If we aim to recapture the sound the Old Ones made then it is surely right to adopt the same technique they used.
As a fringe exercise, rather like a reenactment of the civil war, I can see having some interest in duplicating as close as possible, what was done with the music and instruments during the time that they were created. I sometimes get a sense however that there is some taboo in searching out new adaptations of lute music or lutes themselves. I've long lamented the apparent resistance of using modern tuning machines on a lute for example. Had they been available at the time, I'm rather certain that the old masters would have joyously adopted them. I guess it's like asking what Bach would have done if he had a pedal. I'm more interested in what I will do now that I have one. As for the technique, and what oil paintings depict, and what people wrote about at the time, I'd have to wonder what might have developed had the internet been available and instantaneous sharing of modified techniques and their results was possible. There must have been a rather dogmatic "do as I say" passing of knowledge from teacher to student in the likely small world of the masters. Of this I know little however as I'm sure the scholars here will soon point out. I understand the interest in duplicating old practices, but see a disproportionately small push to further evolve and modify aspects of performance and instruments taking advantage of the modern availability of technologies and knowledge that we now have. Perhaps I will now be flooded by videos of people who do just that. I'll welcome it. I'm just a fringe lurker on the world of the lute player, so be gentle in correcting my assertions please. Tobiah
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