On Wed, 11 Oct 2006 11:11:49 -0700, Howard Posner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The discussion may go off on the wrong track if we assume that the lute > was replaced by the guitar. The lute's function as an ensemble and > accompaniment instrument -- which was always its primary function --
This may be (but I'm not sure) true for renaissance lute. If I understand french lute music correctly, it was concepted as solo music only - probably they never played d-minor lute in an ensemble. Some of the lutenists nevertheless had been playing in ensemble theorbo or guitar (think of de Visee for instance). Around 1700, possibly beginning with Reusner, the lute again was used in concertos etc. and - most of the lutenist had been employed as orchestra musicians. Baron tells us, that later in Germany d-minor lutes even had been used as theorbos. For the late baroque I also would agree that ensemble music with lute is more important again. In the whole I would say that there always had been both functions of the lute. I think it would be very good to record more of the ensemble pieces, as many people like the lute even more in ensemble than as solo instrument. Best Markus > was taken by keyboard instruments in high art music, and this seems to > have been a gradual process that took much of the 18th century. Cf the > lute solos in the Bach passions that were replaced by organ and viola > da gamba in later versions, or the disappearance of lutes from the > musician rosters or pay records in Handel's oratorios. I suppose the > same thing happened to the guitar--it was replaced as an accompaniment > instrument in serious music by the harpsichord, then the piano. The > occasional Sor or Giuliani aside, it was always a backwater in > mainstream 19th-century art music. > > Our tendency to focus on the solo music of both lute and guitar (an > area where the lute was indeed replaced by the guitar) is one result of > both instruments' being marginalized out of mainstream art music. It's > also a result of the modern focus on instrumental music, which is a > stark contrast to the vastly greater importance of the voice in older > art music (and, for that matter, modern popular music). > > H > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- Markus Lutz Schulstr. 11 D-88422 Bad Buchau Tel: 0 75 82 / 92 62 89 Fax: 0 75 82 / 92 62 90 Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
