Dear lute friends, every year backwards from our 2011 lessens the knowledge and adds the speculation and assumptions of "how it was done", what really was played and how, by what kind of instruments an aesthetics (and _all_ other aspects of art and life). So, playing medieval music will always have very much a personal way of imaging, what it was. Of course the same applies (in decreasing amount) to renaissance, baroque, classicism and romanticism. And even later - period of canned, recorded, music is not piece of cake: the recording technology doesn't usually bring the real performance...
On the other hand, you are easily very free in your medieval performance: it is very hard to prove or even claim you are wrong! So perhaps "anything goes" as far it is enjoyable to you and audience! And perhaps it is good for us all also to remember that the only music we hear is "modern" music in the sense that it exists only, while we listen to it. There is no way of being "authentic"; we cannot live in 12th or 17th century... best, Arto On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:49:32 +0100, Stuart Walsh <[email protected]> wrote: > On 29/06/2011 20:28, David R wrote: >> Hi luters, >> >> I'm thinking of getting into a type of lute music I've never played >> before, namely medieval lute. Problem is, I don't know where to find >> the music. Are there sources specifically for medieval lute, or does >> one simply have to "just know" what music to play based on knowledge >> of medieval music in general? I guess I'm wanting to know what the >> various genres are, and where to find sources. Can any of you kind >> folks help me out on this? Feel free to inundate me with info if you >> want to! >> >> Thanks, >> >> David Rastall >> >> > > There is a useful chapter in ' Performer's Guide to Medieval Music' ed. > Duffin, 2000 (and not expensive). Before about 1400 the lute would > probably not have had frets. (An inexpensive oud might be an option?). > Illustrations indicate plectrum technique up to around 1500. > > There is no known lute music before c.1500 ( I think!!) but people > surmise and speculate that some music might be lute music or similar to > what lutenists played. Two main sources for such speculations are the > Buxheim organ book and the Faenza codex. Lute duos may have been common > (or lute and smaller lute/gittern) with one playing some kind of 'tenor' > - maybe with a proto-fingerstyle technique and the other doing > elaborations. The Faenza Codes has lots of this kind of material. And > very strange it is! > > The Lute Society UK publish three volumes of pieces ('Music for Lute > Consort') with music which Jon Banks argues (circumstantially) was for > lutes (this from the late 15th century). > > And, of course, there are the surviving dances: Trotto, etc etc > > > > Stuart >> >> To get on or off this list see list information at >> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >>
