Luca
You are quite right, but unless you are a professional, it is
difficult to justify purchasing the number of instruments that
someone like Jacob Heringman has at his disposition.
It could be that a single 6c intrument would be a better compromise
than an 8c instrument, since even much Dowland can be played on such
an instrument.
However, the compromise I made, was to obtain a 7c lute, but to have
the older Gerle shape (the same one that JH used on his Sienna
record) and to use gut diapasons. This does limit the sympathetic
resonances of wire-wound basses, and keeps the voices reasonably
clear, if less so than on a 6c lute. Thus when 5c and 4c are strung
in octaves, it is acceptable for some of that Sienna repertoire, and
when they are strung in unison, it is reasonable for later, up to
1600 music. In fact much of that music could be played with 5 and 4
octave stringing.
I notice that JH plays one fantasie from the Medici lute book on that
same lute, but otherwise he does mainly use it for the few dance
pieces of the manuscript.
I agree that this is still a compromise, and even in concert, when he
could only bring one lute, JH brought his 6c Rutherford for all the
Sienna music.
I am going to have to make a similar compromise, if I want to play
Baroque music. You also see professional Baroque luthists with one
instrument, usually one non extended 13c lute. In the best case, the
player removes the extra strings, when playing 11c music to keep the
sound clearer.
In this case, I may prefer a 10c/11c lute, but that is partly because
I am coming from Renaissance technique, and I don't want to great a
technical jump.
If I was reasonable, I would go for a 6c lute and develop my
Renaissance repertoire, but I am too much of a dilettante, and I do
also love that 11c French repertoire.
Regards
Anthony
Le 7 nov. 07 à 19:29, Luca Manassero a écrit :
I think this is very important and often completely forgotten.
Lutes were so very different over places and countries AND periods,
that our "pathetic" way of thinking when we go around with an 8-
course lute and uses it for absolutely everything between 1490 and
1630...
On this and other lists amny very good lutenists can believe that
an 8-course is a very acceptable compromise, but try to play
Capirola on an 8-course or certains Fantasie of Francesco da Milano
and you'll feel (and hear) immediately that you're playing the
wrong instrument.
Obviously the poor lutenist can't afford to live in a museum
sporting 10 to 12 instruments (let alone keeping them tuned...),
but still sometimes we really try to much ;-)
By the way, this whole conversation has been and IS very
inspirational.
Cheers,
Luca
http://liuti.manassero.com
Daniel Winheld on 7-11-2007 18:01 wrote:
I have felt that there is not enough attention paid to the variety
of of 6 course lutes one specialist could need- but of course
these days so many of us are trying to telescope all 300 years of
multiple lute traditions & functions in one career and one
lifetime, unthinkable historically.
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