> article by Benjamin Narvey in the current LSA Quarterly entitled "Galant > Continuo: Towards an Informed Approach to Accompaniment in the Accord > Nouveau". It is a good read and the idea is to me, being strictly a > baroque > lute player in Dm tuning, both logical and attractive. All of the continuo > I
It's a good point Benjamin is making about playing continuo on a d-minor instrument, and the principle of choosing the right instrument can be extended to all our continuo lutes. Despite our prowess in playing generic lute, we often lack the appropriate instrument for music from a given time and place. Unavoidable, perhaps, in today's concert life where we are asked to play such and ecclectic choice of music. My continuo jobs for the coming weeks include English 17th century song, Bolivian baroque, the ever-present Bach, late 18th century Italian belcanto, Monteverdi, Baltic 17th century music and I'm sure I forgot something. I have the choice between 2 archlutes, a theorbo, several sizes of renaisance lutes and a baroque guitar. I'll come close in choosig the right instrument for some of these concerts, but not for all. Benjamin's point of a period lute player that will choose one instrument, or at least one tuning, for all his music is a valid one. But in our cases that would mean anachronistic choices for much of our repertoire. Food for thought. Perhaps the time has come for us to specialise into even narrower niches. David **************************** David van Ooijen [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.davidvanooijen.nl **************************** To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
