As listener I have made the - to me surprising - experience that a baroque lute in a not too small church was heard quite well in a chamber ensemble. Exspectingly in the duo with the cembalo the lute could be heard even better. The only sad thing was, that the lute - I sat in one of the last rows - lost her "silver sound". After the concert I had the chance to talk to the lutenist - Oswald Hebermehl - and even try the lute. It had a very good sound but the distance had darkened it and made it a little bit hard. Also he had strung the lute wholly with gut. Playing in an ensemble with original instrument he had asked himself, why he should be the only one to play with modern artifical string.
Best Markus On Wed, 24 Mar 2004 10:49:16 +0100, LGS-Europe wrote: L> To elaborate on my gut-in-continuo progaganda let me give some of my L> experiences. L> L> Last year I played a series of concerts with Dowland's consort music: five L> viols, a tenor and one lute. This year I did the same programme with the L> same group, but with a different lute and different strings. Last year I L> used a 59cm 8-course lute strung with carbon and Kürschner metal on nylon L> wound basses and I still played with nails. This year I used a 62cm L> 10-course lute strung with gut, Gamut gimped for fundamentals 6-10, played L> without nails. Both instruments are made by Nico van der Waals. We played L> both series of concerts in a variety of locations: modern concert halls, L> nice big old (city hall e.g.) rooms and churches. The lute with L> gut-and-fingers was much, much better to hear within the ensemble, and much, L> much better to hear in the audience. Apart from better blending with the L> viols, it was especially more clear in the attack of each individual note: L> people could follow me note by note. Contrary to my initial expectation, L> actually, because I thought the carbon-and-nails combination would penetrate L> better. But then I had to struggle to make myself heard, resulting in a L> harsher, sharper sound. L> L> Last weekend I played archlute (and baroque guitar!) continuo in the Matthew L> Passion in a very large church in Holland (Domkerk in Utrecht). My archlute L> (64cm/140cm) is entirely strung in gut, only gimped on the fundamentals of 6 L> and 7 on the fingerboard. It was loud, louder than it has ever been when it L> was still carbon strung and played with nails. I have the same experiecne L> with my theorbo: better in ensemble and orchestra because of the gut L> strings. Better blending of sound, but also fuller in tone quality and more L> penetrating. L> L> Just my experience. L> L> David L> L> L>
