Although I will of course defer to my German
colleagues in matters of native language,
I have used the term for 35 years in Germany with no problems.
If you take a few hundred CDs from the last
thirty years you will find that the term is
usually used for archlute. Not always, but very frequently.
You will also find from the same period that a
proportion of these CDs also conflates the terms
theorbo, chitarrone, and archlute, so there can't
be a definite meaning for the terms.
Historically, of course, the term theorbo could also refer to an archlute.
Naturally, the CDs could be wrong, and they often
are in the disposition of the instruments.
This is understandable, however, since many
unabridged German dictionaries give Erzlaute as a
synonym for Bogenlaute (which is rarely used) and
translate it as archlute, not theorbo.
For CDs that are originally in English or French
those who rely on these dictionaries for CD notes
and translations thus keep the term current.
In addition, musicological papers as well as
Festival booklets from major festivals use not
only these dictionaries but also the Grove
Dictionary as well, and the Grove defines,
rightly of wrongly, erzlaute as archlute.
So it could be that there is a difference between
the written use of the word and the spoken use of
the word, but of course the word mainly appears in printed material.
Respectfully,
dt
At 01:16 AM 7/10/2009, you wrote:
"Jerzy Zak" <[email protected]> schrieb:
> That reminds me the term rather seldom used nowadays: "teorbierte
> laute" (or close to that spelling),
It's become part of the history of research. With Pohlmann (ch. 7),
Theorbenlaute was synonymous to theorbierte Laute. According to his
definition, Theorbenlauten were lutes with first pegboxes bent back and
second pegboxes attached in the direction of the neck.
If I'm not mistaken, that's rather what we'd call double-headed lutes
today.
To complete confusion, he added: "Theorbierte Lauten werden auch
Knickhalslauten genannt, die auf dem Wirbelkasten links und/oder rechts
Aufsaetze fuer die hoechsten und tiefsten Saiten haben."
Theorbierte Lauten are also called Knickhalslauten (lutes with bent-back
necks), which have riders on their pegboxes on the left and(or on the
right for the highest or lowest strings.
Back then, I stood in awe, completely puzzled by this sophisticated
"definition". My, o my.
> the untranslatable to Polish "re-entrant".
It hasn't been appropiately translated to German, either. Some have
tried ruecklaeufig (downward, falling, katabatic, recurrent,
retrogressive), but in German that term evokes notions of someone
running back, and doesn't make clear that the _tuning_ is sort of
"coming back".
Mathias
> On 2009-07-09, at 22:14, Mathias Rösel wrote:
>
> > And btw, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archlute is just as sweeping
> > IMHO,
> > neglecting differences between the liuto attiorbato, the arciliuto and
> > the archlute.
> >
> > Someone put a language link to it into
> > http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erzlaute, but that is misleading. The
> > German term Erzlaute was meant to be generic.
> >
> > Mathias
> >
> > "Jerzy Zak" <[email protected]> schrieb:
> >> David,
> >> Thanks for that.
> >>
> >> Besides, you've writen a very interesting comment on the "latest
> >> semiannual online comparison of video hosting sites
> > ". I'm absolutely
> >> not qualified to comment on that, but would love to read other's --
> >> just to remind it's still "untouched" by other pluckers. Perhaps some
> >> lute exemple
> > ??
> >>
> >> J
> >> _____
> >>
> >>
> >> On 2009-07-09, at 20:33, David Tayler wrote:
> >>
> >>> Archlute
> >>> dt
> >>>
> >>> At 11:29 AM 7/9/2009, you wrote:
> >>>> What is an "Erzlaute"?
> >>>> The other instruments pecified on the page are "organ, harpsichord,
> >>>> violins, cello, guitar, theorbE".
> >>>>
> >>>> jz
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