On Monday 09 October 2006 9:28 am, you wrote: > The point is that he is bringing to a wide audience music that in > my opinion sounds bad because it's badly performed, with some sort > of hybrid instruments and hybrid technique and poor vocal > technique. As he has access to a lot more people than any of the > professional lutenists in the world, all those people listening at > his CD will get a distorted idea of what early music is. I'm not > sure this will be a good service to the lute world and that the > curiosity it will spin in some of the listeners will be prevalent.
Hello Francesco, I'm not certain what you meant by that last statement. If you mean that no curiosity will be generated because of the 'bad sound/music', or maybe you meant that less curiosity will be generated than if the sound/music was 'good': I will politely disagree. It's been said, "There's no such thing as bad publicity." If Sting arouses curiosity, it will mostly be curiosity among people who have never heard of the lute. Some of those people will be intrigued enough to search for more "lute" music, either in music shops or on the internet. What will they find? More music exactly like what Sting has done? Or something closer to what people on this list consider authentic "lute" music. I was intrigued with the "lute" when I heard the Lachrimae Antiquae cut from Dances of Dowland by Julian Bream, Lutenist. I recorded the LP from my local public library onto cassette tape. I didn't copy the notes on the recording's jacket, so I don't know exactly what instrument Mr Bream was playing. Listening to the cassette tape now, I'm wondering if Mr Bream was playing with nails, on nylon strings, on a guitar in lute tuning. Not very HIP to lutenists if that is indeed the case. Or maybe his playing was miked to closely. Who knows? But it was Mr Bream's recording (and his Lute Music of Dowland recording, also copied to cassette tape from a public library LP) that brought me to the lute (over a decade later after making those cassette recordings) when I decided to return to 'personal' music (making music by and for myself). I researched the lute on the internet and found this list, among other resources. I'm now playing a Renaissance G Lute, double gut strung in unison on 1, 2, and 3, double gut strung octave on 4, 5, and 6, in quarter comma meantone temperament, with A=415Hz, and thumb out. Quite a different sound from Mr Bream's recordings. Thanks to Mr Bream, my soul is singing again. No one else may ever hear me play, but I don't care. I have come home to the lute and it's mellow, intimate sound. You can be certain that people hearing Sting's CD will be visiting this list at some time. Perhaps strongly critiquing Sting will discourage these curious searchers from the lute and the lute community. Perhaps it would be wiser to welcome Sting's efforts, welcome the publicity, and most certainly welcome the curious searchers. Kind Regards, "The Other" Stephen Stubbs Champaign, IL US To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
