To Martyn & All: My point is, while we may try to recreate sounds of the past, we are constrained by the parameters of the present. Echoing Arto's idea, the 'truth' of what we hear is here and now. I would prefer to immerse myself in the contextual evidence and damn the realities of modern performing constraints - except I like playing on strings that are possible to tune. Ron Andrico > Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2011 08:27:07 +0100 > To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu > From: hodgsonmar...@yahoo.co.uk > Subject: [LUTE] What's the point to 'historical sound' > > > > Ron Andrico writes: 'This whole archlute episode brings up an > important point: At some point, we have to admit that we are not trying > to re-create an historical sound.' > > There are a number of difficulties with this view of which the > principal is that the original composer created the work with > particular sounds in mind (tho' of course this might vary so that, for > example, pieces could sometimes be rescored to better fit local > conditions). Who are we to say the composer was wrong? > > The whole thrust of 'period performance' is to try and escape from the > blinkered cavalier (self-centred) approach adopted in the early years > of the movement and to focus on trying to achieve something closer to > what the 'Old Ones' might actually have heard. Personally I'd draw the > line at castrati - but accidents can happen....... > > MH > > MH > > > > > -- > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
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