Re: [HG] A new project

[JJ]

Chris, have you seen the Brocker book?  The book is in German, but Volume 2 is all pictures, which don't really need translating.  You will see pretty much any body style you can imagine from many time periods.  If you don't know anyone who owns a copy, try the library.  My library was able to track down a copy with Interlibrary Loan and it was well worth the few weeks wait to get my hands on it. 

Joanne

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OK, we all know that the progression historically of the vielle was big organistrum - box sinphone - Bosch.  Period. Right?

 

I have rather a dislike of doing what everyone else does, especially in my medieval recreations.  I have found that in most cases there were as many versions and presentations of relatively common items as there were people who would have built them, and so I can be unique by maintaining fidelity to the concepts and the methods of the time, applying them with reason and craftsmanship.  I like to do things that scream out 'hey, there is absolutely NO reason I could not have existed' rather than building things I can document completely, as often only the richest or most well connected had documentation left of their items.

 

I would like to build something that fits in the 1400s that is not a box sinphone, something that is a first generation 'distinct keybox' type of instrument that would be contemporary in capabilities with the Bosch but have its own look and feel.

 

But all the documentation I can find goes from organistrum to sinphone to Bosch, there are no other pieces that I can draw a conjecture upon.  I realize I don't have access to as many pieces or exhibits or displays living in the central US as people in many parts of the world, but I can't find anything contemporary with the Bosch.

 

I could go off on a lark and build something with a flat top, back, and sides, vaguely similar to some viol and fyddle forms, and that would make sense, but not enough sense. 

 

There is a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge in the participants on this list, I would appreciate input by anyone who might have ideas on a potential late medieval / early renaissance gurdy that is NOT a Bosch.  Ideas on wheel size, string number and role, crank size.  For example, I know that at that time music was becoming more entertainment, more secular.  Would this indicate the wheel size and crank size would be getting bigger so that players could play longer, or the wheel size and crank size getting smaller so that players could play more brightly and lively?

 

I want to be able to present deductive documentation for something that reasonably could have existed.  I don't know what changes in body shape would have occurred.  I know that there are instruments built in period (citole, viol, etc) that exist today with curved tops, but many of those are conjectured to have been modified in the late 1500s or later and may have had flat tops replaced with the newer features.

 

Anyone interested in some virtual instrument development?

 

Thanks

 

Chris Nogy