As I was deleting another repetitive pain in the ass flame post in the ongoing battle between the greedy billionaire lute publishers and the brave Trotskyist proletariat struggling to free the world's tablature I think I noticed an estimate of about 4000 lute players worldwide. Is this a reasonable estimate? Would these range from serious players to people with a lute in the attic they haven't touched in 15 years? Include guitarists who tune their g string down a half step? Include the pipa and oud? Those people with a Lute Olsen signed basketball?
As someone who has listened to and enjoyed lute music for over 20 years (and been playing for 4 months) it continues to surprise me how many people have never heard of the instrument or know its sound (though they have seen them in pictures). Have any of the lute societies made a coordinated effort to try to increase public awareness (realizing that about 2% of the general public would consider to buy any classical music CD)? It continues to amaze me that when the Renaissance Fair comes to South Florida it is PACKED for 2 weeks solid and yet there is not a single lute teacher less than a 5 hour drive away from me. I actually got excited when I glanced at the headline "Odette May Head to South Florida" before I realized they were talking about the hurricane. I've tried to do my part in a small way. I will be bringing my lutes into the Classical Guitar class at the high school my kids attend. I've tried to support those who make their living in the field by ordering 2 lutes newly made rather than second hand, ordering a number of music editions from Tree, Lyre and Orphee even though I have enough downloaded to keep me busy and buying most of the newly released CD's (which range from fantastic virtuoso performances to, ahem, less than steller efforts). No doubt my efforts are a drop in the bucket. (how many copies of a lute CD are usually sold anyway??). What have others done on an individual and/or organizational wide level?
