You may specialize and still have an interest in other instruments without
betraying your first love.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Martin" <[email protected]>
To: "Lute list" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 6:43 AM
Subject: [LUTE] Dilettantism
I've been bothered by the charge of dilettantism (someone who "prefers
diversity to virtuosity") which was raised on this list recently. How
many different instruments is it possible to play to a high
professional standard? One? Two? And how many do most lutenists try
to play? Four? Eight? And the differences are not trivial: sizes,
playing techniques, tunings, repertoire, notation...
Hans Keller once wrote an essay denouncing Phoney Professions, one of
which was the Viola Player. Phoney, because playing the viola is so
similar to playing the violin that specialist viola players shouldn't
need to exist. Yet they persist. The string player's quest for the
highest possible standard on his/her instrument trumps Keller's logic.
Are we in the lute world systematically harming our playing standards,
even the reputation of our instrument, by spreading ourselves too
thin? Wouldn't we do better to specialise?
Peter
(lute, theorbo, classical guitar, baroque guitar, ocarina...)
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