On Sep 12, 2006, at 11:54 AM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 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. Absolutely! Robert Dowland certainly had no problem with accompanying Caccini on a 10-course! OTOH, although my 10-course works fine as a continuo instrument, I would love to have the extra volume that a theorbo provides. > 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!"? Ho! Ho! Very good. Although take a look at the behavior of people today. There are early-music mavens out there who absolutely will not play Spanish ren. music on anything but a vihuela; or bluegrass players who won't play anything but a Martin, preferably a D28, in a bluegrass jam; a lot of jazz guitarists feel that the only guitar for jazz is one of the big hollow-bodied archtops, and regard solid- bodied electric guitars as abominations; Fender Telecasters seem to be the instrument of choice for lead Country soloing. People have their preferences. > They just used what was to hand. Why shouldn't we if > it works? Good question... > 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) I remember talking to a professor of guitar performance at a college in the town where I used to live: I mentioned Robert De Visee, and he said, "let's see, De Visee was, what, fourteenth century?" He wasn't joking either. Where do they find these people...? > 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. "Not my area" is the cry most often heard among the experts. David R [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.rastallmusic.com -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
