Well, Anthony. Normally i avoid controversy, and especially causing one, but i would bravely go ahead and claim that all the string users in the medieval-renaissance-baroque times were, in fact, the "syntheticicists" (vs. the "guttists"). May be there were a few (the same relative percentage as now?.. gut-vs synthetics) who used some exotic strings (silk for example), but the majority were using just what was around, as reliable and practical as it was. Of course, some mental acrobatics can be done to prove that if in fact nylon and wirewounds were available at the time, they would have proudly dismissed it and stuck with gut, even if it was 7 times more expensive. And i am sure this point was made by someone already. As well as one asking - anyone wondered what the cow (or sheep) thinks on the subject (encourage more lutanists to stay with gut) (that being besides Doug Adams in the restaurant at the end of the universe). One thing is certain, the process will go as it goes and come to inevitable conclusion, disregarding us, the old farts. As an old fart myself, my complaint is not that people prefer this kind of string to another, this kind of sound to another, this kind of phrasing (or mostly lack of any), or degree of immersion into the atmosphere of the period whose music is being played. My complaint is that... heck, it looks i do not have any... Never mind.
Regarding the "could possibly be achieved by simulating the spider's extrusion technique (with the extrudor) rather than just varying the ingedients", it is even simpler then this. Let me tell you (or remind you in case you already know) a story. Ephraim Segermann in his shop used to make twisted nylon strings, using thin filaments, twisting them as gut or silk would normally be twisted and then heat treating them to make them smooth and uniform. He told me they sounded extremely well, and in blind test no lute player could tell them apart from gut strings (dangerous thing, those blind tests). He also told me, he found no interest whatsoever from lute players and discontinued making them. I do believe his claim of the sound, for a simple fact i have one of those (made the same way by myself) on my silk strung lute on top, so i can go to a440 if need be. And my son, who makes living (and what a fat living it is!) playing his lute, uses one of these for his top, after rejecting mono-nylon and nylgut. He says it sounds live and round, and bodied, with clarity and transparency. And all at a440. For about 8 months to the string. The point is - the simple twisting and braiding techniques with a following heat gun - clothes iron rolling will give some great results using already available materials. No need for "simulating the spider's extrusion technique" whatsoever. I am sure, if there are comments to this, some of them will force me to finally voice my complaint... Regards, a.r. On Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:56:27 +0000 (GMT) Anthony Hind <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello Alexander > As a gut string user, and ready to try silk if it was easilly > available, I am not actually advocating for lutenists and other > musicians to go over to synthetic strings (or natural spider strings). > Indeed, I would hope improvements in research on historic "natural" > strings might encourage more lutenists to stay with gut or silk. I must > make that clear, and I suppose I should do so whenever discussing a > synthetic string. > % > On the other hand, knowing that many lutenists will never use "natural" > strings, and that a number only use "natural" strings for recording, I > wonder whether it is not better that these synthetics strings, be as > close as possible in behaviour to what we believe were the qualities of > historic strings (but also seeing some dangers in such research). > Gut strings can be twisted and treated with chemicals to become more > flexible, and suitable for Meanes, but synthetic gut can't be (or at > least I don't think it can), flexiblity must be part of the polymer > structure (due to the ingredients or to the extruding). I was simply > thinking that this could possibly be achieved by simulating the > spider's extrusion technique (with the extrudor) rather than just > varying the ingedients. This might actually result in a synthetic > string closer to the flexible gut Meanes. > However, for me this is still science fiction, I just wondered whether > according to you it was a possibility, not at all advocating anything, > and certainly not advocating genetic modification. > Sorry not to have been more clear, I was not thinking about using > natural spider silk, which has never to my knowledge been a historic > ingredient for strings, just improving the structure of synthetic > Meanes. > % > I realize improvements in synthetics may make it too easy for those who > haven't already left natural strings. I have mixed feelings about that. > Regards > Anthony To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
