Andrew,
This quote from John Gunn's "The Art of Playing the German Flute" (London,
1793) is very intriguing:
"The performers of the _old school_ had much more of what may be called
_graces of the finger_, than the modern, which cultivates more the expression
and powers of the bow, and the management of _tone_."
What does he mean by "expression" and "management of tone?" One possible
take on this is that baroque players (of the "old school") manipulated the
emotive content of the music through their choice of ornamentation and
figuration, placing what we would call "beautiful tone" in a secondary role.
(This quote is also interesting in that a wind player uses examples from string
playing when describing timbre.)
This also fits in with the philosophy of most baroque singing tutors.
Nearly all of them begin with something like, "This is how to sing well: This
is a gruppo; This is a trillo; This is how to do simple divisions; Now more
advanced, etc." Where are the mentions of such matters of primary importance
to singers today such as breath support or the division of the voice into
registers? This sort of thing wasn't really mentioned at all in tutors until
Manual Garcia in the 19th century.
I suspect that you may be right that the sound of the lautenwerk didn't fool
anyone. As Martyn's mentioned in his observation about the lute stop on
metal-strung harpsichords, it does seem to hint at the kind of tone lute
players utilized. Why not? The harpsichord, lautenwerk, clavichord, and early
piano all have a predominantly bright, brassy, twangy tone. I'm sure this was
not because the instrument builders of the time were too stupid to figure out
how to produce instruments that were more mellow, rather, this timbre fit the
aesthetic of the time. Although it may be difficult to reconcile this sound
with modern audiences, lute players today should think twice before avoiding it.
Chris
--- On Wed, 1/20/10, Andrew Gibbs <and...@publicworksoffice.co.uk> wrote:
> From: Andrew Gibbs <and...@publicworksoffice.co.uk>
> Subject: [LUTE] Re: Thumb rest stroke - 'lute stop' evidence
> To: "Lutelist list" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
> Date: Wednesday, January 20, 2010, 1:55 PM
> 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
>
>
> --
>
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