Norwich instrument maker's happy tune

Guitar, piano, flute and violin are the staples of school music lessons.

Rarely will a child come home with a medieval lute or one of its close cousins, the English theorbo or liuto attiorbato, clamped under their arm.

And with waiting lists of four years just to buy one, and a price tag of over �4,000, it is perhaps easy to see why.

But one Norwich man is playing his own part in making these ancient instruments more popular, from his workshop on Ketts Hill.

David Van Edwards abandoned his planned career in English literature academia to make instruments after constructing his own lute in 1967.

Since then he has built wooden lutes and other instruments for players all over the world, and settled in Norwich in 1980 to be near North Heigham Sawmills and its supply of exotic woods.

The term lute, which conjures up images of wandering minstrels, is used to band together a loose collection of stringed instruments which tend to feature a curved back made of wooden strips and resembling the hull of a boat.

From his well-equipped workshop, the instruments are made to order for professional and amateur musicians alike, and his lutes can even be heard on classical recordings.

Because each intricately-decorated creation alone can take two or three months to carve, shape and glue, the cost for each one can exceed �4,000.

Due to steady demand and the huge amount of time put into each machine, the backlog of orders currently stretches to more than four years, so patience is a virtue needed by any potential customer.

Previous orders were placed by doctors who played recreationally and classically-trained musicians, but due to the cost and delay all shared a strong passion for the instruments.

Mr Edwards said that developing his passion for lutes and becoming a luthier had changed the course of his life.

'The music is wonderful. It's like a guitar but it has more emphasis on the upper harmonics,' he said.

'Because you've got more strings, you get the low notes as well, so you get a wider range and slightly more brilliance.'

And Mr Edwards estimates that he has made between 200 and 300 instruments in his long career.

His latest creation is a replica of a theorbo built in 1609 and currently held in a Paris museum.

The original was measured and X-rayed to ensure that the new instrument matched its construction and sounded as close as possible.

But he admits that it is hard to make a living exclusively from creating lutes, so to supplement his income Mr Edwards also teaches evening and summer classes for people who wish to make their own.

'They buy the wood and I tell them how to do it,' said Mr Edwards.

'It's like a little club and they have a nice time.'

For more information on evening and summer classes and lute making visit www.vanedwards.co.uk or call Mr Edwards on 01603 629899.

Many different cultures developed stringed instruments as long as 1,300 years ago, all of which have evolved and merged to become what is now known as the lute - a name which was not even coined until the 20th century.

The earliest identifiable cousin of the instrument was the Kobuz, created by the Turkic Bulgars in the 6th century.

But the similar Oud was also introduced to Spain in the 9th century, and the Quitra was already popular by then in the Mediterranean.

With such a long and convoluted history it is little wonder that many still debate the true definition of a lute.

Most new lutes made are replicas of historical instruments, carefully copied and replicated.

Because they are not mass-produced and require high levels of skill to make, they invariably cost far more than more popular, similarly-sized stringed instruments such as the violin or guitar.