Toby Rider wrote: re:
As with the lute, orpharion etc. The question is more 'why do we have doubled basses now' on any instrument. The beats created by double bass strings are not pleasant, and lack the chorusing effect of double or treble course means and trebles - they just sound off-tune. Single basses are more than adequate, the thumb provides a firm pure sound of the correct volume. The basses should be made from catline (gut wound with a fine steel thread in it) or twisted brass wire, not the modern copper wound strings I use myself. But reproduction strings sets are from #40 to #80 a throw!http://www.maxwellplace.demon.co.uk/pandemonium/guittar.html and also at http://www.robmackillop.com/Wow, these are some very nice photos. I can almost smell the wood. What a fascinating axe! I noticed that the two bass strings are not doubled, whereas all the other ones are. Do you know why they decided to set it up that way?
It was 'patented' by Preston around 1734 and it does seem incredibly robust - mine has beenYes, the tuning mechanism is *totally* different. It actually seems like a logical way to do this. What were the downfalls of it? I'm wondering why this style of tuner never made it onto modern instruments.
tuning away since around 1770 and still works like clockwork (which in engineering terms, it resembles!). Portugese guittaras and German waldzithers do still use these machines, but the Portugese put a big tuning knob on each of the 12 screws of their instrument, instead of a key which you have to remove and replace. The Germans use a grandfather clock key on harp-tuner size adjusters instead, and it's much easier to find those in a hurry.
So do you think that's where the open tunings that American "old-time" players use originated from? I knew this was raise all of theseI think the open triad/hexchord tuning is so fundamental it could equally well have come from Africa as Europe. But I would guess yes, that the American folk banjo, dulcimer and slide guitar tunings can from German-Dutch-French-English-Scots-Irish influence (old cittern tunings) rather than the Arabic-Spanish side (which tends be tuning in fourths, the exact reverse of an open tuning). The oldest and most universal tuning in the world is octave and fifth, as it's the most mathematically pure tuning. It's fundamental to most Scottish music. From there it is a small step to add a major third, a minor third, or ('mountain minor') a fourth.
questions in my mind. Too bad I didn't see any sound samples of this
insturment.
Sound samples were linked somewhere! Here are some, one correctly Scottish (Bremner 1758):
Tweedside - http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/1617/1617988.html
and one which is just me doing a pastiche 'o'er the Border' variation in modern folk style, which I suspect may be the way the instrument was used informally, but Rob MacKillop finds too American/modern in manner:
Border Marches - http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/1416/1416640.html
I have one tune recorded, played on a modern instrument for comparison. This was before I acquired the guittar, Jack Campin sent me a transcription of a duet, on to one stave, for the 'Edinburgh Trained Bands March' from Bremner 1758. I worked out a single-handed soprano guitar arrangement from this, using a Tacoma Papoose, which has the same scale length as a guittar, but rather heavier single modern strings:
ETBM - http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/900/900446.html
However, the best thing to do is get Rob MacKillop's wonderful CD 'Flowers of the Forest' which is played on several different lutes, a Scottish mandour (tiny renaissance ukelele-scale lute!), Scottish cittern, and his Broderip guittar. This CD can change your view of where Scottish music came from, and what happened to it when the German hired-hand composers got hold of it in the 18th c, and what further damage was done by the piano, and then the accordion :-)
David
Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
