I would not like to encourage people to put their lutes on the wall (I no longer do so myself). However, when I first received a few lessons from an English lute player in Paris (a student of Michael Schaffer), I well remember that all his lutes were on the wall. As a consequence, I kept my student lute in a similar manner, for at least 5 years. Absolutely no cracks appeared. While, my more recent lute, I have kept in its case, and the ebony veneer on the neck did, in fact, develop a crack. Similarly, a cello that my daughter has kept in a case, has also recently developed a serious crack. I think this is due to the dry winter conditions here, that even a humidifier does not necessarily control.
I don't think it is very easy to generalize, about this sort of thing. What seems to be important, is constant temperature and humidity; and while a case may slightly slow down the speed of a change, it is probably better to have a lute on the wall with the correct temperature and humidity, than a lute in its case in bad conditions. In a previous message, I motioned a lutist - collector who has over 30 lutes, plus two harpsichords (one Italian one French), and several guitars, in a fairly small flat (probably less than 80 square meters). There is no way he could keep his collection with him, if he did not keep them on the wall. The cases may well be at his country dwelling. He is a very careful person, with no children, and no cats, hardly likely to start throwing things in his flat; and I imagine (as the typical collector) that he would regularly dust and tune them all, as well as his harpsichords. They all seem to be strung, and every month he plays on three or four of them for a concert, with other lutists, violists, and clavcenists. He plays five hours a day, in average, and rotates his lutes, as other collectors do paintings. Obviously, there is far more danger of a lute being physically damaged while on a wall, than it is in its case. I have had a painting and a mirror crash to the ground, when there was a sudden climatic change. However, lutes are very light, and there is less danger of that sort of breakage. It really does depend on the context in which a person lives (children, cats, earth-quake zone, etc...). I must stress, that I am not advising anyone to remove their lutes from their cases, except for playing them (as I now do myself). However, disaster does not necessarily automatically follow, if you keep your lutes on the wall. On the other hand, if you do keep them in a case, you can not be absolutely certain that all will be well. Regards Anthony Le 10 sept. 07 à 07:36, howard posner a écrit : > On Sep 9, 2007, at 9:47 PM, Jim Abraham wrote: > >> I take lessons from Chris Henriksen in Boston, and all his lutes >> (and his >> wife's viols) are hanging on the walls of the music room. There's >> no way >> they all could be put in cases -- you'd need a room just for the >> cases. > > That's the first time I've ever heard someone suggest that keeping an > instrument out of its case saves space. Unless Chris and Carol have > no cases for their instruments, the cases have to take up space > somewhere, and they'll take up exactly the same amount of space with > the instruments inside them. Some of the handier lute players I > know-- > Jim Lidgett and Bob Clair come to mind -- have rigged up floor-to- > ceiling shelf systems that can house a surprising number of > instruments in a surprisingly small space. > >> This room is de/humidified, and the instruments are hanging against >> tapestries rather than the bare wall. And nothing properly hung >> from a wall >> by someone not a total putz ever just spontaneously drops. > > I don't know where Stephen Gibson, who asked the original question, > lives, but there are places in the world where walls spontaneously > move. A Southern California native knows that you should never put > anything on a wall or a shelf that you wouldn't want falling on your > head when the ground shakes. > > > -- > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
