Here is the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/wfiupublicradio/4422058905/ I don't think it's to be played "lefty"
Best regards JL Wiadomość napisana przez A.J. Padilla MD w dniu 8 paź 2012, o godz. 17:52: > The musica viva website describes the dyphone as having two necks, 180 > degrees apart. > Unless the fingerboards (and bowls???) were reversed front-to-back as well, > one would have to be played "lefty." > Anybody got a picture? > > I just love the part about touching the dypone with the teeth - That's > conductive hearing as opposed to air transmission. > You can do a modern experiment on this, duplicating an old but quite > reliable hearing phenomenon (which I use to impress my medical students). > Take a tuning fork (128 Hz works best, but anything about that range will be > ok), tap it to produce the sound, and touch it to the middle of the > forehead. > Under normal circumstances, the sound should sound equal in both ears. > Stick a finger in one ear to occlude the air conduction. > The sound (of the tuning fork on your forehead) will "magically" become > louder in the occluded ear. That's conduction hearing loss, and indeed very > responsive to sound coming through the teeth. > Something to do with brain compensation, but what do I know, I do glands all > day.... > > - And for the lefty lute, treat with ambidextrose.... > > Al > -----Original Message----- > From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf > Of Jaroslaw Lipski > Sent: Monday, October 08, 2012 10:08 AM > To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu > Subject: [LUTE] Re: the point of synthetics - eccentric Mace > > Dear Martyn, Sam, Mathias, Bill and all, > > Thank you very much for your supportive words. I absolutely agree with what > you wrote Martyn about Mace. > Besides it depends how one understands eccentricity. Viewing it from our > modern world's perspective he could be called by many as a very eccentric > man. However when trying to imagine the world he was living in and > considering his personal situation one can reevaluate his image. Not a young > man, who worked most of his life as a musician, loosing his hearing, who's > existence was grossly dependent on the income from his pupils. What was he > to do? Go to the doctor and ask for a hearing aid? No ,existing technology > didn't know such a thing. So Mace decided to cope with the situation on his > own. He invented an instrument that united 2 lutes in one, because this > construction enabled the biggest resonance that could be achieved on a lute. > Then, he invents a method of transmitting vibrations by touching the dyphone > with his teeth. How can one call it? I would say that taking into > consideration all the circumstances, he was very creative, ingenious, and > had a very artistic soul. Beeth! > oven had a similar problem. He was trying to hide the fact that he was > deaf, and managed to play only by feeling vibration of a grand piano in his > body. > Now, obviously when examining historical sources one has to be careful, but > it is not a good idea to suspect anything a person writes only because he > looks or sounds strange to us. I don't like theoretical, artificial > constructions that could undermine credibility of almost any source like > this - the same day Mace went to the market in order to buy some strings , > he had his glasses stained by blood from the pork he was preparing for the > dinner, therefore he could see only rotten red gut etc. > All in all, Musick's Monument is a very valuable historical source for me > and I will return to this reading in future with pleasure. > > All the best > > Jaroslaw > > > > WiadomoĹ>Ä? napisana przez Martyn Hodgson w dniu 8 paĹş 2012, o godz. 09:43: > >> >> Dear Jaroslaw, >> >> I don't think you need be dismayed by Howard Posner's comments: he seems > only willing to accept evidence if given under cross examination in his > local criminal law court. >> >> For most of us this degree of scepticism is not necessary and we are > prepared to take historical sources at face value unless and until we find > compelling reasons to suggest otherwise - indeed, the study of early sources > is a cornerstone of historical research. It is not really credible that Mace > would have filled this major life's with unsubstantiated personal, and > incorrect, opinion: even in 1676 there would have been people around to draw > attention to any blatant inaccuracies. >> >> In short, I think you're quite right to use Mace as a good source of > contemporary English practice. >> >> MH >> >> --- On Sun, 7/10/12, JarosĹ,aw Lipski <jaroslawlip...@wp.pl> wrote: >> >> From: JarosĹ,aw Lipski <jaroslawlip...@wp.pl> >> Subject: [LUTE] Re: the point of synthetics - Rather the movement of >> the whole lute >> To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu >> Date: Sunday, 7 October, 2012, 23:52 >> >> Howard, >> >> No offence I hope? I really wouldn't like to take part in an exchange of > arguments that go far from the subjects most of the lute-listers are > interested in. However I am forced to answer some of your arguments. >> Firstly, most of the expressions I used were exact quotations of your > post. I only added some that were logical consequences of what you wrote, > but I am sorry if you didn't mean it. >> Secondly, Mace had built the dyphone. Please read carefully on page 203: >> "The only instrument in being of that kind; and but lately invented, by > myself, and MADE WITH MY OWN HANDS, in the year 1672" Then he describes why > he had built it and how it sounded etc. >> Thirdly, having an assumption that so many people lack credibility and > therefore one can not seriously take into consideration books from the past > written by a man who showed some signs of eccentricity is rather not > practical IMO as musicology doesn't equal law. We can't call witness Mace. >> And finally, yes the whole discussion began from Benjamin and his > observations on behavior of gut strings versus synthetics, but I think he > explained recently that he was misunderstood, because he meant that > synthetics are in fact more stable, however gut reaches certain, lets call > it a state of equilibrium faster. I can confirm this opinion. I play both > gut and synthetics. It takes more time for synthetics before they start to > behave normally, but then, they do not react to changes of humidity, only > temperature. The only thing that I would add to his post is that gut strings > don't go out of tune because of high humidity, but because of the changes of > humidity. So practically there may be a situation that you kept your lute 2 > hours before the recital in the place where you are supposed to play, then > you enter a stage and it happens that there came quite a lot of people to > listen to you (obviously they all breath exhaling a lot of moisture), the > hall is not very spacious, a! > nd! >> your very carefully prepared tuning goes to pieces. The assumption is > though that you have a big audience, ha, ha :). Another thing that I would > like to add is that wire wounds in fact go out of tune because they are made > of 2 different materials which behave differently - a synthetic core and a > wire. The good news is that its movement is very predictable, so once you > get used to it, it takes only seconds to correct. >> Hope we safely came into some conclusions. >> >> Best >> >> JL >> >> >> >> WiadomoĹ>Ä? napisana przez howard posner w dniu 7 paĹş 2012, o godz. > 23:25: >> >>> On Oct 7, 2012, at 12:14 PM, Jarosâ?oeaw Lipski <jaroslawlip...@wp.pl> > wrote: >>> >>>>>> So you see Mace as an oddball, inaccurate observer, someone quick >>>>>> to jump to odd conclusions, old deaf man who had lost touch with >>>>>> reality, an idiot who constructed an instrument impossible to >>>>>> play etc >>>>> >>>>> What I said was: "I'm not inclined to regard Mace as a scientific > observer; more like the eccentric uncle who makes dubious sweeping > pronouncements at family dinners." >>>>> >>>> Well, I've quoted your own words, but maybe you had something else on > mind, sorryâ^'â^'. >>> >>> No, *I* quoted my own words, which did not include "idiot," "old," "lost > touch with reality," or "etc." I didn't opine about how quickly he reached > his conclusions (he doesn't strike me as a man who did anything quickly). I > also didn't say "mentally ill." I certainly didn't say he actually had a > dyphone built, notwithstanding what he wrote. >>> >>> I spend a lot of time professionally evaluating whether things witnesses > tell me are credible; many are not, for all sorts of reasons, the most > common being triumph of vantage point over all other considerations (just > this morning I read through 18 "character" letters written to convince me > that a person was honorable and honest; none of them mentioned his felony > fraud conviction, leaving me to wonder if the writers even knew why they > were writing). >>> >>> We all know the world is full of ostensibly normal and sane persons who > reach positions of prominence and responsibility saying things that are not > credible; in my country they tend to get nominated for public office a lot. > >>> >>> Although we seem to have "pivoted," as Mitt Romney might say, into a > discussion of how reliable a witness Mace was, this thread began when > Benjamin Narvey -- a person normally given to reasonable observations and > conclusions -- said he'd had an experience from which he concluded (or > re-concluded) that synthetic strings are harder to keep in tune than gut, > and carbon fiber are particularly difficult. I think he's extrapolating too > much from too small a sample, and his experience is atypical of most > experiences with synthetics and gut; certainly it's different from mine. I > think a musicologist of the 23rd century reading Musick's EMail Monument, a > collection of Narvey messages on a hard drive that survived the Great > Warming Catastrophe of 2089, would likely be misled on that particular > point, even though Benjamin is not an "old deaf man who had lost touch with > reality," although he may be one if he's still around in 2089. >>> -- >>> >>> To get on or off this list see list information at >>> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html >>> >> >> >> > > > -- > >
