I think that lutes were used more hard than violins.
Let's imagine: turn that damned pegs every day, move that frets every
day. Then rebuild that silly 7 courses lute to 8 courses. Then to
10,11, 12, 13... Open that belly and make new brace pattern. Try few
stringings and tunings. Ah it's very good way to kill any musical
instrument. I can say about my classical guitar. It was made in 1999 by
very good luthiere. But I had rebuild that guitar in 7string, then in 8
and in 9 at the end (cut off soundport, redrill head and bridge,
widened neck, glue on armrest, pull off metal frets and tying on nylon
frets...) Then some great climate changes, cracks, repairs... After
building my lute I had return that guitar in 6string condition. And now
after all that tortures it's almost dead guitar. But it's only 13 years
old and it have more solid construction than any lute! Errrmm...
2012/4/20 Edward Mast <[1][email protected]>
I would say the lute is a more fragile instrument than the violin.
Also, the lute fell out of favor for a long period of time and
consequently wasn't valued as highly as the violin. And the better
(Italian especially) makers were widely known among players, and
their instruments would in particular be valued and cared for.
On Apr 20, 2012, at 2:23 PM, Herbert Ward wrote:
>
> According to Wikipedia, there are many Strativarius violins
> in active use today:
> [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stradivarius_instruments
>
> But I never hear of anyone playing a historical lute routinely.
> In fact, it seems rare for anyone to even handle one.
>
> Is this because the thin soundboard becomes fragile with age?
>
> --
>
>
>
> To get on or off this list see list information at
> [3]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
References
1. mailto:[email protected]
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stradivarius_instruments
3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
