Hi Tim, my teacher advised her students to buy 10-course lutes. The reason is that you can play nearly every piece written in "vielle ton" on it. It's practical. In the meantime I have learned that earlier music doesn't sound right on a larger instrument but I still think a 10-course is a good choice. But a 8-course would do also (this was my first lute) because there are surprisingly few pieces which cannot be played on an 8-course. There are even pieces which do not work on a 10-course but well on a smaller lute (example: Dowland's Farewell-Fantasia in the setting of Mylius)
Best wishes Thomas Am Sonntag, 3. April 2005 03:35 schrieb Tim Beasley: > Thanks all for a lot of great advice. It's greatly appreciated. > > I've (obviously) been doing a bit of reading. One luthier's webpage I ran > across pointed out that 6-course Renaissance music doesn't suffer horribly > on 7/8-course lutes, but that one should never even think of playing music > intended for 6-course lute on a 10-course instrument. > > My question is: Why not? (Assuming the first six courses are tuned > appropriately.) And would it be any different if I "accidentally" didn't > bother to string the lower courses? > > I can see how it may not be desirable to go the other way--play X-course > music on 6-course instruments. But since my having multiple lutes is not a > possibility in the near, intermediate, and probably even long-term future, > I'm trying to find a compromise that'll maximize the music I could play, > without doing undue violence to the musical text itself. > > (Allow a me brief note on why lutes aren't popular in this day and > age. Instruments are expensive and fragile. Repertoire is in a fairly > unfamiliar idiom. I was originally put off guitar by the (relative > non-)complexity of having to choose 650 mm or 640 mm scale length, > cedar/spruce top, "country" vs. classical, and choice of back/side > wood. There's no decent lute tutor that I can find. The instrument > doesn't receive airplay or have superstars prancing on stage--hunk, punk, > or babe, variously. And, as Segovia is reported to have said, We live in a > noisy age.) > > Tim B. > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- Thomas Schall Niederhofheimer Weg 3 D-65843 Sulzbach 06196/74519 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
