The foul weather nearly scuppered the meeting yesterday, but six hardy souls braved the blizzard, and were rewarded with some excellent playing and a good blether. Dorothee O’Sullivan Burchard fought through nerves to play her first full-length piece at a SLEGS meeting. What a triumph for her! La Roque by Pierre Attaingnant is not a very easy piece, so congratulations to Dorothee for getting to the finish line unharmed, and with the crowd yelping their approval. There’s no holding you back now, Dorothee. We’re already looking forward to your next performance.   Another beginner lute player is David Bateman, testing the waters after years of guitar playing. He performed his own intabulation of the Coventry Carol, followed by a version of The King of Denmark’s Galliard. David employs the clever ploy of first informing his audience of how awful his playing is, leaving us highly impressed with what does transpire. Being an “Early” dancer, his rhythm is always good (a rare thing among lute...

The 17th meeting of the Scottish Lute and Early Guitar Society will take place on Saturday 13th February, 2016, from 1pm (usually the meetings last two to three hours). All are welcome. The venue is Chris Elmes’s place – 1F1, 25 Haddington Place, EH7 4AF (the left side of Leith Walk between Annandale St and MacDonald Rd). Parking is unrestricted off Leith Walk on weekends; MacDonald Road or Hopetoun Crescent is the best area. There will be a charge of £1 a head for the use of the venue. If anyone wishes to make a presentation, please contact Rob MacKillop: robmackillopATgmailDOTCOM

A new departure for SLEGS, in that we had two performers with Torres-related classical guitars. More later… Chris Jupp rose to the occasion, quite literally, by performing standing up, playing a 4c guitar made by Bill Samson. A Branle and Tourdion by Adrian Le Roy were despatched within seconds, leaving the audience wishing he had played repeats, perhaps even adding a variation or two. The playing was excellent, and we hope Chris gives us more next time. He finished with his own arrangement of My Mistress Blush Is Bonnie, from the Skene manuscript, which sounded lovely on the small guitar. Yasuhiro Nakashima flew in from Japan to perform with his 7c lute: Rujero (from the Samson manuscript) and Cassandra by Raimundo. Yasuhiro has a very disciplined right-hand, thumb-in technique, which brought out great clarity to the chordal and contrapuntal passages. The faster runs were despatched with ease. Excellent playing. Yasuhiro was then asked to perform the Rujero again, this time...

The 16th meeting of the Scottish Lute and Early Guitar Society will take place on Saturday 7th November, 2015, from 1pm (usually the meetings last two to three hours). The venue is Chris Elmes’s place – 1F1, 25 Haddington Place, EH7 4AF (the left side of Leith Walk between Annandale St and MacDonald Rd). Parking is unrestricted off Leith Walk on weekends; MacDonald Road or Hopetoun Crescent is the best area. There will be a charge of £1 a head for the use of the venue. If anyone wishes to make a presentation, please contact Rob MacKillop: robmackillopATgmailDOTCOM

We had a good turnout at the meeting, to which we welcomed two visitors – Yasuhiro from Japan, and Kyrre Slind from Norway. David Bateman told us about a part-built Harwood and Isaacs lute kit that he came by.  He finished the job with some refinements of his own and showed us the resulting lute which works beautifully.  He was encouraged  to perform on it at a future meeting. Dorothee passed her Martin de Witte lute to Rob, who played a Scottish piece on it. Dorothee, new to lute, managed a few notes before nerves got the better of her. We have all been there, Dorothee! Hang in there. Keep at it. What you did play sounded beautiful. Eric Thomas, fresh back from studying with Paul O’Dette in Urbino,  played Dowland Fantasia 1a beautifully and with lots of graces, on his 7-course Barber and Harris lute.  It’s such a difficult piece to play well on the lute, but Eric...

The 15th meeting of the Scottish Lute and Early Guitar Society will take place on Saturday 1st August, 2015, from 1pm (usually the meetings last two to three hours). The venue is Chris Elmes’s place – 1F2, 25 Haddington Place, EH7 4AF (the left side of Leith Walk between Annandale St and MacDonald Rd). Parking is unrestricted off Leith Walk on weekends; MacDonald Road or Hopetoun Crescent is the best area. There will be a charge of £1 a head for the use of the venue. If anyone wishes to make a presentation, please make a comment below, or email robmackillop at gmail dot com.

Due to other commitments, I couldn’t make it to this meeting. I’m thankful to Bill Samson for writing the following report. Looks like I missed a good one! A small turnout at this meeting due to a variety of unforeseen circumstances, but thoroughly enjoyed by the four participants and allowed room for in-depth discussion of technique, interpretation, lutes, guitars, stringing and newsy gossip. There were two brand new lutes at the meeting – Philip Lord’s 13-course baroque lute by Michael Lowe – arguably the greatest lute maker in the world at the present time.  It was based on an 18th century Hofmann lute (I can’t remember which of the Hofmanns it was) and had a birds-eye maple back and pegbox.  The detailing is exquisite.  Its playing properties too are wonderful – an excellent action and fine sound. The other new lute was Dorothee O’Sullivan Burchard’s 7-course renaissance lute by the Dutch luthier Martin de Witte.  This is a Venere model...

The date of the next SLEGS meeting is Saturday 9th May, from 1pm (usually the meetings last two to three hours). The venue is Chris Elmes’s place – 1F1, 25 Haddington Place, EH7 4AF (the left side of Leith Walk between Annandale St and MacDonald Rd). Parking is unrestricted off Leith Walk on weekends; MacDonald Road or Hopetoun Crescent is the best area. There will be a charge of £1 a head for the use of the venue. If anyone wishes to make a presentation, please make a comment below, or email robmackillop at gmail dot com.

A special meeting this time, with a visit from the Dutch guitarist, Jelma van Amersfoort, playing an 18th-century “guittar” – duets with Rob MacKillop, and some solos. Another guest was the Edinburgh-based soprano singer, Ginny Wilson – more about Ginny later. Quite a few members expressed the thought that this was the best meeting yet. There was a fine turnout for this meeting, which was held at Chris Elmes‘ house – a particularly fine venue for our meetings, and we’d like to thank Chris for not only hosting us, but joining in as well – more later. Rob introduced Jelma, and talked a little about the 18th-century cittern, know variously as a “guittar”, English guitar, German cittern, cetra, cistre, and guitar. Whatever it was called, the aesthetic is more cittern than guitar, with its brass strings and open-chord tuning. [Various photos by Stuart Goldie, Kevin Macleod, Philip Lord and Bill Samson. Click photos to enlarge.) Together, Jelma and Rob gave...

The date of the next meeting is 24th January 2015 from 1pm until 4pm. We are in for a rare treat – The distinguished Dutch early guitarist Jelma van Amersfoort will be attending and playing for us.  I understand that a guittar duet with Rob is a strong possiblity.  It’s also possible that a singer will be attending and performing 19th century works with early guitar accompaniment.  More details when this is firmed up. The venue is Chris Elmes’s place – 1F1, 25 Haddington Place, EH7 4AF (the left side of Leith Walk between Annandale St and MacDonald Rd). Parking is unrestricted off Leith Walk on weekends; MacDonald Rd or Hopetoun Cres is the best area. There will be a charge of £1 a head for the use of the venue. Looking forward to seeing you then!