FOMRHI Quarterly
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NO. 15 APRIL 1979 FOMRHI Quarterly BULLETIN 15 AND SUPPLEMENT 2 FoMRHI BOOK NEWS 10 COMMUNICATIONS 188 A, B and C Reviews: Making Musical Instruments, ed. Charles Ford. Jeremy Montagu, Eph Segerman and John Barnes. 10 189 Review: Lute Construction by Philip MacLeod-Coupe. M. Hodgson. 29 190 Review (continued): The Bassoon by Will Jansen. J. Montagu. 32 191 Review: Intervals, Scales and Temperaments by Hugh Boyle. J.M. 32 192 Review: "Cornett & Sackbut" - magazine ed. P. Gretton. J.M. 33 193 Review: Musikinstrumenten-Museum der Karl-Marx-Universitat Leipzig, Katalog f Band 1: Floten. Herbert Heyde. J.M. 34 194 The Development of the Callachon. Martyn Hodgson. 35 195 Soundhole Migration in the Development of the Lute. John Downing. 38 196 Early 16th Century Lute Reconstructions. John Downing. 42 197 Woodwind Making Techniques. Rod Cameron. 49 198 Soundboard Finishes. Richard Shann. 54 199 Mersenne Untwisted. Eph Segerman. 56 200 A Method for Making Traditional Harpsichord Tuning Pins. John Barnes. 58 201 Artificial Ivory made from Milk. L.A. Esteves Pereira. 59 202 Inventory of the Workshop of B. Kejcher, Krakow (1548-1599). Translation: Pierre Ducept. 60 203 The Memling "Angel Musicians" Psaltery. Edward L. Kottick. 63 204 Making a Fraize. Philip McCrone. 67 205 A Gauge for Measuring Thickness of Musical Instrument Soundboards Peter Tourin. 68 206 On Chladni-Plate Tuning of Baroque Viol Soundboards. E. Segerman. 72 207 Further to Comms. 145 and 80. Jacques Leguy. 74 FELLOWSHIP OF MAKERS AND RESTORERS OF HISTORICAL INSTRUMENTS 7 Pickwick Road, Dulwich Village, London SE21 7JN, U.K. FELLOWSHIP of MAKERS and EESTOEEES of HISTOEICAL INSTBUMENTS Bulletin no.15 Aprii, 1979 LIST OF MEMBERS: The 1979 Members1 List is enclosed with this issue of FoMRHI Quarterly. I hope that there won't be any errors or omissions (future tense because I'm leaving it till last so that it's as up-to-date as possible), but if there are, please let me have corrections, as well as any additional information about yourselves, as soon as possible, and anyway before July 2nd, which is the deadline for the next issue. APOLOGIES: I ought to apologise because this looks like being a bit late, but I seem to include such an apology in every issue and I think that the time has come to stop doing so. Issues may be on time; they may bea bit late leaving here, and they may be a bit late leaving Djilda for the printer. We do our best but we both have livings to earn and so on (and we ali have to suffer the occasionai postai or other strike), so from here on let's just say we hope to get each issue to you within the month on the headline, and that for those quarters when we don't, we hope that you'11 bear with us. OUT-OF-PRINT QUARTERLIES: No.2-no.8 are now out of print; no.9 very soon will be. We've had long discussions about this and about the disappoint- ment some new members feel at not being able to get a complete run. There are a number of problems: a) the cost of reprinting; b) problems of Storage as the back-list grows longer; e) tying up capital in stocks of back issues; d) fewer an fewer (but always some) members want to buy a complete run as the list grows longer and the cost higher, which means that b) and e) are with us for longer. Of these the most serious is a). Problems on the other side are that there is a good deal of permanently useful information in the back issues; not just the Communications but also snippets of information on tools, techniques, materials and so on in the Bulletin, and also lists of plans and other such stuff. Chiefly because of a), we have decided to leave issues out of print as they go (we shall continue to print something like a two-year stock, as near as we can judge, so that new members will always be able to buy last year's issues; those are never more than two years out of date and there fore stili fairly relevant in information). However, we would like new members to be able to get any Communication they want, if they really want it, however old it may be, and to do this we need to run a one-off xerox service. Would any member be willing to run a xerox service, preferably at cost of production plus postage, but if necessary at commercial rates for the trouble? Ideally, we could do with several such members in different countries so as to save international postai charges. If you would do this, please let me know and I can then ask members to get in touch with you direct whenever they ask for out-of-print issues. I send ali new members a complete list of contents, and it would be possible to retype this to show the number of pages of each Comm. and thus the cost. But we do need your help. Djilda and I cannot afford any more time to run such a service; we have to ask you to do a share of the work. RELIABILPTY OF COMMS: I've had a comment from a member (marked 'not for printing' but I think it's important, so I'm printing it anonymously) saying: "I often find it difficult to assess the accuracy of the info, in certain Communications - mostly because I don't know anything about the communicator...." This is a very real problem, and one that, as I told him in reply, is not confined to FoMRHIQ. We don't guarantee the accu racy of anything we print (how can we?); if something seems obviously wrong we either refuse it (if we know the subject) or refer it to some- body who does. But we also think that everyone is entitled to an opinion bull.15 P.5 although if we think (as distinct from 'know') that it's wrong we have sometimes said so, if only to warn you that there is more than one view of a subject. So don't take anything on trust just because it's printed in FoMRHIQ. What we print are peoples' ideas, peoples* tips, hints, advice on tools, techniques, materials and so on. If they seem worth trying, try them; if they seem worth thinking about, think about them, but don't set them any higher than that. None of us were around in the Middle Ages, Renaisssance or whenever; what we say is that we think that.... or that this.... works for me. REAMING: Philip McCrone says:'*Up to now I have used fiat reamers and the reaming I have done with the joint in one hand and the reamer in the other. Cutting has been fast and smooth with no problems. I can't understand ali this talk of machine reaming and its attendant difficulties - it's ali unnecessary". And while I'm on reaming, Robert Bigio carne round the other day and showed me some 18th century reamers that he has been using. I hope that he will write them up for a future issue. FURTHER TO: Comm.49: Luis Esteves Pereira has measured his Viola Braguesa (closer to a vihuela than to a Spanish guitar (viola in Portuguese) and a folk instrument) and found the following figures: ABHG - 5/12 (5.1 to be exact), GHFE - 4/12 (4.6), EFCD - 3/13 (2.7). Comm.67: Neil Buckland writes: "re Howard Brown*s statement 'Players invariably use a pirouette, which is almost always visible...' /JJeil's underliningy - how does one determine the presence of those pirouettes which are invisible? I.E. is the 'invariable* use of a pirouette just a modem presumption? There are pictures of shawms which appear not to have pirouettes, though I couldn't point directly to any trecento Italian ones." Bull.11, p.3? We have had the grand total of one offer to act as an area secretary (Brian Lemin for Australia). I had assumed from the lack of response that this was not requeired by members, but Thomas McGeary writes that he does find having to send bank drafts overseas a bit of a bother: 'each draft now costs one dollar, plus $1.50 to cover your conversion charge...Might one solution be to have an American secretary who could collect subscriptions in dollars, saving us each a bank draft and a con version charge?1. I've no objection, prcvided that you remember that there is a sliding scale for conversion charges, according to the amount (there is a top figure and I can find out what it is). Would anyone volunteer to do this? It wouldn't be compulsory to pay that way; anyone who prefrred to pay direct could do so, and those who want to save the odd dollar or two could pay whoever will do the job. Comm.119 (and my comment in Bull.13 p.8): Felix Raudonikas writes: "The discovery you wrote about in Bull.No.13 I have regarded as a joke.... Try to play on your flute with some other instrument tuned to A-415. I am sure that even in the middle register you wouldn't be able to play in the pitch, especially in the upper one." I told him that I'm no flautist and that when I found I was out of tune playing a flute I assumed that it was me rather than the flute that was out of tune.