> In some European countries it runs from 4 months ('student lute') to 2
> years' salary, ...but it's getting better.
> JerzyAnd you wonder why my first lute is that flat back kit. Not all musicians trying to expand their horizons can afford to spend a significant sum to start an instrument. Were I limited in approach I'd just stick with the harp, and last night I was working through some 11th century early organa on the double strung (couldn't do that on the lute with the crossing voices). But this flat back, at half my monthly Social Security income, allows me to experience playing lute music, even if it isn't the perfect lute. And should I come to love the lute more than the harp I'll know that having learned to play the instrument. The lute is recent in comparison with the harp (not that orchestral abortion with the pedals and the ladies with hair in buns and long dresses). And in western music the psaltery is probably the oldest, but that is arguable. The forms of instruments have changed so much over time that it is hard to tell, but the "stopped string" is relatively late in western music. Best, Jon
