A lute building friend has contacts to an ivory trader and confirmed that the use of small amounts of ivory would be legal within the EU, above (if I remember correctly) 700g it would need an affirmation of the CITES. The friend toys with the idea to build a copy of the Gerle lute in vienna.
We had the topic a while ago and the sound of ivory lutes was then described as different (brighter) to the sound of the wooden ones and it would have been better audible in larger ensembles. I remember some reports in TV saying the work with ivory would not be illegal just the trade. This was somehow because there are traditional workshops working with ivory who should get the chance to use up their stock. Actually the amount of ivory used to build lutes is neglectable even if the complete body would be made of ivory - I guess you could make dozens of lutes from the ivory used to build the keys for just one piano. there is an ivory lute by Martin Hoffmann in munich (as I've seen it it was borrowed to Nuernberg) which is very light and (because it was destroyed by a handgranate) taking a look at the used ivory it's *very* thin. I guess the amount used was something between 1 or 1,5 kg. Anyhow it's not a necessary material for lute building. There is good synthetic substitutional material. As experiment I don't think it's morally completly abjective to use ivory to find out what the advantages or disadvantages could have been and why it was such a popular material for building lutes because noone would kill an elefant for a lute (while thousends were and are killed for piano keys). I'm not sure about the use of mammoth. I fear it's sold simply to make money out of it. Thomas Am Mit, 2003-11-26 um 08.36 schrieb Howard Posner: > James Edwards wrote: > > > a tusk of what? Mammoth, elephant, walrus, > > rhinocerous, or other; and where did he get it from? I'm sure he acquired it > > legally somehow, but don't you want to know? It's odd to me that we can be so > > concerned about the details of "historical correctness" regarding the lute > > and its music, and yet have a cavalier attitude about a contemporary and > > controversial issue that involves the lives of other (non-lute playing) > > mammals > > currently sharing the planet with us. > > A fair question; I suppose healthy skepticism is warranted. I, for one, am > a little skeptical about you and your wife keeping elephants in your living > room, but I suppose when you live near Hearst castle the zoning rules are a > bit lax. > > Dan certainly did not get it from a rhinoceros, BTW, since rhinoceri have no > ivory; rhino horns are keratin and useless to humans, except to be ground > into powder and sold at ridiculous prices as an aphrodisiac. It is probably > the single most preposterous cause of driving an animal to the point of > extinction. > > H -- Thomas Schall Niederhofheimer Weg 3 D-65843 Sulzbach 06196/74519 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.lautenist.de / www.tslaute.de/weiss --
