On Sep 25, 2007, at 2:19 PM, Peter Martin wrote: > For more on lutes and bagpipes, see Samuel Pepys' diary for 28 July > 1666. > > "But strange to hear my Lord Lauderdale say himself that he had > rather hear > a cat mew, than the best musique in the world; and the better the > musique, > the more sicke it makes him; and that of all instruments, he hates > the lute > most, and next to that, the baggpipe."
That's because Lauderdale never heard PDQ Bach's magnificent Sinfonia Concertante for bagpipes, left-handed sewer flute, lute, double-reed slide music stand, balalaika, and ocarina (there was no duet for bagpipe and lute). BTW, since we're dealing with Important Historical Stuff, here once again is what Peter Schickele actually said his introduction to the 1965 live-performance recording. It's the most famous thing said about the lute in the last two centuries, and it comes up every few years on this list, so accuracy is important: "The interesting thing about this lineup of instruments is the problem of balance. When the bagpipe is playing you can't hear anything else, whereas the lute is such a soft instrument that if there is simply another instrument in the room with it you can't hear it, whether it's being played or not. So the problems of combining these into one work are tremendous, as you can imagine, and they are problems which PDQ Bach found no solution for whatsoever. But the lute looks nice, and I think that in this day of recording, that's one thing we've forgotten: the visual aspect of a concert. It's a very nice lute. We hope you enjoy it. Think of it while you're listening to the bagpipes." On the recording, Stan Beutens did indeed play the lute, which is actually quite audible. -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
