[VIHUELA] Re: seeking out the soft underbelly of a hard shelled question

[Peter Forrester]

on 13/5/08 7:03 am, Arthur Ness at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> I believe there is just one Voboam guitar that uses a complete
> shell of a tortoise, although indeed that family's guitars did
> use tortoise shell for decoration, as Peter notes below.  The
> guitar in question is at the Cite de la Musique in Paris, and is
> attributed to Nicholas Alexandre Voboam II (after 1633-ca. 1693).
> It seems to be one of a kind, at least in the known Voboam
> family output.  The head and legs are ceramic (thank goodness!).
> 
> The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston also now owns a standard guitar
> by the same luthier.
> It belonged originally to a member of Louis XIV's court at
> Versailles, where "Everyone at court wanted to learn [the
> guitar], and God alone can imagine the universal scraping and
> plucking that ensued."  ThaT probably accounts for the demise of
> the lute in France.
> 
> You can see and hear Chris Henriksen play the MFA's Voboam here:
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/3zncjt
> 
> To hear other instruments, including one of its citterns, take
> the
> Museum's "Audio Tour" of plucked instruments.
> 
> The some 129 instruments (including the Voboams mentioned here)
> in the MFA's exhibition (a whopping 140,000 persons saw the
> exhibition) may be seen in Darsie Kuronen, _*Dangerous Curves:
> Art of the Guitar*_ (Boston: MFA, 2000).  Darsie was recently
> elected vice-president of AMIS, and we are so fortunate to have
> him in Boston, where he is revitalizing the Department of Musical
> Instruments..  The core of the Museum's collection of musical
> instruments was purchased from Canon Galpin in 1941.
> 
> An important musical instrument collection (the second largest in
> France, I am advised) is due to open soon in Nice.
> =====AJN (Boston, Mass.)=====
> This week's free download from Classical Music Library is
> 
> Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 in A, op. 90 'Italian', performed by
> the
> Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Stefan Sanderling, conductor. More
> information about this piece is available on our music blog
> 
[http://cts.vresp.com/c/?AlexanderStreetPress/b125e4d442/9d403851a0/bb5f347e
57> ]
> .
> To download, click on the CML link here
> http://mysite.verizon.net/arthurjness/
> ===================================
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Peter Forrester" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "Christopher Davies" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Cc: "cittern" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 3:19 PM
> Subject: [CITTERN] Re: seeking out the soft underbelly of a hard
> shelled question
> 
> 
> | on 12/5/08 4:05 pm, Christopher Davies at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> |
> | > Can anyone shed light on this question: What is the
> historical evidence for
> | > using tortoiseshell on Renaissance/Baroque plucked
> instruments? My 18th c.
> | > cetra features a tortoiseshell fingerboard, and I wonder at
> what point this
> | > practice (or likewise use as decorative inlay on belly) is
> documented.
> | > I have some lovely faux tortoiseshell (granted,  a 19th c.
> creation) from
> | > Turtleworks company and am tempted to use it on something
> other than an
> | > English guittar.
> | > thanks,
> | > christopher davies
> | >
> | >
> | >
> | > To get on or off this list see list information at
> | > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
> | >
> | Plenty of tortoiseshell used on Voboam (Parisian) guitars.
> Earliest I can
> | think of off-hand is the Rene Voboam in the Ashmolean, 1640(?).
> There may
> | well be earlier examples by the Sellas family in Venice.  If
> you don't have
> | enough for a guitar, there are plenty of cithrinchen by Tielke
> at the end of
> | the century.
> |
> | Best wishes,
> |
> | Peter
> |
> |
> |
> 
> 
> 
It is nearly thirty years since I saw the Voboam 'charango' then in the
Paris Conservatoire museum, and I remember it as a sophisticated version of
the South American instrument - tatou (armadillo) rather than tortue
(tortoise).  But it certainly uses tortoiseshell and is probably on their
website.

Should anybody become really serious about making a tortoiseshell guitar,
there are drawings available of at least three examples:
Rene Voboam 1641, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Jean (?) Voboam ca. 1680,  Royal College of Music, London.
Jean Voboam 1687, (was musee de la conservatoire, presumably now) Cite de la
Musique, Paris.

After looking, I could not find any serious use of tortoiseshell in Venice.
After Paris, both Fleischer (eg in Paris)  and Tielke (V&A etc) in Hamburg
seem to be the main users.

There was a 'tortoiseshell' Rene Voboam in the Nice museum in 1979, there
may be more now!  There are also some citterns about which I am awaiting
information.  

It is hopefully unecessary to mention that the tortoiseshell is only in the
form of veneer applied to a (softwood, I think) support, which inevitably
implies a slightly heavier and slightly less responsive guitar than the
usual 1.0mm thick ebony sides.

Although this correspondence originated on the cittern site it seems
relevant to the vihuela site also, so.

Best wishes.

Peter