In the last issue of the LSA Quarterly we had a
nice interview article with Lindberg, where he
talks about buying that lute and the thinking
behind the set-up of the bridge so that it would
work for both renaissance and baroque music. If
anyone who does not belong to the LSA would like
a copy please email me back off the list with
your street address and I will send out a copy.
Nancy Carlin
LSA
>Thank you for your comments, and explanations. I think the thrust of
>your argument again is fair, particularly if we consider the original
>date fo the Rauwolf (c;. 1590) and its long history; thus indeed
>"Weiss wasn't even born for
>
> > "nearly a _hundred_ years after this Rauwolf was made!".
>
>However, it probably had its present neck added in 1715.
>
>"My instrument is from c 1590 and was originally a 7 or 8 course
>lute. Inside there is a repair label by Leonard Mausiel, dated
>Nuremberg 1715 and the present neck, which allows for ten or eleven
>courses, is probably made by him." Lindberg.
>
>At that moment, Weiss, I think was in activity, and presumably this
>lute in use (although not necessarily for that type of music); but I
>agree that the program at the English lute society was perhaps more
>representative of the lute's history (than this Weiss record); but
>whether the program of late Weiss was completely historically
>implausible, considering the fairly late date of the neck
>("upgrade"), I do not feel competent to discuss; you may also be
>right on that account.
>
>You will be pleased, in this case, to know that the Rauwolf can be
>either set up as a 10c or 11c lute, and this should do justice to its
>long history. Indeed, I have just learnt, in the Lute News N=B082 P.7,
>that J.L. played a program from the late 16th and early 17th
>centuries (including pieces by Johnson and Dowland) with that set-up.
>It is almost as though he was thinking, as you do.
>
>I did not hear this concert, but it was said "The performance was
>beautifully musical, as one would expect, notable qualities of the
>historic lute are a very good sense of balance across the courses,
>with the possibility of bringing out different voices in the music
>vert distinctly".
>Of course this could be as much due to the gut stringing and the
>interpret than the lute.
>
>
> Just a thought about anachronism and transformed lutes; it is
>generally held that Frei and Maler lute models were adapted in France
>for Baroque French music, and these instruments were from at least a
>hundred years before the French Baroque era.
>So now, I suppose we agree, that if we discovered a Frei transformed
>with an 11c neck, we would want to play French Baroque music on it,
>rather than music from 1550 or so.
>
>When we make copies of such instruments, then, of course we do have
>to consider whether we reconstruct the original model, or the
>transformed model.
>
>If I was to purchase a copy of the Rauwolf (as I said, I am
>hesitating between a Frei copy and this model) I would hope to have
>the model with this 10c/11c possibility. However, it might be even
>more historically interesting, but more difficult to do in any
>certain way, to reconstruct the copy in its original state, as
>perhaps a 7c lute.
>
>I would be glad of any other comments on the suitability or otherwise
>of the Rauwolf versus the Frei for French Baroque music. Edward
>already, kindly, gave me his comments in favour of the Frei, for
>which I thank him.
>
>On a completely different issue, I happen to know that some lute
>specialists are completely against restoring such historic lutes to
>playability for fear of losing any clues to its original state.
>Fortunately, I believe that the restorers took many photos and
>detailed notes, that would allow a fair idea of what the original
>lute could have been.
>
>Best regards
>Anthony
>
>
Nancy Carlin Associates
P.O. Box 6499
Concord, CA 94524 USA
phone 925/686-5800 fax 925/680-2582
web site - www.nancycarlinassociates.com
Administrator THE LUTE SOCIETY OF AMERICA
web site - http://LuteSocietyofAmerica.org
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