By the way, the same publication also includes papers by someone called Doc Rossi (never heard of him) and a Peter Forrester (ditto).
Rob www.rmguitar.info -----Original Message----- From: Rob [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 06 December 2007 21:49 To: [email protected] Subject: [CITTERN] Re: Michael Raucher? I found five (!) manuscripts for the guittar in the uncatalogued (!) library of Blair Castle in Perthshire. The castle also houses two very fine guittars (on display to the public, alongside a theorbo). The guittars belonged to the daughters of the house at the time Niel Gow was resident fiddler. Indeed, one of the manuscripts contains a pen and ink drawing of Gow. The guittars: one has a label stating, 'Mr Raucher, Shandois Street London 1762' and has a lute-bowl back and lute-style tuning pegs. The other is by 'Claus & Co Inventor London No.7 Gerrad Street' and is equipped with a keyboard attachment and a Preston tuning system. More details in: The Guitar, Cittern and Guittar in Scotland - an historical introduction up to 1800, Rob MacKillop, Michaelsteiner Konferenzberichte 66, Gitarre und Zister - Bauweise, Spieltechnik und Geschichte bis 1800. 2001. Unfortunately, the lady in charge of the instruments and library is not the least bit interested in music, and declined my offer to oversee repair of the instruments (only minor reparatory work is needed), record music from their manuscripts, and have a CD on sale at their visitors shop. I even offered to do all this for free, but to no avail. Frustrating. If memory serves correctly, both instruments are beauties. The manuscripts, it must be said, are of little quality: the usual short examples of Scots airs, such as found in Bremner's tutor and many others of the period. I managed to get a few photocopies, which appear in the published paper. Rpb www.rmguitar.info -----Original Message----- From: Stuart Walsh [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 06 December 2007 20:54 To: [email protected] Subject: [CITTERN] Michael Raucher? I got an enquiry (passed on by Peter) about an English guitar made by Michael Raucher (and there is an umlaut over the 'u'). I've never heard of him so I wonder if anyone else has? The instrument has "1779" Michael Raucher [stangate?] Surrey" written (underneath varnish) just above the strap button. Anyone know of him? Now I have heard of Michael Rauche, some time of Chandos (or Chandois) Street, Covent Garden in the 1760s. He published music (like Straube's Three Sonatas) as well as making instruments, including two thirteen-course lutes. The name of Michael Rauche sounds very familiar, yet when I looked up my hopelessly haphazard notes, I could find only a reference to one instrument, but I'm sure I've seen more Rauche guittars. Does anyone know of any Michael Rauche guittars anywhere? Interestingly, the one Rauche guittar reference I could easily find was the one in the Hill Collection in the Ashmolean Museum which appears to be set up to have six pairs of strings, not the usual 4x2+2. Looking on the Internet I came across another Rauche instrument , which is worth a separate message. So I'll write about that now.... To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
