London, July 2015

Miguel Serdoura talked about his similarly universal but rather more ambitious hopes for Le Luth Doré®, a joint French, American and Chinese venture whose aim is nothing less than a major revival in lute playing, based around the manufacture of a good-quality but affordable lute. As he rightly said, the lute makers of old, the Malers and Tieffensbruckers were not solitary luthiers making one lute at a time, but businessmen of vision and ambition who made thousands of instruments in their factories. There might be skepticism about this project in some quarters, but there was skepticism at the first Yamaha instruments, and yet Yamaha pianos are now ubiquitous and well-regarded.

Besides building lutes, they will build early guitars, mandolins, and other instruments, and there will be a shop in Paris, a new range of music editions to include guitar transcriptions [complete editions of the Weiss London and Dresden MSS are in preparation], strings and other accessories; while lessons, concerts and other events will also be organized. A website is under development, to feature such things as a complete lute discography: a database of all lute CDs published to date. Miguel had brought with him a prototype renaissance lute, very attractive and nicely finished. There are to be 16 models of instrument, with entry prices of 1000 Euros and 1500 Euros, plus 300 Euros for the case.

Quality control is all: the soundboards will be carefully thickened, on historical principles, in a good fine-grained spruce. Other historical woods will be used: flamed maple, spruce, plum and ebony. The application of technology with include the laser cutting of roses and oil varnish applied by spraying. Miguel is evidently bringing great personal energy to this project; he wants to see the lute played in every school, and to become a common sight at rock festivals!

www.lutesociety.org