Lost Sounds: EMS 30 November

[doversoul1]

Clare Salaman on forgotten instruments which were once part of everyday musical life.
[…]
The programme also includes the launch of the 2015 NCEM Young Composers Award.http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04sv2wk

Very detailed information on the webpage. I wish they (whoever they are) would make one tenth of the effort of this for other programmes.

[MickyD]

Will be interested to hear this one, ds...I have a particular fondness for the rustic sound of the hurdy-gurdy, especially in French repertoire!

[Despina dello Stagno]

...I have a particular fondness for the rustic sound of the hurdy-gurdy, especially in French repertoire!

How about the French-pirated Italian repertoire?

I sometimes play the English guittar (sic), a type of cittern (see Mrs Thicknesse holding one in my avatar) which became so much of a craze amongst ladies of the ton and other domestic musicians in the 1760s that sales of the harpsichord started to suffer. Kirkman's response was to buy every guittar that he could source, and to distribute them gratis to the London whores.

[doversoul1]

I sometimes play the English guittar (sic), a type of cittern (see Mrs Thicknesse holding one in my avatar) which became so much of a craze amongst ladies of the ton and other domestic musicians in the 1760s that sales of the harpsichord started to suffer. Kirkman's response was to buy every guittar that he could source, and to distribute them gratis to the London whores.

Thank you for this. I was hoping to hear more of this sort of context (gossip) on this programme but I found it like listening to a lecture on these musical instruments and what they can do rather than what they might have done.

[Despina dello Stagno]

Thank you for this. I was hoping to hear more of this sort of context (gossip) on this programme but I found it like listening to a lecture on these musical instruments and what they can do rather than what they might have done.

I was disappointed in that I don't consider that these instruments were truly forgotten: they are all "headline exotica" familiar to the moderate early music fan for the last 40 years (It was nice to hear a David Munrow standard again).
A more illuminating programme could have been made on rather more recent instruments which have fallen by the wayside and between the cracks: the Baryton (perhaps the most familiar) the Light guitar http://www.musurgia.com/products.asp...D=286572762014 and all manner of parlour instruments from the flutina and the musical saw to the packing case bass and the stylophone.

[ardcarp]

I was quite interested in some of the technical descriptions....and to hear about how the various rattles and buzzes were made. And there were some tremendous performers, e.g. the hurdy gurdy duet.

[MrGongGong]

I was disappointed in that I don't consider that these instruments were truly forgotten: they are all "headline exotica" familiar to the moderate early music fan for the last 40 years (It was nice to hear a David Munrow standard again).
A more illuminating programme could have been made on rather more recent instruments which have fallen by the wayside and between the cracks: the Baryton (perhaps the most familiar) the Light guitar http://www.musurgia.com/products.asp...D=286572762014 and all manner of parlour instruments from the flutina and the musical saw to the packing case bass and the stylophone.

Erm

In my world the musical saw and stylophone are very much alive

http://ruletheweb.co.uk/blog/2013/04/world-stylophone-quartet/

[doversoul1]

I was disappointed in that I don't consider that these instruments were truly forgotten: they are all "headline exotica" familiar to the moderate early music fan for the last 40 years (It was nice to hear a David Munrow standard again).
A more illuminating programme could have been made on rather more recent instruments which have fallen by the wayside and between the cracks: the Baryton (perhaps the most familiar) the Light guitar http://www.musurgia.com/products.asp...D=286572762014 and all manner of parlour instruments from the flutina and the musical saw to the packing case bass and the stylophone.

Steady on! This is after all Early Music Show. But, yes, that would have been much more interesting. Even with these 'headline exotica' could have been linked with their time and the music, which is, I think, one of the points of the Early Music Show.

[gurnemanz]

Will be interested to hear this one, ds...I have a particular fondness for the rustic sound of the hurdy-gurdy, especially in French repertoire!

I'm rather fond of Winterreise accompanied by the hurdy-gurdy.

[Alain Maréchal]

The hurdy gurdy (or a version of it) is still going strong in the Bourbonnais. I ought to qualify that use of "still": its a revival of a local tradition which was on the point of expiring.

http://lapastourelledumourgon.wifeo.com/les-instruments.php

They perform a rather terrifying clog danse in which a heavy log is whirled around on a string at ankle level: anybody not alert would get a nasty injury.

[Despina dello Stagno]

Steady on! This is after all Early Music Show.

Yes, perhaps I did over-egg the pudding with my last three "obsolete" instruments. But I think that all sorts of weird and wonderful proprietary instruments of the nineteenth century could legitimately be introduced to the EMS, even, arguably, items as late as the Stroh Violin.

Erm

In my world the musical saw and stylophone are very much alive

googling Youtube tells me that a musical saw appeared on "Britain's got talent" four or five years ago. So the poor man's Theremin (not a proprietary instrument legitimately covered here; still very much unlost) lives on, albeit in much reduced circumstances.