Hi Stuart,
My comments are below yours:
On 08/04/2011 22:01, Stuart Walsh wrote:
Just to get things in perspective though, roughly how much are the gut
basses - e.g. the fourth - seventh courses?
On this lute I had a plain gut 4th course, Larson pistoys on 5th and
6th, and a Larson gimped string on 7th. Dan's prices are on his
website. I would expect the 7th course to last more or less forever and
the 6th to last a very long time, the 5th less so because it is fingered
so much, but because I had an octave on the 5th it is only one expensive
string.
I have been using Sofracob for the thinner strings, which were amazingly
cheap (i.e. probably cheaper than nylon) as well as good. Sadly they
went out of business last year, and most other suppliers seem to be much
more expensive.
I agree that it is interesting to see people actually playing. But
performance, I think, is yet another skill as well as actually playing
the music as musically as you are able. I suppose you could ignore the
performance aspect of performance (body language, composure,
movement, maybe eye contact with camera etc etc). But would you
really wouldn't want to ignore all that that any more than ignore the
musical aspects of the music (i.e.just stolidly sounding the notes)?
When you've seen one lute player hunched over his lute with a pained
expression on his face, you've seen the lot. But I agree it's
interesting to watch the hands at work, though that takes us into the
realm of having someone else to control the camera.
Another problem is that more a more people are using recording devices
and adding a touch of reverb. I think this is really good as most
people are just recording at home and not in a beautiful acoustic. But
it just looks bizarre to see someone in their living room, sounding
like they are in a concert hall.
Yes, I've often had the same thought, though I prefer the concert hall
sound, even if artificially produced. Perhaps we need less views of the
living room, better lighting, etc.
Stuart
On 08/04/2011 18:26, wikla wrote:
Very beautiful!
But I would also very much like to _see_ the player and playing -
important
part of performance... at least to me.
All the best,
Arto
On Fri, 8 Apr 2011 13:05:55 +0200, "G. Crona"<[email protected]>
wrote:
Indeed you most successfully have Martin. I should also have added an
excellent editor as well as a generous sharer of music and
knowledge. In
short a compleat lutenist.
Cheers!
G.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Shepherd"<[email protected]>
To: "Lute List"<[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 12:56 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: new piece of the month
Thanks, Goeran.
We have debated on this list before the virtues or otherwise of
"live"
performance-type recordings as opposed to "perfect" commercial
CD-type
recordings.
I don't like to hear blemishes (especially my own!) but at the
same time
I
don't want to spend hours editing out every single one. I usually
do a
couple of takes and use the best one, sometimes editing particularly
gruesome bits - but on the whole my best recordings have been single
takes, no edits. If I were actually making a CD I think I would
have to
do lots of takes and lots of editing, but my main objective with
these
MP3s is just to share the music and demonstrate the sound of the
lutes.
I
hope I have shown that gut strings can be used to good effect.
Best wishes,
Martin
On 08/04/2011 11:28, G. Crona wrote:
Cool Martin!
Did you record it all in one go or weed out mistakes in audacity
afterwards? You seem to be quite unique in the lute community in
that
you
BOTH build excellent lutes as well as being a very sensitive and
able
player.
Kind regards
G.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Martin Shepherd"
<[email protected]>
To: "Lute List"<[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2011 11:55 AM
Subject: [LUTE] new piece of the month
Hi All,
The new piece of the month is in the usual place:
www.luteshop.co.uk/month/pieceofthemonth.html
It's the last of a series of recordings I made with a Venere 7c
lute
(67cm, strung all in gut) before it went to its new owner.
I hope you enjoy it.
Best wishes,
Martin
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