Lute-making
Summer Workshops
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Saturday 5th August to Sunday 13th August 2017 I provide all the materials and tools and we also provide a light lunch and Thea’s wonderful evening meal each day with wine. Accomodation is not included, though there are lots of B&Bs and small hotels in the area. The cost will be £475, excluding accomodation. I am really pleased to announce that there will also be a recital by William Carter of lute and theorbo music on Friday 11th August at the Park Lane Chapel timed to coincide with this workshop. All seven places are filled but if you are interested in going on a waiting list in case of cancellations, please do me so I can add your name to the list. |
The Workshop
The central idea of these workshop courses has been to work together as a group to produce a lute for the English Lute Society to use as a hire instrument. Each year a different original instrument is chosen to make. No previous experience is necessary and each course member was able to try out, and contribute to, each of the processes involved in making the lute.
Previous workshops, where we have made fourteen different instruments for the Lute Society, were great fun, with a nice lute resulting from each week’s work. So I know it can be done! If you’d like to get a flavour of what previous years’ courses were like, click on these links:
1999, where we made a 6 course renaissance lute
2000, where we made a 13 course German baroque lute.
2001, where we made a 14 course theorbo
2002, where we made a 6 course bass lute
2003, where we made an 11 course baroque lute
2005, where we made a 7 course tenor lute.
2006, where we made a 14 course liuto attiorbato
2007, where we made a 6 course mandora
2008, where we made a medieval lute and gittern
2009, where we made two lutes for the Norfolk schools project
2010, where we made a 12 course double-headed lute
2011, where we made a 13 course triple pegbox baroque lute
In fact the idea of doing these courses started in August 1992 when the late David Freeman invited me to run a course on lute making for the Czechoslovakian Lute Society in Prague.
Since then I have also run several courses abroad along similar lines:
- Lute making in Canton de Fribourg, Switzerland, where we made a 7 course renaissance lute. for the Association Guitar & Luth, August 2003
- Viol making in Gruyère Castle, Switzerland, where we made a 7 string baroque viol for the Association Guitar & Luth, August 2004
- Lute making in Gruyère Castle, Switzerland, where we made a medieval lute and a gittern for the Association Guitar & Luth, August 2005
- Viol making in Gruyère Castle, Switzerland, where we made a treble viol for the Association Guitar & Luth, August 2012
- Lute making in Gruyère Castle, Switzerland, where we made a theorbo for the Association Guitar & Luth, August 2014
- Lute making in Dan Larson’s workshop, Duluth, USA, where we made a renaissance lute and a baroque lute for the American Lute Society. September 2014
Copyright 2017 by David Van Edwards