Interesting comments and ones I can understand.
In my own case, the small-pipes (traditional) are tuned to a key that
doesn't exist anymore (somewhere in the region of F and a bit) but players
are trying concert G which has a totally different character in sound.
I prefer the "older" sound (although not that old, of course).
I also enjoy listening to early music (I have the David Munrow set of
records - the one with the ghastly sounding HG on it which may make it
pertinent to the discussion - maybe that is how it SHOULD sound?).
Many sounds just can't be reproduced by modern instruments but many sounds
are inspired guesswork - would that tape recorders had been invented then!
I think that there is plenty of room for both in the HG world on the proviso
that you actually get the sound you want (rather than having it forced on
you by a badly-made instrument, if you follow - and NOT suggesting that
older instruments sounded badly, I hasten to add ).
I have the feeling that musicians were rather better in the past as more was
down to their playing than to the instrument.
Just think of the number of things that have been used for bagpipe (and
other) reeds (now, pretty well, always Spanish reed cane, of course).
Rather scarce in the highlands of Scotland and in the UK in general
(although global warming is changing that - I have a clump growing in my
garden and surviving the winter there).
Remember too that many modern well-built instruments use more modern woods
etc (or even plastic) and, just maybe, some of the synthetic (or
alternative) stuff while being durable may just alter our perceptions of how
things should sound.
As I say, room for all.
Colin Hill
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Nogy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2008 8:22 PM
Subject: [HG] purpose of my new project.
Sorry if this is long and boring - I am warning at the beginning that it
will be, so if you don't want to be bored for a long time delete this now.
Alden commented that 'We have moved on from that sound".
I think that might be an overstatement - some have moved on from that
sound. Maybe the professional HG industry has moved on from that sound.
But there is still a lot of interest in the old sounds and methods. They
are not all hideous to everyone's ears.
I, as well as others, have a real musical tie with the medieval music, or
music that strongly evokes medieval imagery and feelings. Modern jazz,
20th century pastorals, that type of music just doesn't inspire like the
earliest recorded Celtic or English folk music, or the sonorous latin
hymns and chants. Sure, I enjoy technically interesting music, like the
stuff from Prototyp, but I am not out to become that musician - I would
rather listen to it than try to play it. I like the sound of the Finnish
folk players with nyckleharp and gurdy, lyre and kantele (not the modern
concert instrument, the old runsinging stuff). I also don't think you
have to be a poor musician or play a poor instrument to do that music.
But you do have to remain pure to the instruments that were, and not the
instruments that are. A great modern instrument no matter how you
disguise it will play a great modern version of what was. To get what
really was, you need to play on that type of instrument.
I am trying my best to capture that sound - from the point of view that
the elder Stradivarius (not the youngers) was a highly skilled instrument
maker using exceptional techniques and first-rate materials and created in
late medieval times instruments that were, and still are, exceptional.
A first-rate violin builder recently told me that amateurs today can get
an instrument that is 90% to a Strad. Sure, it won't have all the essence
and nuance of a Strad, but if it was presented in period, these people
would likely be recognized as near masters. That is, of course,
understanding that the ability we have to choose and prepare materials,
the tools we can use for building and setup, the combined knowledge that
we have access to all work to allow us to create something more than the
average village builder would make, but not stray far from the possible
sound of a period instrument.
The gurdy has undergone much more evolution in the last half century than
it did in hundreds of years before - capos and pickups and new string
materials, and composites and precision machining techniques available to
the average builder. But the instrument has fundamentally changed as
well - the early 19th century instruments have a different color and tone
and playability than the new instruments. Yes, the newer instruments are
by far accoustically better - they top every measurable and quantitative
standard. But what about the best instruments from the early days? Were
they all poor? Did not one of them have a sound a modern performer would
love, not just find useful in certain rare circumstance?
I admit, I will use a lathe to create the axle and wheel setup for my
project. But I will likely use it in a manner quite familiar in the 1500s
with the early continuous rotation metalworkers and pewterers lathes. I
will avoid if I can using threads, instead choosing keyways and pins, and
using lapped joints common in medieval clockmaking, and borrowing bearing
construction and usage from that occupation as well.
There were some wonderfully precise machines made in the middle ages, and
I believe that while it would not be as common as today, there were
wonderfully precise and tonally excellent instruments of all types made
during the period. It is my desire to make an instrument that could have
been made at that time - with materials and technologies known at that
time, avoiding all the modern adjuncts and improvements. I have no
interest at all in owning a great modern gurdy - I am not after the finest
performance, the most modern, clean, perfect sound that can be generated.
I am after a sound that evokes a time past, a sound that sounds correct
even if foreign to modern ears. I am not trying to emulate the human
voice, or to satisfy the modern musical elite - I find they limit
themselves far too much in what they allow themselves to appreciate. I
want to be connected to the instrument and to the setting, to play while
Gypsies dance, to mourn the loss of a fallen archer in song, !
to stand in awe as I crank my simple sinphone behind and in support of the
Gregorian chants of the brothers at the monastery. Just as I prefer my
rebec to any violin, and I don't WANT to build a rebec with a carved top
and sound post and all the rest, and as I prefer my flat top, flat back
citole to any modern mandola or bouzouki, I want to have a good
representation of the best gurdy that could be made in period. That is
what I am driving for.
I know it will fall short of the modern instruments, but only by design,
not by craftsmanship, setup, or skill. It will, I hope, be a Stradivarius
of medieval gurdies.
(And yes, here's the kicker. Most of the instrument builders and
restorers and set-up guys I know say the same thing - it was likely that
Strads came out of the shop sounding like dog doodoo. We have no idea if
Strad knew how to set up an instrument or if he just knew how to build one
that was beautiful. But everyone I have talked to who has had an
experience working on one or more said that the signs were that the
instruments were not well set up out fo the shop, and that it took many
years, and many trips to the experts, to make the best sounding strads
today sound like they do. So maybe the point is moot. But I will try
anyway, and when it is done it will be hauled out in the gales and the sun
and the rain, and people will dance to it and cry to it (hopefully only
when I intend them to cry, not all the time) and dogs and cats will run
from it and mother-in-laws will stop visiting because it resides in the
house, and the spirit will come upon it an bless it and me and t!
here will be years of enjoyment of it and someone 200 years from now will
be refurbishing it and playing it as well. Hopefully.)
It might be a long ride down the wrong road, but it should be scenic and
fun and show me sights most people will never see.
Chris
