Hi Ed: I think a lot of the Lutes we use today are overly large. When my Lute was built, the first efforts of a friend and myself at doing this, it was decided, after looking at a lot of "Iconography", that the Lutes represented were quite a bit smaller than those popular today. This conclusion was reached after making measurements of the instruments depicted and comparing them to the size of the faces of the people shown playing them. Understanding that the human face has a rather average size over all, it was decided that the Lutes in these paintings were for the most part in the 50cm-55cm range and not what we call average today, being around 60cm.
Therefore the Lutes we made were of this smaller size but still tuned to G. The body shapes were patterned after existing Mahler shapes, the classic tear drop. I feel the instruments are quite elegant and the sound is lush and resilient. Of course this is just my opinion based on my travail and experience. Vance Wood. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ed Durbrow" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "G.R. Crona" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "lute list" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 5:46 PM Subject: Re: Iconography (was:The Right Hand Revisited) > >that's why I downloaded Alfonso's collection, although it took ages on my > >old messerschmidt PC. (It's an old Siemens =]) > > But at least those Messerschmidt PCs are nice and compact. :-) > > >What a good idea and fine collection Alfonso! Together with the pictures > >McFeely's posted, it's excellent reference. > > Speaking of which, I couldn't figure out how to download McFeely's > pictures in one swoop. Everything else is in PDF. > > >I thought I had a theory about all those impossible stretches you sometimes > >encounter in the 1500's repertoire, that perhaps those old masters played on > >"small lutes", what we today would call A-lutes, and that is why we have > >such difficulties with doing justice to their music on today's 60 cm. + > >lutes? > > > >PS. Wish I had a teeny-weeny 6 or 7 course A-lute! Anyone who has > >experienced one? > > I'm so glad you mentioned this. I just bought a WONDERFUL John > Rollins alto lute with a string length of 51cm. That was precisely > the thought that went through my mind as I read through stuff. It all > made sense! Of course the pics, as far as I know in my shallow > browsing, don't support the widespread use. In fact, sometimes they > often have huge lutes, but there is a lot that doesn't make sense in > the lute world and iconography. I hope others will chime in on this > thread. > cheers, > -- > Ed Durbrow > Saitama, Japan > http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ > >
