>You're right indeed. The evolution of musical instrumens doesn't usually followe a nice and orderly Darwinistic familiy tree but is rather based on a bunch of mad scientists (luthiers I believe they're called) splicing together genes from numerous "parents" just to see what come out of it. ;-) Another example for the "luthier breedings" is the so-called Hamburgian-mechanic of the German Waldzither. I did research in Hamburg, collecting old photographs, making hundreds of detail-photograph of Waldzithern of a private collector. Eventually I could find evidence, that C.H. B=F6hm started his business in 1898 with an instrument very similar to the portuguese guitar of that period, including an original portuguese tuning machine. B=F6hm from then on simplified the mechanik step by step. He was independently producing every piece in his own factory. So he sorted the "Waldzither", (a name he clung to for reasons of fashion an merchandizing) into a few models from cheap to showy and combined his own manufactured pieces. The point is, that Hamburg has special historic connections to Portugal, since a tribe of Jews fled to Hamburg in the 16th century, who traded portuguese goods from then on at Hamburg. B=F6hm says in an advertising: "the german Waldzither is now very modern with good sounding steel strings and a mechanic, that is far better than the old wooden ones........" I think, he met the portuguese instrument by chance -and the chances were given only in Hamburg at that time within Germany - and found a "modern" solution for the german cittern type, that gave him success. The music industry in Markneukirchen/Vogtland soon copied the mechanic under the name "Hamburgian mechanic". The german cittern was at the edge of dying out at 1900, B=F6hm with his driving ambition clung to a newly found combination and started a commercial hype......... Perhaps without him.......there were no German citterns in the 20th century......
I have written a documentation about B=F6hm but it's in German and I doubt that I could do this effort twice to publish it in English.....and I have still no spare time to do my own website for showing you all the pictures needed for the context. So please ask, I'll try to answer. Martina Rosenberger -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
