Fiona Marsden wrote:
Sting plays the lute for real I believe so we shouldn't be too hard on him.
I disagree. This is a hot-button of mine. His use of the HG and of the
lute has been pure exploitation. He did primarily vocals on his lute
CD, and Edin Karamozov did the lute-playing. My impression of the CD
was that it was far from being anything special; there are much better
recordings of the same material, but for some reason we give a free ride
to the celebrity. Agreed, his use of the lute wasn't as blatantly
shabby as his use of the HG, and I think the argument that he's helped
to popularize the instruments deserves some consideration, but not
much. Shape-note choral singing experienced a burst of popularity for a
few months after the run of the movie "Cold Mountain," but it soon
faded. Both the lute and HG are instruments requiring serious
application, so the burst of interest induced by association with a
celebrity seems unlikely to long survive the realities of actually
grappling with the instrument. Meanwhile, Sting has cheaply acquired a
reputation for expertise he does not in fact possess. What's admirable
about that?
Sorry to be such an old curmudgeon. People on this list who know me
know that I'm generally a mild-tempered old idiot, but as I said, this
is a hot-button.
- Martin
--
Martin Lodahl of Auburn, California
UNIX Pro, Musician, Motorcyclist
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