Dear Jim, There is absolutely no law which says that you have to play a piece of music on the instrument for which it was written. It might help you understand the music better by playing it on a historically correct instrument, and the chances are that it will work better and make more sense, but you don't have to do that.
Why should a pianist or a guitarist not play music by Dowland or Bach? They have a right to enjoy it as any lute-player. Guitarists, lutenists, and other musicians through the ages, have played music which was not composed with their instrument in mind. They have survived. Have lutenists never heard of an intabulation? Hopefully it won't be too long before you have your own lutes, and you will be able to savour such things as the resonance of low diapasons in the music of Weiss. Until then, stick with the guitar, and enjoy it without guilt. As far as notation is concerned, that's just a means to an end: to preserve music, and to enable someone to play it. Use whichever system you prefer. However, there are many reasons why it is a good idea to start playing from staff notation, and later play from tablature. Best wishes, Stewart McCoy. ----- Original Message ----- From: "jim abraham" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 5:01 AM Subject: [LUTE] Re: Guitar and lute > Hi All, > > I'm a beginning student. My goal is to play renaissance and baroque lute > music, but owing to financial exigencies, I am using a classical guitar at > present. I have a respected lute teacher, and we are using lute technique as > far as possible on the guitar (e.g. pinky on belly, thumb out -- my > preference, not influenced by guitar technique, thumb/index alteration on > accented/unaccented beats, etc), in anticipation of the day when I can get a > lute. > > But I've been thinking. A lot is made about using the right lute for the > job: 8-10 course lute for Dowland, 11 for baroque, 13 for Bach and Weiss, > all requiring money, lots of time tuning, and lots of time learning the ins > and outs of each instrument. On the other hand, most of the music I enjoy > seems to have been quite successfully transcribed for CG: Dowland, Weiss, > Bach's cello and lute suites, etc. If you're playing the cello suites, it's > no more authentic to play them on the lute than the CG -- is it easier? Or, > in the long run, is it simply easier (though not as musically "pure") for > the amateur to learn just the one instrument which, though a compromise, > gives access to the whole repertoire? > > Jim To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
