Juan, I return your best wishes and thank you for them. I am not
departing either music or life - at least not for a long time - I'm
merely trimming my emails. I hope you will remember my direct address
should you have anything to share.
Best, Jon
On 1/16/2016 2:23 PM, Juan Fco. Prieto wrote:
Sincerely, my best wishes to you, Jon.
Juan Francisco Prieto.
2016-01-15 13:05 GMT+01:00 Jon Murphy <[1]j...@murphsays.com>:
Ladies and gentlemen, I am going to remove myself from the Lute
Builder list. Nothing to do with the communications, it is a fine
group. I am 80 and no longer can deal with my several instruments -
I have chosen to stay with my harp and a couple of others. My old
guitar is yet an instrument I play when the grandchildren visit, but
I'm not a guitarist - I'm a singer who accompanies himself on
guitar. I fuss a bit with the home built psaltery now and then, it
is fun to shift from the hammers on the lap to the plucked at the
shoulder. What fun to imitate ancient instruments. I'll keep my
modified Charango, now tuned as a Scots Mandora, so I can play the
pieces from the Skene manuscripts. I think I'll pass on my "flat
back" lute (the Musicmakers kit) to my grandchildren, my fingers are
not up to handling all my instruments. I'll also pass on that silly
bowed psaltery that many think is an ancient instrument, but was
invented by a German at the turn of the 19th to 20th C. as a
training device. It is a good training device, but at my age I don't
need training, just better fingers.
The lute is the most beautiful of instruments, and the luthier the
epitome of artisans - be he making a lute (al oud) or a violin or
any of the other heirs of that Arabic necked instrument. I wish you
all well, and the same to your instruments. I am going to clear a
shelf in my closet, the storage room for my bedroom workshop, that
contains my form for shaping the lute body parts. Not a decision I
wanted to make, but a bit of realism. I intend to live another 20 or
30 years (110 would be pretty good), but I know I'll not make
another lute. Another harp, maybe, they are easier.
I'll not leave the list tonight, you can all bless me for my future
should you choose.
Best, Jon
To get on or off this list see list information at
[2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
References
1. mailto:j...@murphsays.com
2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html
