At 10:29 AM 4/20/2005, Roman Turovsky wrote: >The differences between slender lutes's shells like Schelle, Tielke, Frei >are so visually insignificant, that luthiers do as they please with their >nomenclatures. And the best ones' designs are original rather than slavish >copies.
This topic is somewhat interesting to me. At what point does an original design cease to be a reproduction of an early instrument and become something new? When will big, flat-backed lutes built for renaissance tuning and incorporating Kasha/Schneider bracing systems and bridge designs sweep the lute world? Why not use geared tuners? Etc? Here's an example: <http://www.daniellarson.com/mandolins/mandolino/mandolino.htm>. Dan's instruments sound as nice as any I've encountered. He credits Lambert as the prototype of this design, but anybody familiar with either of the extant Lamberts (that in the V&A, after which this one is allegedly patterned, or that in Paris's Cite de la Musique) know that the proportions, materials, decor, etc. of these things in no way resemble the original. Should this be called a reproduction of a Lambert, one of "own design," or even a "period" instrument at all? Best, Eugene To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
