Crossing the Styx

[Serial_Apologist]

There comes a time for all great revolutionaries to cross over to the other side.
In the picture we see Fidel Castro entering the Styx, the water is up to his knees.
Further out is Mao Tse Dong, on his last long march, up to his waist in it.
Beyond Mao one sees Fidel Castro, whose head only is visible.

But what is this? Furthest out in this line of departed revolutionaries is Stalin,
head and torso proudly exposed above the waters.
"How come you are not drowning, O Uncle Joe? Are you on a sandbank?"
"No", comes back the reply, "I'm standing on Trotsky's shoulders!"

[Richard Tarleton]

Wonderful pic, Richard T. So a six string 'guitar' was around in the 16th cent? (Forgive my ignorance on the subject.)

Yes, part of the guitar's evolution - actually six pairs of strings - rather like the courses on a lute. Earlier in the 16th century there had been a smaller version with 4 pairs of strings. The vihuela had similar tuning to a Renaissance lute, which can be replicated on a modern guitar by tuning the G string down to F#, enabling the left hand fingering to stay the same when pieces are transcribed. There are some really lovely pieces, nowadays part of the guitar repertoire, by a handful of 16thC Spanish composers - Milán himself, Narvaez, Mudarra, Valdarrábano....This collection of pieces by Milán was I think the first to be published. .

Bream had replicas of these instruments made for his 1984 TV series "Guitarra" by the luthier José Romanillos, the first time most people would have come across these instruments.

There's lots of lovely bird detail in the picture - you can pick out a turtle dove (top right), a Scops owl (upper left), a heron....