2013/12/11 Mayes, Joseph <[1][email protected]>
Well, browse the recordings since mid seventies.
Well, I was sort of fearing some push-back from the "tap-dancing
barefoot" crowd. I don't know how you can speak for most of the
lutenists out there. I certainly only meant to speak for me.
No it doesn't. Lamentable only for those who didn't have the trouble to
learn how to do it. Ask Hoppy, O'Dette, North, Herringman, Lislevand,
Ferre, Barto (the list is too big...) and many others how to do it.
It's not that difficult and the result is pure joy.
Sweetness requires nails. The sound - sort of a "thub, thub" one
achieves without them is so unsatisfying as to be lamentable.
Fungus? That's pure speculation. About Sor, check his method, no
research needed it's there.
Tarrega played with nails until he lost them due to fungus - He
convinced his late-in-life student Pujol that flesh was the way to
go. Sor hated nails? I'd like to see that research.
Rubish, Dolmetsch didn't study enough lute praxis and Bream wasn't a
lutenist in the first place (actually he never assumed he was - this is
documented in an interview). The stars do not agree entirely with
themselves, but the important points remain the same.
As for "asking Hoppy," I think that illustrates part of the problem
with the HIP folks. Because the stars do it one way - that's the
right way. Bear in mind that Dolmetch and Bream, et al thought they
had it right, too.
I thought this list was supposedly a place to discuss lute performance
practice and not each ones taste. Some people may prefer to play with
nails on carbon single strings and with amplification. What does it
have to do with HIP?
But, as I say, I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything. Play
any way you want to, just leave the dogma on the porch.
Joseph Mayes
________________________________________
From: [2][email protected] [[3][email protected]] On
Behalf Of Bruno Correia [[4][email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 8:29 PM
To: List LUTELIST
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Bream Collection... I just noticed
It may sound good to you, but not for most of the lutenists out
there.
Ask Hoppy about this issue? Ok, you don't need to ask him, after all
you don't ride a horse to the gig... Hey, I'd like to do that, the
traffic has been so bad nowadays.
The most frequent word to describe the lute's sound is sweetness!
How
can you have achieve it with nails? Double strings also require that
both strings be pressed at once and not one after the other. The
lute
is after all a sweet instrument (specially with gut). Even in
classical
guitar tutors (19th-20th century) the issue of nails was still
rolling
on. Sor hated it and only tolerated Aguado because of his great
skill.
That's why Tarrega and Pujol also avoided it (even if it was a
requirement due to the high tension of the Torres guitar).
Going back: The sources were just saying that many people were
careless
about their sound production. In order to avoid it, what about
cutting
your nails once and a while, washing your hands (daily if you can)?
2013/12/10 Mayes, Joseph <[1][5][email protected]>
I play the lute, archlute and vihuela with nails for the same
reason
that I
play the classical guitar with nails: because it sounds better!
Of course, by that I mean it sounds better to me. Nails give the
attack a
precision that flesh does not. It also comes closer, IMHO to the
sound
usually described in historical sources as desirable on lute -
silvery,
tinkling, etc.
Many sources tell us not to use nails - which they wouldn't have
bothered to
do if people were not doing it that way.
I don't play with flesh, I don't ride my horse to the gig, and I
don't
attend any bear-bating.
My $.02
Joseph mayes
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Bruno Figueiredo
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.
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