Agricola wrote: "... heard a 'Lautenclavicymbel' in Leipzig in about 1740, designed by Mr. Johann Sebastian Bach and made by Mr. Zacharias Hildebrand, which was smaller in size than a normal harpsichord but in all other respects similar. It had two choirs of gut strings, and a so-called little octave of brass strings. It is true that in its normal setting (that is, when only one stop was drawn) it sounded more like a theorbo than a lute. But if one drew the lute-stop (such as is found on a harpsichord) together with the cornet stop, one could almost deceive professional lutenists."
I think we have to take this with a large pinch of salt - like you say, modern reconstructions of lautenwerks sound exactly as you would expect - like a gut-strung harpsichord with leather plectra. Andrew On 20 Jan 2010, at 18:37, <chriswi...@yahoo.com> wrote: > Yes. Also compelling are the contemporary descriptions of the > lautenwerk as being nearly sonically indistinguishable from the > lute. There are even reports that professional lute players could > be fooled if the instruments were played behind a screen. From > the sound of the modern lautenwerks I've heard, I have never once > feared that I might make the same mistake! > > Chris -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
