Doing this and wanting only the best, I think you MUST use lignum vitae
bearings...like in those days...
marc
----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Nogy
To: hg@hurdygurdy.com
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 9:45 PM
Subject: Re[2]: [HG] purpose of my new project.
I will likely build with a laminated wheel. I know by firsthand experience
what a solid maple wheel can sound like when true, and what it can sound like
when off. And if it is rosined properly, the end/edge grain difference is
minimal.
I fear I have been misunderstood - I fear people think I am after the shabby,
almost unlistenable sound of the average early peasant gurdy. I don't think
that all medieval instruments had to sound bad, in fact, I believe that just
like today there were all sorts of levels of instruments and builders, and that
there was a Nagy or a Hackmann back then, doing exceptional work with the
materials and techniques available, and turning out exceptional instruments
limited only because the technology of the time didn't include all the adjunce
techniques we now can use to further mold the sound of a good instrument.
My point in all this being that it was possible to have a good, or even
great, sounding instrument in the middle ages, but we tend to spend a lot of
time learning how to make changes to an instruments tone by materials choice,
preparation (top carving and using depth calipers to perfect every thickness,
nylon or roller bearings, things like that). The technology available in
period could produce a very precise machine. But it would be limited to a
certain type of sound because builders had not yet discovered all the adjunct
technologies that we use today to affect and fine tune the instruments. These
options simply were not available in earlier times.
Thus my question about curved vs flat top. There is a significant difference
in the sound between the two. If the curved top would have been an option at
the time gurdies first were fitted with trompettes, then a great builder,
recognizing that this was a way to improve the sound, would have fitted the
instrument with a curved soundboard. But if the knowledge stopped at flat
tops, then the builder would have built the best flat topped instrument he
could, and the instrument would be limited by that design characteristic, but
could still have had a nice, pleasant, workable and usable tone. It just
wouldn't have sounded like a curved top instrument.
A person performing at a high state function for a Crown would have spent
time preparing his instrument, greasing and truing and doing what needed to be
done to make it sound right. It might not have stayed that way, but it would
have been able to sound good for at least a while. The 'best that the
instrument could sound' is the sound I am wanting to recreate, and if using
modern materials and techniques can allow me to kind of 'lock in' that sound,
then I am not against doing so. But an instrument that has the visual and
accoustic properties of the very best instrument of the period at it's very
best sound, that is what I am after. (Oh, and it simply cannot be a Henry or a
Bosch. It just can't. Non-negotiable.)
It is a rather stuck-up and elite pursuit, but I want to have the very, very
best medieval gurdy around, and to be able to truly and accurately demonstrate
how good that instrument could sound in a period atmosphere playing period
music in a period way.
Chris
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
On 2/6/2008 at 1:31 PM Roy Trotter wrote:
Confidential to Chris, this is not the worst (not the Best either) of the
old recordings. I don't own any of the field recordings under discussion. I
have heard enough to lose interest.... The biggest problem in the early
recordings is lumpy wheels and squeal. There was something on Youtube of a very
pretty girl playing fairly well, but the poor machine was squealing like a pig
in a fence. I didn't run that one much, and can't find it now.
It sounds to me that Mr. Hogwood is not a HG player, just somebody that was
playing at the moment. (Is this this was the same Sir Christopher Hogwood that
went on to fame as fortune as a conductor? ) The notes are too passive. I may
be spoilt to that zesty, emphatic, precise playing of MM Imbert, Bouffard,
Chabenant, et al.
I understand and appreciate your project, but unless you really like
scraping the wheel everytime the humidity changes, you really want a twencen
laminated wheel. In some of the old instruments, there is some evidence that
the shaft was pounded into the wheel... I hope into a pre-drilled hole....
Players that have seen me build, comment on the violence involved, but driving
a shaft (pig-iron or wood) into wheel like a nail is too much even for me. I'm
not trying to discourage you from something you really want to do, but
personally, I wouldn't want an instrument that took all my playing time up in
maint. Carved body sounds interesting though.
Doing a re-rosin during a performance is par for the course. I never liked
performing solo, My first choice for a partner is a good storyteller that can
keep an audience enthralled during an emergency re-cotton. I refuse to true an
oval wheel on stage. OK call me a snob...
Roy
On Feb 5, 2008 11:46 PM, Kathy Hutchins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: "Thomas A. Frank" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> and dogs and cats will run from it
>
> Is this a common occurrence when playing the HG?
>
> I ask in all seriousness, because I am quite interested in getting an
HG,
> but if it scares the cats, it won't be welcome in the house.
We have a number of odd instruments in the house. Besides my harp and
embryonic HG, I also have a circa 1870 Erard grand piano. My husband plays
viola, accordion, tenor saxophone, Irish flute, and smallpipes. My older
daughter is a cellist. My younger daughter is a percussionist, and has in
addition to the standard school-issue snare drum, a bodhran and a medieval
rope tension drum. We have a wooden bucket full of pennywhistles,
recorders,
and bamboo flutes. Out of all these instruments, the only one that affects
the animals (two dogs, eight cats) is a Generation D tinwhistle. I don't
know what it is about this particular whistle, but the minute I start
playing it both dogs put their noses in the air and start howling like
wolves, and the cats all either rush to the door to be let out, or go hide
upstairs.
I mean, it has to be the instrument, right? It couldn't possibly be my
playing.
And to the fellow who was going to use that mp3 to scare raccoons out of
the
attic: to me, it kind of sounded like raccoons mating, so I'm not sure it
will have the effect you intended. My attic is actually full of squirrels
right now. and nothing seems to frighten them.
Kathy Hutchins
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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