The Crossword Solver found answer to “German film award akin to an Oscar”, 6 letters crossword clue. The Crossword Solver finds answers to American-style crosswords, British-style crosswords, general knowledge crosswords and cryptic crossword puzzles.
Answer : LUTIST
lutist, lutanist, lutenist – n
a musician who plays the lute
A lute (/ljuːt/ or /luːt/) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
From the early 17th century a technique known as ‘thumb outside’ technique was preferred, which is relatively similar to modern guitar technique; prior to this, however a ‘thumb inside’ technique was generally used, with the fingers more or less parallel to the strings, and using a flesh technique. Regarding nails, perhaps the earliest historical reference commending the use of nails is in the writings of Piccinini (1623); some very fine players, ancient and modern, have played lute with nails. (Conversely of course, you can play the guitar with flesh technique, as Tarrega did.) All this is ultimately a matter of acoustics, and of taste, not of holy writ or statute law: tastes certainly changed over the history of the lute. The main point is that the lute, which (compared to the guitar) is weak in the lower harmonics and strong in the higher, can sound tinny if played with nails. Some players who want to play both lute and guitar trim their nails very carefully so that they can play guitar with nails and (renaissance) lute with flesh technique, something which is possible because the angle of the hand in ‘thumb inside’ technique is so different from that in modern guitar technique. Others alternately grow and cut their nails.
In its long history the lute experienced not one, but a series of ‘Golden Ages’, and Elizabethan and Jacobean England certainly enjoyed one of these. The chief glory and ornament of the Elizabethan lute is of course the music of John Dowland (1563–1626) which, if no other lute music at all had come down to us, would amply justify the study of the instrument. Happily, a good deal more music has survived, however.
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