Dear Anthony, I do not blame you, and I hope you didn't offense in what I wrote. As for the "Pieces de luth" LP, I do regret that it was my first encounter with French baroque lute music. When I first listened, I was like, wow, they had jazz in the 17th century. It's so sophisticated, I couldn't tell triple time from even time by listening, I was amazed by the glittering sound, amazed by unexpected progress of harmonies, amazed by unidentifiable rhythmical structures.
>From then on, my idea of that music was, I kinda like it, but this is so artificial, I will never understand how it works. This music was completely veiled before my ears because of many rubatos, arpeggios instead of broken lines, and so on. Had I first listened to, say, Michael Schäffer, things would have been different for me (but if and would are the fool's last words). That first contact coined my idea of what French baroque lute music was. And that's why I kept my hands off from it for a long time. Like many others, I took my way through Giesbert's method and later through Toyohiko Satoh's. To me, the greatest composers who wrote for the baroque lute, were Bach and Weiss, and none other compared to them. I knew there was some French music, but it was much too tricky and way not rewarding enough as to be worth a try. Sorry for oversimplification, but it comes close. > He does mention his stringing in all the booklets relating to the > Wengerer lute (his last two CDs), but as I made clear, he says nothing > about th stringing of the 12c lute (a pity). I am sorry that you didn't > remember it. That's right, he doesn't say a word about his stringing in the booklet of Old Gaultier's Nightingale. Best, Mathias To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
