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The KNIGHT REVISION of HORNBOSTEL-SACHS: a New Look at Musical Instrument Classification
The KNIGHT REVISION of HORNBOSTEL-SACHS: a new look at musical instrument classification by Roderic C. Knight, Professor of Ethnomusicology Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, © 2015, Rev. 2017 Introduction The year 2015 marks the beginning of the second century for Hornbostel-Sachs, the venerable classification system for musical instruments, created by Erich M. von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs as Systematik der Musikinstrumente in 1914. In addition to pursuing their own interest in the subject, the authors were answering a need for museum scientists and musicologists to accurately identify musical instruments that were being brought to museums from around the globe. As a guiding principle for their classification, they focused on the mechanism by which an instrument sets the air in motion. The idea was not new. The Indian sage Bharata, working nearly 2000 years earlier, in compiling the knowledge of his era on dance, drama and music in the treatise Natyashastra, (ca. 200 C.E.) grouped musical instruments into four great classes, or vadya, based on this very idea: sushira, instruments you blow into; tata, instruments with strings to set the air in motion; avanaddha, instruments with membranes (i.e. drums), and ghana, instruments, usually of metal, that you strike. (This itemization and Bharata’s further discussion of the instruments is in Chapter 28 of the Natyashastra, first translated into English in 1961 by Manomohan Ghosh (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, v.2). The immediate predecessor of the Systematik was a catalog for a newly-acquired collection at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels. The collection included a large number of instruments from India, and the curator, Victor-Charles Mahillon, familiar with the Indian four-part system, decided to apply it in preparing his catalog, published in 1880 (this is best documented by Nazir Jairazbhoy in Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology – see 1990 in the timeline below). -
A Brief History of the Lyre
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LYRE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE LYRE AND THE HARP The lyre seems to have been an evolution from the even more ancient harp, and what I think drove this evolution, was the desire by specifically nomadic cultures in the ancient Middle East, to create a harp-like instrument which unlike the larger harp, was portable. The harp is an incredibly ancient instrument and the very first illustrations of the harp can be found from c.3300BCE – 3000BCE, in rock etchings found in Megiddo, in the North Western Valley of Jezreel in ancient Israel: Further details about of this ancient etching of the first known depiction of the fully evolved triangular harp, complete with harmonic curve, can be seen in of Joachim Braun's highly informative book, available from Amazon: Music in Ancient Israel/Palestine - Archaeological, written & Comparative Sources (Wm. B. Erdmans Publishing Company, 2002) These rock etchings date from an incredibly ancient era, before the Bronze Age, and before the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt. This remote era in archaeology, is known as the "Chalcolithic" period (4000 - 3200 BCE) - the "Copper Age". The triangular harp depicted in the Megiddo etchings is so fully evolved, that the history of the harp must predate even this ancient illustration by at least a few thousand years! The ultimate ancient evolution of the harp, may have been the result of a long, progressive series of developments in refining the plucked sound made by the basic strung bow and arrow of the Stone Age... Incredibly, this Mesolithic ancestor of both the harp & lyre, the basic musical bow, is still very much alive & well today in Africa - a continuous musical tradition, dating back at least 60,000 years or more.. -
A Brief History of the Lyre
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE LYRE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE LYRE AND THE HARP The lyre seems to have been an evolution from the even more ancient harp, and what I think drove this evolution, was the desire by specifically nomadic cultures in the ancient Middle East, to create a harp-like instrument which unlike the larger harp, was portable. The harp is an incredibly ancient instrument and the very first illustrations of the harp can be found from c.3300BCE – 3000BCE, in rock etchings found in Megiddo, in the North Western Valley of Jezreel in ancient Israel: Further details about of this ancient etching of the first known depiction of the fully evolved triangular harp, complete with harmonic curve, can be seen in of Joachim Braun's highly informative book, available from Amazon: Music in Ancient Israel/Palestine - Archaeological, written & Comparative Sources (Wm. B. Erdmans Publishing Company, 2002) These rock etchings date from an incredibly ancient era, before the Bronze Age, and before the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt. This remote era in archaeology, is known as the "Chalcolithic" period (4000 - 3200 BCE) - the "Copper Age". The triangular harp depicted in the Megiddo etchings is so fully evolved, that the history of the harp must predate even this ancient illustration by at least a few thousand years! The ultimate ancient evolution of the harp, may have been the result of a long, progressive series of developments in refining the plucked sound made by the basic strung bow and arrow of the Stone Age... Incredibly, this Mesolithic ancestor of both the harp & lyre, the basic musical bow, is still very much alive & well today in Africa - a continuous musical tradition, dating back at least 60,000 years or more.. -
'Tuning the Lyre, Tuning the Soul'
Greek and Roman Musical Studies 8 (2020) 111-155 brill.com/grms ‘Tuning the Lyre, Tuning the Soul’ Harmonia, Justice and the Kosmos of the Soul in Plato’s Republic and Timaeus Tosca A.C. Lynch Jesus College, University of Oxford, Turl Street, Oxford, OX1 3DW [email protected] Abstract This paper will focus on Plato’s thought-provoking depiction of justice as special kind of harmonia (Resp. 4.443c-444a) that epitomises the best possible organisation of the soul, exploring his nuanced use of the model of lyre tunings in performative, theoreti- cal as well as educational terms. By comparing Plato’s use of harmonic imagery with technical discussions of lyre tunings and their key role in educational settings, I will show how Plato exploited distinctive features of traditional Greek lyre harmoniai to give shape to his innovative understanding of the structure of the soul and the harmo- nious, but not strifeless, relationship between its individual components. In the sec- ond part of this paper, I will look at how the model outlined in the Republic sheds light on the musical structure that gives shape to the World Soul in the Timaeus, advancing a new interpretation of its elusive harmonic organisation. Keywords Plato’s harmonics – harmonia – justice – lyre tunings – musical education – Republic – Timaeus – Philolaus Plato’s dialogues offer many revealing discussions of the ethical, political, psy- chological and educational importance that music had for the Greeks. This is especially true in the case of the Republic and the Laws, works which describe in detail the political set-up of two ideal constitutions as well as the lifestyle and ethical values embraced by their citizens. -
Cymbal Playing Robot by Godfried-Willem Raes
<Synchrochord> The first bowed instrument robot we designed was <Hurdy>, an automated hurdy gurdy, built between 2004 and 2007. The building of that robot had many problems and our attempts to solve these have lead to many new ideas and experiments regarding acoustic sound production from bowed strings. Between 2008 and 2010 we worked very hard on our <Aeio> robot, where we used only two phase electromagnetic excitation of the twelve strings. Although <Aeio> works pretty well, it can not serve as a realistic replacement of the cello as we first envisaged it. The pretty slow build-up of sound was the main problem. The cause being the problematic coupling of the magnetic field to the string material. Thus we went on experimenting with bowing mechanisms until we discovered that it is possible to excite the string mechanically synchronous with the frequency to which it is tuned. For such an approach to work well, we need a very precize synchronous motor with a very high speed. Change of speed ought to be very fast, thus necessitating a low inertia motor as well as a fast braking mechanism. Needless to say, but the motor should also run as quietly as possible. To relax the high speed requirement a bit, we designed a wheel mounted on the motor axis with ten plectrums around the circumference. Thus for every single rotation of the spindle, the string will be plucked ten times. Follows that in order to excite a string tuned to 880Hz, we need a rotational frequency of 88Hz. Or, stated in rotations per minute: 5280 rpm. -
Orthodox Friendship Meeting
Orthodox Friendship Meeting “Dancing” as a mean of self- expression, and communication is one of the most important human manifestations, and it is directly related to the history, the civilisation and the progress of one's society. Traditional dancing in Greece - “Horos” In Greece, the term traditional or folk dancing applies mostly to the dances of rural areas, and for the most part it is a 'product' of oral tradition rather than a written culture. In addition, Hellenic dances are characterised by “anonymity and collectivity”. Greek dancing along with music and singing, it is strongly connected to the time when Greece was under the Ottoman Occupation, lasting from the mid-15th century until the successful Greece's War of Independence. During the Ottoman Occupation, Hellenes have never stopped dancing and singing, and in this way they preserved their language and their traditional music and choreography both of which particularly blossomed during the 18th and 19thcentury. Among the limited privileges that invaders granted to enslaved Greeks, was the right to practise their religion. Folk dancing and folk songs together with festivals and the practice of the Greek Orthodox religion were decisive factors for the preservation of the Greek national and social identity. The Greek Music Greek musical history extends far back into the ancient Greece, and it is also strongly connected to the Byzantine period. Music, songs, poetry and dancing (horos), are the inseparable forms that have become synonymous to Ancient Greek civilization. The Great Ancient Greek Philosophers have once considered 'music' as the supreme form of education. Plato believed that: “Music is a moral law. -
K-REV: the KNIGHT-REVISION of HORNBOSTEL-SACHS a System for Musical Instrument Classification by Roderic Knight, Oberlin College, © 2015
K-REV: The KNIGHT-REVISION OF HORNBOSTEL-SACHS A system for musical instrument classification by Roderic Knight, Oberlin College, © 2015 Organology, or the scientific study of musical instruments, has ancient roots. In China, a system of classification known as the pa yin or “eight sounds” was devised in the third millennium BCE. It was based on eight materials used in instrument construction (but not necessarily in sound production) and allied to other physical and metaphysical phenomena. More recently, but still in ancient times, the Indian sage Bharata outlined in his Natyashastra (ca. 200 CE) a classification based on how the sound is produced: by blowing (sushira), setting a string in motion (tata), hitting a stretched skin (avanaddha), or hitting something solid (ghana). This system endures as a worldwide phenomenon today because Victor Mahillon adopted it for his catalog of the instruments in the Brussels Conservatory museum in the 19th century, and because his system was picked up in turn by Erich M. von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs in producing their seminal Systematik der Musikinstrumente (Classification of Musical Instruments) in 1914. Hornbostel and Sachs sought to universalize the Mahillon catalog by developing a hierarchy of terms that could encompass all the methods of sound production known to humankind. They used three of Mahillon’s terms: aerophone, for the “winds and brass” of the orchestra and all other instruments that produce a sound by exciting the air directly; chordophone, for all stringed instruments (including the keyboards); and membranophone for drums. Hornbostel and Sachs replaced Mahillon’s fourth term, autophone (for instruments whose body itself, or some part of the body, produces the sound – the Indian ghana type), with their newly coined term, idiophone, to avoid the ambiguous implication that an “autophone” might sound by itself. -
Kithara of the Golden Age
KITHARA OF THE GOLDEN AGE The kithara was the highly advanced, large wooden lyre favoured by only the true professional musicians of ancient Greece, which reached its pinnacle of perfection during the “Golden Age” of Classical Antiquity, circa 5th century BCE. My album "The Ancient Greek Kithara of Classical Antiquity" features the wonderfully recreated Kithara of the Golden Age of Classical Greece - hand-made in modern Greece by Luthieros: http://en.luthieros.com/ Since late 2014, I have been collaborating with Luthieros in their inspirational "Lyre 2.0 Project" - dedicated to reintroducing the wonderful lyres of antiquity back into the modern world, to make these beautiful instruments accessible to each and every modern musician. This new series of recordings hopefully demonstrate why the kithara was so venerated in antiquity, as the instrument of the professional musician - perfect for both accompanying the human voice and for as an incredibly versatile solo instrument. In particular, I attempt to demonstrate the wonderfully reconstructed 2500 year old vibrato mechanism, for which there is an almost overwhelming body of visual evidence to support this theory. THE OVERWHELMING BODY OF VISUAL EVIDENCE FOR THE VIBRATO MECHANISM All original illustrations of the ancient Greek kithara clearly show what appear to be 2 tiers of inverted ‘U’ shaped curved springs beneath the yoke to which the strings are attached, with the top of the arms carved almost wafer thin, (often with projections which could certainly be interpreted as actual articulated hinges), which almost certainly was to allow for lateral movement of the yoke and the attached strings, complete with 2 vertical levers either side of the yoke, which if light lateral pressure was applied, would certainly have an eerie vocal vibrato effect. -
Fomrhi Quarterly
Quarterly No. Ill, February 2009 FoMRHI Quarterly BULLETIN 111 Christopher Goodwin 2 COMMUNICATIONS 1835 Jan Steenbergen and his oboes Jan Bouterse 5 1836 Observations on glue and an early lute construction technique John Downing 16 1837 Thomas Stanesby Junior's 'True Concert Flute' Philippe Bolton 19 1838 Oil paintings of musical instruments - should we trust the Old Masters? Julian Goodacre 23 1839 A method of fixing loose soundbars Peter Bavington 24 1840 Mediaeval and Renaissance multiple tempo standards Ephraim Segerman 27 1841 The earliest soundposts Ephraim Segerman 36 1842 The historical basis of the modern early-music pitch standard ofa'=415Hz Ephraim Segerman 37 1843 Notes on the symphony Ephraim Segerman 41 1844 Some design considerations in making flattened lute backs Ephraim Segerman 45 1845 Tromba Marina notes Ian Allan 47 1846 Woodwinds dictionary online Mona Lemmel 54 1847 For information: Diderot et d'Alembert, L'Encyclopedie - free! John Downing 55 1848 'Mortua dolce cano' - a question John Downing 56 1849 Mortua dolce cano - two more instances Chris Goodwin 57 1850 Further to Comm. 1818, the new Mary Rose fiddle bow Jeremy Montagu 58 1851 Oud or lute? Comm. 1819 continued John Downing 59 1852 Wood fit for a king - a case of mistaken identity? Comm 1826 updated John Downing 62 1853 Reply to Segerman's Comm. 1830 John Downing 64 1854 Reply to John Catch's Comm 1827 on frets and temperaments Thomas Munck 65 1856 Re: Comms 1810 and 1815, Angled Bridges, Tapered Strings Frets and Bars Ephraim Segerman 66 1857 The lute in renaissance Spain: comment on Comm 1833 Ander Arroitajauregi 67 1858 Review of Modern Clavichord Studies: De Clavicordio VIII John Weston 68 The next issue, Quarterly 112, will appear in May 2009. -
Where Did the Old Music Go?
Where did the Old Music go? The "improved" musical instruments of North Korea J) Keith Howard Professor University of London Since the 1960s, the socialist regime of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) under Kim II-Sung has sponsored a musical instrument institute known as the Minjok akki kaeryang saJpkwa to revise chiJnt'ong akki (traditional instruments) and enable them to match sOyang akki (western instruments). The resultant hybrids are known as kaeryang akki ("improved" instruments), a term in use in both the southern and northern states. Complex instruments are, by their very nature, elitist, yet kaeryang akki are required to respect socialist dogma; the resultant conflicts between state and art, 2 potential or real, are nothing new. ) In this paper, after discussing background unique to North Korea, I explore how development is justified. Kaeryang akki are meant to retain old sound timbres and hence to reflect the Korean heritage, for this is what juche, the state philosophy of self-reliance, demands. At the same time kaeryang akki are designed to be "progressive," duplicating diatonic scales and the flexibility of western models in an exploration and/or accommodation of developments from the world outside. This, together with the modification of 1) This paper is based on a 3-week visit to Pyongyang in June 1992. I am grateful to staff and students at the Pyongyang Music and Dance University (P'yongyang umak muyong taehak), who provide my sound examples and who taught me much about individual instruments. 2) For a survey of such issues, see Perris 1985: chapters 4 and 5. -
Paradisi Porte Hans Memling's Angelic Concert
Paradisi Porte Hans Memling's Angelic Concert Tiburtina Ensemble · Barbora Kabátková Oltremontano Antwerpen Wim Becu Paradisi Porte Hans Memling's Angelic Concert Friendly supported by the Flemish Community Co-production with AMUZ, KMSKA, CmB Tiburtina Ensemble Barbora Kabátková Recorded at AMUZ, Antwerpen (Belgium), on 8-10 December 2020 Oltremontano Antwerpen Recording producer: Jo Cops Executive producer: Wim Becu (Oltremontano), Michael Sawall (note 1 music gmbh) Wim Becu Cover picture: “God the Father with singing and music making angels” by Hans Memling. Collection Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerpen Belgium Layout & booklet editor: Joachim Berenbold Translations: Joachim Berenbold (Deutsch), Pierre Elie Mamou (français), Anna Moens (Nederlands) Photos (Cover, booklet: cover, p 9, 13, 17): Rik Klein Gotink Artist photo (p 21): Miel Pieters CD made in The Netherlands + © 2021 note 1 music gmbh 1 PROSA Ave Maria gracia plena Graduale Brugge, 1506 4:41 vocal ensemble, harp, psaltery 2 Fuga duo[rum] temp[orum] GUILLAUME DUFAY 1397-1474 2:18 vocal ensemble, claretas (Gloria ad modum tubae – Trent Ms 90) 3 HYMNUS Proles de caelo set by C. Vicens after GUILLAUME DUFAY 2:38 organetto, psaltery, harp [ALK] 4 INTROITUS In excelso throno Graduale Brugge, 1506 1:59 Tiburtina Ensemble solo voice [KB], psaltery Barbora Kabátková, Ivana Bilej Brouková, 5 BASSE DANSE Paradisi porte set by Andrew Lawrence-King 1:02 Hana Blažíková [solo in 8], Daniela Čermáková, harp [ALK] Anna Chadimová Havlíková, Kamila Mazalová chant 6 SEQUENTIA Alma -
Ancient Lyre Strings
ANCIENT LYRE STRINGS This experimental extended length single is actually a practical "archaeo- musicological experiment", in both recreating a truly authentic ancient timbre for my lyre & discovering what playing techniques are possible to perform on a Kithara-style lyre of antiquity, when strung with authentic natural fibre strings. To further recreate the ancient musical timbre in this recording, the lyre is also tuned to the wonderfully pure-sounding just intonation of antiquity. Trying to find authentic sounding strings for my lyre has so far been the most difficult challenge - although gut was generally used in antiquity, the polished gut harp strings used today, bear little in common with the closely wound gut fibre strings of antiquity. String expert Peter Pringle (a regular contributor to the fascinating Facebook Group "The Lyre") suggested that natural fibre wound silk strings would sound closest match to the unpolished gut used on the lyre strings of antiquity & kindly made some for my lyre... ANCIENT MUSICAL STRING TECHNOLOGY Peter explains some fascinating facts about the little discussed subject of ancient musical string technology: "Silk strings are traditionally made by twisting pure silk filaments together using binders and glues of various sorts to produce a stable cord with the appropriate hardness and density (which is similar to a dried gut string). The ancient string makers guarded their recipes and techniques with all the secrecy of modern industrialists. They added all sorts of things to their binders - powdered silver and gold, and minerals like rock crystal, jade, lapis, etc. - in order to impart certain sonic properties to the finished product.