Sailing with the lute - SL Weiss, Allemande - Baroque lute, Jaroslaw Lipski

In the many years I’ve been sailing there was always the problem of having to part with my lutes. Although the lute is very fragile, I risked taking the oldest one I own on board a couple of years ago and it has accompanied me ever since. In addition to keeping in practice while at sea or on the lakes, this has given me some ideas, such as playing and recording Sonata 28 in F major by Sylvius Leopold Weiss (1687 - 1750)  The exact dating of the piece, entitled Le Fameux Corsaire, is unknown, but it was most probably written during or directly in the wake of the so-called Golden Age of Piracy, which spanned roughly from 1650 to 1730s. 17th and 18th century European monarchs licensed privateers to attack and capture enemy merchant vessels, availing themselves of a share of the loot.  Issued with “letters of marque“ by the Admirality, those sea-faring robbers with royal backing were not considered pirates, but boundaries could be blurred. Buccaneers based in Hispaniola and Tortuga were commissione