----- Original Message -----
From: Bruno Fournier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Thursday, November 23, 2006 3:54 pm
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Sting!
> So on top of that, Sting cannot even ENUNCIATE in his own 
> language.....
> as for the awakening the sleeping interest we can all gain for, I am
> confident the lute community, which includes me, does not need Sting
> to awake the sleeping interest.....I personally woke up in 1978, long
> before any pop artist even had heard of the lute..... and frankly I
> now have nightmares when I think of Sting singing Dowland...

Man, I really don't understand this persistent vitriol.  If you don't like it, 
don't buy it.  I won't, but I'm still overjoyed Sting felt enough love for this 
music to record it.  I'm certain a Police reunion album (or even another 
_Dream_of_the_Blue_Turtles_!) would have been much more profitable for him.  
Personally, I'm not fond of the way Rooley did many things, so I'm a cautious 
buyer of his recorded output too.

Whether admitted or not, the lute is getting much more attention than it has in 
a while.  Frankly, Sting has greater capacity to bring the attention of many 
more individuals to the lute than does Yasunori Imamura, Federico Marincola, or 
Paul Beier, e.g.  What do I care?  The lute gets lots more attention and there 
is still plenty out there to satiate my personal tastes for lute playing.

The claim that any living lutenist discovered lute long before any "pop star" 
seems a little bold considering that the popular artists of ca. 1600 largely 
were playing lutes.  Of today's pop stars, even Jethro Tull and Focus were 
using lutes on their commercial releases by 1972 and 1973 respectively.  No, 
you didn't need Sting to discover the lute for you, but you still came to it 
through somebody else.  I'm sincerely glad you came to it, and I don't 
necessarily care if I like the artist who introduced you to the sound or not.  
The bigger the pool of potential lutenists, the more likely it is to produce 
players I consider to be of quality.  Whoever served as their introduction to 
the instrument isn't necessarily relevant.

Please, let's hear about something you actually like.

Best,
Eugene



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