I generally support Martyn's opinion. I think there are two approaches around at the moment. The one with a relaxed
feeling towards historical evidence playing Liuto forte or Dowland on an archlute which seems to be quite popular at the moment. This one accepts the fact that we cannot recreate the historical surrounding of music performing. Neither the rooms nor the audiences with a very different intellectual background. this approach concentrates on music making, the love to the historical instruments and their sounds and try to incorporate this field into the modern music world. The other approach would be more scientific. Accepting the fact we already don't know enough about ancient times (although its pretty much). This approach would still try to experiment based on new evidences, trying new strings, new playing positions and new sources. Both positions (and all the variants in between) seem to be valid, don't they? All the best Thomas Am Samstag, 2. Juli 2011, 09.27:07 schrieb Martyn Hodgson: > 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 -- Thomas Schall Doerflistrasse 2 CH-6078 Lungern +41 41 678 00 79 lauten...@lautenist.de ------------------------------------------------------------- -- Thomas Schall Doerflistrasse 2 CH-6078 Lungern +41 41 678 00 79 lauten...@lautenist.de --
