I would support your point in general - just an addendum: It's somehow like a relation between pupil and teacher: We need the teacher to learn the basics, technique and - yes! to get a feeling for the music but at a certain point in the education we also need to emanzipate ourselfs from our teachers and try to become our own musical personality. Otherwise we would just be copies, some better, some worse.
The problem is at what point one should feel ready for amanzipating. The lute is a world of it's own and one's life cannot be long enough to just get more than a glimpse. So a teacher can be very helpfull as a guiding hand. That's the same with historic lute and us nowadays. It's okay to feel free from historic forces but it's okay for me to rely on the secure guidance of the historic. Best wishes Thomas Am Mon, 2004-01-05 um 22.29 schrieb David Rastall: > On Sunday, January 4, 2004, at 02:47 PM, Martin Shepherd wrote: > > > ...we should not ignore the evidence just because it suits our > > prejudices. > > I am quite willing to ignore it if it fails to suit my needs! If gut > strings sound too dull and heavy in the bass, or fail to stay in tune > because of the weather, or fray and break too readily in the treble, I > am not going to use them. If I can get a better sound playing > thumb-one way as opposed to thumb-some other way, I will do it. I've > been playing the lute long enough to know what works for me and what > doesn't, and it's that consideration that shapes my playing, not the > tyranny of history (not even the benign dictatorship of history!). > > > Of course the most important thing is the music,! > > I agree, but learning to reproduce old masters, fascinating as that may > be, is only a small part of learning how to play the lute. > > > ...we wouldn't be doing what we're doing if we didn't believe that the > > technology which makes the music possible wasn't inportant too > > otherwise we'd all be playing it on the electric guitar... > > I dont know about electric guitar, but a lot of orchestras, bands, > brass ensembles and soloists of all types and from all imaginable > backgrounds, do play early music on modern instruments. We lutenists > are not the only ones making music with this old repertoire. Are you > going to say all the rest of the world is wrong? If you are, then I > would have to suggest that you do so because it suits your, uh, I hate > that word "predjudices," let's say your likes and dislikes. > > I await the flames. > > David Rastall -- Thomas Schall Niederhofheimer Weg 3 D-65843 Sulzbach 06196/74519 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.lautenist.de / www.tslaute.de/weiss --
