--- LGS-Europe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: 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
..Or perhaps we worry about instrumentation far too much. By and large, these seem to be minor concerns that only trouble us, the lute players. Most professional directors/conductors I know could care less if you brought an archlute, a theorbo, or six course lute to a gig - and wouldn't be able to tell you the difference, either! (Not so far-fetched: the gallichon, in use in Bach's day, was essentially a bass six-course lute.) Remember - one of the purposes of the basso continuo is that it makes specific instrumentation largely a non-issue. A few years ago I had a coaching with a moderately well known lute player (who shall remain un-named). I'd just finished accompanying a singer on some Caccini using my ten-course lute (I didn't own any other lutes at the time.) I thought the performance had gone well and mentioned it. His response? "You used THIS lute!?!? No, no, no, that's not what you use. Don't ever do that again!" This is absolutely silly! Ten-coursers were around back then. Do we think they just sat in the corner except when the music called for "ten-course lute"? Or do we honestly think singers back then interested in doing Caccini would reason to themselves; "Oh, I'd love to sing these songs, but I only have a 7-course lute to accompany myself with. I'd better invest in a large Roman theorbo with an on-the-fingerboard string length of at least 85cm or history will look badly on me!"? They just used what was to hand. Why shouldn't we if it works? On the other side of the coin, yesterday I had a rehearsal with a locally well-known singer and music professor (also nameless) whom I invited to perform with me on a recital I'll be giving soon. I mentioned repeatedly that the songs we would be doing were for voice and THEORBO. There are posters hanging up all over the music department - and her office - mentioning my up-coming THEORBO recital. I've written "THEORBO" on the sheet music I gave to her. (Its actually just a continuo part.) After our rehearsal we had this conversation: SINGER: That instrument sounds pretty. ME: Thank you, I like it a lot. SINGER: What on earth is it? A guitar? ME: Its called a theorbo. SINGER: Oh yeah, that's from the Middle Ages. (She wasn't joking) Now here's someone who should know - at least a little. But she's not alone. You have no idea how often I'm stopped in the college halls by music faculty: "What is that?" "A lute." "What's a lute?" I'm all for educating people about the various instruments, but there is such a thing as boxing ourselves into such an academic corner that we shut ourselves off from folks entirely. (ON the other hand, someone once called my music department looking for a sitar player to play at an Indian-themed party. The folks in the office gave the person my number since they'd seen the poster of me with my "sitar" [theorbo].) Just my perspective... Chris __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
