Hello all. An interesting question, Peter, thanks for bringing it up. To answer honestly and personally, I'm not especially interested in new music, per se, for any of the instruments I play (mainly lute, guitar, mandolin, but some others too). I couldn't really say why, except that the music I've looked at from the last 30 years tends, and I mean tends, to be difficult and not especially tuneful to my ear. There are exceptions, of course, and I play some of those, though mostly on guitar. I'm not a professional, so I tend to be fairly conservstive in the music I choose to spend time seeking out and playing. I also don't play many of the old compositions that fit the above criteria. I fully realize. however, that one person's difficult is another person's interesting, and I'm really glad that people are writing new music for lute. Best to all, and keep playing, Chris.
On Thu, Dec 21, 2017 at 2:34 PM, Peter Martin <[1][email protected]> wrote: Hello all, I recently bought a Wigmore Hall Live CD of a 2013 concert by countertenor Iestyn Davies and lutenist Thomas Dunford. It included the world premiere performance of a substantial piece by Nico Muhly called Old Bones. Up to now, I'd never heard of it, which surprised me because Muhly is a very successful young American composer. His new opera Marnie has just premiered at English National Opera, and his previous opera Two Boys was given at ENO and at the Met in New York. The score of Old Bones is available from Music Sales. Yet I can't see that the lute world has paid the slightest attention to it. Which sets me wondering, not about Muhly as such, but about new music generally. With the honourable exception of Jacob Heringman, scarcely anyone plays it. Any thoughts on why this is? Are we simply not interested in new music? Peter -- To get on or off this list see list information at [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. mailto:[email protected] 2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
