duggup

Artist: Paul Berget
Website: http://magnatune.com/artists/paul_berget
Track Name: S.L. Weiss on 11 Strings ( I chose the Bouree)
Playback: mp3/flash
Download?: Yes

Today we will look at the last of the trio of Magnatune artists I found a few weeks back, Paul Berget plays renaissance lute (amongst other stringed instruments) and his recordings offer us all an opportunity to discover some of the tonal differences between guitars and lutes. Now don’t panic (I wish i could write that in Large friendly letters) the music is wonderful. Just to ease you into it the piece above has been recorded on both instruments. So you can listen to the lute and go “that’s cool” and then listen to the guitar and go “so’s that”.
So click here to hear the lute from The Siena Manuscript recording for lute.
and click here to listen to the steel string guitar from The Siena Manuscript for steel string guitar.

So which do we prefer here? My vote goes for the steel guitar. But whichever you chose you have to admit that this guy has amazing fingers and he’s not afraid to use them

But actually why we are here is Paul’s recording of some pieces by obscure baroque musician, Silvius Leopold Weiss (1685 ? 1750). (Think of him as the Richie Blackmore of his day). His music in modern times remains relatively unknown because his instrument, the baroque lute, became largely extinct by 1760. But Paul has brought this music to life by playing it on an 11 string guitar (it was designed in 2002 by Terry Schumacher and built by Kenny Hill), tuned as an 11 course baroque lute.

Paul also has a blog called Lute Wyre covering early music and his instruments.

Magnatune has all three albums listed here, head over and check them out, it will make for a truly pleasant Sunday morning. Let me know what you think.