This is probably too pessimistic, for reasons I will now try to explain
I hope in a deeper look at today's music.
Of course this is just an educated guess, not a prophecy, and more of an
encouragement. The Lutists ultimately set the course. (oh no - back in
the pundaemonium...)
1. The audience for Early Music (even really early music) is bigger than
the "New Music" ("Neue Musik").
Whenever a composer is successfully appealing to a general audience, you
can always assume it is because of a great sense of traditional tonality
or modality. Philip Glass and John Adams seem widely popular in the US
even among the non-classical audiences.
In Europe, there's Arvo Pärt who left the path of atonality and
serialism, and it seems the Spectralists of France are well based in the
tradition of Debussy, Ravel and Messiaen (take Dalbavie for example).
Therefore, an obscure instrument is just introduced into an even more
obscure scene. (viewed from the mass standpoint)
Such musical approach was at least until around 2000 also part of the
film score scene. Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams and others have treated
film scores as New Music. But here is the strong move:
By forcing it onto millions of movie buffs, for the duration of
popularity of this movie, there is a considerable amount of time for a
good tune, a good theme, to leak out as a "cover version", establishing
a basis even for canonification. Some are more successful than others.
Compared to a First Performance of some fancy delicate atonal piece of
chamber music in front of 100 people of whom 80 don't really get what is
happening on the stage, it looks pretty obvious to me that though we all
wish they were more popular, our little bubbles of special music do not
represent the reality of most people.
Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, indeed mostly fantastic movies
contain a great deal of popular classical music today, which is probably
the closest many people get to hearing a real orchestra.
But this is actually a pretty good basis and should not be ridiculed.
2. If you behold the big picture, the mass audience is completely going
into a different direction. If you pick the most complex or well set
music of "non-classical new music", there is:
a) Metal, Progressive Rock, Post Rock - highly complex and often
deliberately referring to Renaissance and Medieval music, embracing
concepts of modes and even iso-rhythmia and counterpoint, though often
very fast paced.
b) IDM ("Intelligent Dance Music") - more closely related to "New
Music", but occupying spaces classical performers almost never reach.
Exceptions (to my knowledge of course) maybe "Alarm will Sound", a
chamber orchestra from New York, that plays complex Electronic Music
arrangements.
"Ensemble Resonanz" in Hamburg, who are for years getting their foot
into the club scene, attract new audiences for "New Music", while also
playing Early Music (and everything in between). They are not afraid to
play Perotin and Philip Glass in the same concert, or have Finnish
electronic musician Jimi Tenor write music for them.
Other ensembles in other countries and cities might try similar things,
though when I search on youtube, such fruitful crossovers seem rare.
c) Computer and Video game music.
The Japanese have now for years a very healthy relationship to music
composed for video games. It is completely normal to hear the Tokyo Phil
play the Super Mario Bros. theme, or a Legend of Zelda Medley. These
compositions are often surprisingly good and well arranged, because - in
reverse - classically trained composers have no fear writing for a video
game.
If you look on youtube, there are literally thousands of videos of
teenagers playing video game music on their piano, guitar, ukulele,
etc., some even forming little ensembles, making even their own
arrangements.
3. Sounds familiar? Well, the Lute repertoire fits exactly these
purposes - you want crazy Ricercars for the outgoing experimentalists,
some popular songs, some dance music, you copy your favourite tunes,
make mixtapes (Lute books), copy music from friends etc.
Some hits appear everywhere, some gems (nearly) get lost.
The lute is an instrument that appeals to Metal/Rock people, because
it allows great versatile styles more intense, somehow brighter, louder
and more subtle than a modern guitar, and it's Medievalish cool.
A cittern might even be considered the "electric guitar" of its time.
I don't know what happend to the group "Pantagruel", but the leader of
the band had deeper experiences with rock music, his Early music
interpretations felt very engaging.
Or maybe someone remembers the late Owain Phyfe.
This is the attitude at least I am looking for.
The lute is great to sing to, and it doesn't matter if it's Dowland or
Bob Dylan, it will still sound great. Lute is for songs.
Today's dance music might be difficult to recreate on a lute, but with
some percussion, this could be achieved.
And last but not least: there are tons of Fantasy RPG's with catchy kind
of medieval/renaissance-ish tunes that people would love to play on the
lute.
And the movie scores again.
4. For some time now, German music shoppe giant "Thomann" has taken Lute
instruments into their portfolio. These are specially commissioned lines
of instruments - I don't know if one of you had tried one of those
Lutes, Theorbos or Renaissance/Baroque guitars. I'd be interested to
hear about experiences with these instruments, as it seemed to me that
these are not the infamous Pakistani instruments.
Well - basically you can now get a Lute for $500 if you don't mind the
clean cut flat rose etc., similar to Le Luth Doré, which seems to make
similar restrictions to achieve a lower price.
If Lutists and Luthiers overcome the resentment of these production
methods and instead encouraging lowering the bar for the huge number of
amateur guitarists, who might not be able to afford a real hand crafted
master lute. These people might even try the original stuff, as they
have not only the actual instrument, but also a great popular tab system
(French) and lots of great original pieces at hand in the internets.
5. Conclusion:
I see a brighter future for the lute. Neither in the Early Music scene,
nor in the New Music scene, but in popular music through the playing of
popular music on the Lute.
Some steps are made, but it's on you to widen your repertoire a bit.
What you can do: Play Metallica or Katie Perry, or Depeche Mode on the
lute, and if your intabulations are any good, other people will want to
play them. You will at least encourage them to try it on their guitar,
where they will come to the conclusion that the lute might just be the
cooler instrument after all. Of course there were no copyright issues
back then...
This would have to be sorted out.
There should be more themed intabulation contests, or even "intabulation
and fantasy" Paladin style.
Legend of Zelda, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, it's all there.
Don't let guitarists be the only ones :)
Here's some inspiration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtDX-KsBDQA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3h9jGSBVJo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG3wpCeYogQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnINBKOnDZU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkRd_OmsJKk
Props to those people, maybe some of them are here on the list.
Am 22.12.2017 um 20:13 schrieb Ron Andrico:
Both Chris and Gilbert have made excellent points: New music for the
lute is not widely accepted because the lute is considered to be a
representative emblem of early music, and new music for the lute is not
taught in conservatories because lute teachers holding conservatory
posts must adhere to the received and accepted idea of what defines
early music.
I have expended a great deal of time and energy researching and
digesting information describing the arc of the early music revival
and, in my view, the lute simply will not survive the apparent downward
spiral and eventual demise of the early music revival - unless the
instrument somehow transcends the bounds of its associations with
early music. New music for the lute may help the instrument survive,
but it will not happen without certain compromises.
I'll have much more to say on the topic in the coming year. Watch this
space.
RA
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