As a pastor, I sometimes take a lute with me for visits in hospitals, provided I'm not aware of hostility of the particular person towards music.
When entering the room, I put the case down at the wall and leave it shut until it is mentioned by the ill person. Only then shall I offer to open the case and play. It has become known in my congregation, though, that I play the lute, which has raised certain expectations >:) My first experience was total silence in the room after a few measures. When I looked up, I saw the woman was crying and I immediately started apologizing, but she wouldn't let me say it and insisted that I went on playing. In hospital rooms, there is usually no carpet on the floor. To my own listening, this has a strongly enhancing and brightening effect on the sound. You may play as slowly and with a low voice as you will, everything will be heard. By now, I prefer to take the baroque lute with some easy Weiss pieces prepared. Haven't yet found appropiate renaissance lute music. Italian and German intabulations did work so far, but Weiss did better, as far as I can tell. -- All the best, Mathias -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
