Posted on November 19, 2019March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips What You Should Know About The Hardanger Fiddle What You Should Know About The Hardanger Fiddle by David Golber Previously published in American Lutherie #36, 1993 and The Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume Three, 2004 Someone has walked into your shop with yet another weird instrument. This time, it’s sort of like a violin, but it has a whole lot of pegs, the top is carved funny, it has pearl and bone inlay, and it’s decorated with flowery drawings. He says his grandfather brought it from Norway in 1890, and he wants you to put it in playing condition. Well, it’s a Hardanger fiddle (hardingfele in Norwegian). The instrument originated in the area around the Hardanger fjord, whence its name. It is distinctly Norwegian; in fact, it is played in only about a quarter of Norway, the western and south-central areas. The oldest instrument found has a date of 1651. The musical tradition is still very much alive, and continues unbroken up to the present. Beginning in about 1850, there was an absolutely enormous emigration from Norway to America — something like a third of the population. Those who played fiddle of course brought their fiddles with them. In addition there were tours by professional players who performed for their emigrated countrymen and then returned to Norway. But the instrument and the music died out in America. The children of the immigrants rarely learned to play, and father’s fiddle lay in its case in the attic, or was hung on the wall like an icon of a lost era. Now there is something like a revival here in America, not only among the descendants of the immigrants, but also among those not of Norwegian ancestry who have discovered the music. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on October 31, 2019March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips The Hammered Dulcimer: Ancient, Wonderful, and Still Evolving The Hammered Dulcimer: Ancient, Wonderful, and Still Evolving by Sam Rizzetta from his 1984 GAL Convention lecture previously published in American Lutherie #10, 1987 and The Big Red Book, Volume 1, 2000 The dulcimer has been a strange, fascinating, and unique instrument in my life. I remember sitting at the knees of my uncle when I was three years old, listening to him play the banjo. That was just the most wonderful thing in the whole world. My mother lost a lot of pots and pans and other hardware to experimental childish banjos. I don’t remember if any of them actually yielded beautiful music, but they were a lot of fun. I couldn’t afford musical instruments, so if I wanted to play a banjo or guitar or whatever, I had to go down in the basement and knock one together. And that grew into a living building those things. When I finally heard a hammered dulcimer about twenty years ago, that was it; that was the most magical sound I’d heard in my life. It’s been downhill ever since. Although the dulcimer is very ancient in its history, it never really reached a peak of fixed design as did the violin and, to a lesser extent, the guitar. Any good violin serves any purpose that you would want to put a violin to. A guitar is a bit less universal, with the many varieties such as classical, flamenco, jazz, and flattop. Still, there is a certain uniformity to them, and they’re usually tuned identically. Not so with the dulcimer. Although it is well known and loved in many cultures, there’s a great diversity in the tuning, construction, and tone. There’s a lot of confusion over the name “dulcimer.” It really relates to the large trapezoidal instrument. The fretted instrument that many of us in recent times have called “dulcimer” truly is not a dulcimer at all but is related to the Pennsylvania German instrument called zitter (or zither) which in turn is related to the German scheitholdt. We are now very certain that all of the small plucked fretted “dulcimers” come directly from those. These fretted instruments are often called Appalachian dulcimer or mountain dulcimer or plucked dulcimer or lap dulcimer, but all those names apply to both instruments. In fact, in the Appalachians, the hammered dulcimer was a little more common than the fretted one, which was just revived by folklorists a little earlier. The fretted instrument is sometimes struck with straws or beaters, or it may even be bowed. The hammered instrument in many cultures is only plucked but it is still called a dulcimer. These days, to make the distinction clear we’re calling the smaller instrument a fretted dulcimer and the larger trapezoidal one a dulcimer, the term that has referred to it through history. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on October 31, 2019March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Douglas Martin Meet the Maker: Douglas Martin by Barbara Goldowsky previously published in American Lutherie #90, 2007 The violin is about the only man-made device that is made today exactly as it has been for the past 300 years. Now, finally, a revolution may be under way, according to Joseph Curtin of Ann Arbor, Michigan, the craftsman who just recently was awarded the first MacArthur Fellowship ever granted to a violin maker. The cause of his startling statement is a balsa-wood violin that produces the powerful sound and excellent response everyone in the profession strives for. The unusual instrument’s creator is Douglas Martin, an amateur maker from Maine, who first introduced it to colleagues in July 2004. Since then, Mr. Martin’s work has sparked such enthusiasm that a special “Festival of Innovation” has been added to the Violin Society of America’s upcoming convention, from November 10–13, in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. The new program’s goal is “to explore the future evolution of the violin — to inspire makers to follow their creative dreams wherever they may lead,” according to Fan Tao, a research scientist and a director of the VSA. In the society’s most recent newsletter, Mr. Curtin, also a director, claims that the traditional violin is “obsolete,” and urges members to “judge for yourself — join in the arguments, hoot or applaud — but don’t let the revolution start without you!” Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 23, 2019March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Gibson Banjo Information Gibson Banjo Information by Tom Morgan previously published as Data Sheet #28, 1976 Recent popularity of the banjo and a need for wider dessemination of various bits of information have prompted this writing. Much of the information is based only on opinions formed during approximately ten years of experience working on banjos, while the instruments themselves were made over a period of 60 or more years. It should then be remembered that many variations are likely to have occurred. During the years banjos have been manufactured, one strong contrast is noticeable. During the time of its wide popularity around 1920–1930, the tenor banjo was the style. The people then playing 5-string often makes it desireable to convert these. Gibson banjos used a designation of RB for regular banjo of 5-string, TB for tenor banjo, MB for mandolin banjo, and so forth. Therefore, reference to a model-00, for example, should be understood to represent the different possible models that were, or may have been made (MD-00, RB-00, etc.) The shell or rims were made to be an interchangeable basis for either of the different types, and a mandolin banjo can be converted to a 5-string banjo by installing a different neck. Problems in fitting may be encountered due to several shapes of the heel, and two sizes of lag screw (8-32 and 10-32 threads) being used. Also, shell diameters vary from about six inches in some banjo ukes to a 24 inch banjo bass. The most popular sizes were 10 1/2 and 11 inches, with the 11" size the only one well suited for upgrading with one of the better MASTERTONE tone rings. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 23, 2019March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Intonation in the Real World Intonation in the Real World by Mike Doolin from his 2006 GAL Convention lecture previously published in American Lutherie #92, 2007 Getting guitars to play in tune has been a major topic of interest for many years, both for guitar players and guitar makers, and it has been a major source of frustration as well. During our current “Golden Age of Lutherie” the bar has been raised for standards of craft, playability, and tonal quality, as players have become more sophisticated in their expectations and builders have become better educated and more demanding of their own work. Expectations for accurate intonation have come along with all that: it’s no longer acceptable for a guitar to only play in tune for the first five frets, or in a few keys. Modern players are using the whole neck, exploring extended harmonies, and playing in ensembles with other instruments. They are looking for instruments that play in tune with themselves and with the rest of the musical world. It turns out that guitar intonation is a huge can of worms, because it is really two topics: ▶ What does it mean to be “in tune?” ▶ How do I make a guitar do that? Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
