I confess to having opinions, and realize they are not always "informed" in
some senses of the word. But if being informed means any form of education,
be it academic rectitude or street sense and experience, then my opinions
are well informed. But being "informed" doesn't mean being correct. It
merely means being informed of whatever one is informed of (bad grammar,
ended with a preposition). None of us can be correct, except within the
framework of our beliefs, unless we happen to be omniscient. But I have
expressed at times some views I regard as facts, such as the tensile
strength of certain string materials and their pitch breaking points given a
vibrating length. Aside from that everything I have said is opinion, and
those who consider my opinions to be uninformed may do so. Although I
wouldn't use that terminology for those with whom I disagree (and there are
few of those on this list, how can I disagree with those who are teaching me
so much about this versatile and wonderful instrument).
I do hope that the physical questions of strings, which I do work with for
other instruments, aren't an annoyance to the lutenists here - who also
depend on those strings. And I do hope that I can continue to comment on
early music, which I know better from the early chants, being a former
vocalist, than from the lute which is new to me. The era of the Renaissance
wasn't unique, and didn't rise like Botticelli's Venus from the sea. All
music has an ancestry, and that ancestry is in the music of the folk, if not
in what we call "folk music" today. The mountain dulcimer is a "droned"
instrument that was played for centuries as such, the modern players chord
it and play the strings with their fingers. The early lute was played with a
plectrum (shoot, we call it a pick in red neck country), and the early
Renaissance style mimics the plectrum with the thumb and index finger
running the melody. Everything grows and develops over time, not always for
the best. I so wish the electric guitar hadn't been invented, but perhaps
that reflects more on me than the instrument and the players (although I
think not, I always think of the unpretensious Rock band that new three
chords
but only played two).
I won't follow this up, and I suggest that this doesn't start a thread which
would only be a distraction from the primary pupose of this list in
communication about lutes. I'll try to contain myself (difficult at times,
I've too many years of licentious behavior). And I ask your indulgence for
my forays into the sacred precincts of early music, music I've sung for many
years and music I've played on other instruments. And music I wish to learn
to play on the lute, when I get the fingers shaped around it. "Any damned
fool can shout, but only a singer can sing softly" (Skip Helms, Calvary
Episcopal Church, to his choirboys in 1945). "I've gotta use words when I
talk to you" (T.S. Eliot, in Fragment of an Agon, Sweeny's voice). "music
isn't a sequence of notes" (A.J.W.M., this message).
Best to all, Jon
Alan Jonathan Wyman Murphy
Englishtown NJ USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jon Murphy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2004 1:38 AM
Subject: Re: Free speach
> With my apologies I respond to an earlier message. I will post a general
> apologia separately.
>
> Craig, I may disagree with one of your favorites.
>
> > I'll leave you with a quote from one of my favorite writers, Harlan
> Ellison, who maintains, "Contrary to popular >belief peole are not
entitled
> to their opinion. They are entitled to their informed opinion."
>
> Who defines what is informed opinion?
>
> I quote from one of my favorite writers, Owen Wister who wrote a book in
the
> late 19th century titled The Virginian. It is a naive and simple book, and
> was an answer to the "penny dreadfuls" that espoused the legends of the
> gunfighters and marshalls of the apochryphal West. I recommend it to
careful
> readers, but not to those who would just scan and see the cliches ("when
you
> say that Mister, smile" - although that isn't the exact quote it is used
in
> all the movies). When they were written they weren't cliches, they were a
> revelation to the Eastern elite who had "informed opinions".
>
> I'll not go further with this thread, it is not lute related. Should
anyone
> wish to carry it on please email me directly.
>
> Best, Jon
>
>
>
>
