Matt: As a player of the 3-string chording viola called "kontra" or "bracsa" (Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, which sometimes plays with the Hungarian gurdy, which I also play), I've seen several "folk" techniques for holding the violin bow that aren't standard parts of normal Western classical training. In this case, the fiddler is holding a baroque-type bow in his right hand [stick uppermost, hairs lowermost, tip pointing away from him], with both first and second fingertips between the stick and the hairs. Very accurate observation on the part of the artist!! Folk fiddlers sometimes do this because it allows them to adjust the tension on the hair (the ribbon of hairs) as they play. Other folk fiddlers accomplish this using thumb pressure directly on the hair--that's another way of holding the bow that allows one to put a lot of pressure on the strings via the bow.
Craig Packard -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Matthew Szostak Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 5:43 PM To: hg@hurdygurdy.com Subject: Re: [HG] A new project, Bruegel It's fun to speculate... A lemon, Henry? Really?!? Roy, I can't say what our man is holding in his left hand, but it looks to me as if there is no crank on the instrument - certainly no knob anyway. What I see is some kind of strapping, perhaps to hold the end of the instrument together (I've seen repairs of this fashion before!). It looks like the leather belt holding up the instrument is clipped to this hardware. And dare I say it looks like a square socket in the end of the axle? Has anyone seen this painting in person? What interests me is: what is the fiddle player up to? *His* right hand is busy... ~ Matt > But what is that our hero holds in his left hand? I had read that it > was the crank handle: which is completely visible still on the > instrument... that would puzzle me. Is it perhaps the key to tune the > sympathy strings? Mine is brass... which would have consideralbe more > impact than a wooden tourne-a-gauche. ( Even if it IS mispelled.) > > --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >> >> On the painting by de La Tour , the shalm player squeeze a lemon >> in the eyes on the HG player to check if he is really blind , the HG >> player holds a knife in his hand >> >> >> >> http://www.bildindex.de/bilder/fmlac12105_30b.jpg
