As a complete newbie, I've been a bit puzzled by some of the invective, but then I make a habit of occasionally contributing to the BBC 'Great Debate', just for the fun of it, and what goes on here, what little I've read of it, appears harmless in comparison. By and large, the lute list seems a superb institution, most contributors charming people, and I enjoy looking through the e-mails every day.
My own speciality in the days when I was an academic was 12-tone, serial music, and what goes on in those circles puts any spats here in the shade. The battles that were, and still are fought, over Boulez and co. (my side of the fence) versus Shostakovitch, Vaughan Williams (in the UK), and the rest of the musical world that wants to stick its head on the musical sand and pretend the 20th century hasn't happened, were awesome to behold. A few lutenists scrapping over (as far as I can make out) facsimiles) is nothing to what has been going on since my far-off student days in Oxford. And I still stick to my guns all these years later. I won't have Shostakovitch in the house, nor any of the other 10th rate pretenders, while Boulez, Messiaen, Henze, Stockhausen and the rest of them rule the roost, at least till it gets too much for my wife and I have to turn the CD player down. A bit of a row over musical matters, as the Germans say, 'bringt Leben in die Bude', i.e. livens things up, and above all show that one cares about what one defends, and music can do with all the care and passion it can get these philistine days. I for one most certainly won't be put off playing the lute... Quite the contrary, if people are so passionate about it, then it's obviously a good thing to do. The whole thing, and the work Wayne has done, the lute music he's put on the internet and the rest of it, fabulous. Oh yes, the thing called 'Lute Archive', I've clicked and clicked away at the things there, but nothing comes up other than a sign saying something about me not having something I don't understand anyway. Is there yet more music to be had in the lute archive, and if so, how do I get hold of i? And if you should see this e-mail, Wayne, 10000000000 thanks for all you've done. FANTASTIC! Cheers one and all Tom
