2013/12/11 Mayes, Joseph <[1]ma...@rowan.edu> Well, browse the recordings since mid seventies.
Well, I was sort of fearing some push-back from the "tap-dancing barefoot" crowd. I don't know how you can speak for most of the lutenists out there. I certainly only meant to speak for me. No it doesn't. Lamentable only for those who didn't have the trouble to learn how to do it. Ask Hoppy, O'Dette, North, Herringman, Lislevand, Ferre, Barto (the list is too big...) and many others how to do it. It's not that difficult and the result is pure joy. Sweetness requires nails. The sound - sort of a "thub, thub" one achieves without them is so unsatisfying as to be lamentable. Fungus? That's pure speculation. About Sor, check his method, no research needed it's there. Tarrega played with nails until he lost them due to fungus - He convinced his late-in-life student Pujol that flesh was the way to go. Sor hated nails? I'd like to see that research. Rubish, Dolmetsch didn't study enough lute praxis and Bream wasn't a lutenist in the first place (actually he never assumed he was - this is documented in an interview). The stars do not agree entirely with themselves, but the important points remain the same. As for "asking Hoppy," I think that illustrates part of the problem with the HIP folks. Because the stars do it one way - that's the right way. Bear in mind that Dolmetch and Bream, et al thought they had it right, too. I thought this list was supposedly a place to discuss lute performance practice and not each ones taste. Some people may prefer to play with nails on carbon single strings and with amplification. What does it have to do with HIP? But, as I say, I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything. Play any way you want to, just leave the dogma on the porch. Joseph Mayes ________________________________________ From: [2]lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [[3]lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of Bruno Correia [[4]bruno.l...@gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 8:29 PM To: List LUTELIST Subject: [LUTE] Re: Bream Collection... I just noticed It may sound good to you, but not for most of the lutenists out there. Ask Hoppy about this issue? Ok, you don't need to ask him, after all you don't ride a horse to the gig... Hey, I'd like to do that, the traffic has been so bad nowadays. The most frequent word to describe the lute's sound is sweetness! How can you have achieve it with nails? Double strings also require that both strings be pressed at once and not one after the other. The lute is after all a sweet instrument (specially with gut). Even in classical guitar tutors (19th-20th century) the issue of nails was still rolling on. Sor hated it and only tolerated Aguado because of his great skill. That's why Tarrega and Pujol also avoided it (even if it was a requirement due to the high tension of the Torres guitar). Going back: The sources were just saying that many people were careless about their sound production. In order to avoid it, what about cutting your nails once and a while, washing your hands (daily if you can)? 2013/12/10 Mayes, Joseph <[1][5]ma...@rowan.edu> I play the lute, archlute and vihuela with nails for the same reason that I play the classical guitar with nails: because it sounds better! Of course, by that I mean it sounds better to me. Nails give the attack a precision that flesh does not. It also comes closer, IMHO to the sound usually described in historical sources as desirable on lute - silvery, tinkling, etc. Many sources tell us not to use nails - which they wouldn't have bothered to do if people were not doing it that way. I don't play with flesh, I don't ride my horse to the gig, and I don't attend any bear-bating. My $.02 Joseph mayes -- References 1. mailto:[6]ma...@rowan.edu To get on or off this list see list information at [7]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:ma...@rowan.edu 2. mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu 3. mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu 4. mailto:bruno.l...@gmail.com 5. mailto:ma...@rowan.edu 6. mailto:ma...@rowan.edu 7. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html