Richard Brune in Evanston, Illinois has made lutes with ivory backs; as I remember, he used ebony spacers between the ribs. The one I saw was really beautiful, although I think I remember him telling me that the sound was harsher than a lute with a wooden back. The most beatiful lute that I remember of his though had an ebony back with mahogony or maple spacers between the ribs. Wow.
Robert ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ed Durbrow" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "lute list" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, November 24, 2003 8:31 AM Subject: ivory in lutes > At 9:01 AM +0000 03/11/23, Sandi Harris & Stephen Barber wrote: > >The > >rosewood was an attempt to get near to the sound that ivory produces, > >using a hard material, which is of course always very beautifully-veined > >and figured, as well as sounding well > > I was just talking with a bagpipe player about ivory and it set me to > thinking. Has anyone made any modern reproductions of lutes with > ivory backs? I can't remember the context but I remember reading > somewhere about ivory backed theorbos being very loud. > > They cull elephants in South Africa and there is an abundance of > mammoth ivory, so there is legal ivory about. I suppose enough ivory > for a lute back would not be cheap no matter what the source. I was > wondering about the brittleness also. Lute ribs have quite a bend to > them. I wonder if mammoth ivory would be too brittle. > -- > Ed Durbrow > Saitama, Japan > http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/ > >
