Dear Stewart, Doctor Lawrence Picken of Jesus College Cambridge is or maybe was an astounding source of information about instruments and music of the Far East, his rooms housing a small part of what I believe to be a huge collection.
This may be a red herring, as I have I feeling that I might have seen his obituary in the magazine a while back. Even so, someone at the college may be able to put you on to his "successor", as it were. Yours, Tony ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stewart McCoy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Lute Net" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2004 10:16 PM Subject: Sape > Dear All, > > I seek information about the so-called boat-lute played in Sarawak, > known as a "sape". I have the opportunity of borrowing one. It has > frets missing, a broken string, and generally needs tidying up. > Someone has stuck drawing pins (thumb tacks in American) on the > front of the instrument, presumably to guide the strings. It has > metal strings, yet a website I found on the Internet says that the > strings were traditionally made from a Sago tree, and nowadays are > made of nylon. If this instrument can be mended, I would also like > music to play on it, in particular the music for "Datun julud", one > of the warrior dances associated with head-hunting. > > Does anyone know of a sape expert, who lives in England, to whom I > could turn for advice? > > Any help would be appreciated. > > Best wishes, > > Stewart McCoy. > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > >
