I am sure you are right. However, the Swan-neck could be a great
advantage for gut basses.
I tried two Stephen Gottlieb swan neck lutes, one had 14 courses, the
other had 13 courses,
and was the beautiful Fenton House Marx Unverdorben. The sound
produced by those long strings
was incredibly delicate. It could be partly because it had 31 ribs in
Yew, but I feel sure it was both
the quality of the lutemaking and the gut strings.
You do have to be careful how you swing those things, however. I
almost knocked a precious
piece of equipment off the wall with it.
The owner had come to Baroque from Renaissance music, and told me he
found it
so much easier to just pick up his 11 course and play, so that this
beauty was rather often left in its case.
Perhaps, for someone who is used to the ease of an 11c, the san-neck
might be a little daunting.
Perhaps even public transport might be an issue for some lutists who
want to keep their instruments with them,
although I am told that the swan neck is thinner, and can sometimes
fit where the smaller rider lute can't.
Regards
Anthony
Le 1 déc. 07 à 18:03, Jarosław Lipski a écrit :
Personally I don't think that the size of the instrument or even
close wound
bas stringing can be any obstacle to prevent us from playing the solo
baroque repertoire. Nigel North's Bach box set can be the best
example. All
4 CDs were recorded on the swan neck Neitzert lute (after Leopold
Widhalm)
in 415 and 392 tuning, strung with copper close wound basses and I
have the
feeling that the instrument is perfectly balanced. In my opinion
everything
depends on the way the instrument is built and the way you play it.
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 6:18 PM
To: T. Diehl-Peshkur
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [BAROQUE-LUTE] Re: 13 course rider/swan
For what it is worth, the recital at the Lute Society last saturday
was on
a swan neck instrument strung entirely with gut and played by Richard
Sweeney (if my memory is correct) and it sounded wonderful, and
there was
no problem with over ringing bases
nick gravestock
Dear all,
I know this subject has been discussed before, and I have recently
followed
the interesting discussions on the d minor continuo lute
the last week. However, regarding the choice of rider vs. swan necked
instruments for solo work, I have checked the archives, but I still
have some doubts about the =8Cgeneral consensus' re: one or the
other for
late
works such as Weiss, Bach and others.
A number of modern players have dropped using the 13 course swan
necked
instruments (like R. Barto) to the rider type for several musical and
technical reasons. O'Dette has also chosen a rider type for his
Bach works
Vol. 1 (so far at least!) and there is a general feeling that the
swan
neck
variety
is more a continuo type instrument.
But my gut feeling (no pun intended!) is that the swan neck type was
primarily popular because it could use plain gut strings instead
of any
overwinding
(of whatever type). I really see the smaller, circa 70cm (stopped)
swan
necked instruments as really fitting that role.
To put it differently: could it be that the use of more modern
stringing
has
given an impression of =8Ctoo much sustain' and other such
difficulties
with the 13 course swan necked instruments?
As yet I have never had a chance to hear one entirely strung in
good gut.
Any comments insights on this point by the experts among you here
would be
greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Theo
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