Dear Mathias, I agree with almost everything you write except that I would like to call instruments first and foremost by their proper names (especially if it comes to non western european instruments), that I would not like to call guitars lutes [and therefore have to admit that I am not able to decide upon where the dividing line runs between the different six-string plucked things used side by side in the nineteenth and early twentieth century] and that I think that the Sachs system does not apply universally except when one states that western (european) views have needs to be adopted all over the world.
Best wishes, Joachim "Mathias Rösel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> schrieb: >> "Schalenhalslaute" and "Kastenhalslaute" - that's the terminology of Curt >> Sachs > >Sachs's terminology was still kept e. g. by Dieter Klöckner, art. >zupfinstrumentenbau (construction of plucked instruments) / A Einführung >(introduction), B Gitarren- und Lautenbau (construction of lutes and >guitars) in MGG 14, pp. 1453-78. It was written in the late sixties, I >think. > >> and as his approach was purely based on the morphology of instruments > >Firstly, Klöckner distinguishes plucked from bowed string instruments in >general. That should be called a distinction according to _use_. When he >comes to lutes, the main distinction of lutes is based on the >_construction_ of the neck, i. e. whether A) a rod or stick (Spiesz) >runs through the body of the lute (Spieszlaute, stick-lute?), or B) the >neck is fixed to the body like a neck (Halslaute, neck-lute). Neck-lutes >can furthermore be distinguished according to the construction of their >respective bodies, i .e. whether the body is of the shape of a box >(Kasten, Kastenhalslaute) or of a shell or bowl (Schale, >Schalenhalslaute). > >Would you say this kind of a mixed distinction, based on use as well as >on constructio, is obsolete or inappropiate? > >> (not on their use, the way one produces sounds on them [e.g. by plucking >> strings or bowing them] > >well, any distinction like chordophones--plucked instruments speaks for >itself, doesn't it. > >> or their position in the culture to which they belong) he consequently calls >> any instrument with strings attached to a body and something like a neck a >> "lute". Guitars are "Kastenhalslauten" and the Kemence is a >> "Schalenhalslaute" ... > >well, yes, what's wrong with that? Lutes are a numerous family, aren't >they. I for one should say that gitterns, guitars, citole, vihuelas, >chitarroni, theorboes, archlutes, renaissance lutes from 6c to 10c, >baroque lutes, are lutes just as well as idan (hi Danyel), tar, saz, >baglama, pipa and so on, are lutes. Or would you prefer to call them >plucked neck-chordophones? > >Best, > > >Mathias >-- > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > -- Dr. Joachim Luedtke Frühlingsstraße 9a D - 93164 Laaber Tlf.: ++49 / +9498 / 905 188 Mobil: 0172 / 275 49 48 Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
