This seems a good moment to wheel out the piece from several years ago
that still alas applies!
Best wishes,
David
From the LS newsletter, November 1993:
Buying a lute, 1551 ===================
Good morrow, Master Laux; I wish to buy a lute.
Good morrow, kind Sir; here are 998 for you to choose from. Would you
have it large, medium or small? If the 392 large lutes in this small
chest are not your liking, I have another 175 upstairs.
Thank you, Master Laux; I will take this medium-sized one.
Buying a lute, 1993 ===================
I'd like to buy a lute please.
Ah, you'd like to order a lute. Do you want a 4-course for the medieval
repertoire, or a 5-course for the 15th century, or a 6-course, which
covers most of the 16th century, or a 7-course for the Elizabethan
repertoire, or an 8-course which gives you just that little bit more
flexibility, or a 9-course, which takes you up to late Dowland, or a
10-course for the early 17th century, or an 11-course for the French
repertoire, or a 12-course, which was probably much more common than
most people think, or a 13-course?
Erm...
Of course, there are two different kinds of 13-course
Of course.
Now for the string length, I can do you 45cm for a treble, or 53cm in
a, or 60cm in g, or 57cm if you've got small hands, or 64cm in f#
(that's a g lute at aA5, of course), or 67 cm in f, or 71cm in e, or
78cm in d, or 88cm in c, or 93cm for a great bass. Or I can do you a
really little one if you want to use gut strings.
Erm...
Now you can gave the body after Maler, or Frei, or Bosch, or Gerle, or
Hieber, or Vernere, or Magno Dieffopruchar the Elder, or Magno
Dieffopruchar the Younger, or Hartung, or Greif, or Hess, or Hellmer,
or Langenwalder, or Buechenberg, or Unverdorben, or Mest, or Raillich,
or Giogio Sellas, or Matteo Sellas, or Coch, or Tielke, or Schelle, or
Eberle, or Widhalm, or Christian Hoffmann, or Martin Hoffmann, or Ian
Harwood, or Zachary Taylor.
Erm...
You can have the ribs in sycamore, or Bird's-eye maple, or figured ash,
or unfigured ash, or plum, or cherry, or yew, or cypress, or rosewood,
or kingwood, or snakewood, or walnut, or ebony, or wenge, or cocobolo,
or cryptomeria, or ecologically justifiable very realistic imitation of
ivory. I don't do fibreglass these days.
Erm...
You can have the neck in the style of...
No, no, don't bother about the neck.
Well the varnish can be either three parts linseed oil...
Look, do it however you like, please. How soon can you have it
finished?
Erm...
At 07:16 +0000 8/4/12, [email protected] wrote:
This is a good discussion inasmuch as it demonstrates a fair
diversity in what we look for in a lute.
I think it's tough for us compared to classical guitarists who can
go to a shop and spend a day or two trying out a range of guitars,
playing and comparing before deciding which one to buy.
As lutenists we are seldom if ever are in this situation - at least
in terms of fine instruments. Buying from an established maker
involves placing an order then waiting months, sometimes years for
the lute. Even then there is no guarantee that the instrument will
sound and feel exactly as you had hoped.
Another approach that I know some fine players have used is to keep
an eye on new makers who build on spec and try their instruments,
snapping one up at a favourable price if they find it suits them.
This would work less well for a beginner who has less knowledge of
what to look for - so we can find ourselves in a situation where
experts play instruments by unknown makers and beginners spend very
large sums ordering from makers of high repute.
Is that a fair summary?
Bill
Sent from my BlackBerry smartphone from Virgin Media
-----Original Message-----
From: "David Smith" <[email protected]>
Sender: [email protected]
Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2012 18:13:53
To: 'Lute List'<[email protected]>
Subject: [LUTE] Re: What makes a good lute?
Just to add my two cents. My lutes are a joy for the visual elegance
they
have, the artistry of the makers, the beauty of their sound, and the
physical sensation of playing their strings.
I would be hard pressed to say which is more important but without
all of
them I would be dissatisfied with them.
>From the simplest lute (a 1968 Harwood and Isaacs that Donna Curry
used to
play) to the 2011 Barber&Harris and Rinzo Salvador lutes (very
ornate) they
all have their own souls to expose. My challenge is to learn what
they have
to offer and how to bring that out. For me this is a new journey.
The
strings matter (gut, nylgut, synthetics) and each type changes the
character. My participation in this journey is to learn what works
for me.
It may not be the same as what works for anyone else but I am
learning
immense amounts from this community.
So, in my judgment, there is no one thing that makes a good lute.
The most
important is the lutenist learning the lute and how to make it sing
but all
the other aspects also matter.
Anyway, this is the view from a novice.
Regards
David
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf
Of Sauvage Valery
Sent: Saturday, April 07, 2012 11:40 AM
To: 'Lute List'
Subject: [LUTE] Re: What makes a good lute?
I agree with this post...
-----Message d'origine-----
De : [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] De
la part
de A.J. Padilla MD Objet : [LUTE] Re: What makes a good lute?
In medicine, we have a saying, "The most important part of the
stethoscope
lies between the earpieces."
It's in the fingers (or rather, the corpus striatum in the brain).
Al
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