Herbert,
Agustin Barrios used metal strings with rubber dampers and he took
much heat for it from the purists who felt that gut was the only
acceptable material for a serious guitarist to use. Segovia referred
disparagingly to Barrios's "wire fence" before he and everyone else
switched to nylon strings. I've often wondered if Barrios's use of
metal may be the reason he was the first classical guitarist to record,
a technology that was not very good at picking up low dynamic levels.
I've never known any lute players to use dampers, but it makes
perfect sense on unfingered basses which will not be subject to
intonation problems due to fretting. When I studied with Paul O'Dette,
he was always very insistent that the bass part be subject to the same
notions of articulation/phrasing commonly used in upper voices,
regardless of any technical difficulties this may introduce. For
example, even if you had a fast line that went from the 12th course to
the 13th course and then "down" to the 7th course (i.e. B-A-G), Paul
would expect that the passing note on the 13th course would be
unaccented and short. That means that you have to strike the string,
return to damp it, and then make a huge leap across all those other
strings to land on the 7th course. Doing this accurately, in time, and
without a lurching motion that would cause an accent in the wrong place
is difficult to say the least. (Ah, the baroque lute: demanding of
virtuosity that no one ever hears!) It took me years of practice, but I
must say, in addition to giving me the tool of greater expressive
control in this register, it has made me much more sure of finding the
correct bass course.
Now that my ear has grown accustomed to hearing the bass phrased
in a historically informed manner, I have trouble thinking about the
music in other ways. Relying on a string material like gut to merely
get rid of ringing notes is not enough. To me, this sounds like a
baroque ensemble in which everyone has taken the time to study and
apply period performance practice techniques except the cellist, who is
blissfully playing away in a totally modern legato style.
Chris
Dr. Christopher Wilke D.M.A.
Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer
www.christopherwilke.com
--- On Wed, 2/20/13, Herbert Ward <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Herbert Ward <[email protected]>
Subject: [LUTE] Damping overspun strings.
To: [email protected]
Date: Wednesday, February 20, 2013, 11:59 PM
One often hears that overspun strings
sustains too long, compared with gut strings.
Thus it seems strange that I've never
seen anyone damp overspun strings with
foam rubber.
Is is easy to control the amount
of damping by using dampers of different sizes,
or by sliding dampers farther or closer
to the bridge.
Strings damped this way don't sound like gut,
but for some pieces I find them a significant
improvement.
If you're lucky enough to have yellow
foam rubber instead of pink, the dampers
will match the soundboard rather well.
Alternatively, there are also opportune times,
notably at the end of pieces, when you can damp
a string with your thumb to good effect.
To get on or off this list see list information at
[1]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
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References
1. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
