----- Original Message ----- From: "bill kilpatrick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Roger E. Blumberg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Antonio Corona" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "LUTELIST" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Saturday, December 03, 2005 9:44 AM Subject: Re: [LUTE] For Bill -- Small bodied vihuela-viola-guitars come charango? -- was Re: Bad translation
> dear roger - > > there was a charango up for auction on german ebay > recently with the same waist configuration as a viola > - sort of an oval shape with two bites taken out of > either side, as opposed to the smoother, figure 8, > peanut shape you mention. i should have bought it. > > just had a look at your photos - sort of a family > album, really - and recognised the family resemblance > in all. i agree with you entirely on what constitutes > a vihuela. i don't know how much you're going to > enjoy being associated with the charango, however. i > would hate to see your beautiful site being trashed > simply because you acknowledge it - the charango - as > being part of the family. > > i have no idea how many of the others on the list will > look at the photos but i don't think it will change > many minds - alas. similarities between what is > illustrated there and what i'm intermittently > strumming as i type, will simply not be accepted. i > mean, will not be. your point about modern, assembly > line perceptions of individual historical instruments > is entirely accurate. i don't mean this in any way to > be derogatory but for most of our friends on the list, > superficial consideration - what appears on top - > matters most. > > somewhere on a charango site i've seen a simplified > line drawing of the various shapes in which charangos > are to be found. the peanut shape is prominent now > but historically they came in a wide variety of shapes > as well - triangular, rectangular, almond shaped and > all. if i come across it i'll send it along - i'm > sure you'll be able to match most of them up with the > instruments illustrated in your gallery. > > many thanks, many thanks - bill > > ps - re: your incredible archive of vihuela photos ... > did you ever collect baseball cards? is that where it > all started? ... Hi Bill; Thanks, glad you found them useful. [And do send me that page of charango shapes if you find it again.] I still see knew things in these pictures almost every day, new relationships and feature commonalities, etc. Almost invariably, when I find some instrument with an odd feature and am nearly resigned to write it off as a fluke or one-off, I find another one with the same feature. Once I have two, I know I'm on to something, and regardless of what others might say or think, i.e what their conditioning, exposure, and expectations might be. While there was little standardization, there was a "vocabulary" from which you can pretty safely mix and match into nearly any pastiche you might choose, and chances are you'll eventually see one in the record, or at minimum you could have good reason and confidence to believe your pastiched creation is a valid candidate or reconstruction of what very likely could have existed. I'm no expert, and I have no sheep-skin, but I do have a good eye, plus the taste and drive for a good hunt. I love antiques, art, music, (and have had my fingers in all of them at one point or another) pretty things and paintings thereof, and I do love my guitars (my lutes), the whole family, and I do embrace the whole family, past and present, as one. I certainly have acquired a jones and mission regarding bowed guitars in particular though. Everything about them turns me on, motivates me, not least of which is how beautiful they _sound_, and how much they've been missed, by all. I can barely get through listening to modern cellos and violins these days. Their sound is so comparatively unpleasant, not soothing, not restful, not gentle, and less expressive in the end. My hunt for _them_, bowed guitars, in the iconography, is where my collection began. Without them, and then showing them side by side with their plucked mates, there'd be little inspiration for me. I did (also) have both a stamp collection and post-card collection when I was a kid, and I did enjoy laying them out, arranging them, displaying them, on a page, so I guess there's a lot of things that might add up to "where it all began", the talents, skills, gravitations, proclivities, loves, many hats, that all come together, find application and excuse to be exercised on my web site in general, my center-piece, my offering. Assembling my gallery was an entirely unplanned sidetrack, but it quickly took on a life of it's own. I've enjoyed and needed the distraction, something new to sink my teeth into, something other than The Cipher proper and applying it to all those instruments. That job, and teaching music theory fundamentals, writing writing writing about it, is rather dry. I needed to immerse myself in "pretty" for a while, paintings and iconography, satisfy and express that part of my soul. Getting my "antiques fix" was a big part or it, i.e. being a "picker", it's in my blood ;'). It may have been a side-track at first, but it's been very fullfilling, rewarding, balancing, and educational, for me. I can't imagine doing without that site-section now that I have it. It just feels right, it's what should be, a well mixed and integrated bag of many arts. I'm proud of it too, I think it good and needed work. I'm happy to hang my hat on it, sign my name to it, all. well that got rather personal somehow, but there ya go. Not to worry, taking charango under the wing will not break our back ;') Roger To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
