I don't think a dichotomous key would work. As alluded, one of the neat features of biological inheritance is that all things come from similar parental things. Not so when addressing the capricious whims of human creativity. One of my favorite examples is mandolins, with many structurally different things being tuned identically and many functionally different things with similar construction carrying the name. This case is not unique.
General "taxonomy" of musical instruments has been around for a great long time (as "organology"), there are even whole scholarly societies committed to it (e.g., http://www.galpinsociety.org/). However, such systems require a great many more judgment calls by their developers than biological systematics. Best, Eugene -----Original Message----- From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of William Samson Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2012 4:41 PM To: Lex van Sante; lute mailing list list Subject: [LUTE] Re: Chitarrone I've been watching this discussion with interest and I wonder if it's feasible to produce a taxonomy of plucked stringed instruments? In particular, is it possible to construct a 'key' with questions that distinguish one instrument from another, as botanists do with different kinds of orchid, for example? I simply throw this in as an idea - I'm NOT volunteering - I'm too old to dodge the huge amounts of flak that would result. Bill From: Lex van Sante <lvansa...@gmail.com> To: lute mailing list list <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu> Sent: Wednesday, 17 October 2012, 21:17 Subject: [LUTE] Re: Chitarrone Rebec and rebab spring to mind............. Lex Op 17 okt 2012, om 22:05 heeft Monica Hall het volgende geschreven: > Such as ? ............. > > > > Monica > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: [1]WALSH STUART > > To: [2]Monica Hall > > Cc: [3]Lutelist > > Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2012 8:56 PM > > Subject: Re: [LUTE] Re: Chitarrone > > Other instruments than lutes have 'lute-shaped' bodies... > Stuart > > On 17 October 2012 20:29, Monica Hall <[4][1]mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk> wrote: > > Well - what is the difference between a lute and a gittern/mandore. > When is a lute not a lute? Chitarrone as I understand it is a > large member of the lute family i.e. it has a lute shaped body. It > depends what you mean by separate traditions....... > Monica...getting more confused by the minute. > > Diego, unfortunately I cannot read Italian. Are you in agreement > with > Meucci? > Monica, the only things I know about Meucci's article are from > you. As > I understand it, Meucci isn't saying that the chitarrone is a > large > lute. The lute has its own, separate, traditions. The chitarrone > (he > is saying, I think) is a large (massive!) gittern (or > gittern/mandore). > Stuart > On 17 October 2012 18:34, Diego Cantalupi <[1][5][2]tio...@gmail.com> > wrote: > If you can read Italian, you can find my dissertation about > Chitarrone here: > [2][6][3]http://www.diegocantalupi.it/tesi.pdf > The first chapter is about ethimology. > Diego >> > To get on or off this list see list information at > [3][7][4]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > -- > References > 1. mailto:[8][5]tio...@gmail.com > 2. [9][6]http://www.diegocantalupi.it/tesi.pdf > 3. [10][7]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > -- > > References > > 1. mailto:[8]s.wa...@ntlworld.com > 2. mailto:[9]mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk > 3. mailto:[10]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu > 4. mailto:[11]mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk > 5. mailto:[12]tio...@gmail.com > 6. [13]http://www.diegocantalupi.it/tesi.pdf > 7. [14]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > 8. mailto:[15]tio...@gmail.com > 9. [16]http://www.diegocantalupi.it/tesi.pdf > 10. [17]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > -- References 1. mailto:mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk 2. mailto:tio...@gmail.com 3. http://www.diegocantalupi.it/tesi.pdf 4. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 5. mailto:tio...@gmail.com 6. http://www.diegocantalupi.it/tesi.pdf 7. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 8. mailto:s.wa...@ntlworld.com 9. mailto:mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk 10. mailto:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu 11. mailto:mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk 12. mailto:tio...@gmail.com 13. http://www.diegocantalupi.it/tesi.pdf 14. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 15. mailto:tio...@gmail.com 16. http://www.diegocantalupi.it/tesi.pdf 17. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
