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Re: OT: Chinese zither

From:Isidora Zamora <isidora@...>
Date:Wednesday, September 17, 2003, 23:45
At 03:02 PM 9/17/03 -0700, Padraic wrote:
>--- Isidora Zamora <isidora@...> wrote: > > > How difficult is it to make an instrument like > > this? > >Easy, but difficult. That just about sums up >instrument building in general! The principle is >easy, the execution can be excruciating.
Back when I was in school, a good friend of mine, who was a violin performance major, introduced me to a friend of hers who was also studying at the School of Music. He was learing to make violins, etc. I learned just how excruciating some of the steps could be. I don't remember what it was that they used for varnish, but I seem to remember that they had to keep it heated up and do the entire proceedure out of doors. (Now that must have looked strange to passers-by.)
>Find yourself Paddington Press's "Musical >Instruments". It's essentially a catalogue of >instruments divided by sound production >technique.
I shall find it. If I can't find it at my local library, then chances are that Amazon carries it.
> > The culture that I would like to have > > strings is a pretty technologically unadvanced > > one. > >That shouldn't stop them from developping an >amazing array of string (and other!!) musical >instruments.
Good! They sing a lot, so I think that it would make sense if they played instruments.
> > They do not have metalurgy. > >Not needed. Strings can very satisfactorily made >from hair (horse is a favourite,
Well, they don't have horses. I haven't made the final decision yet whether they keep donkeys. It's a question of whether they could keep enough donkeys around to form a large enough breeding population for it to work.
> human would >work)
Well, they all wear their hair quite long :-)
>, gut, tendons,
I thought that these would work.
> plant fibres or bamboo >strips.
This is new to me. Could you really make, for example, linen instrument strings? They do have bamboo now, but 500 years ago, I don't think they did. (They were driven out of their previous lands.) Or will bamboo grow in just any climate?
> Tuning pins will need to become larger >wooden tuning pegs. All of that could be made >with stone tools.
Which is all that they had until they came in contact with other cultures who had metal, and that was probably 1000 years ago or more. So they could have had stringed instruments in the period predating that. That's good.
> > (Which means that they make > > excellent stone weapons.) They > > don't manufacture metal items themselves, but > > they do buy steel knives, > > iron nails, and other metal items from the > > people who live to the south of them. > >Oh I didn't know! Nails can easily be used for >hitch pins; steel knives can carve wood very >easily; and who's to say they couldn't barter for >bronze or steel strings!
Believe me, every Cwendaso who can afford a steel knife owns one and takes good care of it. Many households own steel knives specially designed for fileting fish -- these people won't serve any animal roasted whole: butchering should be accomplished before the meal is served, not during the meal, in their opinion. There is not really a lack of metal implements, they just never bothered to learn to work metal themselves because they could obtain metal articles in trade. For whatever reason, though, metal arrowheads have never caught on. Metal spear-heads have only partially caught on. I do suspect that the culture to the south of them (same one that drove them out of their previous lands) has enough technical expertise to make metal strings. (How do you make metal wire, anyway?) I hadn't thought of it until now, but metal strings should be well within their technical capabilities.
> > For musical instruments, I already know > > that they have flutes and drums. > >What kinds of flutes?
Bamboo. Though if they didn't have access to bamboo 500 years ago, then it would have to have been some other material, perhaps bone. What else can you make them out of? The flutes are made as either single instruments or in pairs or trios. The members of a pair or trio are carefully tuned to each other in order to be played in ensemble. Sorry, forgot to give the more pertintant details to your question of "what kind?" Transverse flutes. Not end-blown or pan-pipes.
> Drums?
Wood body, skin head. They hunt just about anything that moves, so they have no lack of skins. (I've actually been wondering what they *do* with all that leather. Most of their meat comes from hunting, but most of their clothing is make of wool from the sheep they keep.) I don't know many details on the drums, really. I don't think that they make giant ones for musical purposes. OTOH, perhaps they do make giant ones for non-musical purposes, such as summoning people together, much as we would use a bell. That sort of drum would have a body made out of a section of the trunk of a large tree, hollowed out, with the skin of a large animal (aurochs, perhaps) stretched over the top of it. Musical drums would be much smaller. Perhaps they pitch their drums, or have the drumhead attatched in such a way that the pitch can be altered at will; I know that's possible.
> Any reed >instruments?
Never thought about it until you asked. How difficult is a reed instrument. I know very little about them, other than that there are single-reed and double-reed, and I understand the method of sound production. I suppose that the book you mentioned would show me types of primitive reed instruments.
> > What is the minimum amount of technology needed > > to make stringed > > instruments of any sort, plucked or bowed, with > > or without resonators? > >Practically none. They can make stone tools - >that's really all the technology that's required.
Ok, great. This would mean that they could have had stringed instruments since the beginning of their history.
> > What sort of stringed > > instrument(s) would be likely in a > > culure like this? > >Turtle shell harps? Skull resonator harps. Any >number of lyres and zithers. Fiddles. Just about >anything. They could make a fine bumbass.
What's a bumbass? These people have access to bison and aurochs horns. What can be done with these musically? I know that you ought to be able to turn them into war horns (as well as drinking vessels), but how musical can you get with something like this. I think that I would like these people to have more instrumental music than I have given them so far. They are fairly low in materal culture, but in spite of all appearances, they are not really a primitive people. *They* consider themselves to be more civilized than their southern neighbors who have all the technology. Of course, the sotherners with their vastly superior material culture see things the other way round :)
>I've got a couple Mongolian horse hair fiddles. >One is a carved wooden body with (horse?)hide >resonator and horse hair string. The other one is >more like a modern cello in size and construction >and has two horse hair strings. > >I'm looking into a Bulgarian fiddle and also own >a hurdy gurdy.
Cool. I have a bamboo flute (of domestic make), a gourd-resonator marimba (also of domestic make), and a clay ocarina that I bought in Prague. And I dearly wish that I had bought those (obviously ethnic) pan-pipes that I saw in a store window in Roskilde, Denmark. BTW, PVC piping, found at any plumbing store, actually makes a homemade flute or panpipes with decent sound quality; tuning's the problem with the flute. Isidora

Replies

Costentin Cornomorus <elemtilas@...>
Isidora Zamora <isidora@...>