Please forgive the unfogivable grammar chaos in some of my sentences in my earlier mail - I really should always check spelling and grammer before sending... F
----------------------- Dr. Franz Mechsner Zum Kirschberg 40 D-14806 Belzig OT Borne franz.mechs...@gmx.de +49(0)33841-441362 Gesendet: Freitag, 23. August 2013 um 08:55 Uhr Von: "Franz Mechsner" <franz.mechs...@gmx.de> An: "Bruno Correia" <bruno.l...@gmail.com> Cc: lute <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Betreff: [LUTE] Re: Liuto forte Dear Bruno, I own a guitar made by Mario Gropp and a vihuela by Alexander Batov and am very happy with both instruments. I also had a Liuto Forte for several years, which I unfortunately had to sell for financial reasons. I miss that beautiful instrument a lot. First of all, it is a wonderful instrument in its own right, so I estimated it highly such as I estimate my guitar and my vihuela. There is no need to compare any of these instruments on the cost of the others - every of these has something the others have not and the other way around, which is trivial of course but has to be told to purists of any sort. Recently I've had the privilege to host Andre Burguete who invented the instrument. It was pure joy to hear him fill the house with his beautiful and tasteful playing, still a wonderful memory. He plays with nails but recently developed a playing technique somewhat different from Segovia style to serve the possibilities of the Liuto Forte best. So most importantlyl, the instruments of the Liuto Forte family are beautifully crafted and sound beautiful. In that respect they can only be praised highly. Really highly, to my humble judgment. If you have to classify the sound of a Liuto Forte on a scale between early music lute (or vihuela, if you like) on one end and the guitar on the other end, it would certainly be closer to the guitar than to the early music lute or vihuela, while you can shift the position closer to early music instruments when you play the Liuto Forte without nails. But to leave it with that one-dimensional judgment of sound characteristics would not really do justice to the instrument. It has to be said that the Liuto Forte has an astonishing range and variability of sound characteristics which can neither be covered by a modern guitar nor by a lute. When played with nails, the strings feel somewhat softer than guitar strings and can be played with less force. This is no wonder as string tension is lower than on a guitar. Overall, to my impression a Liuto Forte sounds more transparent, which serves polyphony. This is particularly so in the bass range where a guitar often (or probably usually) sounds somewhat "thick" and "too strong" while a Liuto Forte has more clarity here as well as a better balance between bass and treble in my judgment. Not to forget the possibilities that open up with the enlarged bass range and the variability made possible by the family of instruments. One may well say, the lute family is all one needs and be happy with this. I have nothing to say against such a stance except that this is only spoken from a certain taste and viewpoint which is open to discussion to say the least. I myself do much welcome a new family of instruments which mirrors the world of lutes in a way the violin family mirrors the viol family. I feel quite strange seeing them dismissed in a sentence, called them "fake lutes" etc. Couldn't one call, with equal right, a modern violin a "fake viol", or a modern guitar a "fake guitar" as it is not a Renaissance or Baroque guitar, or a Bach concert played by a modern orchestra a "fake concert". There are certainly people who do so... I see no reason why I shouldn't love all of these instruments and ways of playing music (if well done of course...). As said, there's nothing to say against different tastes and viewpoints here, but much to say against dogmatic and dismissing viewpoints. (By the way, the Liuto Forte team was, awarded the European Innovation Award for Musical Instruments in 1999 given by Robert Schuman Foundation and the Europaeische Kulturstiftung. So it seems I'm not the only one with my high esteem.) The Liuto Forte sounds well also without nails. Thus you can play romantic music without nails to an astonishing effect. It sounds quite intimate and soft. I never played a parlor guitar thus I cannot compare but I loved the possibility to use the Liuto Forte in this way which is not possible with the modern guitar. You can also play lute music without nails which produces - in my view - a sound which quite deviates from normal guitar sound and may give more justice to, say, Renaissance lute music as a guitar would. I played some English Renaissance music without nails in a room filled with about 200 not always silent people sitting around tables, on the occasion of a Christmas celebration. It worked really well. Professional guitarists seem to like, in addition, that Liuto Fortes can be well heard in ensembles. In sum I would say: if you like the sound a Liuto Forte you can enjoyed that beautiful instrument its own right and also play it in concert simply because you like it. Depending on what your equipment and needs are, there might be opportunities where you might prefer playing a Liuto Forte not only for subjective taste reasons but also for practical reasons. Please take this as the opinion and experience of a non-expert who loves music and simply likes the Liuto Forte regarding sound and possibilities as well as regarding design. Best Franz ----------------------- Dr. Franz Mechsner Zum Kirschberg 40 D-14806 Belzig OT Borne franz.mechs...@gmx.de +49(0)33841-441362 Gesendet: Freitag, 23. August 2013 um 03:43 Uhr Von: "Bruno Correia" An: lute Betreff: [LUTE] Re: Liuto forte But, do they sound lute like? The samples feature guitarrists playing with nails and single strings... 2013/8/22 [1]r.turov...@gmail.com <[2]r.turov...@gmail.com> There are rather poorly designed from the standpoint of visual aesthetics. maybe with the exception of theorbo forte. The swan neck forte is a particularly funny looking contraption. RT On 8/22/2013 6:30 PM, John Lenti wrote: Don't own one but have borrowed and gigged on. Funny sound, like a Steinway classical guitar, but really responsive and loud. I think there is a place for them in this world. Sent from my Ouija board On Aug 22, 2013, at 6:05 PM, "David Tayler" <[3]vidan...@sbcglobal.net> wrote: If they called it a fake lute, it would not sell as well. __________________________________________________________________ From: Bruno Correia <[4]bruno.l...@gmail.com> To: List LUTELIST <[5]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 1:41 PM Subject: [LUTE] Liuto forte Would anybody be willing to share his own experience with liuto forte instruments? -- Bruno Figueiredo Pesquisador autonomo da pratica e interpretac,ao historicamente informada no alaude e teorba. Doutor em Praticas Interpretativas pela Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. -- To get on or off this list see list information at [1][6][1][1]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. [7][2][2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- Bruno Figueiredo Pesquisador autonomo da pratica e interpretac,ao historicamente informada no alaude e teorba. Doutor em Praticas Interpretativas pela Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. -- References 1. mailto:r.turov...@gmail.com 2. mailto:r.turov...@gmail.com 3. mailto:vidan...@sbcglobal.net 4. mailto:bruno.l...@gmail.com 5. mailto:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu 6. [3][3]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 7. [4][4]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html References 1. [5]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 2. [6]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 3. [7]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 4. [8]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html References 1. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 4. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 5. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 6. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 7. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 8. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
