Hello ALL,
A
Much has been discussed in the past on this list and on the medieval
lute list on whether medieval lutes had frets or not.A There is a
common misconception that lutes must have had no frets since the modern
day oud has none either.A A In fact nothing seems to be further from
the truth than that.A Fretless Ouds appear to be a more recent
evolution than originally thought.A Iconography shows that arabic
lutes did in fact have frets, other did not.A The illuminations in the
Cantigas de Santa Maria do show lutes with and without frets.A I also
recall seeing an ancient picture of a persian Oud with frets, but I
cannot find it right now.A Does anyone have that pic? I remember it
circulating amongs this list.A Quarter tones are not part of the
medieval music literature, so I do not see why fretless lutes would
have been the norm.A In fact, even if you needed to play quarter
tones, this could be achieved through fretting, just like the turkish
Saz, which is fretted in quarter tones.A Do not forget that frets have
another purpose besides accurate pitch. They allow the sound to be
substained more than if played fretless.
A
That being said, I do enjoy playing oud without frets and do use it in
certain medieval repertoire, such as the Cantigas de Santa Maria.A
More because I like the sound than for authenticity.A Authenticity can
never be achieved when performing medieval music, as we know so little
about the instruments, the strings, the way they were built, so on and
so forth.A
A
I first started playing medieval music on my Renaissance lute, because
that's all I had.A Throughout the years I acquired several
instruments; oud, saz, gittern, turkish laouta, etc, but none can be
considered as authentic for medieval music.A They are simply
instruments I like to believe are close to what would have been
available in the middle ages, but were they that close?A My oud is
strung in Gut, because I like the sound, NOT because it is authentic,
as even modern gut strings are nowhere close to what would have been
available in medieval times.
A
In short, play the music as you like to hear it, never say or pretend
it is the authentic way.....just have fun with it.
A
A
Bruno
[1]www.estavel.orgA ( medieval ensemble)
On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 8:37 PM, Stephen Arndt
<[2]stephenar...@earthlink.net> wrote:
I think that much of Dick Hoban's "Masters of Polyphony" series can
be played on a 5-course lute, but check with him to be sure.
-----Original Message----- From: David R
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 2:28 PM
To: [3]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
Subject: [LUTE] Medieval Lute
Hi luters,
I'm thinking of getting into a type of lute music I've never played
before, namely medieval lute. A Problem is, I don't know where to
find
the music. A Are there sources specifically for medieval lute, or
does
one simply have to "just know" what music to play based on knowledge
of medieval music in general? A I guess I'm wanting to know what the
various genres are, and where to find sources. A Can any of you kind
folks help me out on this? A Feel free to inundate me with info if
you
want to!
Thanks,
David Rastall
To get on or off this list see list information at
[4]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
A
Bruno Cognyl-Fournier
A
[5]www.estavel.org
A
--
References
1. http://www.estavel.org/
2. mailto:stephenar...@earthlink.net
3. mailto:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu
4. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
5. http://www.estavel.org/
