Having reflected on what I said below, it needs to be said that instruments - especially extended neck ones, are very expensive. No musician can possibly afford to have one of everything - particularly as there are instruments whose repertoire can be counted on the fingers of one hand. So no blame to musicians who choose to buy mainstream instruments.
I was wondering if there is some kind of 'lending library' or 'hire store' anywhere with some of these more obscure types of instrument, that a musician could borrow when needed? I know there is informal lending of instruments between musicians so they can be used in gigs that need them, but that's a bit hit-or-miss. Maybe something for the lute societies to consider? I know the Lute Society in the UK rents out lutes - mostly to people who are saving to buy their own, but a collection of more unusual ones for short-term loan would be another thing. Thoughts? Bill From: William Samson <[email protected]> To: David Tayler <[email protected]>; lute <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, 1 November 2012, 19:46 Subject: [LUTE] Re: Chitarrone I'm afraid you are correct, David. Of course Bob Spencer isn't to blame - he just wrote up what was known at the time. The trouble is that much of what is now known (and much of what was known in Spencer's time too) hasn't been put into practice by musicians. How many performances using the 'English' theorbo, with stepped nuts and double courses in the diapasons, have we heard? And yet the late 17th century was a very rich time in the development of music and instruments. According to Mace this theorbo sometimes had only the top course tuned down an octave - There aren't many theorboes tuned like that these days. There's still plenty of fallow ground for players of plucked instruments who are prepared to stray from the mainstream and for researchers to back them up. Bill From: David Tayler <[1][email protected]> To: lute <[2][email protected]> Sent: Thursday, 1 November 2012, 18:28 Subject: [LUTE] Re: Chitarrone Research into the Chitarrone stopped after the publication of the famous article by Spencer, et al. This had the astonishing effect of erasing, removing and deleting the Chitarrone from the early music performance revival. Collateral effects include the sidelining of the many other types of extended neck instruments that were developed in the early 17th century. Renewed interest into the research of this and other instruments will yield clues as to the specific meanings of the contemporaneous terms as well as hopefully renew interest in playing the instruments. Erasing instruments is not new; the dulcian was completely erased for decades before one was discovered with an identifying label in a sunken pirate ship. Now people are playing it again. --- On Tue, 10/16/12, Bruno Correia <[1][3][email protected]> wrote: From: Bruno Correia <[2][4][email protected]> Subject: [LUTE] Chitarrone To: "List LUTELIST" <[3][5][email protected]> Date: Tuesday, October 16, 2012, 6:11 PM The Grove Dictionaire says about the chitarrone: "The type of lute denoted by this humanist, classicizing term (chitarrone means, literally, a large kithara) was associated particularly with Jacopo Peri, Giulio Caccini and the other early writers of monody from the 1590s until about 1630." Has anybody challenged this etymology? Wouldn't be safe to say it simply derived from the chitarra (guitar)? Is was developed in the first place to acompany, playing chordally from a contino line, just as the 5 course guitar would do, though without the struming technique. The solo repertoire that came later looks very close to the guitar writing: chords a little counterpoint, arpeggios, slurs, campanellas efect e so on... -- Bruno Correia Pesquisador autonomo da pratica e interpretac,ao historicamente informada no alaude e teorba. Doutor em Praticas Interpretativas pela Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. -- To get on or off this list see list information at [1][4][6]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. [5][7]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. mailto:[8][email protected] 2. mailto:[9][email protected] 3. mailto:[10][email protected] 4. [11]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 5. [12]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. mailto:[email protected] 2. mailto:[email protected] 3. mailto:[email protected] 4. mailto:[email protected] 5. mailto:[email protected] 6. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 7. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 8. mailto:[email protected] 9. mailto:[email protected] 10. mailto:[email protected] 11. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 12. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
