[LUTE]

[Mark Seifert]

http://team.smile4smile.com
Mark Seifert


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[BAROQUE-LUTE]

[Mark Seifert]

http://search.chammout.me

Mark Seifert


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[LUTE] Re: Indian luthier

[Mark Seifert]

   Dear Tristan,
   This is great material, thanks.  Would it be possible to
   occasionally provide basic instruction on "Indian music for dummies?"
   Though I have in the past spent time studying Indian literature, even
   Mughal poetry, I never attempted to understand Indian music as I was
   not even well versed in Western music.  Are there some basics that can
   be addressed that might aid opening minds to an undoubtedly vast and
   ancient tradition?
   I just got through watching lectures on the British Raj in India
   describing the relentless wealth extraction, brutal suppression, and
   market-based agricultural austerity that led to starvation of millions
   especially in Bengal and the Ganges valley in 1872-79, WWI, between the
   war, and during WWII.  In this new age of oligarchy and corruption, we
   have a lot to learn from India.
   Best wishes,
   Mark Seifert MD
   On Monday, May 7, 2018 10:16 AM, Tristan von Neumann
   <tristanvonneum...@gmx.de> wrote:
   I found a documentation of an Indian Rudra Veena in the making.
   Traditional woodworking without powertools:
   [1]https://www.flickr.com/photos/carstenwicke/collections/7215764015396
   9553/
   To get on or off this list see list information at
   [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

   --

References

   1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/carstenwicke/collections/72157640153969553/
   2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

[LUTE] Re: Some questions

[Mark Seifert]

   Dear Wayne,
   Due to a desire to play Loud lute music, I bought a 7-steel string
   electric guitar and another 8-steel string electric guitar partly
   because they were so dirt cheap compared to lutes, which are simply not
   available at the local Guitar Center.   After I learned they
   sell guitars on consignment, including my cheap 7-string, I asked if I
   could sell some lutes on consignment.  They said NO.  I haven't played
   these two guitars much because they are H e a v y! and because the
   strings hurt my gnarled fingers, and so on.
   Best wishes,
   Mark
   On Friday, March 16, 2018 10:04 AM, Wayne 
   wrote:
   One thing that has not been mentioned is that we have choices - we all,
   or most of us, or some of us, can choose to play a certain part of our
   repertoire on our Les Paul/Marshall, or our classical guitar, or our
   romantic guitar, or our bandora, or ukulele or even saxophone or synth
   in some cases.  If we can choose to play Spanish music on our vihuela
   we can choose to play Babbit on our (analogue tube) synth.  So maybe we
   are overlooking contemporary lute music because we tend to pick up a
   different instrument to play something modern.  Especially when we need
   to be as loud as everyone else.
   Does anyone here not have or play any instrument at all but the lute?
 Wayne
   > Begin forwarded message:
   >
   > From: WALSH STUART <[1]s.wa...@ntlworld.com>
   > Subject: [LUTE] Re: Some questions
   > Date: March 16, 2018 at 12:26:07 PM EDT
   >
   > If it seems odd to want to play modern music on a lute it is surely
   odder to only play a lute and only ever to play  music that was
   composed centuries ago.
   >
   > Perhaps no one is odd enough for that! If there were such a person -
   who would only, ever,  play centuries' old music (however gem-laden it
   may be) - would it be enough to say that this choice was the harmless
   choice of a free being?
   >
   > There is no obvious harm to others in such a case but perhaps it's a
   case of self-harm.
   >
   --
   To get on or off this list see list information at
   [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

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References

   1. mailto:s.wa...@ntlworld.com
   2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

[LUTE] Re: Some questions

[Mark Seifert]

   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
   <gilbert.is...@gmail.com> 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]gilbert.is...@gmail.com
 --
   References
 1. [2]http://www.gilbertisbin.com/
 2. mailto:[3]gilbert.is...@gmail.com
   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:gilbert.is...@gmail.com
   2. http://www.gilbertisbin.com/
   3. mailto:gilbert.is...@gmail.com
   4. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

[LUTE] Re: John Bull's Fantasy XII is Raga Yaman

[Mark Seifert]

   Dear Tristan,
   I'm super excited about your discovery, and thank you many times for
   providing it,
   as well as your other notes which are much appreciated.  There must
   have been
   a lot more intercultural exchange back then than what we read in
   standard history books.
   I recently got a book from Daedalus titled "The Queen and the Sultan"
   about Queen Elizabeth I's communications
   and trading/ambassadorial exchanges with the Persian shah of that
   period, who had been humbled by
   a defeat at the hands of the sunni Turks.   Queen Elizabeth's
   youthful representative had to sail north (to avoid Mediterranean
   pirates/Turks) and approach Persia via northern
   Russia/Central Asia and the Ukraine, completing a perilous journey.  He
   didn't have much of value (mainly woolen cloth)
   with which to trade when he arrived.
   On the Galileo issue, I remember in Dava Sobel's book "Galileo's
   Daughter" she
   reports how a certain elderly (I believe German) Dominican cardinal
   in Rome claimed that Galileo's Medician satellites of Jupiter were mere
   aberrations
   in his telescope lenses, and refused to give credence.   Shortly
   thereafter, this skeptical
   clergyman died, and Galileo charitably reported in his public writings
   regarding this
   prelate:"While on earth, he was unable
   to see the Medician satellites.  Perhaps while wending his way to
   heaven,
   he shall finally see them."  Sobel didn't mention Galileo offering a
   telescopic view
   to the Pope, but he did set up his telescope for high clergymen in
   Venice
   who were most impressed with what they saw.
   Best regards,
   Mark Seifert

   On Tuesday, February 6, 2018 9:55 PM, Tristan von Neumann
   <tristanvonneum...@gmx.de> wrote:
   > Those who would even want to listen are fools.
   Of course, those who wouldn't.
   Am 07.02.2018 um 06:48 schrieb Tristan von Neumann:
   > I can't believe almost no one is excited about this discovery.
   >
   > All those who *still* doubt me, listen to this epic Raga Yaman
   > accompanied by John Bull's Fantasy XII.
   > I did nothing but adjust the pitch and placement of the tracks.
   >
   > [1]https://soundcloud.com/tristan-von-neumann/fantasy-xii-raga-yaman
   >
   > Those who would even want to listen are fools.
   > Like the pope who wouldn't look through Galilei's telescope.
   >
   > Those who will listen will hear.
   >
   >
   >
   > To get on or off this list see list information at
   > [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
   >

   --

References

   1. https://soundcloud.com/tristan-von-neumann/fantasy-xii-raga-yaman
   2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

[LUTE] Re: "Sting Effect" (was Direwolf Hall)

[Mark Seifert]

   Definitely, Sting's CD had a tremendous, though possibly transitory,
   impact.
   My first gig (tryout at an Italian restaurant in Cincinnati) was in
   1977.
   "What is that thing you are playing?" said the owner,  followed by "Not
   loud enough!" He hired a
   blue grass band.
   Next gig was a direct benefit of Sting, as I was invited in 2006 to
   play at Univ of Redlands, and the little
   music room was filled with curious students.   By chance I brought an
   archlute and an 11 course baroque lute
   not knowing Sting had been playing the former.  Afterwards, some
   students participating in a dramatic performance
   of "Little Shop of Horrors" across the hall in a larger auditorium
   entered, and one remained to listen.
   I got to serenade (poorly) a woman with purple and green hair (she had
   played
   the part of the alien carnivorous plant.)  Made one mistake on a
   Molinaro piece and she was out the door,
   trailing green tendrils.
   It may take a series of celebrities' public displays to cause folks
   here to think the lute might be cool.
   On Thursday, September 7, 2017 8:05 PM, Sean Smith
    wrote:
   I received a nice gig from the effect.
   Sean
   > On Sep 7, 2017, at 1:55 PM, howard posner <[1]howardpos...@ca.rr.com>
   wrote:
   >
   >
   >> On Sep 7, 2017, at 1:40 PM, John Mardinly <[2]john.mardi...@asu.edu>
   wrote:
   >>
   >> So is there any chance that this will result in archlute themed
   backpacks, pencil cases, blankets, pillows or other Disney themed
   merchandise?
   >
   > It's been 11 years (!) since Sting tackled (as it were) Dowland in
   Songs from the Labyrinth.  Some of us were speculating about a
   potential "Sting effect" raising the lute's profile in the world.
   >
   > Did anyone notice one?
   >
   >
   >
   > To get on or off this list see list information at
   > [3]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

   --

References

   1. mailto:howardpos...@ca.rr.com
   2. mailto:john.mardi...@asu.edu
   3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

[LUTE] Re: Spain vs. Italy

[Mark Seifert]

   Regarding the Spain versus rest-of-Europe issue ( a most fascinating
   topic--thanks for introducing it, Robert Barto ), English Prof Brittany
   Hughes said that one reason the Spanish kings/queens so brutally
   expelled or forced conversion on the Moors (1523 was an important
   date of escalation, and then the worst of the Inquisition was imposed
   in 1609) was that the Turks liked to raid the coast of Spain from their
   ships, escalating anti-Muslim hatred throughout this period.  She
   didn't mention why the Jews were so oppressed, as they seem like
   innocent bystanders.  I wonder if they also tried to eliminate the
   lute, because it was seen as a Moorish instrument, or the lute belly
   reminded them of something really evil, like the belly of a pregnant
   woman, heaven forbid.
   In defense of Spain, Dr. Teofilo Ruiz of UCLA in his Terror of
   History course said that the Spanish ended their witch hunting decades
   before England and Germany (and America).  Maybe the adverse effects of
   eliminating Jews and Muslims helped them realize that getting rid of
   all their witches wouldn't improve anything.
   I had a really spooky/scary experience in 1973 after I got a minimum
   wage job vacuuming dust off the books in the dark stacks of Widener
   Library (built after the Titanic went down in honor of a son of a
   Boston Brahmin family).  Was sitting on the cold concrete floor dusting
   a row of books when I encountered a black leather clad tome whose
   binding showed one word, my last name spelled correctly, and the date
   1728  in silver Gothic letters.  Shocked and amazed, I pulled it out,
   opened it and discovered it was a baroque legal textbook discussing in
   incredible detail some issues regarding die Hexen.  Though I was
   studying German at the time, I couldn't quite figure out if it covered
   how to identify/prosecute or how to defend/absolve the witches!  There
   were  columns and tables of criteria, and even some numbers.  I suspect
   the botched Salem trials and executions before the turn of the century
   caused Germans concern so they wanted to do a better legal job than the
   crazed Massachusetts clerics.  Talk about having a skeleton in one's
   family's ancestral closet.  I tried later to access that volume on
   line, but the book appears to be gone.  Since classes had ended, I
   didn't take the book to my German teacher Herr Reller, but I also
   feared what the book might contain.  I believe by 1728 the Spanish had
   gotten over any obsession about Hexen, but not yet England and Germany.
   Mark Seifert
   On Wednesday, May 6, 2015 4:07 AM, Mathias RAP:sel
   mathias.roe...@t-online.de wrote:
   Read Hillary Mantel on that topic, you'll get another view.
   Mathias
-Original Message-
From: [1]lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu
   [mailto:[2]lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of
Chris Barker
Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2015 6:11 PM
To: 'Monica Hall'; 'Edward Chrysogonus Yong'
Cc: 'Lutelist'
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Spain vs. Italy
   
I agree on Thomas Cromwell as well!  Had Henry VIII not been king at
   that time I'd
call him a thug too!
   
Chris
   
-Original Message-
From: [3]lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu
   [mailto:[4]lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of
Monica Hall
Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2015 9:19 AM
To: Edward Chrysogonus Yong
Cc: Lutelist
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Spain vs. Italy
   
Yes - Simon Schama has likened Cromwell and his supporters to the
   Taliban in
Afghanistan.
They were certainly responsible for destroying some of our cultural
   heritage.
And Thomas Cromwell a century earlier was just an avaricious thug.
Monica
   
   
- Original Message -
From: Edward Chrysogonus Yong [5]edward.y...@gmail.com
To: Mark Wheeler [6]l...@pantagruel.de
Cc: Monica Hall [7]mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk; ml
   [8]man...@manololaguillo.com;
Lutelist [9]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2015 10:55 AM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Spain vs. Italy
   
   

 England falling to 16th C Catholic Spain may have been better for
 music and culture than falling to Cromwell and the Puritans, just
   saying...

 

 II?III? I.IIuI-oIII?I 1/2I^1I-oII 1/2 II+-III'II?I 1/4IuI-I?I 1/2
   IuI-o IuI-I|II 1/2I?I IuI 1/4IuI IuIII 1/4II,I..
 HA| litterA| electronicA| ab iPhono missA| sunt.
 aeCUReaaeuaeP:c, 1/4eae-oe-aaa 3/4iPhonea
 This e-mail was sent from my iPhone.

 On 5 May 2015, at 4:40 pm, Mark Wheeler [10]l...@pantagruel.de
   wrote:

 Regarding Elizabeth I's racism here is an interesting article

 [11]https://www.press.jhu.edu/timeline/sel/Bartels_2006.pdf

 What Monica says about not judging the past by an inappropriate
   set
 of criteria is true and is also appropriate to the racism of the
 English Queen.

 It may not be PC, but I personally am exceedingly

[LUTE] Re: Mariinsky theater plays baroque tonight

[Mark Seifert]

   Thank you so very much, Konstantin, for providing a link to this
   glorious performance!  A real delight to watch and hear.
   Incidentally, my wife told me the 2012 Mariinsky Nutracker, broadcast
   here during the holidays, was the best she had ever seen and I can
   understand why after watching a few segments.
   Mark
   On Saturday, January 24, 2015 1:27 AM, Konstantin Shchenikov
   konstantin.n...@gmail.com wrote:
   Dear collegues,
   Mariinsky Theater trying new game - baroque. I'm taking a part in it
   tonight.
   You can watch the concert Online:
   [1]http://mariinsky.tv/n/e
   Webcast starts tonight at 19.00, Moscow time.
   Pray for me))
   Greetings from Russia,
   Konstantin
   To get on or off this list see list information at
   [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

   --

References

   1. http://mariinsky.tv/n/e
   2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

[LUTE] Re: End of democracy in Great Britain?

[Mark Seifert]

   Best wishes to you, Ron.  Perhaps a silver lining is the possibility
   that your pain may further enrich your music.  I fully agree about the
   US surveillance/warfare state.  If you sum the cost of all post-MD
   medical specialty training programs in the USA, they amount to about 10
   billion per year.   Right after the Paris shootout (which Am Free Press
   calls a classic false flag operation), our crooked Congress Friday
   voted 40 billion of tax dollars for the Dept of Homeland Security
   which is little more than a jobs program that helps Americans spy on
   each other.  Imagine what 40 billions could do to promote lute projects
   in the USA--even the ukulele would face stiff musical competition.

   Thank you for all your work.

   Mark Seifert MD
   On Monday, January 19, 2015 3:56 PM, Ron Andrico
   praelu...@hotmail.com wrote:
 Since I am otherwise writhing in maximum discomfort (many in the
 American lute world wil be pleased to know), I'll add a few words to
 this off-topic but important subject.
 To those of us who still have an informed perspective on global
 affairs, it has become embarrassingly evident that the very powerful
 alignment of business interests and political elite in the US has
 successfully managed to export its brand of democracy to every
 integrative corner of the globe.  This means that power interests in
 the US consider the UK something of a quaint theme park and, yes,
   GCHQ
 receives its marching orders from the NSA.
 A functioning democracy in the UK that runs smoothly without
 experiencing a dose of fear and the threat of constant surveillance
 amounts to a threat to the constant monitoring systems now being
 implemented in the US.  The NSA thinks of the UK as a test case, and
 they are actively fomenting fear and promoting justifications for
 increased police presence in other European states with functioning
 social welfare programs.
 Maybe it's just my fever and pain talking,  Or maybe I'm experiencing
 Hildegard-like visions of clarity. You are welcome to choose and
   ignore
 as you wish.
 RA
  Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 21:14:41 +
  To: [1]rainer.aus-dem-spr...@gmx.de
  CC: [2]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
  From: [3]mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk
  Subject: [LUTE] Re: End of democracy in Great Britain?
 
  Subject: [LUTE] End of democracy in Great Britain?
 
 
   OT, but really terrifying:
  
   Can anybody tell we what is going on in the UK?
  
  

   [4]http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/19/gchq-intercepted-emai
   ls-

   journalists-ny-times-bbc-guardian-le-monde-reuters-nbc-washington-post?
 CMP=twt_gu
  
   Rainer adS
 
  Not much - the Guardian just likes to scare us all. I though FBI
   read
  all our e-mails anyway. Democracy - what democracy?
 
   As many lute-nettrs may know I am hopelessly Anglophile ;(
 
  So am I.
 
  Monica
 
 
 
  To get on or off this list see list information at
  [5]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
 --

   --

References

   1. mailto:rainer.aus-dem-spr...@gmx.de
   2. mailto:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   3. mailto:mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk
   4. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/19/gchq-intercepted-emails-
   5. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

[BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: Swan Neck Baroque Lute for sale

[Mark Seifert]

   Comment from the dilettante peanut gallery:
   Not being a luthier and perhaps just the opposite (I'm too impatient!)
   I chose to redrill some 7-11th bass holes trying first a hand drill.
   That took for bloody ever for each one, the density of the wood being
   extraordinary, and the angle of approach worse than awkward.
   Later,  arranged an electric drill solution which was dangerous, but a
   lot quicker, but both bridge procedures were a real pain to perform.
   Drilling strap peg holes is a heck of a lot easier, but it takes a
   little mental/emotional readjustment to assault a precious lute so
   savagely, with sawdust flying around.
   Mark Seifert
   On Wednesday, June 25, 2014 6:43 AM, Roman Turovsky
   lu...@polyhymnion.org wrote:

   No problem for Bob Barto apparently.
   RT
   On 6/24/2014 6:48 PM, Anton Birula wrote:
I am really surprised Having played londer than 23 years, I never
   had an instrument wider than 147 which I play. Everyone who played my
   lutes would say that it is a bit widish Also as far as  I know,
   Hoppy Smith, Nigel North, Konrad Junghanel, Toyohiko Satoh, Jacob
   Lindberg and many others have lutes narrower than 147. It is really
   remarkable to hear that people have such wide spacing around. What
   about late Weiss Suites from Dresden manuscript Nr  23,24, 25, 30? How
   do these work on that spacings?
   
Best wishes, AB

On Tue, 6/24/14, Matthew Daillie [1]dail...@club-internet.fr wrote:
   
 Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: Swan Neck Baroque Lute for sale
 To: Christopher Wilke [2]chriswi...@cs.dartmouth.edu
 Cc: John Lenti [3]johnle...@hotmail.com,
   [4]r.turov...@gmail.com [5]r.turov...@gmail.com, sterling price
   [6]spiffys84...@yahoo.com, [7]baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   [8]baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
 Date: Tuesday, June 24, 2014, 9:07 PM
   
 The difficulty comes from having to
 drill a new hole very close to an old one. Even if the
 latter is well plugged, the drill bit often finds its way
 back into the original hole. It is also tricky to make sure
 the bit comes out the other side exactly where you want it
 to (after all, we are talking about fractions of
 millimetres). Anyway, ask any reputable maker, it's not a
 job they enjoy doing (and I have had it done on a couple of
 my lutes). Some makers prefer to make a new bridge which can
 be glued on to the soundboard without it being removed, but
 others would only consider fitting a new bridge with the top
 off.
   
 best
   
 Matthew
   
 On 24 juin 2014, at 18:26, Christopher Wilke
   [9]chriswi...@cs.dartmouth.edu
 wrote:
   
  Nothing difficult about it at all. I've drilled a few
 holes myself on lutes and a baroque guitar and I have zero
 wood working skills. I used a little tiny hobby drill that I
 bought from Michael's hobby supply. It's basically just a
 short aluminum handle like an Exacto knife with a little
 drill bit set into it. You just physically rotate it back
 and forth by hand. It's so small, you can get it close and
 parallel with the soundboard. If you're not an experienced
 bridge-hole-driller, the real advantage is that you have
 plenty of time to recognize and correct your aim as you go.
 
  Chris
 
  Dr. Christopher Wilke D.M.A.
  Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer
  www.christopherwilke.com
 
  
  On Tue, 6/24/14, Matthew Daillie [10]dail...@club-internet.fr
 wrote:
 
  Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: Swan Neck Baroque Lute for
 sale
  To: John Lenti [11]johnle...@hotmail.com
  Cc: [12]r.turov...@gmail.com
 [13]r.turov...@gmail.com,
 sterling price [14]spiffys84...@yahoo.com,
 [15]baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
 [16]baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
  Date: Tuesday, June 24, 2014, 10:42 AM
 
  It is feasible to redrill the bridge
  holes but it's a job even (especially?) the best lute
 makers
  hate doing (the original holes are obviously done
 before the
  bridge is glued on).
 
  Best
  Matthew
 
 
  On 24 juin 2014, at 16:05, John Lenti [17]johnle...@hotmail.com
  wrote:
 
  Whatever else happens, it's not a huge big deal to
 have
  the bridge re-drilled, or to get a new nut. If bridge
 or nut
  spacing is the one thing you don't like about an
 instrument,
  fix it. I had John Rollins re-drill my baroque lute
 bridge
  and have never been happier. Some of the original holes
 are
  part of the new spacing, he plugged the others. I've
 seen
  other lutes the bridges of which look like Swiss
 cheese,
  which also seems not to have any deleterious effects.
 
  Sent from my Ouija board
 
  On Jun 23, 2014, at 3:39 PM, [18]r.turov

[LUTE] Re: Appropriateness of play list

[Mark Seifert]

   Thank you for this topic and the wondrous Wilke long neck lute gig
   narrative which is awesome, encouraging, and even magical.  In April
   1976 I saw an ad in the Univ of Cincinnati newspaper that Zino's
   Clifton Italian restaurant was holding a night audition for a musician
   or musicians to serenade its patrons.  Worried about my crushing
   $14,000 7-year acquired burden of student debt (laughable by modern
   standards) I took my new $450 Lundberg/Donna Curry student Hans Frei 62
   cm yew 10-course to the audition confident that Italian music would be
   welcome at Zino's.  I had penciled  by ear a Santino Garsi da Parma
   corrente off my roommate's Nonesuch LP, hoping to imitate Walter
   Gerwig's charming version.  A highly skilled Bluegrass band started the
   audition from the balcony and I think they were also med students.
   Their rousing Rocky Top Tennessee was followed by my subdued
   solo plucking.  The Bluegrass guys sharing the balcony were excited by
   the lute and seemed to like it.  Afterwards, the boss sitting below in
   the dark restaurant asked me to come down to the restaurant floor.  He
   looked and sounded like a Soprano from the New Jersey docks.  What's
   that thing you've got there!  After I told him he diplomatically said
   I'm sure you must be a good musician, but you aren't loud enough.  He
   didn't say git outta heahh! thank heavens--he didn't need to say
   that. Though disappointed, I was glad the very nice bluegrass guys got
   the gig, I attempted only one other unpaid gig that year at a friendly
   nurse's more intimate party for her friends.  The Beatles might have
   come to my aid had I learned one of their songs.
   Mark Seifert M.D.
   On Saturday, June 21, 2014 4:53 PM, Christopher Wilke
   chriswi...@cs.dartmouth.edu wrote:
   Dick,
   I got a gig playing guitar background music at a high class
   restaurant once. It so happened that I had a lute gig the next day, so,
   unasked, I brought my lute along with the intention of alternating
   sets. I started with guitar, then did a few lute pieces and then took a
   break. After the break I began again with guitar. As soon as I started,
   I saw the chef/owner come out of the kitchen, walking hurriedly in my
   direction. I thought maybe he was perturbed at having hired a guitarist
   and instead gotten some guy playing an esoteric instrument.
   Hey, that long neck thing - what is it? he asked, impatiently.
   I told him.
   Well, I hope you play a lot more of it. It is just so cool! he said.
   I ended up playing lute there almost every Saturday and I got money and
   some excellent food in return.
   Anyway, one of the pieces I did on lute that night was Norwegian
   Wood. I didn't make an official arrangement; I just sort of played
   melody and bass on the fly. A couple who was at a table nearby suddenly
   stopped talking and stared at me. Again, I wondered if they thought I
   was butchering it, or if they were early music peeps driven mad by JAID
   (Joyless Artistic Intolerance Disorder). After I finished, they
   explained that long ago, the guy had played it on his guitar for his
   wife-to-be on their first date, and ever after it became their song.
   (Which is sort of ironic if you know the words.) They gave me an
   extraordinarily generous tip.
   So apparently, the secret formula to restaurant background music is
   Lute+Beatles tunes=Success.
   Chris
   Dr. Christopher Wilke D.M.A.
   Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer
   www.christopherwilke.com
   
   On Sat, 6/21/14, Dick Hoban [1]rpho...@gmail.com wrote:
   Subject: [LUTE] Re: Appropriateness of play list
   To: Christopher Wilke [2]chriswi...@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Cc: Lute List [3]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu, Edward C. Yong
   [4]edward.y...@gmail.com
   Date: Saturday, June 21, 2014, 2:36 PM
   Ha! That does sound interesting? Do
   you have a lute setting of Norwegian Wood you can share?
   Dick
   Sent from my iPhone
   On Jun 21, 2014, at 8:29 AM, Christopher Wilke
   [5]chriswi...@cs.dartmouth.edu
   wrote:
Edward,
   
   Keep in mind that the food is probably
   about as authentically Italian as a taco. (I'm guessing. If
   they do serve actual regional Italian cuisine, the food is
   going to be the star, not the music.) Your audience will
   most likely get more of a kick out of hearing Norwegian
   Wood on the lute than Francesco.
   
Chris
   
   
Dr. Christopher Wilke D.M.A.
Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer
www.christopherwilke.com
   

On Sat, 6/21/14, Edward C. Yong [6]edward.y...@gmail.com
   wrote:
   
Subject: [LUTE] Appropriateness of play list
To: Lute List [7]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
Date: Saturday, June 21, 2014, 1:03 AM
   
Hi fellow lutenetters!
   
So I've been asked to do an Italian restaurant gig in
   July,
two sets of thirty minutes each.
   
Should I bother

[LUTE] Re: Frottola, Tromboncino, Sorini

[Mark Seifert]

   Thank you so very much, Roman, for bringing our attention to
   Mr. Sorini who is way beyond admirable.  It seems in America, music
   is more a matter of mass spectacle, with large ensembles, big loud
   deafening sound, grotesque novelties, and herd mentality
   following/favoring old war horse orchestral pieces, or the latest fad,
   while in Italy they hopefully care about music beyond social
   conformity.  I worry that Mr. Sorini might be better off touring Europe
   or Latin America, as pessimism makes me suspect that Mr.  Sorini, to
   survive in USA, might be expected/forced to pick up a ukulele and
   imitate Tiny Tim!
   Thanks again.
   Mark Seifert
   From: Roman Turovsky r.turov...@verizon.net
   To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Friday, April 4, 2014 8:38 AM
   Subject: [LUTE] Frottola, Tromboncino, Sorini
   [1]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNmeGzjK6Ic
   A truly fine performance, without histrionics.
   RT
   To get on or off this list see list information at
   [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

   --

References

   1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNmeGzjK6Ic
   2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

[LUTE] Re: Christmas lute sale!

[Mark Seifert]

   I'm forwarding this in case you decided to provide another Christmas
   gift (grin)
   From: Martin Shepherd mar...@luteshop.co.uk
   To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Sunday, December 22, 2013 1:15 AM
   Subject: [LUTE] Christmas lute sale!
   Hi All,
   Time for a commercial break.  I have the following lutes for sale:
   7-course lute by Martin Shepherd (1989).  Body after Gerle, 11 cypress
   ribs with ebony spacers, ebony veneered neck and pegbox. String length
   64cm.  A remarkably resonant instrument, ideal for song accompaniment.
   -L-4000 including Kingham case.
   7-course lute by Martin Shepherd (1982).  13 yew ribs with ebony
   spacers, ebony veneered neck and pegbox.  String length 67cm for tuning
   in F or E.  An old favourite of mine which I'm not using so much now.
   Excellent sound and beautiful low action.  -L-3250 without case or
   -L-4000 with case to be arranged.
   14-course theorbo by Martin Shepherd (1996).  86/164cm, after Italian
   models.  Can be strung 6+8 or 7+7 (single strings). Beautiful back of
   35 cypress ribs with ebony fillets.  Neck and pegbox veneered in ebony
   and holly.  Bright and powerful, excellent continuo instrument.
   -L-8000 o.n.o. including Kingham case.
   NEW 6-course lute by Martin Shepherd (2013) after Gerle, 59.7cm string
   length.  Figured maple ribs, neck and pegbox with golden-brown varnish,
   boxwood bridge and fingerboard.  -L-4000 including Kingham case.
   Classical guitar by Hiroshi Tamura (1973).  Powerful sound and nice
   action, suitable for a student wanting to upgrade to something better.
   -L-1000 including hard case.
   For all these instruments contact Martin Shepherd:
   [1]mar...@luteshop.co.uk
   Some photos are available at [2]www.luteshop.co.uk/forsale
   Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year,
   Martin
   ---
   This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus
   protection is active.
   http://www.avast.com
   To get on or off this list see list information at
   http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

   --

References

   1. mailto:mar...@luteshop.co.uk
   2. http://www.luteshop.co.uk/forsale

[LUTE] Re: Christmas lute sale!

[Mark Seifert]

   So Sorry Martin Shepherd.  I goofed on the to address.  Was trying to
   encourage a local friend to buy me one of your lutes with a grin
   because we never exchange gifts worth more than about 50Lb
   Thanks for offering them and hope you have very successful and happy
   holidays.
   Mark Seifert
   From: Mark Seifert seifertm...@att.net
   To: Martin Shepherd mar...@luteshop.co.uk; lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Sunday, December 22, 2013 6:08 AM
   Subject: Re: [LUTE] Christmas lute sale!
   I'm forwarding this in case you decided to provide another Christmas
   gift (grin)
   From: Martin Shepherd mar...@luteshop.co.uk
   To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Sunday, December 22, 2013 1:15 AM
   Subject: [LUTE] Christmas lute sale!
   Hi All,
   Time for a commercial break.  I have the following lutes for sale:
   7-course lute by Martin Shepherd (1989).  Body after Gerle, 11 cypress
   ribs with ebony spacers, ebony veneered neck and pegbox. String length
   64cm.  A remarkably resonant instrument, ideal for song accompaniment.
   -L-4000 including Kingham case.
   7-course lute by Martin Shepherd (1982).  13 yew ribs with ebony
   spacers, ebony veneered neck and pegbox.  String length 67cm for tuning
   in F or E.  An old favourite of mine which I'm not using so much now.
   Excellent sound and beautiful low action.  -L-3250 without case or
   -L-4000 with case to be arranged.
   14-course theorbo by Martin Shepherd (1996).  86/164cm, after Italian
   models.  Can be strung 6+8 or 7+7 (single strings). Beautiful back of
   35 cypress ribs with ebony fillets.  Neck and pegbox veneered in ebony
   and holly.  Bright and powerful, excellent continuo instrument.
   -L-8000 o.n.o. including Kingham case.
   NEW 6-course lute by Martin Shepherd (2013) after Gerle, 59.7cm string
   length.  Figured maple ribs, neck and pegbox with golden-brown varnish,
   boxwood bridge and fingerboard.  -L-4000 including Kingham case.
   Classical guitar by Hiroshi Tamura (1973).  Powerful sound and nice
   action, suitable for a student wanting to upgrade to something better.
   -L-1000 including hard case.
   For all these instruments contact Martin Shepherd:
   [1]mar...@luteshop.co.uk
   Some photos are available at [2]www.luteshop.co.uk/forsale
   Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year,
   Martin
   ---
   This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus
   protection is active.
   http://www.avast.com
   To get on or off this list see list information at
   http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

   --

References

   1. mailto:mar...@luteshop.co.uk
   2. http://www.luteshop.co.uk/forsale

[LUTE] Re: Inspired Teaching and Learning. Was: Bream Collection

[Mark Seifert]

   Last summer, while passively experiencing one of the many instructional
   videos of Prof. Robert Greenberg of the San Francisco conservatory, I
   learned that the master class was invented by peripatetic
   peacock Franz Liszt, who seems to have helped create the 18th c.
   mythology of the deified solo musical genius.  In a short period of
   extreme effort, he established himself as a piano prodigy in Europe and
   later became such an admirer of syphilitic imaginatarian Wagner.
   Last January, I saw a guitar master class presented by Nigel North
   after he gave a concert of Dowland and Francesco at Loyola Marymount
   Univ.  I was flabbergasted at the consummate skill with which Nigel
   handled this event.  One of the participating students was a well
   known but young Hungarian guitarist who dashed off a brilliant and
   difficult Bach lute suite section (I apologize for not being able to
   remember which BWV number) leaving Nigel speechless.  But Nigel was
   just as skillful as any of the students, picking up a guitar, playing a
   passage beautifully, then saying but I don't play the guitar which
   made me chuckle.
   Personally, I think master classes are fake classes where insecure
   famous professionals intimidate younger budding artists into thinking
   that they are inferior, forever, to the great master, whose feet are
   actually made of clay.  Maybe Nigel is an exception.
   Mark Seifert
   From: David van Ooijen davidvanooi...@gmail.com
   To:
   Cc: lutelist lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Sunday, December 15, 2013 2:41 AM
   Subject: [LUTE] Re: Inspired Teaching and Learning. Was: Bream
   Collection
 Now wouldn't that be something? A magic formula for every
 teacher-student combination?
 To learn any instrument, you'll need to study an extended period of
 time with a teacher who's good at teaching you a solid technique. To
 become a good musician, you'll need to work with teachers who can
   help
 you to develop your own musicality into playing that will speak to an
 audience. It goes without saying that first and foremost you'll need
   to
 bring your own dedication and motivation, as no teacher can do that
   for
 you.
 I think a regular lesson with your reacher should be quite different
 from an incidental lesson at a workshop or masterclass. Prepare these
 lessons differently.
 David
 --
   To get on or off this list see list information at
   http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

   --

[BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: The comet is coming!!! Bruce Lamb

[Mark Seifert]

   Let us hope this means we'll all have a little less comet-induced bad
   luck!

   Just picked up two Renaissance lute cases manufactured by Bruce Lamb in
   El Cajon, CA.  Instead of asking him to make protective polypropylene
   cases to enclose wooden or other rigid lute cases, I asked for smaller
   cases enclosing lutes without any additional internal protection.   The
   results are better than expected, with strong enclosures which are both
   light weight and attractive (black coffins are especially attractive to
   a pathologist).  For sure, they are way more functional and much easier
   to carry than plywood cases.  As Bruce explained, the less weight, the
   less risk of shock damage to the instrument or case.  Bruce is now
   working on a theorbo case owned by a lucky Montreal musician whose
   theorbo is intact, though the case was recently badly fractured by an
   errant airline during a trip to LA.  Bruce currently has very few
   orders, but I surely hope to obtain more of his handiwork before long.

   Mark Seifert MD

   From: DANIEL SHOSKES dshos...@mac.com
   To: BAROQUE-LUTE Lutelist baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Monday, December 2, 2013 9:51 AM
   Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: The comet is coming!!!
   Sadly, the chaconne has turned into a Tombeaux
   http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/12/02/248202813/comet-ison-is-
   no-more-nasa-says
   --
   To get on or off this list see list information at
   http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

   --

[BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: The comet is coming!!!

[Mark Seifert]

Being a chronic pessimist, I worry that luters rallying to this exciting 
opportunity might end up being allowed to play in public only during a cometary 
visit, sort of like being typecast as comet accompanists.  

On Tue, 11/19/13, Bernd Haegemann b...@symbol4.de wrote:

 Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: The comet is coming!!!
 To: DANIEL SHOSKES dshos...@mac.com
 Cc: BAROQUE-LUTE Lutelist baroque-lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
 Date: Tuesday, November 19, 2013, 2:00 PM
 
 I read that a comet is only a dirty
 snowball speeding around with no 
 driving licence. Do you really want us to play with it? ;.)
 
 
 
 Am 19.11.2013 22:30, schrieb DANIEL SHOSKES:
  Dear all: as brought to my attention by Cathy Liddell,
 a new comet is rounding the sun and heading for earth's
 orbit. If it survives the trip, it is believed that it might
 be visible to the naked eye during the day, just like the
 1680 comet which inspired Gallot's chaconne, La Comet.
 
  http://www.jwwerner.com/history/Comet.html
 
  Here's an idea. How about we round up as many baroque
 lutenists as we can to make an audio or video recording of
 the piece and upload to youtube? We can then have an all
 comet, all the time playlist which we might even be able to
 pitch to the media.
 
  Cathy has made a nice clean Fronimo version which I
 have uploaded here: http://cl.ly/3U3w1u2h0M1V
 
  What do you all think? Please spread the word through
 any and all lute related media and let's have fun with it!!
 If you do upload, let me know and I’ll keep a running
 tally.
 
  Danny
 
 
 
  To get on or off this list see list information at
  http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
 
 
 
 
 

[LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness - Would you like to see my lute?

[Mark Seifert]

   Thank you for the reality check!  So the black and white video is from
   54.  Serialism, hadn't heard that term before not being all that music
   knowledgeable, must mean some really modern atonal stuff, so it looks
   like uncle Igor freaked after being  semi bullied into seeing and
   hearing Bream's bulky lute.

   Also, I recently saw an Anthony Rooley instructional video (in color so
   not as old) in which he tells a story about 8th century Baghdad
   where an Oud player of heavy Ouds (whose name I couldn't quite hear)
   used to play at night to help an insomniac sultan (whose name also
   wasn't clear).  The story sounded a lot like Louis XIV and de Visee).
   When the sultan heard a younger player of a new lighter Oud, he
   supposedly preferred the newer instrument and neglected the old player,
   who supposedly threatened the young one with death if he didn't get out
   of town.   The young Oud player supposedly fled Baghdad and after a
   couple of years ended up at the Caliphate of Cordoba, where he was
   welcomed by an open minded potentate.   This is supposedly how the lute
   ended up in Europe in a lighter form.   Does this sound credible to
   you?   Sure would be a great story if it were true.

   Mark Seifert
   From: r.turov...@gmail.com r.turov...@gmail.com
   To: Mark Seifert seifertm...@att.net
   Cc: Braig, Eugene brai...@osu.edu; lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Friday, August 16, 2013 4:46 AM
   Subject: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness - Would you like to
   see my lute?
   Stravinsky's proclivities shifted to serialism after 1954, so it looks
   the opposite
   Sir Julian must have annoyed the hell out of uncle Igor.
   RT
   On 8/16/2013 1:06 AM, Mark Seifert wrote:
   I wonder if Stravinsky's change to more classical styles later in
   life
   might have been partly stimulated by his encounter with Bream.
   Guess
   we may never know for certain.
   
   Mark
   From: Braig, Eugene [1]brai...@osu.edu
   To: [2]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu [3]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Monday, August 12, 2013 3:32 PM
   Subject: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness - Would you
   like to
   see my lute?
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4f8fej9Sqo
   Eugene
   To get on or off this list see list information at
   http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
   
   --
   

   --

References

   1. mailto:brai...@osu.edu
   2. mailto:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   3. mailto:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu

[LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness - Would you like to see my lute?

[Mark Seifert]

   I wonder if Stravinsky's change to more classical styles later in life
   might have been partly stimulated by his encounter with Bream.  Guess
   we may never know for certain.

   Mark
   From: Braig, Eugene brai...@osu.edu
   To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Monday, August 12, 2013 3:32 PM
   Subject: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness - Would you like to
   see my lute?
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4f8fej9Sqo
   Eugene
   To get on or off this list see list information at
   http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

   --

[LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness

[Mark Seifert]

   Dear Ron Andrico

   Finally got a chance to listen to your Sfumato CD while driving a
   couple of hundred miles  through rural San Diego county and I am most
   impressed by what a fine piece of work it is.  Best singing and fine
   luteplaying though newly acquired vocabulary from Master musician and
   recorder Dave Taylor momentarily intruded into consciousness so I
   imagined hearing plicky sounds without being fully aware of what that
   is precisely supposed to sound like.  Your CDs are far better than
   anything I could ever produce or record.  Everyone should own them.
   Could only appreciate it properly by sitting down in the car and taking
   the time to listen, though traffic was an occasional distraction.
   Distractions at home make such prolonged listening nearly impossible.
   Somehow the passing landscapes seemed good mimic backgrounds for
   Italy's 15-16th century!  Included lots of vineyards and sunny fruit
   orchards with Latin names!

   Sorry that I never heard Millenium of Music but got excited enough by
   Dr. Duffin's Case-Western Univ. Micrologus broadcasts to audiotape it
   off the air on a number of 1980s-1990s occasions.
   It is impressive to hear of folks having hundreds of LPs and
   also comforting since I still have hundreds of audiotapes, some of
   which no longer play back properly.  Nice to know I'm not the only
   collector.
   Made only one 1984 audiotape at my parents' home while unemployed after
   fleeing an LA divorce and waiting for an Ohio license.  Could only dare
   to share it with someone as kind and good hearted as Ed Martin.  Could
   never record video in future without the help of Dr. Taylor's
   instructions--what a technical as well as musical genius he is, like
   you!  But when am I ever going to see a Savino video???

   Do any other folks have hundreds of now obsolete audiotapes?  Just try
   to find an audiotape player--dirty old ones which probably don't
   work can be found at Goodwill.  They seem even more obsolete than the
   bulkier VHS tapes!

   Mark Seifert
   From: Ron Andrico praelu...@hotmail.com
   To: Nancy Carlin na...@nancycarlinassociates.com; William Samson
   willsam...@yahoo.co.uk
   Cc: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Monday, August 12, 2013 12:11 PM
   Subject: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness
 Please don't forget to mention Millennium of Music, the
   longest-running
 syndicated radio program featuring a broad and diverse selection of
 early music.
 The Harmonia program has a direct connection with that American early
 music organization, and you don't receive airplay on the program
 without special dispensation - no matter how much of a international
 radio presence you may already have.  Say hello to the new face of
 Payola.
 RA
  Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 11:49:47 -0700
  To: [1]willsam...@yahoo.co.uk
  CC: [2]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
  From: [3]na...@nancycarlinassociates.com
  Subject: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness
 
  There are a lot of good up and coming bands around. Take a listen
   to
  this week's Early Music Show on the BBC web site. They have a bit
   of
  music from a lot of the entries, only one of which has lute
   featured.
  The City Waites are still around and performing, especially at
 Christmas
  time in the UK. Taking a look at the groups that perform at the
 bigger
  early music series and festivals, Jordi Saval is featured a lot
   with
  various instrumental combinations. Le Poem Harmonique and Les
   Witches
  seem to be doing interesting things. What we don't have now is the
  record companies being the gate keepers for publicity. Back in the
 70s
  and later this was a way to focus attention on the groups that were
  headed for some success and longevity. What we have now is YouTube
 and a
  bit of airplay on the radio shows we can hear on the internet
   (Early
  Music Show  Harmonia).
  Nancy
 
  :
   Is it just me, or do there seem to be fewer small broken consorts
   around these days. Back in the 60s and 70s we had the Julian
   Bream
   Consort, The Early Music Consort of London, the Consort of
   Musicke,
   London Pro Musica, The Ely Consort, the Broadside Band, the City
   Waites, the Extempore String Ensemble. I am finding it hard to
 think
   of anything equivalent around today, certainly in the UK. I used
   to
   travel a long way to attend their gigs and was never disappointed
   -
   Lots of fresh music performed in ways I hadn't heard before.
   Always
   very entertaining and full of variety and played to packed
   houses.
   Have they had their day?
  
   Gigs today always seem to be so serious and earnest and with much
 less
   variety to hold the attention of the Great Unwashed (ie
 non-lutenists).
  
   Bill
   From

[LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness - Would you like to see my lute?

[Mark Seifert]

   In a recent interview Bream said that his main career objective was to
 get serious composers to write for the guitar and admitted that he
   made
 a nuisance of himself in the nicest possible way until they did.  He
 was clearly trying out his technique on Stravinsky, but with a lute
 rather than a guitar.

   Lutefolk who desire new music might find a person who is a sufficient
   nuisance (in a nice way) to lobby composers to write for the lute
   despite their obvious reluctance.  But there may be a general problem
   with plucked strings.  How many Harp concertos have appeared through
   the ages?  How many Harp solos have you heard that weren't by Patrick
   Ball or some electrified version of him?
   Why do I find pizzicato violins to be so silly?  Respighi turned them
   into tutti anemic mimicks of lutes.  Pizzicato passages could damage
   the violin strings or the fingers of the players while producing very
   little sound.   Could they be the only plucked strings modern composers
   ever consider using?

   Mark Seifert
   From: William Samson willsam...@yahoo.co.uk
   To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 3:39 AM
   Subject: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness - Would you like to
   see my lute?
 In a recent interview Bream said that his main career objective was
   to
 get serious composers to write for the guitar and admitted that he
   made
 a nuisance of himself in the nicest possible way until they did.  He
 was clearly trying out his technique on Stravinsky, but with a lute
 rather than a guitar.
 At the end of the day, Bream has done more than any other guitarist
   to
 interest composers in his instrument and even get them to write for
   it.
 Embarassing for JB to have this unsuccessful seduction recorded on
   film
 for all to see, but Igor maybe missed an opportunity there.
 Bill
 From: Ed Durbrow [1]edurb...@gmail.com
 To: Arto Wikla [2]wi...@cs.helsinki.fi; lute list
 [3]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
 Sent: Tuesday, 13 August 2013, 8:55
 Subject: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness - Would you like
   to
 see my lute?
 On the complete DVD, which you can find on youtube, you get more
 background to the encounter. It was an impossible situation for
   Julian.
 On Aug 13, 2013, at 4:47 PM, [1][4]wi...@cs.helsinki.fi wrote:
  But it is quite irritating to see, how obsequious JB is ...
 Ed Durbrow
 Saitama, Japan
 [2]http://www.youtube.com/user/edurbrow?feature=watch
 [3][5]https://soundcloud.com/ed-durbrow
 [4]http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/
 --
 To get on or off this list see list information at
 [5]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
 --
   References
 1. mailto:[6]wi...@cs.helsinki.fi
 2. [7]http://www.youtube.com/user/edurbrow?feature=watch
 3. [8]https://soundcloud.com/ed-durbrow
 4. [9]http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/
 5. [10]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

   --

References

   1. mailto:edurb...@gmail.com
   2. mailto:wi...@cs.helsinki.fi
   3. mailto:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   4. mailto:wi...@cs.helsinki.fi
   5. https://soundcloud.com/ed-durbrow
   6. mailto:wi...@cs.helsinki.fi
   7. http://www.youtube.com/user/edurbrow?feature=watch
   8. https://soundcloud.com/ed-durbrow
   9. http://www9.plala.or.jp/edurbrow/
  10. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

[LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness

[Mark Seifert]

   I agree wholeheartedly Tom (I presume/assume here I am not a
   mere pantomime luteplayer) that Ragossnig's recordings are exciting and
   superbly done.  So good they ought to have gotten on the public hit
   parade.  Could the reason why these recordings didn't reach that level
   of public exposure is that they were considered niche or Archival or
   Nonesuch?  Did they set the entertainment value bar so high that their
   sales/distribution/imitation were suppressed by some nattering nabobs
   in the USA? (I apologize for borrowing a phrase from crook Spiro
   Agnew).

   Also, in view of the strong proclivities/preferences of today's top
   lute gurus for gut strings, thumb under, etc I can understand a
   preference for purity, but I cannot help remember my deceased father's
   statement, made over and over again whenever artistic disputes arose at
   home:

   de gustibus non est disputandum

   Do any of the superscholars here know or remember who was the source of
   this cogent statement that there is no point in disputing a lot about
   personal tastes?

   Mark Seifert



   From: t...@heartistrymusic.com t...@heartistrymusic.com
   To: Stephen Stubbs fartrea...@gmail.com; David Smith
   d...@dolcesfogato.com
   Cc: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu lute@cs.dartmouth.edu; Stephen Stubbs
   fartrea...@gmail.com
   Sent: Monday, August 12, 2013 7:06 PM
   Subject: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness
  If we want more audience we need to be inclusive and not
   exclusive...
 Very well said David.
  I too remember Julian Bream as an early introduction ...
   For me it was walking into a record store just before my
 senior year in college and finding Musik fur 2  3 Lauten.
   Archiv Produktion - 2533 323
 I now know that modern lutenists don't like Ragossnig's
 playing with nails, but I still think it's a fine album.  As
 someone said in an earlier comment about Bream, the
 artistry and musical content were there.  It also featured
 Juergen Huebscher and Dieter Kirsch as ensemble partners.
 Wonderful music!
   Tom
 If we want more audience we need to be inclusive and not exclusive. A
 number of comments on this thread appear exclusive; almost a parody
   of
 the attitude that has been attributed to main stream classical
 musicians.
 Stephen, I heartily agree with your comments. The lute community is
 and will continue to evolve. The challenge is to embrace people with
 wide variety of interest and background while continuing to explore
 and disseminate what was.
 I too remember Julian Bream as an early introduction and seeing my
 first lute in college. I joined the collegium and within 2 years had
 built my first lute.
 David
 Sent from my iPhone
 On Aug 12, 2013, at 6:24 AM, Stephen Stubbs [1]fartrea...@gmail.com
 wrote:
  [Stephen]
  There is an interesting book by Phyllis Tickle entitled The Great
  Emergence.  It deals with modern Christianity and how it is
  evolving.
 
 
  I think her main theme applies to the lute world as well.  The
  'traditionalist' or 'fundamentalist' lute group will decline, and a
  rise of a 'hybrid' (Phyllis had another term for this, but I've
  forgotten what it was) lute group will occur.  If not, the lute
   will
  slowly fade away.
 
  The lute world needs to reach out to the non-traditional audience.
  The SCA and the followers of Sting are a prime resource that should
  be cultivated and encouraged.
 
  For What It's Worth
  The Other Stephen Stubbs
  Champaign, IL  USA
 
  Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will
  not have, nor do they deserve, either one. Benjamin Franklin
  (American Statesman, Scientist, Philosopher, Printer, Writer, and
  Inventor. 1706-1790)
 
  -Original Message-
  [Tom]  Are we trying creatively to increase general audience for
  lute music here, or are we practicing exclusivity? I'm looking at
  SCA and Ren Faires solely as a group of potential music buyers. Why
  not encourage the interest and point it in the right direction?
 
 
 
 
  To get on or off this list see list information at
  http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
 Tom Draughon
 Heartistry Music
 http://www.heartistrymusic.com/artists/tom.html
 714  9th Avenue West
 Ashland, WI  54806
 715-682-9362
 --

   --

References

   1. mailto:fartrea...@gmail.com

[LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness

[Mark Seifert]

   Dear Geoff Gaherty, et alia, et aliens

   Its so gratifying and exciting to encounter another astro-interested
   person, as I attempt email near the Julian Starfest here in southern CA
   (communications are spotty here).  The skies last night were
   breathtaking, stunning, in this very dried up rural region not far from
   Palomar Observatory.  Only 25 miles away is Bruce Lamb who makes the
   extreme instrument cases, so I took a couple of caseless lutes to him.
   He lives across the street from a 101 year old man who dwells and
   shuffles with his walker on a 5-acre dried up estate full of coyotes
   and gophers.  Bruce Lamb is amazing.  He once starred in a 5-year long
   TV show about do-it-yourself home improvements, but it went belly up
   during the switch from VHS to DVD.  He also has a big potbellied pig
   who does pirouettes for watermelon chunks.  I also met a little deer
   eared Chihuahua here named Frijolita or bean.  Don't know when I'll
   get my lutes back because Bruce is very, very busy making extreme cases
   for musicians worldwide.  He's trying to connect with the Navy for
   lucrative contracts, but the Navy is so clueless it thinks plywood is
   eco-friendly when the truth is just the opposite--even currogated
   polypropylene is more eco-friendly than plywood.

   Thank you for writing in and sharing your website.

   Mark Seifert
   From: Geoff Gaherty ge...@gaherty.ca
   To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Sunday, August 11, 2013 8:08 AM
   Subject: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness
   On 11/08/13 9:41 AM, Ron Fletcher wrote:
My main point is that true historical re-enactment is
not fantasy, but a desire to generate public awareness of our great
heritage.
   For a number of years, I was music director for Poculi Ludiquae
   Societas, the medieval drama society at the University of Toronto's
   Institute of Medieval Studies during the 1980s:
   http://groups.chass.utoronto.ca/plspls/
   We were committed to meticulous historical research as well as lively
   performances.  My job was to select music appropriate to the time and
   culture of the plays being performed, and to provide suitable musicians
   to perform it.  We worked in very close association with the
   professional early music performers in Toronto, to everyone's mutual
   benefit.
   We used to cringe whenever anyone mentioned the Society for Creative
   Anachronism!
   Geoff
   -- Geoff Gaherty
   Foxmead Observatory
   Coldwater, Ontario, Canada
   http://www.gaherty.ca
   http://starrynightskyevents.blogspot.com/
   To get on or off this list see list information at
   http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

   --

[LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness - astronomy analogy?

[Mark Seifert]

   Thank you, Bill and Shawn!  I'd love to join your group.  Back in 1985
   I met Larry Brown of Cincinnati who manufactured lutes and also
   attended meetings of the Cincinnati Astronomical Society.  He also
   drove to my first LSA meeting at Oakland Univ of Michigan where I got
   to meet the formidable Barto, magnificent Pat Obrien, and gentlemanly
   scholar Sylvain Bergeron.  Even ate lunch with the lovely Gusta
   Goldschmidt who cracked us up with her jokes.  I was deeply impressed
   when I found that Larry, unlike most Cincinnatians, knew that
   Betelgeuse meant armpit of the giant.

   But he scared me when he said that the lute is the most difficult
   instrument to learn how to play badly.  That meant it is difficult to
   play and once you learn how, you may yet be a lousy player.  Only after
   watching Dr. Shoskes videos starting in 2009 and using a shoulder strap
   for the first time on my roll-out prone JCHoffman was I able to play it
   semi-comfortably.

   I've often wondered if my interest in astronomy might be a desire to
   seek a celestial escape route from this earth.  Could this be a desire
   held in common among lute folk?  Copied this while reading Rumi's 13th
   century Spiritual Couplets back in 1977:

   The song of the spheres in their revolutions
   Is what men sing with lute and voice.

   As we are all members of Adam
   We have heard these melodies in Paradise.

   Though earth and water have cast their veil upon us
   We retain faint reminiscences of these heavenly Songs!

   But while we are thus shrouded by gross earthly veils
   How can the tones of the dancing spheres reach us?

   Remarkable rhythm/meter, alliteration, and rhyme are missing from this
   English version, translated I believe by R.A Nicholson.  The original
   Persian, as recited (with her eyes closed) by the late ethereal angelic
   Dr. Annemarie Schimmel (d. 2001) was beyond mesmerizing and as
   unforgettable as she was.

   Mark Seifert





   From: Sean Smith lutesm...@mac.com
   To: lute lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Sunday, August 11, 2013 12:36 PM
   Subject: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness - astronomy analogy?
   G's and O's indeed. I remember how my lute hand coordination grew as I
   ground and polished my first 12 mirror. Just as I finished it (mid
   90s) Saturn and Jupiter were both visible in the early evening sky. My
   buddy (who had intruduced me to John Dobson for the ATM classes) and I
   had a great year setting up our scopes on street corners in San
   Francisco for the public. Constant lines half a dozen deep every Fri
   and Sat night. Fun? Educational? Rewarding? Oh, lordy.
   Now, how do we do that for lutes?
   Sean
   On Aug 11, 2013, at 11:27 AM, William Samson wrote:
 Gadzooks and odsbodikins (as we lute-playing chappies are wont to
 say)!  Do you think there's a case for an astro-lute breakaway group?
 I was curator of a public observatory in Dundee, Scotland for five
 years, before I retired.
 [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mills_Observatory
 How many of us will be watching for Perseid meteors this evening?  .
   .
 . And perhaps playing our lutes?
 Bill
 From: Mark Seifert [1]seifertm...@att.net
 To: Geoff Gaherty [2]ge...@gaherty.ca; [3]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
 [4]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
 Sent: Sunday, 11 August 2013, 17:12
 Subject: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness
   Dear Geoff Gaherty, et alia, et aliens
   Its so gratifying and exciting to encounter another
   astro-interested
   person, as I attempt email near the Julian Starfest here in
   southern
 CA
   (communications are spotty here).  The skies last night were
   breathtaking, stunning, in this very dried up rural region not far
 from
   Palomar Observatory.  Only 25 miles away is Bruce Lamb who makes
   the
   extreme instrument cases, so I took a couple of caseless lutes to
 him.
   He lives across the street from a 101 year old man who dwells and
   shuffles with his walker on a 5-acre dried up estate full of
   coyotes
   and gophers.  Bruce Lamb is amazing.  He once starred in a 5-year
 long
   TV show about do-it-yourself home improvements, but it went belly
   up
   during the switch from VHS to DVD.  He also has a big potbellied
   pig
   who does pirouettes for watermelon chunks.  I also met a little
   deer
   eared Chihuahua here named Frijolita or bean.  Don't know when
 I'll
   get my lutes back because Bruce is very, very busy making extreme
 cases
   for musicians worldwide.  He's trying to connect with the Navy for
   lucrative contracts, but the Navy is so clueless it thinks plywood
   is
   eco-friendly when the truth is just the opposite--even currogated
   polypropylene is more eco-friendly than plywood.
   Thank you for writing in and sharing your website.
   Mark Seifert
   From: Geoff Gaherty [2][5

[LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness

[Mark Seifert]

   Dear Bruno,

   I'm so glad you rejoined the fray as I was worried that despair over
   EM's status, egged on by my own complaints, could have slowed your pen.

   I apologize if my Neanderthal background rubs people the wrong way, but
   I wish to express a really spooky/scary idea that cannot wait for
   Halloween/Walpurgisnacht.  An email from a peace organization regarding
   8/6/45 reminded me that intercepted Japanese wires made it clear to US
   military and political authorities that Japan was ready to surrender,
   but Truman/Groves wanted to scare/bully Stalin (imagine that) and
   experiment on unpopular live people, so he dropped the bombs
   anyway.   And of course we all know what the US Empire has been doing
   worldwide since WWII now that Oliver Stone's Untold History of US has
   spilled the beans.  By tradition and on a proportion of population
   basis, it seems to me lute is a lot more popular in Japan than in the
   USA.  Is it possible Japanese have more refined sensibilities?

   Just yesterday I heard on a historical radio broadcast that Henry The
   Navigator, the first Euro explorer to round the cape, once delivered 6
   ships laden with African slaves to Lisbon.  The nuns presented Henry to
   me as a hero of Catholicism during grammar school.  That greedy
   bastard.  Did they tell you the same story, Chris Wilke?  They also
   presented Bach as a religious hero even though he was actually an enemy
   Lutheran.

   Could it be that early music distills and displays something deep
   within our common genocidal culture?  Might it be that
   multiethnic/multicultural Brazilians may hear something wicked in
   European music presented in its purest forms?  The murderous or
   gold-grubbing sentiments of the Conquistadores, perhaps?

   Look where the lute is preeminent--the Islamic world.  India, if you
   include the wire-strung lutes.  Good players seem in the few
   Lebanese/Egyptian CDs of live Oud performances that I have heard,
   to enjoy almost God-like status, which I believe is needed by lute
   players in order to survive.

   The Oud is nearly unchanged since long before the Crusades, while
   European lutes have largely disappeared from the Western public arena
   despite the efforts of Dolmetsch and so many other masters.  Obviously,
   the muslim regions of the world like their lutes more than more western
   zones.  Could modern western musical authority's disdain for the lute
   reflect a clash of cultures?

   Univ. of Michigan's Juan Cole, a huge and perhaps preeminent modern
   Middle East scholar, recently decried the widespread hatred among
   Americans for Muslims, and argued/demonstrated that historical evidence
   shows that the people of Iraq/Iran and related nations have
   demonstrated far less warlike/genocidal inclinations than Western
   JudaeoChristian ones.
   Suzanne Bloch was a close relative of Albert Einstein, the great
   pacifist.  I believe the lute is an instrument of peace, and that is
   why they seek to suppress it, preferring their loud clanging pianos
   and blaring martial trumpets.

   Could it be that the piano people have a deep seated desire to string
   us all up with piano wire?

   Mark Seifert, shivering in fear







   From: Bruno Correia bruno.l...@gmail.com
   To:
   Cc: List LUTELIST lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Monday, August 5, 2013 5:47 PM
   Subject: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness
 Dear Tom,
 I play mostly solo and in duo, that's not just because I like it but
 above all for financial reasons. Sure, a big ensemble will appeal to
 more people, however, who's going to pay the bill?
   Some on this board have even put forth the notion that duos don't
 draw audience, but trios or more will.
 2013/8/5 [1][1]t...@heartistrymusic.com
   Back to the original premise:
  The problem is lack of support - if not outright
  hostility - from the mainstream classical music
   establishment.
  While my perception of what I and other early music
   performers do
  is that we play classical music, many, many official
   classical
  musicians do not share this view.
 I have run into this dilemma trying to program early music as
   a
   board member for a small-town local non-profit that presents a
   series of classical music concerts.  The attitude of
   violinists,
   etc.
   who prefer Brahms seems to be one of disdain for EM.
 While concert attendance in our community is totally
   unpredictable,
   these board members are all too ready to point to lutes as an
   example of low numbers, even though there have been lower
   numbers for 19th and 20th century concerts.  ( ... never mind
   the
   blizzard or sub-zero temperatures that probably had an impact!
   )
 Some on this board have even put forth

[LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness

[Mark Seifert]

   Brilliant! Lute lobbyists are the answer, as demonstrated by Mr.
   Dubrow's experience.  For the cost of one nuclear sub, the entire lute
   world could carouse in luxury.

   Mark
   From: theoj89...@aol.com theoj89...@aol.com
   To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Tuesday, August 6, 2013 9:02 AM
   Subject: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness
   How does one get others interested in lute? Marketing.
   All lute players should contribute to a hollywood lobbyist fund where a
   lute 'product placement' could be made in the next historical film that
   utilizes swords and corsets. Better yet,let the hero seduce the heroine
   with a lute song, and re-establish the lute in popular culture as the
   seduction tool that it was meant to be.
   Look at what the movie Doctor Zhivago did for the  popularity of the
   Balalika (seriously).  Maybe a lute tax could be tacked on to every
   lute purchase and lute string purchase to pay for such a lobbyist.
   Marketing takes money.
   --
   To get on or off this list see list information at
   http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

   --

[LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness (but re guitar exams)

[Mark Seifert]

   Thank you for the exceptionally deep and interesting info, Howard.  I
   haven't yet listened to or opened my Teaching Co. Goldberg course on
   the Beethoven Piano Concertos, so I'm reserving judgement.  Didn't list
   Lizst because that peripatetic peacock pianist is supposedly the
   originator of the awful tradition known as the master class, and he
   was close to that creator of overblown events Wagner, whose operas are
   better than they sound according to Sam Clemens.

   I think it was Greenberg who said in his Bach course that Bach didn't
   like Silbermann's pianos, though he loved Silbermann's organs and
   harpsichords.  Bach was the heaviest hitter I could think of for help
   in politically attacking the modern piano Goliath.   Your point is well
   taken that those old pianos weren't like the newer ones.  But I doubt
   the interesting archival hearsay that Bach provided his complete
   approval (how conveenient for piano lovers and Mr. Gould).

   My concern is that requiring young potential guitar or lute players to
   learn piano first could severely thin the ranks to the vanishing
   point.  I think classical Guitar and lute are difficult instruments
   requiring for success almost total commitment, unlike many other
   instruments.  Also, only well-to-do folks had pianos where/when I grew
   up--my piano playing mother gave hers up to aid the purchase of a
   house. It was painful and pathetic later watching her nostalgically
   play a toy 16?-key plastic piano provided to the kids.

   Are you a piano player as well as a lute enthusiast?

   Mark Seifert

   From: howard posner howardpos...@ca.rr.com
   To: lutelist lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Sunday, August 4, 2013 9:54 AM
   Subject: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness (but re guitar exams)
   On Aug 4, 2013, at 5:11 AM, Mark Seifert [1]seifertm...@att.net
   wrote:
Why the piano chauvinism in modern music?  I don't like piano (except
 maybe Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Hummel, Schumann, Tim Story)
   You might want to check out this dude named Beethoven.
Bach firmly rejected the newfangled
 1709 piano instruments offered to him.  I cringe or become nauseated
   by
 disgust whenever 16th or 17th century singing is accompanied by a
 piano.
   Both inaccurate and irrelevant, I think.
   Re inaccurate, here's my recycled response to a similar comment last
   year:
   Johann Friedrich Agricola related in a 1768 treatise on keyboard
   instruments that Bach once tried a Silbermann pianoforte (didn't say
   when or where), and liked
   its tone but said the bass was weak and the action was too heavy.
   Silbermann sulked, but spent years improving the instrument, and Bach
   later expressed complete approval of his pianos  It's on page 259 of
   the 1966 revised edition of the Bach Reader.
   The Piano (by four authors including fortepiano builders Philip Belt
   and Derek Adlam), on page 8, connects the complete approval that
   Agricola mentions with Bach's 1747 visit to Frederick the Great in
   Berlin, which  resulted in the Musical Offering.  Big Fred had  a few
   Silbermann pianos.  The Piano says they are reported [by whom?
   Agricola?] to have met Bach's complete approval on that occasion
   [which is probably speculation], and the composer served as a sales
   agent for Silbermann in 1749 (see C.  Wolff: 'New Research on Bach's
   Musical Offering', MQ, lvii (1971),  403). Of course, Silbermann was
   famous for his organs and harpsichords, and Bach's admiration for
   Silbermann's organs is well documented.
   Re irrelevant: 1) The mid-eighteenth-century piano is about as closely
   related to the modern one as the renaissance lute is to the modern
   guitar, and 2) why would Bach's view of the piano be important now?
   --
   To get on or off this list see list information at
   http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

   --

References

   1. mailto:seifertm...@att.net

[LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness (but re guitar exams)

[Mark Seifert]

   Dear Sirs,
   I remember reading that Hoppy Smith encountered severe difficulty
   studying music theory because he did not play keyboard, but toughed it
   out and succeeded.  I dropped out of Music Theory 2 freshman year
   because of not knowing keyboard at all.

   Why the piano chauvinism in modern music?  I don't like piano (except
   maybe Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Hummel, Schumann, Tim Story) and
   you can't even carry one around.  Bach firmly rejected the newfangled
   1709 piano instruments offered to him.  I cringe or become nauseated by
   disgust whenever 16th or 17th century singing is accompanied by a
   piano.  Maybe EM's difficulties can be blamed on piano chauvinism,
   which of course could never be as virtuous as lute chauvinism.

   Chris Wilke deserves a music chairmanship.  They'd rather hire a
   bleeding percussionist.  Rochester probably hired that Leprechaun Paul
   O'Dette not for his musical knowledge or skills but to get his pot of
   gold.

   Mark Seifert



   From: Stephen Kenyon s...@jacaranda-music.com
   To: William Samson willsam...@yahoo.co.uk
   Cc: Christopher Wilke chriswi...@yahoo.com; Mark Seifert
   seifertm...@att.net; gary magg...@sonic.net; lutelist
   lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Sunday, August 4, 2013 4:12 AM
   Subject: Re: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness (but re guitar
   exams)
   Bill, that's not an entirely complete assessment of this situation in
   my view.  The pianist is expected to assess all other instruments, not
   just guitars, and one important  reason for it is that part of the exam
   assessment  consists of aural test which have to be played competently
   on a piano, including up to the grade 8 tests which are of course quite
   complex.  They do get at least some training in the quirks of each
   instrument examined, though many through their general education will
   be well aware of most of the orchestral instruments for example, which
   along with the piano form the great majority of the instruments.
   As for the NEVER, this is simply uninformed, as out of the roughly 650
   Associated Board examiners there to my knowledge two who are 'first
   study' guitarists - and obviously also very good pianists, one of whom
   is a notable soloist that guitar players will have heard of, the other
   was a member of a noted quartet.  I am not aware of the situation
   regarding Trinity College examiners.
   It is also useful to note that for ABRSM post grade 8 diplomas, there
   are two examiners, one of whom has a specialism in each instrument
   examined on that day.  For guitars this can be for instance (as in my
   first case) a composer who has written for guitar rather than a
   performer, and in the second case it was the second of the guitar
   playing examiners I listed.
   The Guildhall exam system did, in the 1990s, offer specialist
   examiners, which worked quite well in some ways, but their whole model
   collapsed.  Both the other major boards use generalists, eg pianists,
   and it works overall because its also about flexibility in filling up
   timetables and moving examiners around the UK and indeed those parts of
   the world where this business is valued.
   Stephen
   On 4 Aug 2013, at 10:02, William Samson wrote:
   it was pointed out to me, the other day, that although it is not
   unusual for a pianist (with no experience of guitar) to assess the
   performance of a guitarist in the UK grade exams, a guitarist
   (with
   no experience of piano) would NEVER be accepted as a suitable
   assessor
   for the performance of a pianist.
   
   Bill

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[LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness

[Mark Seifert]

   Dear Chris Wilke,

   Your message resonates! It's true!  I'm sorry you haven't yet reached
   full career stride--maybe Nazareth College is too small though
   Rochester NY is a cultural powerhouse.

   I've seen with my own eyes the hostility/disdain in the faces of local
   classical music establishment folks, and initially thought it was
   because they knew I am an unworthy relatively unskilled dilettante.
   It may actually be due to the possibility that early music
   potentially has more popular appeal than their favored hackneyed 19th
   century (not yet fully tested by time) warhorses.  EM is simpler,
   more accessible to folks.  In 2007, a new local State Univ. music chair
   from Texas, concerned about the lack of lute exposure for his students,
   wanted me to play lute with a university singer.  Only one out of
   dozens of singers in his dept. expressed any interest at all, perhaps
   because she is from Vancouver, Canada.  After corresponding and
   planning with her for a year, we met at an event and she expressed
   disdain for Early Music and a preference for 19th/20th c. opera, and
   never followed up on the lute song idea, dashing my hopes (She was the
   prettiest woman in the dept.)  I suspect this could be the result of
   peer pressure against EM.  Herd instinct seems hugely important in the
   music world.   I hope it wasn't because I told her I was working on
   some pieces recently dug up at an ancestral Neanderthal cave dwelling.

   But the turf issue may go beyond this to the problem of the difficulty
   of plucked strings.   It seems Music Dept. chairs favor their own
   instruments and neglect/deemphasize others.  In one private University,
   the entire guitar program, which has the largest number of
   instrumental students in the entire music dept. (25 classic guitar
   students!), was ignored or given short shrift by the brass winds and
   voice loving directors when several outstanding student artists were
   selected for last June's gala event. Not a single guitar student was
   featured.  Maybe guitar plunking wasn't considered loud enough for the
   event.

   On another occasion years ago, a spectacular visiting guitar prof. from
   Humboldt State Univ. was initially refused the paltry 300 buck fee
   normally given for an hour-long recital.  The local guitar chief had to
   beg the music dept. chairman for this honorarium and remind the chair
   what an insult this denial would be to the visiting prof.  He got the
   fee after I embarrassed the chair by offering to pay for it myself as a
   local lute nut not directly connected with the University.

   One of the biggest parts of the music dept. at the local state Univ. is
   symphonic band.  Sounds like an oxymoron.  No place for a guitar or
   lute.  Every high school has a marching band in football/violence
   crazed America, so there is a huge pool of flute, tuba, trumpet, drum,
   woodwind students from which to select new University matriculants.  I
   was the only kid at my high school interested in classical guitar and I
   have heard of only rare high schools nowadays providing classic guitar
   instruction of any kind.   The big Univ where I chose to attend college
   had no guitar program at all--Instead I briefly sang in its Russian
   Liturgical Choir.  Gospodi!  Please help Chris and Hugo!

   Mark Seifert
   From: Christopher Wilke chriswi...@yahoo.com
   To: gary magg...@sonic.net; lutelist lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Saturday, August 3, 2013 7:12 AM
   Subject: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness
 In America, I haven't found any lack of interest in lute or early
   music
 from the broader public. Many people who are intimidated by perceived
 ritual and stuffy atmosphere of standard classical concerts are drawn
 in by the look and sound of early instruments. Some marketers have
 recognized this: early music is quite well represented in classical
 music station playlists. (I've just been invited to give a one hour
 interview/lute performance on our local public radio station here in
 Rochester, for example.) My own solo concerts and performances by the
 student early music ensembles I've directed have drawn healthy
   crowds.
 This is good, but there are larger issues.
 The problem is lack of support - if not outright hostility - from the
 mainstream classical music establishment. While my perception of
   what
 I and other early music performers do is that we play classical
   music,
 many, many official classical musicians do not share this
 view. Indeed, at colleges where I was employed, significant public
 response was ultimately detrimental as it drew the flagrant ire of at
 least two tenured professors with great influence in the departments.
 Both of these professors actively petitioned against having any early
 music performance activities at their respective colleges, ostensibly
 on the grounds

[LUTE] Re:

[Mark Seifert]

   Thank you for  your fascinating note.  I comiserate with your
   frustration, Bruno.   A thought which popped into mind  in response to
   your note is that it is possible the lute may induce a state that is
   the opposite of being turned on in the loud boisterous mardi gras
   sense.  It is hard to think of it as a sensuous instrument despite its
   swollen belly.  In a way, it is a contemplative pursuit to play the
   lute, and I see very little popular interest in contemplation, or any
   other kind of quietude.  I have also felt that non-lute playing guitar
   academics may be a little fearful or wary of early music and prefer to
   hold it at arm's length, or allow a rare lute performance as a kind of
   freak show.   I provide one, very freakishly, only once each year (at
   these events, the guitar students have seemed more interested in or
   more excited by handling the lutes and being photographed holding them
   rather than hearing them).  University Funds for arts education have
   become so scarce that there is mortal competition and a zero sum game
   with proponents and practitioners of more popular instrumental art
   jealously guarding their turf against potential intruders.  Another
   thought which came to mind was that it may be difficult for people to
   hear the strains of the lute after having their eardrums blasted with
   megadecibels for a lifetime.   After witnessing  here considerable
   crowd excitement during recent and always massively amplified sitar and
   sarod concerts, which are not really extrovert events, and after seeing
   the throngs of middle aged and older folks attending these concerts, I
   can't help but think that it may be necessary to turn the volume up
   (horrors! amplifying?) to force the lilting plucked  lute strains and
   harmonics into people's ears without fear of distortion.  I have not
   yet attempted anything like this.
   A brief breakthrough of lute interest here was very noticeable when
   Sting released his Dowland Labyrinth CD around 2006.  Celebrity appeal
   would get the attention of the masses and make them think the lute was
   cool if only for a little while.  Might Pele take up the lute?  After
   seeing what Segovia and Bream did for the guitar, and seeing how rarely
   the current great lute artists are heard on the mass US media, it seems
   it may take the appearance of a musical Goddess like Saraswati to make
   any sudden major difference.

   Best wishes and thanks again.

   Mark Seifert


   From: Bruno Correia bruno.l...@gmail.com
   To: List LUTELIST lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
   Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2013 6:46 PM
   Subject: [LUTE]
 Dear members of the list,
 I have been at pains trying to raise interest in our beloved
 instrument down here in Brazil. I've given speeches, played solo and
 chamber concerts... but despite all efforts the general public and
   also
 the musicians (professionals or amateurs) simply don't get turned on.
 It is a sad fact that the lute and the early music performance
 practice did not reach the University here. So we don't exist
 academically speaking.
 Would anybody be willing to list some strategies that could be used
   to
 help disseminate the lute and its repertoire?
 --
 Bruno Correia
 Pesquisador autonomo da pratica e interpretac,ao
 historicamente informada no alaude e teorba.
 Doutor em Praticas Interpretativas pela
 Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.
 --
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