I can but try again
My message was cut, let's try again
David and Daniel
I think this question was raised in January 2007, following a
discussion that began on the French lute list http://tinyurl.com/
2d8fb8 One of the luthists, on the French list, involved in the
earlier discussion was Jean-Marie Poirier, and the examples at
http://tinyurl.com/yt7ptu are part of his collection of iconography.
It is also worth looking at his collection classified by period at
http://tinyurl.com/2ebuvy At the time, I mentioned that I had seen a
Turkish player of the long necked Oud, called Baglama, doing exactly
what you have described. The neck of the luth is "U" shaped and quite
narrow. He mainly played the top two strings, but from time to time
he stopped the third string with his thumb.
He was, in fact, very surprised to see he was the only lutist present
who used thumb-over.
Mark Wheeler mentioned that when playing with a plectum, he often
uses this thumb-over technique to prevent strings, that he does not
intend to strike, from "sounding", if he hits a little wide of the mark.
Denys Stephens wrote an interesting article on the general topic, in
Lute News N=B0 54 June 2000
"Mind that left thumb? The use of the left-hand thumb in six course
lute technique."
regards
Anthony
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