I knew Harold Westover on-and-off for a decade or so. I knew of him before I met him. Many of my playing associates have, at one time or other, owned a Westover viol: they were classed as 'student instruments', and were ideal for that purpose: Well made if not historical, sturdy enough to survive life in a household with children, and he periodically held classes in which one could make their own viol. His designs were simple, Renaissance Consort instruments for the most part. I got a seven string bass from him for continuo work, which, because of limited funds, was to be made from figured maple from a fellow-player's property. It turned out that the wood was entirely useless, having not been sealed properly, but he let me have the instrument at the agreed price anyway. (He also forgot it was supposed to be a 7-string, so it ended up being a bit crowded on the fingerboard.) At that point, he was introducing some historical features which he'd found in Besseraboff's book. Generally, his wife carved his instrument necks. He made the bodies. He did carve viol fronts, and used the aircraft plywood for the flat back. When I last saw him, he was working on a new design for making rebecs with lute-shell backs, and he showed me some forms he'd made for cutting the pieces so they would fit perfectly. His wife, Allene, was the harp maker, and I found myself leaving with my viol (in a gigantic coffin case of appleply), a harp and a medieval itty-bitty lute. I ended up selling or passing on the lute to another friend (who had a Westover tenor viol), and loaned the harp to my niece, who went on to become an Irish Harpist, winning top honors in Ireland in the Harp Competition (on a newer, larger and quite beautiful Irish floor harp with accidental levers.) I still have the bass, but it has been replaced for most all of my playing by a Lu-Mi 7-String. Harold died in 2000.
On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 12:03 AM, Roger Landes <[1][email protected]> wrote: I recently purchased a 5 course Medieval lute made in 1987 by Harold Westover of New Hampshire. A google search brought up a couple of messages on this forum about his work. Anyone here know anything about Westover and/or the instruments he built? Cheers, -- Roger Landes [1][2]http://www.rogerlandes.com __________________________________________________________________ [2]Avast logo This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. [3][3]www.avast.com -- References 1. [4]http://www.rogerlandes.com/ 2. [5]https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&; utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient 3. [6]https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&; utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient To get on or off this list see list information at [7]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. mailto:[email protected] 2. http://www.rogerlandes.com/ 3. http://www.avast.com/ 4. http://www.rogerlandes.com/ 5. https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient 6. https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient 7. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
