Message-Id: <01BDEDF9.6BF06C40.lnktheriot@csi.com>
From: Ken Theriot <lnktheriot@csi.com>
To: "'minstrel@pbm.com'" <minstrel@pbm.com>
Subject: minstrel: Guitars, Cadillacs...
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 11:40:11 -0400
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Phew!  My son's science project is done and I can play on the net again.  A 
couple of quick replies-

Tibicen - your response made my day.  If my husband and I ever make Pennsic 
again, can we join your carouse?  The last time I did anything that sounded 
like that much fun at Pennsic was when Countess Muffy and I headed a band 
of "vigil aunties" and went vigil-hopping the night before Grand Court... 
 My zing about research papers was not a knock on research, merely a 
grimace that most papers I've looked at have resembled a Victorian 
monograph more than actual period research documents I've seen, but there 
you are...  Finally, beware making the food analogy (people who don't like 
Chinese food have probably had bad Chinese food), because there are 
insurmountable distinctions there-mediocre Chinese food is still better 
than really good Irish food...

Isolde - Let's paraphrase George Carlin: Everyone who cares more about 
documentation than I do is a compulsive authenticist, and everyone who 
cares less is an ignorant mundane... how else can we all be so smart and 
not agree?

Viviana et al re: stories - The Bible has some real page turners! Also try 
Chaucer, Boccaccio, the lais of Marie de France, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles 
by the tedious, er, venerable Bede, chansons de geste, the Mabinogian... 
you can practically pick your culture and find great period stories.  I 
apologize as I forget who asked about performing Chaucer in his version of 
English, but I wouldn't (except in a competition where the judges will have 
the text).  While Chaucer's English isn't all that tough to read, some of 
the peculiarities like pronouncing terminal e's make it very difficult to 
understand aurally. [I am minded of the time a gentleman was doing "Bring 
us in gude ale" in dialect-when he finished, I shouted "Allah be praised" 
which brought the house down (and for which the performer, who likes a good 
pun, later paid me in his best home brew...).]

Gryphon - About guitars... this is my hubby's favorite soap box case. 
 Guitars ARE period.  So there.  Don't let anyone tell you differently, or 
that the vihuela is period and the guitar is not.  The terms vihuela and 
guitarra were fairly interchangeable in period, and both instruments have 
evolved and still exist (next time you see a Mariachi band, ask the vihuela 
player to show you his instrument.  It's quite different from the guitar). 
 There is a collection of music for the vihuela called "El Maestro" 
published in Valencia in 1535.  The frontispiece is a woodcut of Orpheus 
playing on an instrument which is virtually indistinguishable from a modern 
12-string guitar (6 paired courses of strings, flat head with inset tuning 
pegs [not tipped back with the pegs turned out like a lute head], etc.) 
 There is a collection of guitar music published in Paris in 1552 (Le 
Premier Livre de chansons, gaillardes, pavannes, bransles, almandes, 
fantaisies, reduictz (sic) en tablature de Guiterne...) which shows an 
instrument which differs from a modern guitar only in that it has a seventh 
string, presumeably a drone (and Greg, if your library swap has this one, 
I'll be forever in your debt-credit says Viadana Bibliotek, St. Gallen).  I 
could bury you in references to period artwork, but I'll just recommend you 
pick up THE ART AND TIMES OF THE GUITAR, An Illustrated History, by 
Frederick V. Grunfeld, a book no SCA guitar player should be without. 
 There are a few things to avoid-there was no standard tuning (such as 
EADGBE); as far as I can tell, the composer of written works instructed the 
player how to tune his instrument and tunings varied widely.  If you can 
school yourself to play in alternate tunings (like open G) where some 
strings function as drones, you will (I think) have a more period sound to 
your instrument.  The modern dreadnought body (where the bottom lobe of the 
guitar is radically wider than the top lobe) I cannot document and I 
suspect is right out, but maybe tomorrow...  Your friend's Ovation is also 
out (why people think molded plastic "looks more period" than wood just 
because it is lute-shaped, I'll never know...) due to visible OOP 
materials.  For the most "period" look, you should go for a classical body 
guitar in a child's size, as most of the period art shows a relatively 
smaller instrument than most are today.  Some of the "backpacker" guitars 
are great if they are the right shape (and much lighter to lug around!).  I 
can give you the names of some good sources for open tunings, too.  Let me 
know if you're feeling adventurous...

	TTFN				Adelaide


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