There are some positive signs—a few thoughts: 1. Although it is a frequently expressed concern, I believe the audience for classical music has always been “graying” (at least as life expectancy has increased). Perhaps the reasons include greater availability of leisure time of that age group, greater disposable income to spend on concerts and more time to explore musical repertoire, develop a taste and appreciation of it, and discover the ruch legacy. The audience has also included people who as young people were taken to concerts and persons who have studied or currently study these musical instruments.
2. I suspect the same may be true of the audience for lute music and early music. 3. One of the constraints on playing the lute family of instruments may have been the previous lack of availability of instruments. There is now an expanding group of wonderful instrument makers, the second generation, including those who went into the museums, studied and drew the historical examples, mastered the techniques and materials and supply the world of lute players with exquisite instruments. 4. Although access to entry level lutes has been problematic, Le Luth Dore, in Paris, led by one of the world’s finest young lutenists, in the past several years reinstituted mass production of affordable, high quality lutes—for the first time since the 16th century. This is a highly promising development, based on the faith that there is and will continue to be a market. The same company has published a line of carefully-edited, high quality editions of lute music and lute tutors by master players. 5. Many of us have probably been deeply inspired by the availability of very fine professional recordings of a constantly expanding lute repertoire. It seems reasonable to expect that this will continue. The fine sound quality available on modern equipment permits the lute to advocate for itself in new ways across new sound recording dissemination technology. 6. More US conservatories (e.g. Juilliard, Eastman, Peabody to name just a few) and European conservatories (i believe, in addition to Schola, of course) seem to be offerIng teaching on the lute, and wonderfully accomplished young players continue to graduate from these schools and to pursue careers in music. I believe there is ground for optimism. W Roberts Sent from my iPhone > On Aug 27, 2020, at 5:14 PM, George Arndt <george.ar...@hotmail.com> wrote: > > To my friends on the Graying Lute List: > > Due to a two-century long and world-wide shortage of lute players, we > can now get into heaven for free! > > Smile, > > George > __________________________________________________________________ > > From: lute-...@new-old-mail.cs.dartmouth.edu > <lute-...@new-old-mail.cs.dartmouth.edu> on behalf of Nancy Carlin > <lsaq.edi...@gmail.com> > Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2020 2:15 PM > To: howard posner <howardpos...@ca.rr.com>; lutelist Net > <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> > Subject: [LUTE] Re: future of the lute > > Howard is right about the graying of audiences and it's been talked > about for years here in the US. I think one problem is that early > music > is the poor step-sister of "classical music" - a category that was > solidified (along with ethnic, folk etc.) back when record stores > started. It seems to me our music was the pop music of the day, with a > bit of a division between music for use in church, court and things > like > popular ballad tunes. Currently I see a couple larger baroque > orchestras > and concert series moving past the baroque, but I also see some > interesting series who explore putting on concerts in non-traditional > venues, such as bars and coffee shops. We had an article by Deborah Fox > a year or so in the Quarterly - about some of the things her Pegasus > music is doing to encourage a younger audience. Stephen Stubbs in > Seattle (Pacific Music Works) in Seattle is also doing this. > I suspect that all this targeted music aimed to fill medium sized > concert venues will change because of Covid-19. It will level the > playing field and people will have found out it's very nice to listen > to > a well-produced concert on your TV (via YouTube). Recently I have > listened to online lute concerts by Paul O'Dette, Ronn McFarlane and > Brandon J Acker. In each of them there was no ticket price, just a > suggestion to follow a link to donate on PayPal. None of those > concerts > took place in my part of the continent and I would not have heard them > without the pandemic. I think this will continue even after we get our > vaccine. The success of these kind of things will depend on things like > Facebook spreading to work far and wide as well as people contiruting - > Brandon Acker has done a great job getting lots of connections on > Facebook, so has access to his potential audience. > Nancy >>> On Aug 27, 2020, at 8:58 AM, Is Milse Póg <ishdai...@gmail.com> > wrote: >>> >>> I am a young amateur lute player (just 21), so I guess I am a > part of >>> the next generation of players. I think the lute will continue to > be >>> played for the foreseeable future, since there's always someone > strange >>> enough to fall in love with the lute's music and sound, but it's > sad to >>> see little to no young people in ancient music and classical > music >>> concerts in general. Perhaps it has to do with the distance that > has >>> grown between contemporary composers and the general population, > the >>> former usually earning their bread through the academia. >> It has to do with classical music being a taste that listeners tend > to acquire as they get older. Old listeners are replaced with lots of > middle-aged listeners, and not so many young ones. >> >> Alarms about the “graying of the classical audience” have been > sounded for decades, and in the USA probably peaked in 1988. The > general manager of the public classical music station in Los Angeles > came back from the Audience 88 conference that year convinced that > classical music was dying and he had to wean the station away from it. > He was gone within a year or so. The station was was playing Satie, > Rossini and Beethoven this morning. >> >> It reminds me of the line in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy > that the galactic emperor is “nearly dead and has been for centuries." >> >> >> >> >> To get on or off this list see list information at >> [1]https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/*wbc/lute-admin/index.html__;fg!!BzMsqVLNNjU!ctnjhhnhYs9tRygPAkyNcPnpn_5_lxn8waNsETiKGQhFDxz5ZyNGW5B_H9IIwKFs$ > -- > Nancy Carlin > Administrator THE LUTE SOCIETY OF AMERICA > > [2]https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://LuteSocietyofAmerica.org__;!!BzMsqVLNNjU!ctnjhhnhYs9tRygPAkyNcPnpn_5_lxn8waNsETiKGQhFDxz5ZyNGW5B_H2INALJe$ > PO Box 6499 > Concord, CA 94524 > USA > 925 / 686-5800 > [3]www.groundsanddivisions.info > [4]www.nancycarlinassociates.com > > -- > > References > > 1. > https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/*wbc/lute-admin/index.html__;fg!!BzMsqVLNNjU!ctnjhhnhYs9tRygPAkyNcPnpn_5_lxn8waNsETiKGQhFDxz5ZyNGW5B_H9IIwKFs$ > 2. > https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://LuteSocietyofAmerica.org/__;!!BzMsqVLNNjU!ctnjhhnhYs9tRygPAkyNcPnpn_5_lxn8waNsETiKGQhFDxz5ZyNGW5B_H2jjowRG$ > 3. > https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.groundsanddivisions.info/__;!!BzMsqVLNNjU!ctnjhhnhYs9tRygPAkyNcPnpn_5_lxn8waNsETiKGQhFDxz5ZyNGW5B_H8IETczn$ > 4. > https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.nancycarlinassociates.com/__;!!BzMsqVLNNjU!ctnjhhnhYs9tRygPAkyNcPnpn_5_lxn8waNsETiKGQhFDxz5ZyNGW5B_HyBhlqS3$ > ******************************************************************************************************** This message and any attachments may contain confidential or privileged information and are only for the use of the intended recipient of this message. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the Blank Rome LLP or Blank Rome Government Relations LLC sender by return email, and delete or destroy this and all copies of this message and all attachments. Any unauthorized disclosure, use, distribution, or reproduction of this message or any attachments is prohibited and may be unlawful. ********************************************************************************************************
