[LUTE] Vincenzo Galilei

Dear All: In looking at the manuscript of Vincenzo Galilei's Intavolatura of 1584, which features about 50 galliards, including nine on the names of the muses, he has a mark that looks like a plus sign (+). My guess from the context is that means to hold the previous note. Is that correct?

[LUTE] Re: Coming to the US from Europe

Even nowadays, surveys of non-Americans indicate that most people do not hate Americans, they hate the current American government. That puts them in company with at least 51 percent of Americans as well. Cheers and looking forward to January 2009, Jim To get on or off this list see list

[LUTE] Re: Another beginner's question

I saw Elvis Costello on TV recently and he played some finger-picking acoustic guitar, with his pinky on the soundboard. I thought he actually displayed pretty nice thumb-out lute technique. Maybe he's been secretly visiting Pat O'Brien. To get on or off this list see list information at

[LUTE] Re: strap

Dear All: I currently use a crescent-shaped foam pad designed for classical guitarists. They use it on the left leg, in lieu of a footstool. The brand is Dynarette and I ordered it from an L.A. guitar shop. I put mine on my right leg and rest the bottom of the lute on it, elevating the lute

[LUTE] Re: Carbon strings

Dear Bruno and All: If you're talking about carbon-fiber, I prefer them on the middle courses -- 3, 4 and 5. Anything to avoid a wound fourth course! Cheers, Jim To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

[LUTE] Re: beginner's question

Dear Jim, Generally it is easy to see when a gut fret is worn out. It gets frayed and hairy looking. The pressure of the strings also tend to form visible grooves in the fret. The second, fourth and fifth frets tend to wear fastest because they are used for the most common notes. Sometimes

[LUTE] Re: a query--lutenist in 18th-c London

Dear Jeff and All: Senesino was a frequent performer in Handel's London opera productions, according to Christopher Hogwood's recent Handel biography. Perhaps archives on Handel's opera orchestra could shed some light on Mr. Weber. I think Handel used theorbo or archlute at least occasionally.

[LUTE] Re: Lute concert

Dear All: Anthony Rooley's article in the revised edition of A Performer's Guide to Renaissance Music (Indiana University Press, 2007) is, I think, a fine example of a lute player thinking beyond the bounds of his instrument. His discussion of the dynamics of early music ensembles and

[LUTE] Re: [LUTE] Anthony Rooley's  writings about performance

Dear Arto and All: Yes, the latest Rooley article, Practical Matters of Vocal Performance, struck me as very down-to-earth and full of practical suggestions. It also seems suffused with a belief in the magic of music, however. In my view that is a good thing. No sign of an on-line version at

[LUTE] Re: Right-Hand Fingers

Dear Stephen and All: I highly recommend you take a look at the February 2007 issue of the Lute Society of America Quarterly, which has two articles on use of the right hand on the baroque lute. One is by Bob Barto, who looks at original sources. The other, Just How Secret Were Those Muses? is

[LUTE] Re: Neck section thumb over

Dear All: I'm sorry, but I must say I'm completely unconvinced by the iconography showing the use of the thumb to stop the fifth or sixth course. If anyone were to look at a photo of me playing cittern or five-course plectrum lute, they would see much the same thing. If one is playing

[LUTE] Re: tablature, alfabeto and BC

Dear All: Wouldn't any competent theorbo player be able to pick up a guitar to accompany a comical or Spanish scene? I would expect that to be the case. And wasn't it common for a player to play both instruments? So the absence of a guitar player doesn't necessarily mean no guitar was used.

[LUTE] Re: Playing in time (olim Polish, anyone?)

Dear All: My favorite advice on the subject of playing in time comes from Pablo Casals: Fantasy as much as you like, but with order. I interpret that as putting as much expression into the piece as you see fit, but keep playing in time. Occasionally when playing to a metronome I experiment by

[LUTE] Re: secret pegs

Dear All: These secret pegs may seem like a good idea but a friend who got a viola da gamba with them reports that they do not work properly (they slip) and a luthier suggested drilling them out and replacing them with traditional wooden pegs. It is possible that she did not maintain them

[LUTE] Re: 7c at 64cms

Dear Ed and All: So if you were stringing an 11- or 13-course baroque lute in gut, and the string length was 72 or 73 cm, would you pitch the first string at E-flat (A=415)? Cheers, Jim To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html

[LUTE] Re: Lutes have obscene connotations?

Dear All: I think we can consider the lute relatively chaste compared with its disreputable cousin, the cittern. For the latter instrument, slatternly connotations are beyond dispute. All the more remarkable that so many paintings show a cittern played by a woman. Or perhaps not so

[LUTE] Re: Aarrrgghhhh!!!

Dear Daniel, Rob, and All: Yes, I work at the Washington Post, although nowadays I'm mostly an editor. There are many kinds of reporters. One is a new breed of Internet or blog reporter, who functions without journalism training or editorial oversight. Perhaps he (or she) is a reporter simply

[LUTE] Re: Reportage (was Re: Aarrrgghhhh!!!)

Sorry guys, one thing I forgot to mention: Even the mildest criticism of the right-wing blogosphere generally brings on a fussilade of paranoic attacks on the critic. Cheers, Jim From: howard posner [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 2008/04/18 Fri PM 12:17:27 CDT To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Net

[LUTE] Re: Tying on frets

Dear All: One of my lutes had a flat fingerboard with edging that came to a rather sharp point, and I had trouble getting frets to lie flat, especially those made with larger-diameter gut. They did indeed exhibit some daylight at the edges. I had a luthier bevel the edges slightly, and now the

[LUTE] Re: Frets

Dear All: Does this also imply different fret gauges? For example, many players use a fourth fret that is substantially closer to the third fret than it would be in equal temperament, to achieve purer major thirds. Would one thus pay closer attention to diminishing the diameter of the fourth

[LUTE] Re: strumming near the bridge

Dear All: An intriguing tidbit: The father of the famous writer Cervantes was supposedly a barber-surgeon, and played the vihuela. Jim From: Monica Hall [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 2008/05/31 Sat PM 01:57:40 CDT To: Rob MacKillop [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Vihuelalist [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [LUTE]

[LUTE] Re: string length and Francesco

Dear Rob, Martin and All, I play about half of my Francesco pieces on a 72-cm Barber instrument (it is pictured on his Web site) and really prefer it for the darker pieces in keys such as G minor. Once for a Paul O'Dette master class I played No. 64 on my 78-cm bass lute, which brought a

[LUTE] Re: piece of the month update

Dear All: On the following page, the dedication is clearly signed Michelangelo Galilei. They can't both be right, can they? A nickname? A version from a regional dialect? From an editor's point of view, it appears more likely that the title page is incorrect and the dedication is correct. The

[LUTE] Re: Meantone

Dear All: Perhaps we should bear in mind that fixed-fret instruments such as citterns and bandoras certainly used meantone temperaments -- just take a look at surviving instruments -- and that any gut-fret instruments that played with them would probably have adjusted to that tuning. Cheers,

[LUTE] Re: Meantone

Dear All: Just for the record, my tenor cittern (by Forrester) has what resemble tastini, little frets that allow in-tune F-sharp and C-sharp, a few millimeters below the main frets. Cheers, Jim To get on or off this list see list information at

[LUTE] Re: Tuning protocol

Dear Leonard and All: The wise guys in the New York Continuo Collective generally use G as their tuning standard. When somebody new asks for an A, they reply, eh? Cheers, Jim From: Leonard Williams [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 2008/07/29 Tue PM 05:30:29 CDT To: Lute List lute@cs.dartmouth.edu

[LUTE] Stuck pegs

Dear All: A well-known luthier once told me an effective way to remove a stuck peg without damaging it: Take a short length of wooden dowel (1 inch or 2 cm) that is slightly smaller in diameter than the small end of the stuck peg. Then take a small mallet or hammer and gently tap-tap-tap

[LUTE] Re: Broken consort

Dear All: In my experience the bass recorder is the instrument of the recorder family that blends best in the English consort. By the way, why not use the term English consort? Isn't there some historical basis for that? Cheers, Jim Oct 7, 2008 09:55:08 PM, [EMAIL

[LUTE] Re: 1579 English cittern, Orpharion, Bandora..

Dear All: A review of photos of surviving citterns indicates that virtually all of the high-quality instruments have unequal fretting. Cheers, Jim Dec 4, 2008 02:17:41 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 9:12 PM, Daniel Winheld wrote: If I may

[LUTE] Re: Dilettantism

Dear All: Isn't it possible that playing several plucked instruments can b= e mutually reinforcing? If I spend all day playing the vihuela, won't that = improve my lute playing? If I work on achieving perfect, pearl-like tones o= n my six-course, won't that improve my tone on the

[LUTE] Re: Saintly music?

Chris, You could play Robin Is to the Greenwood Gone, from Robinson's= School of Music, which has the same melody as the Saint Steven's Day Carol= . (Come mad boys, be glad boys, for Christmas is here) Mar= 13, 2009 11:27:19 AM, [1]cstet...@smith.edu wrote: Hi,

[BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: Pinel?

David Ledbetter in his book on French lute and harpsichord music seems to hold Pinel in high esteem. Some Pinel pieces were reworked for harpsichord, so presumably his keyboard peers valued his works as well. The pieces don't appear overly difficult, although I've only looked at a

[LUTE] Re: Taruskin

Dear All, Taruskin spends a lot of time discussing playing harpsichord= music on the piano, but never mentions the lute versus the guitar. If anyt= hing the latter two instruments are even farther apart in style and techniq= ue than the keyboards. I've often wondered whether he had

[LUTE] Re: Anyone see Crawford Young's concert?

Dear All, If you're going to go this route, why not try a synthetic oud pl= ectrum? Jim Oct 6, 2009 06:17:02 PM, [1]dem...@suffolk.lib.ny.us= wrote: = gt; hi Stuart, I remember the suggested guitar string being= the 1st (the high e). I had to

[BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: Couperin - Les Baricades Misterieuses

The attachment didn't seem to go through yesterday, so here's another try. Sep 28, 2009 04:27:08 PM, [1]pjones...@toucansurf.com wrote: Hello all, Long time no post. I work for BBC Radio 3 attached to the BBC Symphony Orchestra and early next year we have the

[LUTE] Re: Beethoven Quartets

Dear Oskar and All, My favorites (especially the Opus 132) are by the Quaretto Italiano. The vibrato doesn't seem as intrusive on their renderings. Jim Oct 7, 2009 04:58:07 AM, [1]oskar_demari_jo...@hotmail.com wrote: Hi there, I was wondering - has any 'early music'

[LUTE] Re: So, what you consider a must have publication?

Dear All: For the vihuelists, how about Narvaez and Mudarra? Also, Dowland= 's Varietie of Lute Lessons. I'd throw in Spinacino/Capirola/Dalza, and the= Siena lute manuscript. For theorbists, Picinnini and Saizenay. Cheers, Jim Oct 19, 2009 07:54:48 AM,

[LUTE] Re: Emotion, introvert vs. extrovert playing

Dear All, For some reason, this reminds me of a director's first impression of the actor Gary Cooper. On the first day of filming, the director is saying to himself, What is he doing? He's not acting at all, he's just reading the lines without any emotion. But that evening, when

[LUTE] Re: Early music workshops

Dear Ned, I've attended a half-dozen or so Amherst workshops and have had some good experiences there. The nice thing about the Amherst workshop is that (at least in the past) they can put you in an ensemble of your choosing, i.e., a viola da gamba and recorder(s) if that's what you want.

[LUTE] Re: Lute volume

Dear All, I have been told on more than one occasion that a big benefit of accompanying a group of singers with theorbo or lute is that THEY can hear you, and it helps keep them in tune and in time. So even if the audience can hardly hear you, you provide a clear benefit to the quality of the

[LUTE] Re: Lute repair and question

Dear Mark, Definitely get a strap, which will allow you to sit up straight and not hunch over to secure the lute. I also use a vinyl-covered foam pad under the lute to help stabilize the instrument--a classical guitar pad adapted to fit the end of the lute. I don't know of

[LUTE] Re: James Tyler

Dear All, I recall Jim Tyler as a very kind and patient teacher, who reall= y helped me a lot as a beginning cittern player. His most valuable single p= iece of advice was to replace my equal-tempered EMS kit cittern with a prop= er tempered version from Peter Forrester. Jim

[LUTE] Re: bandora tunes

Dear Stuart, Martyn, and All, A higher string tension may make it easier to tune, but may not = be good for the instrument, if it was built to accommodate lighter strings.= In addition, raising the string tension has the effect of changi= ng the harmonic profile of the notes,

[LUTE] Re: bandora tunes

Dear Stephan and all, The double frets on my Forrester bandora do not buzz. My guess is that the frets need to be adjusted to a tiny fraction of a millimeter, and that the margin for error is very small. Cheers, Jim Jun 15, 2011 03:59:29 PM, stephan.olbe...@web.de wrote:

[LUTE] Re: Roman archlutes

Dea= r All, My only question is why no one has done this before = (in our lifetimes, anyway). I have often thought that an archlute would wor= k much better as a continuo instrument if it had a theorbo-size body and a = shorter fretboard. Who needs a 12th fret on a continuo

[LUTE] Re: Apollo's lore?

nb= sp;But isn't it really just a pun by Purcell on Apollo's lyre? = On 11/08/11, howard posnerhowardpos...@ca.rr.comg= t; wrote: If anyone's being obscure, it's not Purcell. The poem is the= 20th stanza of a French poem, La Solitude A Alcidon translated by the 1= 7th-century

[LUTE] Re: Transposing lute tablature on sight

Dea= r All, This discussion feeds into one of my pet theories: T= hat Cabezon's keyboard tablature could be read by professional vihuelists a= nd harpers. Cabezon's tab is quite straightforward and logical. Any thought= s? Cheers, Jim Stimson = ; = On 12/0= 5/11, Ron

[LUTE] Re: miking a lute/theorbo

Dear All, In my limited experience, too-close miking leads to boomey, guttural distortion. Some pros recommend 10 feet (or 3 meters) away, and 10 feet up. This, of course is based on having a good acoustic environment to start with. Cheers, Jim Stimson On 04/03/12,

[LUTE] Re: Stringing a lute

Alain, The practice you have described is one I would only employ if the string is too short to reach the peg. I prefer the approach of one teacher who advised: Never cut a good string! This would entail running the entire length of the string through the peg-hole, with

[LUTE] Re: Mechanical Pegs

Dear Ken and All, I had Pegheds installed on my Forrester cittern. I gig with the instrument all the time and really needed to speed up the tuning, which is much more finicky than the lute's. The pegs work really well. I don't think they are as necessary for the lute, but I can

[LUTE] Re: Reasonably priced lutes in the US

Dear All These appear to be the same low-price Zachary Taylor lutes being sold on other websites. So the question is really whether anybody out there has played one of these. Also, as they're available on various websites, what is the best price? Cheers, Jim Stimson On

[LUTE] Re: Chord fingering

Dear All, I think it really depends on the player, and at least one eminent teacher and recording artist strongly advocates a two-course barre with the index finger. Personally, I find it much easier to play with the half-barre, and have no difficulty whatever missing the first

[LUTE] Re: Thigh support for theorbo

Dear Danny and All, I use a Dynarette, with a curved section cut out of the top to fit the heel of the lute. You can unzip the cover, take out the foam, slice off a section of it with a sharp knife, then reinsert it into the cover. It should be no problem for an experience surgeon

[LUTE] Re: backpacks for lutes?

Dear All, Just for the record, I have one of those guitar backpacks and tried to adapt it to carry a lute, but shape of the lute case is so different from a guitar case that i couldn't make it work. Jim Stimson On 03/05/14, wayne crippsw...@cs.dartmouth.edu wrote: I see

[LUTE] Re: [LUTE] peg wonèt budge

Dear All, A luthier friend once gave me this tip for stuck pegs: Get a short dowel of slightly smaller diameter than the small end of the peg. Place it against the peg and gently tap with a small mallet until the peg loosens. Jim On 09/14/14, Heartistry

[LUTE] Re: planetary tuners

Dear All, I really don't think the planetary tuning pegs are necessary for a lute with good-fitting pegs. I find that a small amount of violin "peg dope" -- the hard, waxy type, not the softer gooey type -- is all the help my lute and vihuela pegs need. On the other hand, I did

[LUTE] Re: planetary tuners

Howard and All, I've had the tuners on my cittern since about 2010 and they've worked perfectly the entire time. Jim Stimson On 02/13/17, howard posner wrote: I asked: > Have these things been around long enough that we can talk about their

[LUTE] Re: La_Marini=c3=a8re?=

There's an English country dance from around the same time called "The Female Sailor," and Vallet seems to have some English connections. Jim Stimson Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone Original message From: Jean-Marie Poirier

[LUTE] Re: not about strings !

Don't leave out Cipriano de Tore. Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone Original message From: Ron Andrico Date: 12/14/17 12:31 PM (GMT-05:00) To: Tristan von Neumann , lutelist Net

[LUTE] LUTE TUNING AND TEMPERAMENT IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH,CENTURIES

Nancy and All, Not only are the high notes playable, they sound good. Jim Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone Original message From: Nancy Carlin Date: 5/14/18 3:26 PM (GMT-05:00) To: Lutelist Net

[LUTE] Re: LUTE TUNING AND TEMPERAMENT IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH,CENTURIES

Dear All, What should we make of the indisputable evidence of unequal temperament on fixed-fret citterns? There are many surviving examples, and virtually all are in unequal temperament. Modern reproductions with equal temperament only play in tune in G major (I once owned one).

[LUTE] Re: LUTE TUNING AND TEMPERAMENT IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH,CENTURIES

Unequal fretting of citterns and bandoras appears to have been universal. > > Sent from my iPhone > >> On May 13, 2018, at 7:00 AM, jslute <[5]jsl...@verizon.net> wrote: >> >> Dear All, >>

[LUTE] Re: Merchant of Venice show tunes

When I did Merchant of Venice I set "Tell Me Where Is Fancy Bred" to the tune of Watkins Ale. Jim Stimson Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone Original message From: Ron Andrico Date: 1/7/18 1:17 PM (GMT-05:00) To:

[LUTE] Re: Cavalcanti

Dear All, I think most luters will find that if one plays from Italian tab every day -- even if only for a short while -- after a week or two it becomes much easier. It also may help to visualize it as a mirror image of your fretboard. Jim Stimson Sent from my Verizon,

[LUTE] Re: Starting Theorbo

Try the lovey Piccinini chaccone. Jim Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone Original message From: George Arndt Date: 7/10/18 6:11 PM (GMT-05:00) To: Lute List , George Arndt Subject: [LUTE] Starting Theorbo Dear Collected Wisdom:

[LUTE] Re: Some questions

Dear All, I'd like to see a baroque lute arrangement of Frank Zappa's "Twenty Small Cigars." I'd play that. Jim Stimson Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone Original message From: Arto Wikla Date: 3/16/18 6:36 PM

[LUTE] Re: The origins of tablature

Ron, Rainer and All, Cabezon's works were notated in tablature. Like Paumann, he was blind. His works were advertised as also playable on harp or vihuela. Jim Stimson Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone Original message From: Ron Andrico

[LUTE] Re: Slidely amplifying al lute?

Dear All, I also use an AER amplifier. It's the best. Jim Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone Original message From: David van Ooijen Date: 5/17/19 7:34 AM (GMT-05:00) To: Jörg Hilbert Cc: lute List Subject: [LUTE] Re: Slidely

[LUTE] Re: Renaissance rhyme

Dear Martyn and All, According to the Crystals, "wind" would be pronounced something like "woind" or "woynd." Ben Crystal helped with one of my theater group productions a couple of years ago. Jim Stimson Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone Original

[LUTE] Re: Renaissance rhyme

s, it's >'keu-ind' and "weu-ind" ... a bit as they'd say it in the west country. >Helen >On Fri, 7 Jun 2019 at 14:35, jslute <[1]jsl...@cs.dartmouth.edu> wrote: > > Dear Martyn and All, >

[LUTE] Re: Renaissance rhyme

Hodgson Date: 6/8/19 2:41 AM (GMT-05:00) To: Ron Andrico , corun , jslute Cc: LuteNet list Subject: [LUTE] Re: Renaissance rhyme If limited just to London was the pronunciation adopted court or educated middling class or that of the general hoi polloi? MH

[LUTE] Re: De Visee

Dear All: Might I suggest that a culture sophisticated enough to build lutes and craft overwound strings could have figured out a way to file and polish their nails. Jim Stimson Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone Original message From:

[LUTE] Re: Bandora tuning

Yes, the intervals of the top five course are the same as the guitar, a fifth lower in pitch. Jim Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone Original message From: "G. C." Date: 6/29/19 5:52 AM (GMT-05:00) To: Lutelist Subject: [LUTE] Bandora

[LUTE] Re: Metal stringing on historical instruments

Dear All, There's a drawing in Praetorius' Syntagma of what looks like an archlute set up with end pins like a giant cittern. Cheers, Jim -Original Message- From: Nancy Carlin To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Sent: Thu, Aug 20, 2020 6:20 pm Subject: [LUTE] Re:

[BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: String spacing again

Dear Chris and All: It would be interesting to have more information on these spacings, but I'm not sure I would have a lute made for me with some of the historical spacings I have seen. Some of them seem very tight compared with those we see on modern reproductions. I think Ray

[BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: Couperin - Les Baricades Misterieuses

Dear Peter and All, I think this piece works best on the baroque lute in its orgininal key, B-flat. Although it's not the most common key, it actually fits the d-minor lute better, provided the 9th course is tuned to E-flat. (I also tune the 13th course to G for the one low G in

[BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: Couperin - Les Baricades Misterieuses

OK, I'm trying this one more time with a different Web portal. Sep 28, 2009 04:27:08 PM, [1]pjones...@toucansurf.com wrote: Hello all, Long time no post. I work for BBC Radio 3 attached to the BBC Symphony Orchestra and early next year we have the wonderful Canadian

[BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: Couperin - Les Baricades Misterieuses

Thanks, Daniel, I wasn't aware of that. I'd be glad can send a pdf of = Les Baricades to any individual who wants one. Jim Oct 7, 2009 07:51:55 AM, [1]dshos...@mac.com wrote: The email bas= ed lute lists don't accept attachments. One of the several advantages o= f [2]=

[BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: Bach BWV846 Prelude n. 1

Dear Luca and All, Here's my version of the famous first prelude. Because it starts at a relatively high pitch, I've dropped it an octave until measure 16 (as do other transcriptions). I've tried to keep the notes one-to-a-string when possible to keep with the feel of the original,