Frequently Asked Questions

I see that the website is changed. Can I still use the website as I used to?

Yes. You can click on “Files” and browse the lutemusic.org directory as before.

Why should I create a user account on lutemusic.org?

Even without creating an account, you can access the entire site, but if you register with us, there are some added conveniences:

There is an easy way to send comments or corrections on any part of the site, including individual pieces. You can just click on a “comment” button at any point, and you will be in an email form that includes your email address in “From” and data on the place from which you commented, so you don’t have to fill that data in. I will receive your emails with the comments.

As you move through the site, you can select items (PDFs or fronimo files) for later download. These will go into a “download cart” for later downloading. If there is anything in the cart, a cart symbol will appear on the top right of each page with the number of items in it. You can click on that symbol at any time and see a list of items in the cart. You can delete items you are no longer interested in or download selected items all at once, which will be downloaded as a zip file.

When you register, you can enter a list of all the instruments that are available to you. Then, when you do a search, you can opt to get hits only on the items that match your instrument list, i.e., only stuff that you can actually play. This takes into account the number of courses you have on your lute. You will not get hits on pieces requiring a lute with more courses, but you will get hits on pieces with less than or equal to the number of courses. For instance, if you have an 8-course ren lute, you will get hits also for 6 and 7 course lutes, but not for 9 or 10-course lutes.

What other features are available on the new website?

A “setting” of a piece is a particular version of it located in a particular document (book or MS), on a particular page. When you do a search, you will get an abbreviated list of matching settings. You can click on an item on the list and get a setting detail page. On the setting detail page, you can hover over the composer name and get some information on the composer. Here, you can also browse to the next or previous setting in the current document. From the setting detail page, you can navigate to subsections of the setting and parts within those sections.

At the top of each page are “breadcrumbs” that show where you have last been on the site. You can click on them to navigate to a previous location you have visited.

In the part detail page, if there is a facsimile corresponding to that setting,
a [Compare] button will appear. Clicking on it puts you into a display of the facsimile, at the page where the setting starts, alongside a pdf of the modern edition. From there, you can browse forward or back in the facsimile or in the PDF to compare them.

A fronimo file is a complete encoding of a part. It is an item that you can view, print, listen to as a midi file, download, or add to your download cart for later downloading. In the part detail page, you will find buttons to perform these actions.