Rainer aus dem Spring      Sat, 08 Jan 2000 21:14:04 +0100
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I am 44 years old and live in Erkrath near Duesseldorf in Germany.

I work as a freelance consultant and programmer and have a degree in
mathematics.

As far as I remember the first time I listened to lute music was in 1968
or 1969 - A Gerwig recording.

For many, many years I used to play lute music on my guitar. It was much
easier to buy tablature editions in the 70s than it is today. You simply
went to Heiner Viertmann's guitar shop in Cologne. The OUP books, Dowland,
Milan, Milano, ... were always on stock.

My first lute was a "furniture" lute. It weighed half a ton and the
basses sustained for 15 minutes :)

No wonder I got back to my guitar.

In 95 I "discovered" the lute net and today I spend much of my spare
time studying lute manuscripts.

I guess I am hopelessly anglophile - I am NOT talking about food or
beer, he, he, he

Other interests:

Mathematics (mathematical games, number theory and combinatorial geometry)
Sports cars
Literature - Kafka, Fontane, Dickens, Grimmelshausen, Sturm und Drang,
Elizabethan Literature
Chess
My cats Muschel and Puschel. A few years ago Puschel exchanged several
e-mails with Caroline  Usher's little dog :)

Rainer adS