Re: OT: Chinese zither

Staving Isidora Zamora:
>At 10:13 AM 9/18/03 +0100, you wrote:
>>Staving Isidora Zamora:
>>
>>>>End blown, side blown, with or without a block?
>>>
>>>What's a block?  Side blown.
>>
>>A block is found in the English flute, or recorder. It seals one end of the
>>tube, apart from a narrow channel through which the air is blown. Just
>>after the block is the edge which generates the vibration. IIRC, the German
>>for recorder is Blockflöte.
>
>No, no block flutes, as far as I know.  Those are more difficult to make,
>due to having to get that sharp lip in exactly the right place.  I suppose
>that they could make a block flute; they are good at decorative
>woodcarving, so they have the precision necessary to get the edge in the
>right place, and they have the animal-based glue neccessary to keep the
>block in place.  How do you hollow out a block flute made of wood?  I've
>seen it done on TV with Colonial-era drills to make a recorder, but I'm not
>certain what sort of drills the Cwendaso have.  The Trehelish (and
>Nidirino), OTOH, do have a lot of hand-tool up to about Western 18th
>century standards.  (Though there are other things that Westerners had in
>the 18th century, such as eyeglasses and telescopes, that they don't
>have.)   An idea that I just had was a large wooden blockflute with heavy
>relief-carving over the entire (exterior) surface of it.  (If it's
>Cwendaso, they would almost certainly paint the relief carvings.)  That
>would be a neat-looking instrument.  But I wonder how the carving would
>affect the tone of the instrument?
Exterior carving should have little effect. I have a South American
transverse flute, made of wood, with carving on the exterior. Mind you,
that one's really difficult to get a note out of. Two friends of mine went
round a market in South America searching for an instrument that would
match my musical abilities. As for drilling a recorder, one thing to keep
in mind is that it has a tapering bore (narrowest at the far end). This
does affect the tone - I think it strengthens the second harmonic or
something.

>What I'll probably do is go over my options for musical instruments and
>then assign one to several instruments from each class to each of my three
>concultures.  (There are other cultures beyond them, but they don't figure
>into the story, so are not currently being developed.)  The playing or
>singing of music is an important part of the story at many points, so I do
>need to fully develop the ideas for musical instruments.
>
>>
>>Here's an idea for you. Get an Aurochs horn, hollow it out, make a
>>mouthpiece at the narrow end, and add finger holes in various places. You
>>now have a form of serpent.
>
>Serpent?  Is that some sort of horn?  Any idea what the mouthpiece would be
>made of?  I would think that you could make a pretty impressive instrument
>out of an aurochs horn (of course, the things have been extinct for several
>centuries, but that doesn't stop me from having them in my little conworld.)
>
http://www.serpentwebsite.com/

Pete