So you see Mace as an oddball, inaccurate observer, someone quick to jump to odd conclusions, old deaf man who had lost touch with reality, an idiot who constructed an instrument impossible to play etc Obviously it's up to you. So why do you read him, it's not compulsory. I have read his book many times and found a lot of interesting details that do not sound like an utterance of a mentally ill person. Many musicologists quote Mace and as far as I know Musick's Monument is one of the most important sourcebooks for studying 17c performance practice. It doesn't mean that every word Mace wrote is true, but we are talking about very basic matters like colors - he wasn't blind as far as I know and the fact that he had to put his teeth on a lute doesn't matter here as we are not talking about what he used to hear. In fact many paintings confirm what he wrote. Many types of strings in 17c were commonly dyed. Red was in fact most popular color.
> > Obviously, I'm less inclined to take Mace seriously than you are. You're > writing here about what you would mean if you wrote what Mace wrote. I'm > writing about what an oddball who may have been an inaccurate observer or > someone quick to jump to odd conclusions may have meant. And remember, when > he wrote the book he was so deaf he had to put his teeth on a lute to hear > any sound from it, so the details of strings' actual sounds may have been a > different memory. If you're inclined to take everything Mace says as > practical and workable, try building his dyphone, and then try playing it. > >> As far as your objections concerning unusual colors are concerned please >> have a look at the 12c lute's bridge detail of Bilcius painting (2nd half of >> the 17th c). It shows string colors from bright yellow, orange, till various >> shades of blue. > > Where? The detail mentioned is a fragment of Cornelis van der Bilcius (Dutch painter 1653-1686) picture which can be found on Aquilla's website. I think it's under Researches/The lute in its historical reality. You have to scroll down a long way (it's page 62 as far as I can remember under Laurent de la Hyre's "Allegory of music"). -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
