Dear Kenneth,
Many thanks for this - it looks very convincing. Especially interesting is
that it appears to be TWO ribbons each attached to DIFFERENT buttons on the
player's tunic - this ought to provide more stabilty than the single
ribbon/gut thoery. Just goes to show how important it is to refer back to
historic evidence.
Any more information on the picture? - provenance etc?
Many thanks again
Martyn
Kenneth Bé <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hello Stewart, Katherine, Luca, and Martin:
I'm writing to the four of you individually from my private email address
because there is a remarkable print I want to share by Wenceslaus Hollar, the
early 17th C. German who worked in London, showing a lute player from the side
angle where you can clearly see the strap attached to the body of the lute and
looping around the button (actually it is attached to TWO buttons) on his
jacket. I have scanned and attached it here (I don't know how to post images
on the web, otherwise I'd share it with all on the lutelist).
A Young Man Playing a Lute
Etching (P.1698a)
185 x 130mm
private collection
Illustrated inL
Wenceslaus Hollar: A Bohemian Artist in England
by Richard T. Godfrey
Yale Univ Press 1994
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Stewart McCoy" < [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Lute Net" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 17:43:02 +0100
Subject: [LUTE] Lute straps
Dear Craig and Katherine,
An alternative to using a strap, which was used in the 17th Century,
is to tie a gut string between two pegs on the body of the
instrument. One peg is where you'd expect to see a peg, i.e. in the
middle of the end clasp; the other peg is fixed through the middle
rib just before the body joins the neck. The string is tied so that
it lies flush with the middle rib, and you hook it over a button on
your coat to stabilise the lute. It is thought that Mouton may be
holding his lute this way in that famous picture of him. If you
think the artist hasn't quite got it right, and the lute looks as if
it is suspended in front of the player as if by magic, it is
possible that it is being held in this way. There is an article by
Robert Spencer in _Early Music_, with a picture of the back of a
lute, showing the gut string tied between two pegs. I could look up
the reference if you want.
If you play the lute standing up, and without a strap or a piece of
string between two pegs, you have to use your left hand to support
the instrument. This can be satisfactory for short periods, but can
cause irritation to the part of the hand holding the neck,
unaccustomed to the friction involved. Barré chords are problematic,
so you may have to tinker with the music a bit, e.g. change
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to
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Best wishes,
Stewart McCoy.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Craig Allen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED] >
To: <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2006 4:18 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: lute straps
> 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
>
>
>
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