Anthony,
I'm really fascinted by your detailed analyzis of all technicall
matters concerning lute construction, stringing and playing. I wish I
had such an eye on all this things. But in my experience, after some
40 years of observations of teaching music playing (including my own
regular education) I'm more and more incined to think that the
deciding requirement in a good music peformance is... a talent. And a
personal contact with a master. That was obvious in historical times
and persist until now, despite all technologicall advance.
As all know, there are several methods of playing -- a historical
one, a modern one (a post-modern one ;-))) and all in between. But
aside from the method, a player needs a good ear and a complex
musical inteligence which guides him how to get the most from his
instrument (when he pics up another instrument he may finde that
another method or place to place his fingers is better). An
instantanous feed-back is a pre condition, like with a new car (or
horse) which you are trying to bridle. After years you may develope a
method which for you is good one, for others may not.
Bthat is becouse a method is not the case. I'm pretty sure past
players played in a hudge variety of ways and we can only take very
general guidelines from them. What guided them (the good ones of
course) and shoud assist us, presently and always, is a musical end
to which mastering of an instrument leads. What is this 'musical end'
is a wide topic and can serve for another thread.
What I wanted to say is that inicially a player needs a master (or
rather masters, as combination of some two particular people may not
always work) and some kind and amount of musical talent. The rest of
the way lies in his hands and ears, must fit to his body (or the
other way arround) and be convincing to more then him. I'm simply
against mythologisation of a method and believe in a unique human
gift, which has been pushed aside in most discussions on HIP.
By the way...
I note that Satoh, is perhaps even further back (low tension), but
with with Gautier TO shape, see here, and also listen to the effect:
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~lsa/old/Cleveland2006/TastingBaroque.html
http://tinyurl.com/2vxntm
Listen
http://tinyurl.com/2rsk5p
Am I wrong or not but all appogiaturas I hear are sharp
''backwords'', not to say about other ''nuances''...
I am interested in acquiring a deeper undesrtanding of these issues,
not necessarily looking for a catechism.
Me too, only the balance matters.
J
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