On Saturday, December 15, 2007 3:19 PM "Martin Eastwell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Subject: [LUTE] Re: RH on the bridge?
... but I am afraid that it will take a long time to percolate into the wider lute playing world.
It will take perhaps even longer to percolate into the not so wide vihuela playing folks. The largest part of surviving vihuela iconography 'cries' for the thumb-over technique, yet everybody who plays vihuela nowadays seems to have chosen the way the renaissance lute is set up (I mean in terms of the overall width of string spacing on the bridge and, as a result, larger distances in-between courses and between individual strings in courses). The consequence is that some of the vihuela pieces that require stopping two neighbouring courses with one finger can hardly (if not, in fact, at all!) be played in this way. In addition, the thumb-under technique on the vihuela also results in a rather poor sound projection. Two factors here: the soundboard on the vihuela has only two bars and so naturally produces smaller output of high harmonics than the lute soundboard, plus plucking further away from the bridge results even in less of such harmonics in the sound.
One original instrument that I came across recently (c.1760s six-course guitar from the Spanish school of makers) had a really astonishing evidence as to how it was played: the bridge right below the first course had virtually all its edges rounded by the resting little (and perhaps even ring) finger(s), plus two deep grooves next to each other in the soundboard, just underneath the first course (most evidently left by the index and middle fingers striking at right angles to the strings).
Among modern players I'd like to note Mark Wheeler who really uses full advantages of plucking strings closer and further away from the bridge. It seems like he combines both thumb-under and -over techniques (correct me if I'm wrong) resulting in such an alive and vibrant sound. Anyway, that's the impression I've got after the concert (which was simply amazing!) they gave at the Greenwich festival in November.
Alexander
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