Dear Matthias and All, I highly appreciate your discussion remarks on the liuto forte (and in general). Your critical remarks may be quite adequate, but for now they will not change my love of the instrument. I keep open-minded, and am particularly keen to directly compare the sound with lutes. I have to admit that I have not much compared it to "real" lutes, only to my own quite cheap renaissance lute (600 GBP from Early Music Shop in Saltaire UK on the advice of my then lute teacher how considered it good enough for a start), and a better Renaissance lute on occasion.
I am an amateur, that's maybe the first thing to say. Having played the guitar for long I got interested in the lute because I listened to Dowland and other Renaissance music on the lute and loved the intense and rough sound much more than my (by the way: very good) guitar's, then studied the lute for a while (with my fingernails cut). Coming across the liuto forte I realized that, first of all, it is extremely flexible in sound. It can actually sound more lute-like and more guitar-like, dependent on where and how you pluck it (I would be interested if the people who say the liuto forte simply sounds like a guitar and that's it would insist on this impression in light of having realized that flexibility, which may need some practice and experimentation). I felt that if I plucked with fingerpads (thumb inside technique) above the rosette, the sound was quite lute-like, but more singing and sustaining than on my renaissance lute. I immediately loved that sound with renaissance pieces (more than when played on on the guitar, and more than when played on the "real" lute :-). As I have no ambition to be particularly original I went (and go) with my naive impression and love. Apart from this the liuto forte was easier to play - and I did not need to cut my finger nails, as simply turning the fingers adequately made possible to use finger pads. To love this sound is surely a matter of taste - and I am of course always open to my taste being better eductated... :-) Sor etc. also sounded good with this finger pad technique (modified it a little). Thus, more generally, sounding good with finger pads (in contrast to my classical guitar) is one of the really good things with the liuto forte. . Of course you can play it with finger nails as well... So, if I visit friends etc. and want to take only one instrument with me, I often choose the liuto forte, as I can - play Renaissance pieces with a quite lute-like sound, with finger pads or fingernails (even alternate according to my liking) - can play it as a normal guitar as well if I like, (piano, but and it can also be really loud if this should be of importance) - could play it as a 9-string guitar (if I could resp. had finally discovered how to get suitable sheet music) There's obviously no reason to "defend" the liuto forte, but for my amateurish purposes, I love it, first, because of its flexibility, and also because of the finger pad sound with renaissance etc. pieces. Warm regards, and thanks for the great experience with your contributions Franz -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
