It all depends on what one is trying to accomplish. If your goal is to
become the best luter around and enjoy the accolades and privileges that
accompany that position, it's probably imperative that you narrow your
focus. If your goal is to explore and enjoy as much of this wonderful music
as possible, exploring other instruments might be the way to go. Playing
more than one instrument is a time honored tradition. Is it not true that
the illustrious Francesco Canova da Milano, played gamba as well as lute? I
feel that studying lute has made me a better guitarist and studying gamba
has made me a better luter, etc.
When asked how he maintained his creativity for so many years, Count Basie
said, "I don't worry about creativity. I do what I like to do, and if I'm
creative that's great. If not, I'm doing what I like to do."
Gary
----- Original Message -----
From: "Christopher Stetson" <cstet...@email.smith.edu>
To: "Lute list" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>; "Peter Martin"
<peter.l...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 11:31 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Dilettantism
Dear Peter and all,
I'm the one who "prefers diversity to virtuosity", and I made a conscious
decision not to try to "play to a high professional standard." There are
just too many wonderful instruments and too much fascinating music in the
world for me to limit myself in that way, so I prefer to make my money
elsewhere and enjoy making music when I can (and, possibly, I realized I
just didn't have the chops to go pro!).
Unfortunately, I've found that keeping up to even my low standards limits
me to about 4 instruments at a time, max.
But like I said, no chops!
BTW, and just to clarify, dilettantism is not a "charge" coming from me.
Best to all, and keep playing,
Chris.
Peter Martin <peter.l...@gmail.com> 2/6/2009 6:43 AM >>>
I've been bothered by the charge of dilettantism (someone who "prefers
diversity to virtuosity") which was raised on this list recently. How
many different instruments is it possible to play to a high
professional standard? One? Two? And how many do most lutenists try
to play? Four? Eight? And the differences are not trivial: sizes,
playing techniques, tunings, repertoire, notation...
Hans Keller once wrote an essay denouncing Phoney Professions, one of
which was the Viola Player. Phoney, because playing the viola is so
similar to playing the violin that specialist viola players shouldn't
need to exist. Yet they persist. The string player's quest for the
highest possible standard on his/her instrument trumps Keller's logic.
Are we in the lute world systematically harming our playing standards,
even the reputation of our instrument, by spreading ourselves too
thin? Wouldn't we do better to specialise?
Peter
(lute, theorbo, classical guitar, baroque guitar, ocarina...)
--
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 - http://www.avg.com
Version: 8.0.175 / Virus Database: 270.10.18/1936 - Release Date: 2/5/2009
11:34 AM
