Musician David Tayler of the San Francisco ensemble Voices of Music performed an absolutely gorgeous version of Prelude in C Minor, BWV 999 by Johann Sebastian Bach on a stunning, multi-stringed archlute. The piece was so beautifully adapted for this Renaissance instrument, which has such rich and full sound due the low strings ringing through a large hollow body.
The original manuscript for the prelude includes the rubric “pour le luth” (for the lute), and the work can be performed on different types of lutes or keyboards including the lute harpsichord, and sounds well on all of these. On the lute, the performer can use dynamics to accentuate some of the contrapuntal lines, but the work is equally persuasive on the keyboard.
