La Superbe - CD
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La Superbe - CD

La Superbe - CD

Gamut Music, Inc.SKU: R105
1 review
Price:
$15.00 USD

Description

“If you like not his play, he tells you he has at least the new method of Paris… (Through Rak’tout of Gualtiers Ounghil, or collected from the privvyhouse of Desaut) he keeps them as precious reliquaries…”

So says Richard Flecknoe’s satirical prose of 1658 regarding visiting French lutenists. Even allowing for humorous and chauvinistic license, you can see that during the protectorate some people were put off by the instrument’s courtly associations — at least in French hands. To be fair, François Dufault clearly spent time in England and found supporters and fans as well as grumpy detractors.

After spending the prior century as the European “Prince of Instruments,” the Lute as solo instrument had lost so much ground that in spite of its golden age in Elizabethan/Jacobean England (c. 1590-1620), Thomas Mace wrote in 1676 that “my first and chief design [is] to discover the occult mysteries of the noble lute, and to show the great worthiness of that too much neglected and abused instrument.”

And yet, the lute’s long-necked relatives — the archlute and theorbo — continued to be ubiquitous for accompaniment well into the 18th century, even as the solo repertoire in print and manuscript waned.

French lutenists, experimenting with new tunings before settling on a lute whose top six strings spelled a minor chord (A-D-F-A-D-F), as does the lute heard on this recording, continued the solo tradition to the end of the 17th century.

La Superbe: Thomas Walker Jr. - Baroque Lute

François Dufalt (c. 1604-1672) Suite in A Minor

1. Prelude
2. Allemande
3. Courante
4. Courante
5. Sarabande
6. Gigue
7. Paduana in G Minor

Esaias Reusner (1636-1679) Suite in C Major

8. Allemanda
9. Courant
10. Sarabanda
11. Gavotte
12. Gigue

François Dufalt Suite in D Minor

13. Prelude (Anon)
14. La Superbe Allemande
15. Courante
16. Sarabande
17. Sauterelle

François Dufalt Suite in G Minor

18. Prelude
19. Tombeau de Blanrocher
20. Courante Suedoise
21. Courante
22. Giuge
23. Sarabande

Esaias Reusner Suite in E Minor

24. Allemanda
25. Courant
26 Sarabanda
27. Aria
28. Gigue

Hand-made in the USA by Gamut Music, Inc., a leader in the revival of early music strings and instruments. Gut strings are not intended to be used with fine tuners or string adjusters, and those devices should be removed before installing the gut string on the instrument.

All Gamut Academie strings (pure gut and gut/metal-wound) are made with beef serosa unless they specifically say "Sheep Gut." All pure gut Tricolore violin and viola strings are made with sheep gut; gut/metal-wound Tricolore and all Red Diamond strings are made with beef serosa.

Gamut gut string gauges are approximate (≈) diameter. Meaning, that while a ≈0.60mm string is polished in the workshop to a diameter of 0.60mm, changes in ambient humidity, temperature, shipping, and storage conditions can cause to string to expand or contract slightly.

Gimped gut strings and custom gauged equal tension strings are gauged with the equivalent-gauge (=) system. This means that the gauge listed, such as =1.50mm, indicates that the string is approximately equal in weight to a plain gut string of that diameter. Of course, because the wire is much heavier than gut, the string will be much thinner than a plain gut string.

More information about Gamut gut strings, string types, gauges, and string tensions can be found on our FAQ/Articles page. Not finding an answer to your question? Please contact us.

 

Customer Reviews

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M
Melissa Chappell
The Lute shines

This is a wonderful recording of Suites by Reusner and Dufaut and was an expansion of my knowledge of early Baroque repertoire for the lute. Thomas Walker Jr. is himself superb in giving expression to these pieces, and I would commend this album for any lute lover's listening pleasure.