Dear Mr. Isbin, I admire your hard work and innovative approach. Emphasis on improvisation is a great way to bring the lute back into the modern world. A major hurdle is that people seem to gravitate toward the familiar. Kids nowadays seem to want their ears blasted out and emotional catharsis via heavy metal--maybe you can help change that. Sadly, lacking skills, I fear playing any and all music in public. Too nervous. Regarding new music, I plead incompetence. Music after 1770 is beyond my technical reach, though I like hearing Copland, de Falla, Burmer, Holst, Debussy, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Borodin, anything that conjures pleasant emotions and wonder/mystery. Music is not an intellectual exercise to me, which is partly why I can't be a professional musician. Music provides an escape from the horrible reality of this world. I hate reading standard notation, preferring tablature always. Incompetence again, or lack of time to pick through annoying accidentals. I don't like most 19th century composers, the standard fare of the Symphony, because their pieces are way too long! Who has time nowadays to sit for hours listening to their ponderous monstrosities? All I can handle is about two-three minutes per piece. Finally, as a pathologist, I like the "decomposing composers" memorialized by Monty Python. "There is less of them every year. You can say what you want to Debussy, but there isn't much of him left to hear." Hi regards, Mark Seifert M.D. On Wednesday, March 14, 2018 2:34 PM, Gilbert Isbin <[email protected]> wrote: Why is the lute world ruled by early music ? Why are 90 or 95% of the lutenists afraid to play new music for the lute ? Why did guitarists, recorder players, cellists, pianists , oud players etc. took the challenge to play today's music and the lute world almost - with a very few exeptions - doesn't ? Why are luteplayers afraid to play something different ? Why do lutenists think the lute must be played with a very specific approach ? Why are lots of lutenists looking down at lutenists who are trying to do something else with the instrument, with other techniques, new approaches? What is the future for the lute music if it stays to be that dogmatic ? I guess Dowland and all the other wonderful lutes composers would have a good laugh with the today's lute world approach to the instrument. With kind regards, Met vriendelijke groeten, Bien cordialement, Gilbert Isbin [1]www.gilbertisbin.com [2][1][email protected] -- References 1. [2]http://www.gilbertisbin.com/ 2. mailto:[3][email protected] To get on or off this list see list information at [4]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
-- References 1. mailto:[email protected] 2. http://www.gilbertisbin.com/ 3. mailto:[email protected] 4. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
