> The more highly developed we become,
>the more pronounced these differences are. The more >your personality
>develops the less symmetrical your facial expressions are. >So in nature,
>symmetry is a starting point, not a goal.
I recall seeing a show on the science channel about human sexuality.
They found most people were attracted to symmetrical facial features in the
opposite sex. Non Symmetry happens as you age. Some might call that a
degeneration, rather than, highly developed.
>So, I wonder about the Stradivarius template... could it >have also been a
>starting point? An attempt to revitalize the lute by taking it >back to an
>earlier time?
I think one must think of the body separate from the neck of a baroque
lute.
The Strad template says on it ..... Forma di paletta per liutio alla
francese.... That's about all I can make out. It's an 11 course lute,
looks allot like Frei or Mahler.
I've come to think, after all this, that lutemakers of the past, strived
for symmetry in the conception of their lutes ( in the belly shape ) but
some didn't quite pull it off, and some just didn't care. Some might have
used a mould that warped after they made it, 20 years before. Who knows!
The Strad template at least for me, has cleared up all my doubts about the
"symmetrically challenged " makers of the past.
Michael Thames
www.ThamesClassicalGuitars.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl Donsbach" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "LUTELIST" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 5:54 PM
Subject: Re: symm/asymm & perfect/imperfect
> A dancer I was once acquainted with used to expound on what he called "the
> myth of radial symmetry" in regard to the human body. The body *looks*
> symmetrical, but inside, most of the vital organs are on one side or the
> other. And if you take function into account, almost nothing is
> symmetrical. The right and left hands work differently, and we are all
> either right or left handed, footed, eyed and eared. The right and left
> halves of the brain work differently. The more highly developed we
become,
> the more pronounced these differences are. The more your personality
> develops the less symmetrical your facial expressions are. So in nature,
> symmetry is a starting point, not a goal.
>
> And so it is, I think with musical instruments. The more they develop,
the
> more suited to function they become, the less symmetrical they are. If
you
> started with the simplest wind instrument you'd have a tube with a
straight
> line of holes, and the first thing you'd want to do to make it more
> functional would be to stagger the holes to conform to the hand to make it
> easier to play. By the time you get to the modern transverse flute,
> symmetricality is long gone.
>
> The lute started out fairly symmetrical in the mediaeval period, like the
> oud, but as time went on, inner bracing got changed around, the neck
cocked
> to one side, bass riders and such were added... the highly developed
> instruments that Weiss would have played were nothing like symmetrical.
>
> So, I wonder about the Stradivarius template... could it have also been a
> starting point? An attempt to revitalize the lute by taking it back to an
> earlier time?
>
> - Carl Donsbach
>
>
>
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