Message-ID: <alpine.NEB.2.00.1011081852070.23835@panix1.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.wvu.edu>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: Pictures of Instruments and Planets:
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2010 18:53:49 -0500 (EST)
Pictures of Instruments and Planets: For anyone who might be interested, (very rough but clear) photographs of the instruments I've been recording with recently - http://www.alansondheim.org/insts01.jpg - Guzheng, 16 strings with movable bridges. This is a folk instrument; apparently in 1961, the guzheng was changed - more strings were added, and the end block was set curved, not straight. It's really a beautiful instrument. http://www.alansondheim.org/insts02.jpg - Pipa, weighing 8+ pounds, most likely rosewood body with black oxhorn frets and pegs. Tuning is Adea. http://www.alansondheim.org/insts03.jpg, http://www.alansondheim.org/insts04.jpg - Violin, with a fairly wide (front to back) body. http://www.alansondheim.org/insts05.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/insts06.jpg - Viola, John Juzek, formerly Czech, now German, sounds really good on the low strings (I think unusual for a viola). I play this and the violin vertically; this is tuned CGcg and the violin, GDgd. http://www.alansondheim.org/insts07.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/insts08.jpg - Small Hausa raft zither, woven reed with seeds inside the back. http://www.alansondheim.org/insts09.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/insts10.jpg - Larger Hausa raft zither, with a much deeper tone. Both instruments are plucked with both hands; both are somewhat old and delicate. I'll record with them, then put them aside. The weaving on both is amazing. http://www.alansondheim.org/insts11.jpg - 'Bass' zither, or elegie concert zither. This is an anomaly; it's not that well constructed and the frets are crude, as is the purfling around the upper soundhole and the overall shape. I'm not sure of the date; the purfling seems to be Washburn-style so I'm assuming it's American-made, but the ornate tuner cover (nickel or silver-plated) seems European. It might be English. There are 23 usable open strings and five playing strings; I'm using an odd tuning of my own devising, which also keeps the instrument from further cracking. It has a range of about five octaves. Planets: Plates of Mars and Venus from Elements of Astronomy, Illustrated with Plates, for the use of Schools and Academies, with Questions, by John Wilkins, Boston, 1832. Volumes could be written about visual interpre- tation (including the reading of 'canals' several decades later), about real and virtual phenomena in relation to optical technology, and so forth. Apparently this is the first American book to use 'Uranus' as the standard name for the planet, which had, until then, been known as 'Herschel.' http://www.alansondheim.org/planets1.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/planets2.jpg