I read this today at www.spiegel.de , translated from German with Altavista
(hope you can understand it) Orchestra of the celestial messengers. Leipziger researchers want to revive the sound of the Renaissance. Original music instruments from the Freiberger cathedral supply the models for a retro-concert. The gift of the angels is stored in simple grey cardboard boxes. With white gloves Veit Heller takes one of the instruments carefully into his hands. "see the compact form", says the bearded music researcher and touches tenderly over the wood. "you will not find such a thing in the whole world again." What Heller proudly presents, is a treasure of music history. The (Kleindiskant) violin from the 16. Century is only 40 centimeters long. In further cardboards lie tenor and double basses, trombones, (Schalmeien), (Zinken), (Cistern), harps, lutes and triangles. The last time musicians played on this rare instruments was more than 400 years ago. In the hands of angel figures they survived in the cathedral of the Ezgebirg city of Freiberg. Now the music-scientific coup is nearly perfect after a five-year research work: This week the instruments - as original-faithful reproductions - will for the first time sound again. "we want the sound of the Renaissance to revive", say Heller, music scholar at the instruments museum of the University of Leipzig. "Unique" calls the researcher the ensemble of the instruments. Museum director Eszter Fontana is not less enthusiastic: " Only very few instruments survive from the 16. century; to be able to examine 30 originals from an instrument making school is an enormous chance." Fontana and Heller owe their findings to a celestial orchestra: Over four centuries 30 cheeky angels made music mutely for the soul welfare of (wettinisch) princes on a section in the funeral chapel of the Freiberger cathedral. They ordered the placement of the (Puttenorchester) between 1585 and 1594 at twelve meters height. For a long time the music instruments, covered with layers of copper foil and gold bronze kept their secrets for themselves. Only in 1998 was there a chance to a thorough analysis, because the chapel had to be reconditioned. The music making celestial messengers were cleaned, their instruments were shipped to Leipzig. About 50 specialists from Germany, Switzerland and the USA work since that time with the instruments. Their fascinating discovery: 21 of the angel instruments are genuine, only 9 reproductions - all together however so accurately implemented and kept good, that they reveal their whole secret. " some instruments were even played, before they were given to the angels hands", say Heller. Even remains of the original strings from brass or gut still could be found. " The instruments are of inestimable importance to understand, how music was made in those times”. So far very little was actually well-known about the musical art of the Saxonian Renaissance. At that time the musicians played in the courts of the powerful, in services, but also on weddings and for dance. (Stadtpfeifer) or (Türmer) gave their signals and played Chorals by trombone or with the strongly sounding (Schalmei), the predecessor of today's oboes. The Popstars of the Renaissance were so called (Bergsänger), half professional musicians from the mine cities of the Erzgebirg, "gripping strongly their harps or (Cistern) and in addition singing with a throaty voice " (Heller). More playful it went on with wine and singing with (Schellentrommel), lute, (Diskantgeige) and (Cister) - the latter was the Western guitar of the Renaissance. Still stranger sounds the (Zink) to today's ears: a kind of wooden horn in either bent or straight form. It is said to have the ability to imitate the human voice. "it has the brilliance of a sunbeam, that falls on a shade or into the darkness" once the French scholar Marin Mersenne wrote. But all that could hardly be demonstrated so far by tone examples. Renaissance instruments in their original state are very rare. The more importantly the Leipziger music researcher take now the Freiberger find. With all the power of science they looked at harps, lutes and double basses, the instruments bodies long ago perforated by wood worms. Radiography's, made at the Radiology Department of the University of Leipzig, show the expert whether wood pegs or glue hold together the neck of the (Cistern). With Stereo photography and 3-D-Laser scanner, the researchers measured the instruments exactly to the millimeter. By Endoscopy they searched on the inside for tool residues, glue joints, or little wood barrings for the change of the sound. Even into the Computer tomography tube, Heller pushed violins and (Schalmeien). Fascinating and puzzling facts gathered the researchers in this way in the meantime. Thus the signature of "Paul Klemm zu Randeck", formerly an important master of the Erzgebirg instrument making, appears in four bow instruments. The Leipziger scientists were also pleased to find lutes strung with wire instead of (more usual) with gut strings. The trombones were manufactured by the designers of the angel instruments, probably for cost reasons, from wood - nevertheless so accurate that they could be copied one to one, including the mouthpiece, in sheet metal. The main concern for the music researchers was tracing the sound of the instruments. "any attempt to play them would destroy the originals", says Heller. "with our data however we created the basis for accurate, playable reproductions." The experts made technical drawings, computer models and photographs available to renowed instrument builders. The premise also here: absolute loyalty to the original. "I tried to figure out the building technology", says Steffen Milbradt, to which the reproduction of the four “Cistern” was entrusted. Equipped only with hatchet, (Stech- und Stemmeisen), saw, mallet and drill, the instrument maker started working in his workshop in Meissen. He manufactured the soundboard of the instruments from (Fichtenholz), the neck from (Erle), the pegs from maple. Nothing less than four kilograms of tensile load must the instrument bear, as soon as the ten, also hand-made, brass strings are drawn up. It took Milbradt about 80 hours to build one of the Renaissance (Cistern). Other instrument makers manufactured trombones, the violins and (Schalmeien). Most copies of the "Zero series" are already completed: The whole angel ensemble develops again - and with it the outrageous sound of the Saxonian Renaissance. "there are sounds so strong, but you will not find them shortly after in the baroque any more", says Heller, who already heard some of the reproductions. Thus for instance the (Schalmeien) from the angel orchestra sounded "particularly dynamical and concise". The sound of the Freiberger harps is not "softly, lovely and pleasant" as with today's harps; rather the metal strings produced ", a (schwirrenden), penetrating sound "strange for today's ears. The listeners of the "Musica Freybergensis" premiere may be warned. PHILIP BETHGE --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now --
