Where the bee stings, where the sting sucks, etc. 1. Sting's version is Sting's not HIP. Why would he do something else when he knows that other people can do HIP better than him? And why would we expect anything different. 2. Having said that, he at least had the decency of using an instrument fairly close to the actual Dowland lute. Something that classical musicians would not have dreamed of doing only 30 years ago. 3. The subtleties of the current discussion on the lutenist's interpretation here are lost on 99.9999999+% of the world's population. At which point does elitism become ridiculous? It's a question, not an answer, preferably to be asked in a bar in downtown Nashville. 4. The little birds in the background are kitsch, really... That alone would put Dowland on a par with your grandmother's wall paper, the one she bought at Walmart: kill the damn birds I say! If at least, he had used the recording of a swarm of bees, his message would have had more profound semantic depth. That is the lost opportunity. Alain
LGS-Europe wrote: >> You say that the lute playing is below standard for Dowland lute songs? >> What do you mean? Is there such a thing? Would you give me an example? >> > > Accompanying Dowland is to move with the text. Forward, hold a litltle, > emphasis here, crunching chords on crunching words, purely instrumental > melodic interest in the middle voices to slow things down or speed things > up, hanging dissonant bass note on E-flat resolving half a bar later in a D > to give relaxation with the text, alternating warm sound with harsh sound > where appropriate with the text. Everything you do in a great song like In > Darkness Let Me Dwell to help the emotions of the text come across. It's on > the Sting cd too, you can hear a bit on track 23 of the examples. They do > much of what I describe, it's quite exiting actually, but I find the sound > horrible: thin and scraping. I cannot get emotionally involved, it's > repelling. Maybe in the end that is what I don't like: the sound of lute as > well as voice. The lute player is musical and does good things, but not good > enough. Pity, missed opportunity. As Paul said, hopefully someone else will > try his hand at this repertoire with a poppy aproach. Listen to Jacob > Herringman for a different Dowland song accompanist. And for different > vowels, too, by the way. They use period pronunctiation. (Treasures from my > Mind - Virelai - Virgin Veritas). > > David > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > >
