At 06:24 AM 10/10/2006, gary digman wrote: >I think the lute died for the same reason all the soft voiced insturments >died, i.e. the plucked keyboards (spinets, clavichords, harpsichords, etc), >the violas da gamba, and at the same time. When the concert hall was >invented in the early 18th century, the idea was to put as many rear ends in >as many seats as possible. Thus the loud voiced instruments fell into favor.
But the guitar survived, and it did not become a concert-hall instrument until the 20th century. There's a massive amount of chamber music from the 19th century. Why couldn't the lute have continued equally with the guitar in that setting? I don't know the answer but I am pretty sure that it's not lack of volume. Caroline **************************************** Caroline Usher DCMB Administrative Coordinator 613-8155, Room B343 LSRC Mailing address: Box 91000, Duke University, Durham NC 27708 To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
