THE AGUILAR QUARTET OF Lutes: FRANCISCO AGUILAR, Jose AGUILAR,
ELIZA AGUILAR, EZEQUIEL AGUILAR
THE lute is so old an instrument that, as listeners will remember, Orpheus played it.
But, apart from such legendary mention, it has been known since the dawn of history, and in as many different forms as there were countries which knew it. It flourished throughout the Middle Ages, and was for long an instrument in the orchestra ; the last known use of it in that way is in a Handel Opera, and Bach introduced it in one of the ' Passions.' There has always been a good deal of diversity in the tuning of it, which is an added difficulty in deciphering old MSS. of lute music, written, as they are, in a special notation. Sometimes the instrument had strings projecting beyond the side of the neck as well as those which lay along the finger-board, and the number of strings varied greatly.
From old references to it, it is clear that it was a difficult instrument to keep in order. In one frequently-quoted work every lute player is recommended to keep his lute in a bed which is regularly slept in. Even then, the writer adds, it would be necessary for him about once a year to have it taken to pieces and put together again to remedy warping from the tension of the strings. Another writer tells us that any lute player who reached the age of eighty years would have spent sixty of them in tuning his instrument.
It is not much cultivated now, and listeners owe this evening's opportunity of hearing it to the enthusiasm of a family of three brothers and one sister, who have not only got together the four different-sized instruments required for playing together, but have done a great deal in rediscovering and arranging the old music. As is usual in this age of vigorous womanhood, the lady plays one of the biggest of tho four lutes in the team.
THE LONDON WIND QUINTET: ROBERT MURCHIE (Flute), LEON GOOSSENS (Oboe), HAYDN DRAPER (Clarinet), FRED WOOD (Bassoon), AUBREY BRAIN (Horn)