Interesting that you should mention the Early Music Show. What struck me
was that none of the groups featured a singer, most of the groups were
primarily wind bands and the repertoire was 18th century or a bit later.
Increasingly I find in England "Early Music" seems to mean Vivaldi, Handel
and Bach. Obviously it is worth hearing them played on period instruments
etc. rather than modern ones but as someone who is more interested in the
much earlier stuff it is all a bit disappointing.
In England at least there seems to be a general "dumbing down". We are
lucky if we hear Bach played on the harpsichord rather than the piano.
Monica
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nancy Carlin" <na...@nancycarlinassociates.com>
To: "William Samson" <willsam...@yahoo.co.uk>
Cc: <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Monday, August 12, 2013 7:49 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness
There are a lot of good up and coming bands around. Take a listen to this
week's Early Music Show on the BBC web site. They have a bit of music from
a lot of the entries, only one of which has lute featured. The City
Waites are still around and performing, especially at Christmas time in
the UK. Taking a look at the groups that perform at the bigger early music
series and festivals, Jordi Saval is featured a lot with various
instrumental combinations. Le Poem Harmonique and Les Witches seem to be
doing interesting things. What we don't have now is the record companies
being the gate keepers for publicity. Back in the 70s and later this was a
way to focus attention on the groups that were headed for some success and
longevity. What we have now is YouTube and a bit of airplay on the radio
shows we can hear on the internet (Early Music Show & Harmonia).
Nancy
:
Is it just me, or do there seem to be fewer small broken consorts
around these days. Back in the 60s and 70s we had the Julian Bream
Consort, The Early Music Consort of London, the Consort of Musicke,
London Pro Musica, The Ely Consort, the Broadside Band, the City
Waites, the Extempore String Ensemble. I am finding it hard to think
of anything equivalent around today, certainly in the UK. I used to
travel a long way to attend their gigs and was never disappointed -
Lots of fresh music performed in ways I hadn't heard before. Always
very entertaining and full of variety and played to packed houses.
Have they had their day?
Gigs today always seem to be so serious and earnest and with much
less
variety to hold the attention of the Great Unwashed (ie
non-lutenists).
Bill
From: Miles Dempster <miles.demps...@gmail.com>
To: Lutelist List <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Monday, 12 August 2013, 17:00
Subject: [LUTE] Re: general public Lute awareness
Forty years ago the continuo section of an early music performance
hardly ever featured a finger-plucked instrument.
The theorbo and archlute have since then become 'standard', providing
bread and butter work for competent continuo players.
Miles
On 2013-08-12, at 10:45 AM, William Samson wrote:
> Nowadays, of course, there are very many more great quality
lutenists
> than there were forty years ago, but there's not nearly enough
work
to
> go round to keep them all busy as concert performers. Probably
their
> best hope of earning a crust is through teaching - either in
academia
> or with private students - and grabbing a performing opportunity
when
> it presents itself.
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Nancy Carlin
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