Hi Andy, I'd never had the opportunity to try a keyboard guittar - thanks for the info. I'd love to try one. I thought I had some X-ray photos I had downloaded from the internet, but I can't find them. Have a look at Tastenzister on the Musikinstrumenten-Museum der Universität Leipzig site, esp. numbers 626, 627 and 628.
http://studia-instrumentorum.de/MUSEUM/zist_tast.htm Actually, Steffen Milbradt speaks English very well and may have more info and/or photos. By the way, Anne Ford talks about damping with the right hand: The Imperfections of the Guittar, and all these Sort of Instruments, are, that when a full Note is struck, the Vibration continues longer than it ought, and by this Defect, a disagreeable, unharmonious Buzz is occasioned. This would be intolerable where there is such Length of wire as on a Harpsichord, and therefore the red Cloth in the Jacks of that Instrument, by instantly returning to the Wire, removes the Defect; and this may be in a great Measure done on the Guittar, by a slight Dot of the Forefinger on the String vibrating, and by a little Practice, it may be acquired without any Interruption to the Performance, and with great Facility: And when the whole, or greatest Part of the Instrument is open'd by a Clash across the Cords, it may be instantly taken off, by letting the Ball of your Right-hand very slightly touch all the Strings together, just over the Bridge. The Forte, and Piano, are the chief Beauties of this Instrument, and therefore they should be always attended to. In playing the Piano, you may let the Ball of your [pk] Right-hand, very slightly, touch all the Strings as described above, which will occasion a very pleasing Variety, and give the Strings the Tone of Catgut. --- I don't want anyone thinking that I keep all these references in my head - this is something I was going to use for my Lute Society talk next month. Doc Rossi On Aug 16, 2007, at 2:10 AM, Andrew Rutherford wrote: > Hi cittern bunch, > > Has anybody out there looked into the various keyboard mechanisms > that were > used on the english guittar? I went up to the Met museum in NY > yesterday, > where they have examples of the two approaches that I know of: > (Christian?) > Claus's instrument that has the hammers inside the body of the > guittar; and > "Smith's Patent Box", which is retrofitted onto any standard guittar. > > They have two Clauses at the museum. Both have unusual string > layouts, with > the courses arranged 3,3,2,2,1,1 from high to low. i.e., 3 strings > in the > 1st and 2nd courses, etc. One of them has what appears to be an > original > bridge with a sliding attachment for damping the strings. So the > instrument > has multiple playing possibilities: with fingers like normal; > with the > keyboard; and with either fingers or keyboard plus the damping > thingie. > Somebody (Bremner?) refers to damping the strings with the side of > the > right hand ala surf guitar, i believe. The two Clauses were in > pretty bad > shape generally, but one of them is without a rose, which makes it > possible > to see the sticks and levers that make up the hammer action. I > couldn't > fathom it on first viewing. They're all busted up in there. On the > other > Claus the hammer mechanism is intact but it's really hard to see in > there... > > They let me take apart the "Smith Patent Box" (attached to a > typical e.g. by > anon) which is in very good condition, though not quite in working > order. > I had brought along my guitt for show and tell, and placed the box in > position on my instrument. it made an amazing sound, much louder > than that > produced by plucking; kind of hammered dulcimerish. > Anyway, the box is a very elaborate and precise construction of wood, > parchment and leather, with brass wire "springs" for the keys and > hammers. > I took about a million pictures, if anybody wants to race me in > constructing > one. > > The way i understand it, the keyboard idea appeared late in the > history of > the guittar, 1780s? In the music library at Yale they have an > instruction > book for the "Piano-Forte Guittar" written by Ghillini di Asuni(!) and > published in London, circa 1795, by Longman & Broderip. I haven't > seen the > book yet. > > I find this all very interesting. > > andy rutherford > > -- > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >