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The Workshop This was the sixth summer school we've run based on the idea of jointly making one lute in a week. The lute is then donated to the Lute Society for use as a hire instrument. In the past we have made a six course renaissance lute, a 13 course ‘swan-neck’ German baroque lute, a 14 course theorbo, a six course bass lute, an eleven course baroque lute. This year we were making a seven course tenor lute. It is an opportunity to learn in practical terms how to make a lute and to take part in the different processes. This report has been a very long time in preparation, partly because so many people took so many large and interesting photos that it became a an enormous job to select and resize the pictures. | |
| The group assembled behind the little pile of wood necessary to make a tenor lute. From left to right: David, Nicolas Eteradossi from France, Anders Ahlborg from Sweden, Nick Gravestock from England, Angus Bentley from England, Paulo Ennes from Portugal, Robert Marsh from England, John Buckman From America and Thea. |
| Anders glues on the second rib of yew including the line of hornbeam. |
| Anders trimming a rib while Nick examines something through the magnifying glasses. It’s a bit early in the week for the rose, but that’s what it looks like. |
| John marking up a rib before trimming its outer side, with Nick standing by the bandsaw and Nicolas working on the rose. |
| Nicolas glues on one of the later ribs. |
| Anders gluing on the final rib on the treble side, it’s beginning to look like a lute. |
| Robert cleaning up the back showing the different colours of the yew. |
| Nicolas checking the edge levels of the back. |
| Anders checking the thicknesses of the soundboard. |
| John cutting a practice rose. |
| Paulo shaping the heads of the pegs. |
| Martin Bowers was one of the visiting lutemakers who came to inspect and encourage, here he looks on with Paulo. |
| Robert and Nicolas also looking on. |
| Thea’s cooking is one of the most important parts of the week’s attractions! |
| Robert and David. |
| John concentrates on turning a peg. |
| Everyone took a turn at turning, here it is Nicolas making a nice job of a peg. |
| Paulo finishing off the head of a peg on the sanding belt. Even this lute has 13 pegs, so there are plenty to be made. |
| Eating al fresco during our lunch break. Stephen Gottlieb visited and here is hiding behind the parasol shaft.. |
| Interestingly there were several versions of the same lute that we were building and here John is playing one of them in the conservatory which has a rather nice acoustic for lute-playing. |
| Nick and Robert measuring out a part of the pegbox. |
| Nicolas and David discussing some point of lute scholarship. |
| Paulo makes a point; you can tell he has been in the diplomatic service. |
| Nick brought along the theorbo we made in the 2001 summer School.and it was much played as people tried out a new experience. Here Anders plays in the conservatory. |
| John, who is a computer expert, spent some time surfing on Thea’s laptop and sorted out some remote speakers for her. |
| Peter Forrester, the famous wire-string instrument maker was another welcome visitor. |
| El Presidente! Ian Harwood shows how big they were in the old days. |
| Stephen Gottlieb visited and joined in the discussion of techniques with Gernot Hilger, another vistor from earlier summer schools. |
| Stephen Gottlieb giving a demonstration of how he cuts his roses. This was totally different to the method we used, yet the result was very similar. |
| Nicolas cutting the rose with “our” method. |
| Angus carving the surface relief of the rose. |
| The finished rose! Although it was the work of everyone on the course, the result was very even and looks entirely homogenous. |
| Another day, another lunch, another visitor. This time Martin Bowers waits for his food.. |
| Anders glues on one of the soundboard bars. |
| John takes his turn with a bar gluing. |
| Lynda Sayce also visited ...................... |
| ...............and gave a concert in the King of Hearts, a local arts centre based in a wonderful medieval building.. |
| Al fresco again, with the wine bottle suitably centre-stage. |
| Anders gluing on the bridge. It looks as if we were working late. |
| Nicolas taking notes. The course is an opportunity to learn a lot of new techniques and methods. |
| Paulo cleaning up the nearly completed lute. |
| Angus’s MGB was a star of the week and raised the tone of the neighbourhood temporarily. It even matched the paintwork! |
| At the end Anders was given a lift to Stansted in the MGB. |
| The final tableau with Paulo serenading Thea on the newly completed lute. |