Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Ronn McFarlane: This isn't your Medieval grandfather's lute music

Incue: [sonar sound] + This is an Echo Location: Soundings for New Music.

MUSIK

:10
In 2006, Sting put out an album of tunes by 16th century composer
John Dowland called Songs from the Labyrinth.

Musik

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Sting not only sang Dowland's songs, but played a renaissance instrument called the lute. He plucked it convincingly, unless you happen to be a virtuoso renaissance lutenist.

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13:13
RM: I think he has fairly modest abilities on the lute but he does what he needs to do, and the most intricate lute playing tends to be done by his partner, Iddan Karamotzoff and he?s, you know, quite a fine player and quite brilliant.

:13
That's Ronn Mcfarlane. He's been playing the lute for over 3 decades, much of it with the Baltimore Consort. What appealed to him in Sting's music was less the Dowland pieces, and more, Sting's own music.

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RM: One of my favorites was actually one of Sting?s original pieces, Fields of Gold. When they arranged that for two lutes and voice, I thought it was a haunting arrangement, quite beautiful, and I would loved to have heard more contemporary music played on the lute.

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So Ronn Mcfarlane decided to create his own repertoire. HE's been writing original compositions for about a decade and collected several of his tunes on an album called Indigo Road.

MUSIK

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If you listen close to Ronn Mcfarlane's music, you'll hear techniques like harmonics and glissandos that weren't part of the renaissance arsenal. Ronn got some of them from his days as a rocker, but also from listening to contemporary acoustic guitarists like the late Michael Hedges.

MUSIK BLUE NORTHER BITE

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And like Michael Hedges, Ronn Mcfarlane is an eclectic. Celtic influences infuse some tunes, while on others he sounds like a bluegrass player.

MUSIK PINETOPS

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Ronn Mcfarlane isn't ready to give up his classical career with the Baltimore Consort, but he has opened up new possibilities for an instrument that, with the exception of Sting, hasn't seen much new music for a few hundred years.

MUSIK BITE

Tonight on Echoes you can hear a complete interview with Ronn McFarlane. This has been an Echo Location, Soundings for New Music. For Echoes and the Xpn Morning Show, I'm John Diliberto.

MUSIK OUT

I'M JOHN DILIBERTO AND THIS HAS BEEN AN ECHO LOCATION, SOUNDINGS FOR NEW MUSIC.