Interesting point, Anthony.
At one of the lute seminars in Cleveland an interesting duo played that put some of these ideas to the test. As you suggest, JH plays with a reserved and relaxed manner on all gut but projects quite well. In this concert he was paired with Ronn MacFarlane playing Pickeringe duets in a large hall. Ronn plays a slightly larger instrument in mostly synthetics at a little higher tension. His style leans toward more verve. If we were to apply a little yin/yang interpretation both approach the lute w/ a lot of yin but I'd say RM pushes his instrument to the yang side a bit more.
That night I missed getting to my usual front few rows and was in the center of the hall but it turn out very well: both came through nicely though they both occupied a slightly different soundspaces. Ronn's attacks were brightly though the loud/weak accents were less apparant. Jacob's sustains in the middle and upper ranges added quite a bit of color and that's where I more strongly heard the lute's unique strong/ weak character. In the basses, Jacob's attacks were to the fore while Ronn's synthetics carried the sustains in the lower octaves and JH's octaves carried, again, the 'colors' and harmonics. Did I prefer one over the other? Not at all! It better brought out the English idea of different instruments in an ensemble having their own color and soundspace, a texture strategy very evident in the Broken Consort. And they rocked. Imagine --and I hope those two will forgive me-- John Cleese and Robin Williams paired together to play Quixote and Sancho.
I realize this is just another colorful opinion and others' observations and tastes may vary but I thought I'd drop a couple pennies in the cup.
best to all. Carry on... Sean To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
