I also think the perception of a conductor/director of the theorbo in ensemble is very different than that of audience because of proximity. Plucked strings of any type in ensemble work great in chamber settings, even with loudish things like bowed strings and winds, in part because the audience tend to be closer in space to the performers.
Best, Eugene > -----Original Message----- > From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On > Behalf Of howard posner > Sent: Monday, October 18, 2010 6:42 PM > To: Lute List > Subject: [LUTE] Re: Lute volume > > > On Oct 18, 2010, at 5:52 AM, Christopher Wilke wrote: > > > I've been told this by several different directors, too. (Theorbo: toy > class. Stringing: synthetic and gut). Never believe them! After every > concert where I've been asked to hold back, I've asked people from the > audience whether they could hear me. Comments ranged from "in a few > spots" to "not at all." > > I think you were asking the wrong question. Of course they could hear > you. They just couldn't hear you as a discrete sound. You weren't there > to be noticed, but to be part of a musical texture. So the conductor and > the audience members were applying different criteria. > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
