as a minor diversion to the big contest shaping up in center ring ... ladieeeeees and gem'en ...
we played at a castle up in chianti last weekend for large group of medical people from spain. what it involved was walking around between the tables, strumming my charango as they yelled at each other - the volume level of their conversation was tremendous. however, i learned two things: 1 - castanets come in "male" and "female" pairs; one gets played with two fingers and the other with three but I didn't learn which gets which as my rhythm section wandered off, shortly after gleaning this bit of information from one of the guests, totally absorbed in the movement of her fingers. 2 - it really doesn't matter what you play so long as the setting is right and you're wearing tights. i discovered this to be true when i strolled out into a courtyard of the castle and - as no one appeared to be in the immediate vicinity - surreptitiously launched into a golden oldie i'd heard on the radio during the drive up to the castle; "oh where, oh where can my baby be? the lord took her away from me ..." after i picked out the basic melody, slowed it down a bit, gave it a few estampie-like flourishes ... i have to say, it worked. i don't suppose a liberty like this is available to someone busking in a shopping mall in des moines; to people more or less familiar with 1950's rock n' roll but to a bunch of spanish doctors, imbibing their fair share of the provincial beverage in medieval tuscany, it worked a treat! another thing ... one of the guests asked me what my instrument was and when i gave him my "charango-as-vihuela" spiel he said that he thought it came from morocco - which is absolutely correct. and, at the end of the meal, as the guests were filing out of the banquet hall and as my partner and i were well into a melody of songs from "llibre vermeil," one of the guests who had stopped to listen suddenly joined in singing "cuncti simus" with us in an absolutely beautifully clear voice. how often does it happen that someone from the audience does that? pax - bill ===== "and thus i made...a small vihuela from the shell of a creepy crawly..." - Don Gonzalo de Guerrero (1512), "Historias de la Conquista del Mayab" by Fra Joseph of San Buenaventura. go to: http://www.charango.cl/paginas/quieninvento.htm ___________________________________________________________ Moving house? Beach bar in Thailand? New Wardrobe? Win £10k with Yahoo! Mail to make your dream a reality. Get Yahoo! Mail www.yahoo.co.uk/10k To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
