Taco
Your remark are short, but call for a rather long answer.
As you may know, I was one of the first to adopt Mimmo Peruffo's
loaded strings on my Baroque lute, and reported back
enthusiastically, on them, to this list, for which some suggested I
was being too "historically correct";
http://tinyurl.com/aloz8j
in fact I was just hoping for a solution to a problem (both ancient
and modern) with the gut stringing on a Baroque lute, which is no
doubt, one of the major reasons that some Baroque lutenists have
abandoned gut stringing (see Rob Mackillop).
Indeed, I am about to embark on a new Venice gut tweak of my octave
stringing, to solve another small residual problem (more of which
later), so while I remain a convinced gut user, I DO think you have
to really work at it (see earlier Venice tweak), if you want to
achieve a really worthwhile gut sound. It is not quite as
straightforward, and automatically good, as your words would lead us
to believe.
http://tinyurl.com/czcl8t
Following Mimmo's research, and reading the remarks of other lutenist
on this list, (including Rob Mackillop's difficulty with the gut
basses on his Maler lute), I have realized that there is a serious
contradiction for gut stringing on a Baroque lute, which calls both
for short trebles, and very long, or densified, basses (see Satoh's
adopting of the "Dutch" lute, as one solution): pure gut basses,
even on a 69 cm Baroque lute, can result in what Rob called serious
"intonation" problems.
http://tinyurl.com/bxpxp7
http://tinyurl.com/csvn33
There may be other ways to get round these problems, such as low
tension basses, high tension octaves, and playing near the bridge,
but it all needs to be worked at, and not automatically acheived by
throwing gut at a lute, as your remarks might imply.
I am so thankful to Mimmo for having managed to "recreate" these
wonderful loaded strings, that seem to resolve this problem, and at
the same time to free-up the sound of the lute, allowing both sustain
and exceptional clarity, in short, superb musicality. It was lucky
Mimmo acheived that just before my lute was completed.
Benjamin Narvey, who is a competent Baroque lutenist tells me the
sound of my 11c Gottlieb, so strung, is exceedingly beautiful and
sweet, and improving every time he plays it (something like
Lindberg's mixture of early loaded and gimped, but far sweeter and
with better high frequency presence). Miguel also said that these
were the best gut basses he had ever heard, or played. Indeed, he
thought (correctly?) that basses were the real problem for gut
stringing on the Baroque lute.
Similar contradictory needs for gut stringing of smaller bowed
instruments, have lead to these instruments being either strung at
too low a tension, and so sounding too thin in the bass, or being
strung too thick, and thus having even worse intonation problems than
those Rob encountered (the question of fretting perfect fifths on
unbowed instruments with equal tension stringing); so things have
not been quite so sweet and rosy in the bowed section as your remarks
imply.
http://tinyurl.com/aezncn
Here again loaded strings for certain smaller instruments, I believe,
will prove a real boon.
However, it would be unfair to completely ignore these problems,
which, along with the instability of gut, has brought some players to
prefer using the nearest synthetic to gut (i.e. nylgut and nylgut
wire-wounds), as I think Rob has done, and Miguel too.
http://tinyurl.com/besylp
I do agree that gut strung bowed instruments are better accompanied
with gut strung lutes or theorbos, but on a solo Baroque lute, this
is more of a personal choice.
Reading through the recent ornamentation remarks, on this list, I
also realize that this is a huge area that is probably more
important, but not completely independent from, stringing. If you
have, as I do, excellent gut strings, but little knowledge of the
"grammar" of French rhetoric, then the best strings in the world will
not create a good performance. Better a musician who has this
knowledge, like Miguel, than one with gut strings who doesn't.
However, in the right hands, my loaded-gut stringing should allow an
exceptional degree of articulation to that rhetoric: the necessary
sustain to maintain phrasing, and allow dissonances to be carried to
their resolution, but with the exceptional clarity and "readability",
permitting each component to be heard, with no voice drowning another.
Nevertheless, Miguel's skill in damping basses, even if this is
controversial, does allow him to control his nylgut wirewounds,
which do already behave fairly closely to ordinary gut basses,
except, I will admit, for that shimmer, which does seem present in
all wirewounds, but absent in gut: the sound seems to shimmer
outwards (laterally), with less centering focus than loaded bass can
bring.
(That is comparing the basses on my lute with some I heard very
recently next to mine, not actually Miguel's, but on a very similar,
English made Warwick, to mine)
I should add that Miguel shuns what he calls "bright" fan-barred
lutes, and chose a lute by Cezar Mateus for its dark sound quality,
which should further reduce this tendency considerably.
Meanwhile, Ed who is a gut user, loves Satoh's old non-gut LP, as I
love Anthony Baile's pre-gut pièces de luth, reflexe LP, and even
Hoppy's marvellous Bach Astree LP set.
(Come to think of it my feet are no doubt "firmly fixed" in the late
70s early 80s with my love of LPs and gut stringing.)
I do actually regret that Hoppy and Paul O'dette have completely
abandoned the gut stringing they sometimes used in their Astrée LPs;
but I do understand that they want as little hindrance as possible
between them and their musical goals; and in this they apparently
feel that nylgut, is as near as they need to come to real gut. I know
this is Miguel's position, and I think that is his right.
It is, of course, your right criticize and not to buy, their records,
or records of other players who do not use gut.
About Miguel's CD, you say, "no warm sound", frankly, only one person
offered some criticism of Miguel's CD to me, but saying they found
his playing "too sweet sounding, without enough contrasting grunt",
this is perhaps exactly the quality others find soothing, as several
others have reported. This rather contradicts your remark (although,
words can mean so many things).
This sweetness, through Hoppy and ultimately Emilio Pujol, may indeed
be seated in a more romantic tradition, but is it not good that
different approaches to baroque music are kept alive?
I still feel that Hoppy has so much to teach us in terms of sheer
musicality, his mastery of the lute's discourse space, from the
smallest whisper to the briefest hint of a silence. This is not a
tradition of which Miguel should be ashamed.
In fact, I do not agree with what seems to be your linear view of
musical history: If not exactly Miguel's rondo of the "eternel
retour", I would prefer a spiraling view, just look at the question
of thumb-out, adopted by the pioneers (Poulton etc), then shunned
(Schaeffer), now back in favour, albeit for specific music-types, and
with permutations.
I do enjoy Miguel's CD and his choice of music showing developments
and links from French to German Baroque, along with his choice of
theme, rondos and chaconnes, and I do find his playing refined and
exceptionally soothing.
as I also enjoy, in a different way, Ed Martin's playing on his
recent recording. I think there is room for different styles, and
approaches to Baroque music.
By the way, as the humble translator, I am not even the author of
the text, and certainly would not have had the impertinence to
suggest Miguel change his strings, anymore than I would expect him to
tell me to change mine.
He is an independent minded performer who has very definite ideas
about French Baroque lute music, and the techniques by which he
believes he can express them.
Anthony
Le 2 févr. 09 à 15:57, Taco Walstra a écrit :
On Monday 02 February 2009, Anthony Hind rattled on the keyboard:
The LP's (it is a 2-record set) were done years ago, before people
were
recording in gut.
ed
...
Yes, I forgot that gut stringing, came in around the 80s, while
thumb-
in (which Terry used) was reintroduced (under the influence of
Michael Schaeffer) a little earlier, I think.
Still we encounter so many ensembles where all violins, violas,
celli, .. use
gut strings but the theorbo/lute player has an instrument stringed
with an
ugly set of nylgut,, pvf, nylon and some gut diapasons. The
"reintroduction"
is surely not finished.
Can't resist to mention the CD by serdoura where you wrote a
translation of
the foreword, anthony. Serdoura is an example of somebody who has
his feet
still in the starting of the 70s. No warm sound at all on this CD,
still no
use of gut strings. Ugly fingersounds rubbing over positions on the
fingerboards like guitarplayers. The 70s are still present in our
time.
Well, the 70 had their charm too. Nice recordings by led zeppelin,
pink
floyd..
Taco
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