"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 lutesâfor 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"
Unfortunately, apparently the factory in China that was contracted to
produce the lutes for Le Luth Dore stole the copywritten plans and
began selling counterfeit copies. According to the Le Luth Dore
[1]website, the entire production is embroiled in litigation. There are
no instruments available for sale or order (all models have been marked
"out of stock" for quite some time already).
Moshe Davis
Jerusalem
On Fri, 28 Aug 2020 at 01:19, Roberts, William
<[2]robe...@blankrome.com> wrote:
There are some positive signsâa 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 lutesâfor 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
<[3]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: [4]lute-...@new-old-mail.cs.dartmouth.edu
> <[5]lute-...@new-old-mail.cs.dartmouth.edu> on behalf of Nancy
Carlin
> <[6]lsaq.edi...@gmail.com>
> Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2020 2:15 PM
> To: howard posner <[7]howardpos...@ca.rr.com>; lutelist Net
> <[8]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
<[9]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][10]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][11]https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://LuteSocietyofAmerica.org__
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5B_H2INALJe$
> PO Box 6499
> Concord, CA 94524
> USA
> 925 / 686-5800
> [3][12]www.groundsanddivisions.info
> [4][13]www.nancycarlinassociates.com
>
> --
>
> References
>
> 1.
[14]https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/*wbc/lut
e-admin/index.html__;fg!!BzMsqVLNNjU!ctnjhhnhYs9tRygPAkyNcPnpn_5_lxn
8waNsETiKGQhFDxz5ZyNGW5B_H9IIwKFs$
> 2.
[15]https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://LuteSocietyofAmerica.org/__;!
!BzMsqVLNNjU!ctnjhhnhYs9tRygPAkyNcPnpn_5_lxn8waNsETiKGQhFDxz5ZyNGW5B
_H2jjowRG$
> 3.
[16]https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.groundsanddivisions.info/
__;!!BzMsqVLNNjU!ctnjhhnhYs9tRygPAkyNcPnpn_5_lxn8waNsETiKGQhFDxz5ZyN
GW5B_H8IETczn$
> 4.
[17]https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.nancycarlinassociates.com
/__;!!BzMsqVLNNjU!ctnjhhnhYs9tRygPAkyNcPnpn_5_lxn8waNsETiKGQhFDxz5Zy
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>
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References
1.
https://www.leluthdore.com/lutes/blog/pioneering-french-lute-maker-le-luth-dore-plays-hardball-to-combat-counterfeiters-le-luth-dore/
2. mailto:robe...@blankrome.com
3. mailto:george.ar...@hotmail.com
4. mailto:lute-...@new-old-mail.cs.dartmouth.edu
5. mailto:lute-...@new-old-mail.cs.dartmouth.edu
6. mailto:lsaq.edi...@gmail.com
7. mailto:howardpos...@ca.rr.com
8. mailto:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
9. mailto:ishdai...@gmail.com
10.
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/*wbc/lute-admin/index.html__;fg!!BzMsqVLNNjU!ctnjhhnhYs9tRygPAkyNcPnpn_5_lxn8waNsETiKGQhFDxz5ZyNGW5B_H9IIwKFs$
11.
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://LuteSocietyofAmerica.org__;!!BzMsqVLNNjU!ctnjhhnhYs9tRygPAkyNcPnpn_5_lxn8waNsETiKGQhFDxz5ZyNGW5B_H2INALJe$
12. http://www.groundsanddivisions.info/
13. http://www.nancycarlinassociates.com/
14.
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/*wbc/lute-admin/index.html__;fg!!BzMsqVLNNjU!ctnjhhnhYs9tRygPAkyNcPnpn_5_lxn8waNsETiKGQhFDxz5ZyNGW5B_H9IIwKFs$
15.
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://LuteSocietyofAmerica.org/__;!!BzMsqVLNNjU!ctnjhhnhYs9tRygPAkyNcPnpn_5_lxn8waNsETiKGQhFDxz5ZyNGW5B_H2jjowRG$
16.
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.groundsanddivisions.info/__;!!BzMsqVLNNjU!ctnjhhnhYs9tRygPAkyNcPnpn_5_lxn8waNsETiKGQhFDxz5ZyNGW5B_H8IETczn$
17.
https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.nancycarlinassociates.com/__;!!BzMsqVLNNjU!ctnjhhnhYs9tRygPAkyNcPnpn_5_lxn8waNsETiKGQhFDxz5ZyNGW5B_HyBhlqS3$
