On the other hand, they were also not blissfully sitting still all the time- a contemporary account of the great Pietro Bono describes his playing as "...Storming from the very bottom to the top of the lute's range..." and other words suggestive of the technical level of a Joe Pass or Django Rheinhardt, at least in the improvised "intabs" of popular standards. Similar descriptions of other famous players of those times are extant- can't recall at the moment. they could certainly move when they wanted to, and undoubtedly better than us. Dan
> There are many aspects of the way we approach the instrument and the > music today that I'm sure are entirely inauthentic. For instance, > playing a dance piece with variations in a large concert hall with > polite people sitting quietly, and with such blinding un-danceable > speed that polyphony and phrasing are entirely obscured. What possibly > might have been the hurry? Call of nature? > Ron Andrico -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
