years ago, Matthew Spring played the gittern, Stewart McCoy played the G lute, and I played a D lute. When we were rehearsing for the concert, I started playing the bass part on a G lute but found it extremely difficult

[LUTE] Re: Jon Banks lute trios and early bass lutes

2006-02-20 Thread Stuart Walsh
Either we accept Jon Banks' arguments (as I do), and are happy to refer to these pieces as music for lute trio or lute consort, or we can opt for Michal's more cautious playable on lutes. Either way, the music is there to be enjoyed by us all, and as Sean says, it is great fun. Best wishes,

[LUTE] Re: Jon Banks lute trios and early bass lutes

2006-02-20 Thread Michal Gondko
But what would the large bass instruments have been like? Do any survive from this period? None from the (late) fifteenth-century. However, as far as I know, surviving Maler lutes are bass instruments, the earliest from 1520s (? Someone correct me if I'm wrong). M To get on or off this

[LUTE] Re: Jon Banks lute trios and early bass lutes

2006-02-20 Thread Sean Smith
Dear Stuart, From our modest first forays into reading this rep. I've found that different size lutes help in the following ways: a) They put the 'voice range' of the line in the center of the lute fingerboard. When we consider that they probably didn't have roped or great strings for the

[LUTE] Re: Jon Banks lute trios and early bass lutes

2006-02-20 Thread Daniel F Heiman
The Lautenweltadressbuch lists seven lutes attributed to Laux Maler that have body dimensions available: WidthDepthDate/Rebuilder 33.5 cm ca. 1520 29.7 ca. 15 before 1550 30.6 15.8 Widhalm 1761 29.3 ca. 15.8

[LUTE] Re: Jon Banks lute trios and early bass lutes

2006-02-20 Thread Sean Smith
My bass lute is only 68cm in string length. I put beefier strings on it (ie, 6th course = ~1.62mm gut), tune it to D and it works fine. Btw, a 6c A-lute is very nice but if you really want to enjoy a sustaining voice, go long. Sean On Feb 20, 2006, at 7:29 PM, Daniel F Heiman wrote: The

[LUTE] Re: Jon Banks lute trios and early bass lutes

2006-02-18 Thread demery
On Sat, Feb 18, 2006, Sean Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] said: Dear Stewart, I would add that much of the music under discussion is extremely complex rhythmically. Typical for 15c material; including Hayne, Binchois, and Josquin, all of which I played extensively with the Collegium Musicum of

[LUTE] Re: Jon Banks lute trios and early bass lutes

2006-02-18 Thread Sean Smith
Dana, one issue to be resolved, how does a lutenist deal with lng notes, easy on a bow, they are a challenge to decorate while still maintaining suspension (especially if one has difficulty playing like ala balalaika). As I think Stewart pointed out, it should be ok to reiterate that

[LUTE] Re: Jon Banks lute trios and early bass lutes

2006-02-17 Thread Stuart Walsh
I don't know Banks' work and his arguments (yet), but unless there is a firm evidence that these specific pieces were performed on lutes, claims that this is genuine music for a lute ensemble are overstatements. Indeed, this music *could* have been performed by such an ensemble but also by any

[LUTE] Re: Jon Banks lute trios and early bass lutes

2006-02-17 Thread Stuart Walsh
A player w/ a 5 or 6 course lute could play at least any two single voices of a composition and would have been useful in consort (as well as part of a duo or a soloist and would probably have been expected to be all three). This wouldn't be so easy playing with a plectrum, though. But

[LUTE] Re: Jon Banks lute trios and early bass lutes

2006-02-17 Thread Sean Smith
Hi Stuart, A player w/ a 5 or 6 course lute could play at least any two single voices of a composition and would have been useful in consort (as well as part of a duo or a soloist and would probably have been expected to be all three). This wouldn't be so easy playing with a plectrum,

[LUTE] Re: Jon Banks lute trios and early bass lutes

2006-02-17 Thread Daniel F Heiman
For those of you interested in playing this style of music or just learning more about it, note that Crawford Young will be teaching a course dedicated to it at the LSA Lute Festival this Summer in Cleveland (25 through 30 June). http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~lsa/seminar/index.html Daniel Heiman

[LUTE] Re: Jon Banks lute trios and early bass lutes

2006-02-17 Thread Michal Gondko
Dear Stewart, Thank you for your long reply. Just a few points: When one is faced with a piece, such as Roelikin's setting of De tous biens plaine, which has a range of notes from a low G to high e flat, one has to consider what instrument can cope. Wind instruments cannot, because their

[LUTE] Re: Jon Banks lute trios and early bass lutes

2006-02-17 Thread Sean Smith
Dear Stewart, I would add that much of the music under discussion is extremely complex rhythmically. If it is to work, it has to be played incisively, and exactly in time. I doubt whether viols (which have a similar range to the lute) would be as successful. I'm sorry to play devil's

[LUTE] Re: Jon Banks lute trios and early bass lutes

2006-02-16 Thread Michal Gondko
I still can't quite believe this is genuinely lute music as opposed to music that is multiply realisable. There are many sustained notes, sometimes over two bars. It doesn't look like lute music. I don't know Banks' work and his arguments (yet), but unless there is a firm evidence that these

[LUTE] Re: Jon Banks lute trios and early bass lutes

2006-02-16 Thread Sean Smith
Dear Stuart, I also have this book and have been playing out of it w/ friends. He does cite reasons for why he thinks it is appropriate for lutes. But... I'm not entirely sold on these were for lute trio either. Maybe I need to read more of his work on the subject. Some of the music is