Katherine Davies wrote: > >There are lots of renaissance pictures of people >playing lutes while standing up without any sign of a >strap. Does anyone do this? Any ideas on how - or if - >it could be done? > >I'm not having a go at strap-users; I'm just a bit >puzzled - I have enough trouble keeping the thing in >place when I'm sitting down.
A good friend of mine has been doing studies into the Medieval harp and all the iconography she's seen shows what she calls the magically levitating harp. No sign of a strap or other gadget to rest it on the knees (one harper I know has a crossbar on a wooden knob that fits into the sound hole in the back of the harp and the crossbar rests on his knees). She's been trying to figure out whether there is some sort of mechanism in place that the painted didn't see or if the painters simply didn't understand how the instrument is played took artiztic license. I"ve tried playing the lute standing up without a strap and it's very difficult for me. So I prefer to sit with a piece of suede across my knee to keep the lute from slipping. Regards, Craig ___________________________________________________________ $0 Web Hosting with up to 200MB web space, 1000 MB Transfer 10 Personalized POP and Web E-mail Accounts, and much more. Signup at www.doteasy.com To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
