Reading the various comments sparked by Sting's recording has been both enlightening and entertaining. I have to say that I am mostly in sympathy with Gary Digman's rational words.
The lute seems to mean something entirely different to different individuals. For many here in the US, it appears to have a huge 'Renaissance Fair' appeal, complete with the costumes and comedy. There are also many afficianados who are completely absorbed in the historical mystique of the lute and its music and would rather not have their reverie interrupted by a real person actually playing the lute. For many, experiencing the lute means listening again and again to their favorite recordings, unaware that a lute recording is always always always the product of manufactured perfection. When I first asked Paul O'Dette about his approach to recording, he indicated that he plays very differently when in front of an engineer's microphone, and never has the first chord of a recorded piece come from the same 'take' as the last chord. Our lutesong duo, Mignarda, released a CD of air de cour earlier this year and we made a conscious effort to break the mold of the typical sound we have all come to expect in lutesong CDs. We decided that the usual Early Music audience was going to seek out the usual suspects and we had neither the budget nor the driving interest to attempt to gain their attention. Instead, we intentionally attempted to appeal to the same audience who may listen to Dead Can Dance, or Loreena McKennitt. We felt that here was an opportunity to convert other listeners to authentic 17th century music merely by not being academic and boring. It seems to have worked. The amusing thing is that mainstream classical radio station WCLV, normally the source of 19th century symphonies and live broadcasts of the Cleveland Orchestra, selected our CD as a 'Choice CD of the Month' a few months ago. Go figure. I agree with Mark that the music is all about the emotional content of the piece and it is our job to convey that. I have no question that David can convincingly play a Campion piece on guitar, since he is obviously deeply involved in the aesthetics of the music. Gary is right to point out that it shouldn't matter whether one is playing Dowland or Coltrane, as long as the meaning of the music is understood and conveyed. The absolute best feedback we ever had after a performance of Dowland's 'Go nightly cares' was from a woman who was not a typical Early Music fan. She approached us afterward and said that she was so completely absorbed in the dark emotion of the song that she became very concerned for Donna and wanted to give her the phone number of a therapist. I think that means we 'sold' the song. By the way, I am organizing a lute playing day for November 11th, to be held in Brattleboro, VT. If anyone is interested, please write me for more information. Ron Andrico & Donna Stewart [EMAIL PROTECTED] [2]http://www.mignarda.com ______________________________________________________________ From: "gary digman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "lutelist" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Subject: [LUTE] Re: Single strung archlute !!! Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 03:02:48 -0700 >Early muisic movement? Is there a manifesto? Play it as you hear and feel >it, make it your own. Do with it what you will. I've played Bela Bartok, >Charlie Parker and Lennon and MacCartney as well as Dowland, Terzi and da >Milano. I think Sting's heart is in the right place. He did the CD because >he loves the lute and Dowland's music, at least thay's what he says' I don't >think he ever expected it to become all that commercially successful. Let >those who wish to play double strung play and those who wish to play single >strung play. I don't conceive of my job as a lutenist to reproduce a >performance by John Dowland. ( Not that I could). To paraphrase William >"Count" Basie, I just do what I like to do and if it's HIP, that's great. If >not, I'm doing what I like to do. Not that I don't value historical >research. I eagerly study the results of scholars into HIP. Every insight >helps me to understand and value this music more. And adds to my tool kit. >Well, I guess I better go listen to the samples of the Sting CD so I can see >what the redness and the swelling is all about. > >Best to All >Gary > >----- Original Message ----- >From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> >Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 9:58 AM >Subject: [LUTE] Re: Single strung archlute !!! > > > > In einer eMail vom 25.09.2006 17:25:56 Westeurop=E4ische Normalzeit >schreibt > > [EMAIL PROTECTED]: > > > > > Interestingly, POD suggested single stinging as an option. > > > > If this is true then maybe the time has come for a reformation of the >early > > music movement, how did we get in this mess ! > > Mark > > > > -- > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > > > > > > > -- > > No virus found in this incoming message. > > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > > Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.12.8/455 - Release Date: 9/22/2006 > > > > > > References 1. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 2. http://www.mignarda.com/
