Good Grief! (Yes, with capital G!!!)

I have come home from London (wonderful dance weekend, www.datw.org.uk, go
next year!) to find this mega digest in my post box! It has Digest number 93
and contains 413 messages. I started to read them and I thought some of it
was familiar, then I found this one which wasn't so familiar, so I want to
write a bout it just below, but then the rest I don't have time for... Can
somebody fix the system and send a digest just about the last week's? Or
were you so busy writing the whole weekend?! I can't believe it...

Anyway, a question to the owner of this hurdy gurdy: would you please
explain me this gadget for changing key? What is this, what does it do, and
how? Also where did you get it?


On 15/10/06 11:49, "HurdyGurdyForum@..."
<HurdyGurdyForum@...> wrote:

> Just noticed that Tim has a picture of my gurdy on his website.
> http://www.timguster.com.au/images/hurdy_gurdy_pics/w.html It's minimally
> decorated (no carved head etc.) as he says in the blurb - 'cos it's the
> "student" version - relatively cheap, but wonderful (I've only been playing
> for two years so wanted to start with something basic). It was custom made for
> me - I'm a vegan and don't use any animal products at all, so that was a
> challenge for him! It's a great instrument and stays in tune like you wouldn't
> believe. Since these pics were taken he has put a gadget on to quickly change
> key between G and D.
> Bronny

Anyone know this maker from Scotland? Keep hearing about him at
festivals and so on. Anyway there is a chromatic symphony type gurdy
on ebay at the moment, have a look:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?
ViewItem&item=290039945042&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:UK:11

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
HurdyGurdyForum group:

Tuning  D or G Chanters?

   o D
   o G


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/HurdyGurdyForum/polls

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

I just discovered we can vote on stuff in the Polls page. I have
started with an vote on instrument tuning...D or G? Have a look :-)

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
HurdyGurdyForum group:

Tuning  D or G Chanters?

  o D
  o G


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/HurdyGurdyForum/polls

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

erm ... D or G chanters in the light of what?

 

Both have their uses ... and limitations.

 

Given the choice between Octave G or Unison G chanters I'd use Octave G chanters: a much richer sound, and the choice of more voices.

 

If the key were not an issue, I I'd usually choose Octave G chanters over Octave D chanters because of their more robust depth of sound.

 

I'd also tend to use Octave G chanters over Alto Octave D chanters, for their more robust and brighter sound.  

 

But for playing a bass line accompaniment I'd use the low low D of Alto D chanters.

 

And for violin-like single-string playing, the top D chanter works best for brightness.

 

I find that you have a more satisfying selection of drones using D chanters: both D and G tunings are normally very well balanced and you can also re-tune your deep drone to a very low D to give an extra richness.  By comparison I find that playing in C with G chanters, the drones are a little high pitched (or too low if you lower the drone by an octave) for my liking.

 

Of course, you may not be able to play in the key you'd want to, particularly in a mixed-instrument band, which can have a big impact on the choice of chanters you use.

 

So, for example, D-chanters are useful when playing with DG melodeons, since not only will you normally be playing in D and G, but melodeon players will use Em as their prefered minor key (Em is particularly easy with D-chanters, just as Am is particularly easy with G-chanters), although you will also have to retune your D drone to E, or play drone-less.

 

So, D or G chanters?  The answer is that I prefer to have both!!  (And, indeed, that's what I've ended up with:  an instrument with both G and D chanters.  Of course,  that introduces its own problems ... but that's another story)

 

Mike

 

 

 -----Original Message-----
From: HurdyGurdyForum@... [mailto:HurdyGurdyForum@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 10:05
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
HurdyGurdyForum group:

Tuning  D or G Chanters?

  o D
  o G


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/HurdyGurdyForum/polls

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

-----Original Message-----
From: JULIE BARKER [mailto:drohne@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 14:06
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

I think Mike has highlighted the futility of polls. What is the convention for tabloid newspapers and radio phone-in progs is not neccessarily a welcome addition to the hurdy-gurdy world. While we are on the subject, does anyone in the UK play gurdy in F / Bflat? so I can do some duets with my new pipes.

"F the key of the furure of merely a way of ensuring melodeon players don't bugger up your session tunes?".....discuss.

Drohne

Eaton Mike <mike.eaton@...> wrote:

erm ... D or G chanters in the light of what?

 

Both have their uses ... and limitations.

 

Given the choice between Octave G or Unison G chanters I'd use Octave G chanters: a much richer sound, and the choice of more voices.

 

If the key were not an issue, I I'd usually choose Octave G chanters over Octave D chanters because of their more robust depth of sound.

 

I'd also tend to use Octave G chanters over Alto Octave D chanters, for their more robust and brighter sound.  

 

But for playing a bass line accompaniment I'd use the low low D of Alto D chanters.

 

And for violin-like single-string playing, the top D chanter works best for brightness.

 

I find that you have a more satisfying selection of drones using D chanters: both D and G tunings are normally very well balanced and you can also re-tune your deep drone to a very low D to give an extra richness.  By comparison I find that playing in C with G chanters, the drones are a little high pitched (or too low if you lower the drone by an octave) for my liking.

 

Of course, you may not be able to play in the key you'd want to, particularly in a mixed-instrument band, which can have a big impact on the choice of chanters you use.

 

So, for example, D-chanters are useful when playing with DG melodeons, since not only will you normally be playing in D and G, but melodeon players will use Em as their prefered minor key (Em is particularly easy with D-chanters, just as Am is particularly easy with G-chanters), although you will also have to retune your D drone to E, or play drone-less.

 

So, D or G chanters?  The answer is that I prefer to have both!!  (And, indeed, that's what I've ended up with:  an instrument with both G and D chanters.  Of course,  that introduces its own problems ... but that's another story)

 

Mike

 

 

 -----Original Message-----
From: HurdyGurdyForum@... [mailto:HurdyGurdyForum@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 10:05
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
HurdyGurdyForum group:

Tuning  D or G Chanters?

  o D
  o G


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/HurdyGurdyForum/polls

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

----- Original Message -----

From: Eaton Mike

To: 'HurdyGurdyForum@...'

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 4:34 PM

Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Phil -

 

I've experimented with Bb (or F, depending on your chanters) and written a rather pleasant hornpipe in that key.  Retuning your drones to play in Bb (or F) gives the sound of the HG a new dimension. One of the interesting side-effects is that the interval between the drone and the open chanter is a major 3rd. This means that when you momentarily lift your finger off the keyboard you now get a chord instead of the chanter disappearing behind the drone. A very pleasant effect.

 

All you need to do to play in Bb (/F) is to retune your drones and get your head round the extra accidentals you need to play in that key.  But that's not too hard if you've come from a keyboard background.

 

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: JULIE BARKER [mailto:drohne@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 14:06
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

I think Mike has highlighted the futility of polls. What is the convention for tabloid newspapers and radio phone-in progs is not neccessarily a welcome addition to the hurdy-gurdy world. While we are on the subject, does anyone in the UK play gurdy in F / Bflat? so I can do some duets with my new pipes.

"F the key of the furure of merely a way of ensuring melodeon players don't bugger up your session tunes?".....discuss.

Drohne

Eaton Mike <mike.eaton@...> wrote:

erm ... D or G chanters in the light of what?

 

Both have their uses ... and limitations.

 

Given the choice between Octave G or Unison G chanters I'd use Octave G chanters: a much richer sound, and the choice of more voices.

 

If the key were not an issue, I I'd usually choose Octave G chanters over Octave D chanters because of their more robust depth of sound.

 

I'd also tend to use Octave G chanters over Alto Octave D chanters, for their more robust and brighter sound.  

 

But for playing a bass line accompaniment I'd use the low low D of Alto D chanters.

 

And for violin-like single-string playing, the top D chanter works best for brightness.

 

I find that you have a more satisfying selection of drones using D chanters: both D and G tunings are normally very well balanced and you can also re-tune your deep drone to a very low D to give an extra richness.  By comparison I find that playing in C with G chanters, the drones are a little high pitched (or too low if you lower the drone by an octave) for my liking.

 

Of course, you may not be able to play in the key you'd want to, particularly in a mixed-instrument band, which can have a big impact on the choice of chanters you use.

 

So, for example, D-chanters are useful when playing with DG melodeons, since not only will you normally be playing in D and G, but melodeon players will use Em as their prefered minor key (Em is particularly easy with D-chanters, just as Am is particularly easy with G-chanters), although you will also have to retune your D drone to E, or play drone-less.

 

So, D or G chanters?  The answer is that I prefer to have both!!  (And, indeed, that's what I've ended up with:  an instrument with both G and D chanters.  Of course,  that introduces its own problems ... but that's another story)

 

Mike

 

 

 -----Original Message-----
From: HurdyGurdyForum@... [mailto:HurdyGurdyForum@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 10:05
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
HurdyGurdyForum group:

Tuning  D or G Chanters?

  o D
  o G


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/HurdyGurdyForum/polls

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

Mike,

 

I agree with you entirely on most of what you said in your first mail

Octave Gs are so much more useful

 

I play a lot in D on my G/C Colson (only 2 chanters of course)

I wind the petit bourdon up from C to D and let the gros boudon down to low D

It is a huge sound in D and to some degree better than a D/G HG because you can pay tunes in D that go down to the sub dominant

 

I also was lucky enough to borrow the famous cat gurdy for OTW http://www.hurdygurdy.org/morepicscatgurdy.htm

This has octave G chanters and a third chanter in D

All of Gilles Chabenat's material was written in G for a D/G gurdy and would have had to be played well up to the top end of the keyboard on a G/C HG

All I had to do was pop on the D chanter and transpose into C fingering

It worked very very well (built in F#s and C#s) and made life so much easier

 

I am intrigued by you reference to Bb / F playing

Where do you put the drones ? I would like to try it

 

Graham

----- Original Message -----

From: Eaton Mike

To: 'HurdyGurdyForum@...'

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 4:34 PM

Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Phil -

 

I've experimented with Bb (or F, depending on your chanters) and written a rather pleasant hornpipe in that key.  Retuning your drones to play in Bb (or F) gives the sound of the HG a new dimension. One of the interesting side-effects is that the interval between the drone and the open chanter is a major 3rd. This means that when you momentarily lift your finger off the keyboard you now get a chord instead of the chanter disappearing behind the drone. A very pleasant effect.

 

All you need to do to play in Bb (/F) is to retune your drones and get your head round the extra accidentals you need to play in that key.  But that's not too hard if you've come from a keyboard background.

 

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: JULIE BARKER [mailto:drohne@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 14:06
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

I think Mike has highlighted the futility of polls. What is the convention for tabloid newspapers and radio phone-in progs is not neccessarily a welcome addition to the hurdy-gurdy world. While we are on the subject, does anyone in the UK play gurdy in F / Bflat? so I can do some duets with my new pipes.

"F the key of the furure of merely a way of ensuring melodeon players don't bugger up your session tunes?".....discuss.

Drohne

Eaton Mike <mike.eaton@...> wrote:

erm ... D or G chanters in the light of what?

 

Both have their uses ... and limitations.

 

Given the choice between Octave G or Unison G chanters I'd use Octave G chanters: a much richer sound, and the choice of more voices.

 

If the key were not an issue, I I'd usually choose Octave G chanters over Octave D chanters because of their more robust depth of sound.

 

I'd also tend to use Octave G chanters over Alto Octave D chanters, for their more robust and brighter sound.  

 

But for playing a bass line accompaniment I'd use the low low D of Alto D chanters.

 

And for violin-like single-string playing, the top D chanter works best for brightness.

 

I find that you have a more satisfying selection of drones using D chanters: both D and G tunings are normally very well balanced and you can also re-tune your deep drone to a very low D to give an extra richness.  By comparison I find that playing in C with G chanters, the drones are a little high pitched (or too low if you lower the drone by an octave) for my liking.

 

Of course, you may not be able to play in the key you'd want to, particularly in a mixed-instrument band, which can have a big impact on the choice of chanters you use.

 

So, for example, D-chanters are useful when playing with DG melodeons, since not only will you normally be playing in D and G, but melodeon players will use Em as their prefered minor key (Em is particularly easy with D-chanters, just as Am is particularly easy with G-chanters), although you will also have to retune your D drone to E, or play drone-less.

 

So, D or G chanters?  The answer is that I prefer to have both!!  (And, indeed, that's what I've ended up with:  an instrument with both G and D chanters.  Of course,  that introduces its own problems ... but that's another story)

 

Mike

 

 

 -----Original Message-----
From: HurdyGurdyForum@... [mailto:HurdyGurdyForum@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 10:05
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
HurdyGurdyForum group:

Tuning  D or G Chanters?

  o D
  o G


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/HurdyGurdyForum/polls

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

----- Original Message -----

From: scott marshall

To: HurdyGurdyForum@...

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 6:44 PM

Subject: Re: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Hi everyone....I didnt mean 'which is best' 'in the Poll...just what people had their instruments tuned to just out of interest.

Does anyone tune unison D?

I love unison tuning in G

 

Graham Whyte <graham@...> wrote:

Mike,

 

I agree with you entirely on most of what you said in your first mail

Octave Gs are so much more useful

 

I play a lot in D on my G/C Colson (only 2 chanters of course)

I wind the petit bourdon up from C to D and let the gros boudon down to low D

It is a huge sound in D and to some degree better than a D/G HG because you can pay tunes in D that go down to the sub dominant

 

I also was lucky enough to borrow the famous cat gurdy for OTW http://www.hurdygurdy.org/morepicscatgurdy.htm

This has octave G chanters and a third chanter in D

All of Gilles Chabenat's material was written in G for a D/G gurdy and would have had to be played well up to the top end of the keyboard on a G/C HG

All I had to do was pop on the D chanter and transpose into C fingering

It worked very very well (built in F#s and C#s) and made life so much easier

 

I am intrigued by you reference to Bb / F playing

Where do you put the drones ? I would like to try it

 

Graham

----- Original Message -----

From: Eaton Mike

To: 'HurdyGurdyForum@...'

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 4:34 PM

Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Phil -

 

I've experimented with Bb (or F, depending on your chanters) and written a rather pleasant hornpipe in that key.  Retuning your drones to play in Bb (or F) gives the sound of the HG a new dimension. One of the interesting side-effects is that the interval between the drone and the open chanter is a major 3rd. This means that when you momentarily lift your finger off the keyboard you now get a chord instead of the chanter disappearing behind the drone. A very pleasant effect.

 

All you need to do to play in Bb (/F) is to retune your drones and get your head round the extra accidentals you need to play in that key.  But that's not too hard if you've come from a keyboard background.

 

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: JULIE BARKER [mailto:drohne@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 14:06
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

I think Mike has highlighted the futility of polls. What is the convention for tabloid newspapers and radio phone-in progs is not neccessarily a welcome addition to the hurdy-gurdy world. While we are on the subject, does anyone in the UK play gurdy in F / Bflat? so I can do some duets with my new pipes.

"F the key of the furure of merely a way of ensuring melodeon players don't bugger up your session tunes?".....discuss.

Drohne

Eaton Mike <mike.eaton@...> wrote:

erm ... D or G chanters in the light of what?

 

Both have their uses ... and limitations.

 

Given the choice between Octave G or Unison G chanters I'd use Octave G chanters: a much richer sound, and the choice of more voices.

 

If the key were not an issue, I I'd usually choose Octave G chanters over Octave D chanters because of their more robust depth of sound.

 

I'd also tend to use Octave G chanters over Alto Octave D chanters, for their more robust and brighter sound.  

 

But for playing a bass line accompaniment I'd use the low low D of Alto D chanters.

 

And for violin-like single-string playing, the top D chanter works best for brightness.

 

I find that you have a more satisfying selection of drones using D chanters: both D and G tunings are normally very well balanced and you can also re-tune your deep drone to a very low D to give an extra richness.  By comparison I find that playing in C with G chanters, the drones are a little high pitched (or too low if you lower the drone by an octave) for my liking.

 

Of course, you may not be able to play in the key you'd want to, particularly in a mixed-instrument band, which can have a big impact on the choice of chanters you use.

 

So, for example, D-chanters are useful when playing with DG melodeons, since not only will you normally be playing in D and G, but melodeon players will use Em as their prefered minor key (Em is particularly easy with D-chanters, just as Am is particularly easy with G-chanters), although you will also have to retune your D drone to E, or play drone-less.

 

So, D or G chanters?  The answer is that I prefer to have both!!  (And, indeed, that's what I've ended up with:  an instrument with both G and D chanters.  Of course,  that introduces its own problems ... but that's another story)

 

Mike

 

 

 -----Original Message-----
From: HurdyGurdyForum@... [mailto:HurdyGurdyForum@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 10:05
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
HurdyGurdyForum group:

Tuning  D or G Chanters?

  o D
  o G


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/HurdyGurdyForum/polls

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

---

All new Yahoo! Mail "The new Interface is stunning in its simplicity and ease of use." - PC Magazine

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

Well there you are !

 

As far as I know unison D is uncommon

 

The whole point of octave tuning is to enrich the sound, not just make it louder

Octave strings played together have a very special roundness, richness, sonority and penetration

 

Unison strings just get a little (3db) louder and are difficult to get to sound perfectly in tune

You get no change in tonal color

There is no point in using them separately

 

With octave strings you get 3 very different tonal colours

With careful choice of different drones there are a large number of very different total HG sounds available

 

Playing the low chanter alone in the top octave is the same pitch as the high chanter but very much sweeter

 

As you may have guessed, unison chanters are not my favourite

 

Graham

 

----- Original Message -----

From: scott marshall

To: HurdyGurdyForum@...

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 6:44 PM

Subject: Re: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Hi everyone....I didnt mean 'which is best' 'in the Poll...just what people had their instruments tuned to just out of interest.

Does anyone tune unison D?

I love unison tuning in G

 

Graham Whyte <graham@...> wrote:

Mike,

 

I agree with you entirely on most of what you said in your first mail

Octave Gs are so much more useful

 

I play a lot in D on my G/C Colson (only 2 chanters of course)

I wind the petit bourdon up from C to D and let the gros boudon down to low D

It is a huge sound in D and to some degree better than a D/G HG because you can pay tunes in D that go down to the sub dominant

 

I also was lucky enough to borrow the famous cat gurdy for OTW http://www.hurdygurdy.org/morepicscatgurdy.htm

This has octave G chanters and a third chanter in D

All of Gilles Chabenat's material was written in G for a D/G gurdy and would have had to be played well up to the top end of the keyboard on a G/C HG

All I had to do was pop on the D chanter and transpose into C fingering

It worked very very well (built in F#s and C#s) and made life so much easier

 

I am intrigued by you reference to Bb / F playing

Where do you put the drones ? I would like to try it

 

Graham

----- Original Message -----

From: Eaton Mike

To: 'HurdyGurdyForum@...'

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 4:34 PM

Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Phil -

 

I've experimented with Bb (or F, depending on your chanters) and written a rather pleasant hornpipe in that key.  Retuning your drones to play in Bb (or F) gives the sound of the HG a new dimension. One of the interesting side-effects is that the interval between the drone and the open chanter is a major 3rd. This means that when you momentarily lift your finger off the keyboard you now get a chord instead of the chanter disappearing behind the drone. A very pleasant effect.

 

All you need to do to play in Bb (/F) is to retune your drones and get your head round the extra accidentals you need to play in that key.  But that's not too hard if you've come from a keyboard background.

 

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: JULIE BARKER [mailto:drohne@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 14:06
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

I think Mike has highlighted the futility of polls. What is the convention for tabloid newspapers and radio phone-in progs is not neccessarily a welcome addition to the hurdy-gurdy world. While we are on the subject, does anyone in the UK play gurdy in F / Bflat? so I can do some duets with my new pipes.

"F the key of the furure of merely a way of ensuring melodeon players don't bugger up your session tunes?".....discuss.

Drohne

Eaton Mike <mike.eaton@...> wrote:

erm ... D or G chanters in the light of what?

 

Both have their uses ... and limitations.

 

Given the choice between Octave G or Unison G chanters I'd use Octave G chanters: a much richer sound, and the choice of more voices.

 

If the key were not an issue, I I'd usually choose Octave G chanters over Octave D chanters because of their more robust depth of sound.

 

I'd also tend to use Octave G chanters over Alto Octave D chanters, for their more robust and brighter sound.  

 

But for playing a bass line accompaniment I'd use the low low D of Alto D chanters.

 

And for violin-like single-string playing, the top D chanter works best for brightness.

 

I find that you have a more satisfying selection of drones using D chanters: both D and G tunings are normally very well balanced and you can also re-tune your deep drone to a very low D to give an extra richness.  By comparison I find that playing in C with G chanters, the drones are a little high pitched (or too low if you lower the drone by an octave) for my liking.

 

Of course, you may not be able to play in the key you'd want to, particularly in a mixed-instrument band, which can have a big impact on the choice of chanters you use.

 

So, for example, D-chanters are useful when playing with DG melodeons, since not only will you normally be playing in D and G, but melodeon players will use Em as their prefered minor key (Em is particularly easy with D-chanters, just as Am is particularly easy with G-chanters), although you will also have to retune your D drone to E, or play drone-less.

 

So, D or G chanters?  The answer is that I prefer to have both!!  (And, indeed, that's what I've ended up with:  an instrument with both G and D chanters.  Of course,  that introduces its own problems ... but that's another story)

 

Mike

 

 

 -----Original Message-----
From: HurdyGurdyForum@... [mailto:HurdyGurdyForum@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 10:05
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
HurdyGurdyForum group:

Tuning  D or G Chanters?

  o D
  o G


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/HurdyGurdyForum/polls

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

---

All new Yahoo! Mail "The new Interface is stunning in its simplicity and ease of use." - PC Magazine

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

Graham, I like the phasing you get with unison G, I like the low D string on my D instrument but there isnt much power...is it best just to put a heavier string on than go for unison tuning? What size would you recommend in gut?

Also for the big bourdon I tune that to D too have a 2mm Bass Viol string on which sounds really cool... I dont have any G strings on my D instrument, I sometimes use the mouche in A to add a chord.

I didnt know there was octave G chanterelles in use until I saw Claire Dugues instruments at Towersey. How far back does the octave string date, is it a fairly recent development? I see your point about the octave strings giving more options, do many players use the high string on its own?

 

What about Capos...anyone use them?

 

I didnt realise how niave I was being in asking the D or G question :-)

best wishes

Scott

Graham Whyte <graham@...> wrote:

Well there you are !

 

As far as I know unison D is uncommon

 

The whole point of octave tuning is to enrich the sound, not just make it louder

Octave strings played together have a very special roundness, richness, sonority and penetration

 

Unison strings just get a little (3db) louder and are difficult to get to sound perfectly in tune

You get no change in tonal color

There is no point in using them separately

 

With octave strings you get 3 very different tonal colours

With careful choice of different drones there are a large number of very different total HG sounds available

 

Playing the low chanter alone in the top octave is the same pitch as the high chanter but very much sweeter

 

As you may have guessed, unison chanters are not my favourite

 

Graham

 

----- Original Message -----

From: scott marshall

To: HurdyGurdyForum@...

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 6:44 PM

Subject: Re: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Hi everyone....I didnt mean 'which is best' 'in the Poll...just what people had their instruments tuned to just out of interest.

Does anyone tune unison D?

I love unison tuning in G

 

Graham Whyte <graham@...> wrote:

Mike,

 

I agree with you entirely on most of what you said in your first mail

Octave Gs are so much more useful

 

I play a lot in D on my G/C Colson (only 2 chanters of course)

I wind the petit bourdon up from C to D and let the gros boudon down to low D

It is a huge sound in D and to some degree better than a D/G HG because you can pay tunes in D that go down to the sub dominant

 

I also was lucky enough to borrow the famous cat gurdy for OTW http://www.hurdygurdy.org/morepicscatgurdy.htm

This has octave G chanters and a third chanter in D

All of Gilles Chabenat's material was written in G for a D/G gurdy and would have had to be played well up to the top end of the keyboard on a G/C HG

All I had to do was pop on the D chanter and transpose into C fingering

It worked very very well (built in F#s and C#s) and made life so much easier

 

I am intrigued by you reference to Bb / F playing

Where do you put the drones ? I would like to try it

 

Graham

----- Original Message -----

From: Eaton Mike

To: 'HurdyGurdyForum@...'

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 4:34 PM

Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Phil -

 

I've experimented with Bb (or F, depending on your chanters) and written a rather pleasant hornpipe in that key.  Retuning your drones to play in Bb (or F) gives the sound of the HG a new dimension. One of the interesting side-effects is that the interval between the drone and the open chanter is a major 3rd. This means that when you momentarily lift your finger off the keyboard you now get a chord instead of the chanter disappearing behind the drone. A very pleasant effect.

 

All you need to do to play in Bb (/F) is to retune your drones and get your head round the extra accidentals you need to play in that key.  But that's not too hard if you've come from a keyboard background.

 

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: JULIE BARKER [mailto:drohne@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 14:06
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

I think Mike has highlighted the futility of polls. What is the convention for tabloid newspapers and radio phone-in progs is not neccessarily a welcome addition to the hurdy-gurdy world. While we are on the subject, does anyone in the UK play gurdy in F / Bflat? so I can do some duets with my new pipes.

"F the key of the furure of merely a way of ensuring melodeon players don't bugger up your session tunes?".....discuss.

Drohne

Eaton Mike <mike.eaton@...> wrote:

erm ... D or G chanters in the light of what?

 

Both have their uses ... and limitations.

 

Given the choice between Octave G or Unison G chanters I'd use Octave G chanters: a much richer sound, and the choice of more voices.

 

If the key were not an issue, I I'd usually choose Octave G chanters over Octave D chanters because of their more robust depth of sound.

 

I'd also tend to use Octave G chanters over Alto Octave D chanters, for their more robust and brighter sound.  

 

But for playing a bass line accompaniment I'd use the low low D of Alto D chanters.

 

And for violin-like single-string playing, the top D chanter works best for brightness.

 

I find that you have a more satisfying selection of drones using D chanters: both D and G tunings are normally very well balanced and you can also re-tune your deep drone to a very low D to give an extra richness.  By comparison I find that playing in C with G chanters, the drones are a little high pitched (or too low if you lower the drone by an octave) for my liking.

 

Of course, you may not be able to play in the key you'd want to, particularly in a mixed-instrument band, which can have a big impact on the choice of chanters you use.

 

So, for example, D-chanters are useful when playing with DG melodeons, since not only will you normally be playing in D and G, but melodeon players will use Em as their prefered minor key (Em is particularly easy with D-chanters, just as Am is particularly easy with G-chanters), although you will also have to retune your D drone to E, or play drone-less.

 

So, D or G chanters?  The answer is that I prefer to have both!!  (And, indeed, that's what I've ended up with:  an instrument with both G and D chanters.  Of course,  that introduces its own problems ... but that's another story)

 

Mike

 

 

 -----Original Message-----
From: HurdyGurdyForum@... [mailto:HurdyGurdyForum@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 10:05
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
HurdyGurdyForum group:

Tuning  D or G Chanters?

  o D
  o G


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/HurdyGurdyForum/polls

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

---

All new Yahoo! Mail "The new Interface is stunning in its simplicity and ease of use." - PC Magazine

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

-----Original Message-----
From: scott marshall [mailto:the.maud@...]
Sent: 17 October 2006 00:03
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] ask a simple question!

Graham, I like the phasing you get with unison G, I like the low D string on my D instrument but there isnt much power...is it best just to put a heavier string on than go for unison tuning? What size would you recommend in gut?

Also for the big bourdon I tune that to D too have a 2mm Bass Viol string on which sounds really cool... I dont have any G strings on my D instrument, I sometimes use the mouche in A to add a chord.

I didnt know there was octave G chanterelles in use until I saw Claire Dugues instruments at Towersey. How far back does the octave string date, is it a fairly recent development? I see your point about the octave strings giving more options, do many players use the high string on its own?

 

What about Capos...anyone use them?

 

I didnt realise how niave I was being in asking the D or G question :-)

best wishes

Scott

Graham Whyte <graham@...> wrote:

Well there you are !

 

As far as I know unison D is uncommon

 

The whole point of octave tuning is to enrich the sound, not just make it louder

Octave strings played together have a very special roundness, richness, sonority and penetration

 

Unison strings just get a little (3db) louder and are difficult to get to sound perfectly in tune

You get no change in tonal color

There is no point in using them separately

 

With octave strings you get 3 very different tonal colours

With careful choice of different drones there are a large number of very different total HG sounds available

 

Playing the low chanter alone in the top octave is the same pitch as the high chanter but very much sweeter

 

As you may have guessed, unison chanters are not my favourite

 

Graham

 

----- Original Message -----

From: scott marshall

To: HurdyGurdyForum@...

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 6:44 PM

Subject: Re: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Hi everyone....I didnt mean 'which is best' 'in the Poll...just what people had their instruments tuned to just out of interest.

Does anyone tune unison D?

I love unison tuning in G

 

Graham Whyte <graham@...> wrote:

Mike,

 

I agree with you entirely on most of what you said in your first mail

Octave Gs are so much more useful

 

I play a lot in D on my G/C Colson (only 2 chanters of course)

I wind the petit bourdon up from C to D and let the gros boudon down to low D

It is a huge sound in D and to some degree better than a D/G HG because you can pay tunes in D that go down to the sub dominant

 

I also was lucky enough to borrow the famous cat gurdy for OTW http://www.hurdygurdy.org/morepicscatgurdy.htm

This has octave G chanters and a third chanter in D

All of Gilles Chabenat's material was written in G for a D/G gurdy and would have had to be played well up to the top end of the keyboard on a G/C HG

All I had to do was pop on the D chanter and transpose into C fingering

It worked very very well (built in F#s and C#s) and made life so much easier

 

I am intrigued by you reference to Bb / F playing

Where do you put the drones ? I would like to try it

 

Graham

----- Original Message -----

From: Eaton Mike

To: 'HurdyGurdyForum@...'

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 4:34 PM

Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Phil -

 

I've experimented with Bb (or F, depending on your chanters) and written a rather pleasant hornpipe in that key.  Retuning your drones to play in Bb (or F) gives the sound of the HG a new dimension. One of the interesting side-effects is that the interval between the drone and the open chanter is a major 3rd. This means that when you momentarily lift your finger off the keyboard you now get a chord instead of the chanter disappearing behind the drone. A very pleasant effect.

 

All you need to do to play in Bb (/F) is to retune your drones and get your head round the extra accidentals you need to play in that key.  But that's not too hard if you've come from a keyboard background.

 

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: JULIE BARKER [mailto:drohne@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 14:06
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

I think Mike has highlighted the futility of polls. What is the convention for tabloid newspapers and radio phone-in progs is not neccessarily a welcome addition to the hurdy-gurdy world. While we are on the subject, does anyone in the UK play gurdy in F / Bflat? so I can do some duets with my new pipes.

"F the key of the furure of merely a way of ensuring melodeon players don't bugger up your session tunes?".....discuss.

Drohne

Eaton Mike <mike.eaton@...> wrote:

erm ... D or G chanters in the light of what?

 

Both have their uses ... and limitations.

 

Given the choice between Octave G or Unison G chanters I'd use Octave G chanters: a much richer sound, and the choice of more voices.

 

If the key were not an issue, I I'd usually choose Octave G chanters over Octave D chanters because of their more robust depth of sound.

 

I'd also tend to use Octave G chanters over Alto Octave D chanters, for their more robust and brighter sound.  

 

But for playing a bass line accompaniment I'd use the low low D of Alto D chanters.

 

And for violin-like single-string playing, the top D chanter works best for brightness.

 

I find that you have a more satisfying selection of drones using D chanters: both D and G tunings are normally very well balanced and you can also re-tune your deep drone to a very low D to give an extra richness.  By comparison I find that playing in C with G chanters, the drones are a little high pitched (or too low if you lower the drone by an octave) for my liking.

 

Of course, you may not be able to play in the key you'd want to, particularly in a mixed-instrument band, which can have a big impact on the choice of chanters you use.

 

So, for example, D-chanters are useful when playing with DG melodeons, since not only will you normally be playing in D and G, but melodeon players will use Em as their prefered minor key (Em is particularly easy with D-chanters, just as Am is particularly easy with G-chanters), although you will also have to retune your D drone to E, or play drone-less.

 

So, D or G chanters?  The answer is that I prefer to have both!!  (And, indeed, that's what I've ended up with:  an instrument with both G and D chanters.  Of course,  that introduces its own problems ... but that's another story)

 

Mike

 

 

 -----Original Message-----
From: HurdyGurdyForum@... [mailto:HurdyGurdyForum@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 10:05
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
HurdyGurdyForum group:

Tuning  D or G Chanters?

  o D
  o G


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/HurdyGurdyForum/polls

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

---

All new Yahoo! Mail "The new Interface is stunning in its simplicity and ease of use." - PC Magazine

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

----- Original Message -----

From: scott marshall

To: HurdyGurdyForum@...

Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 12:03 AM

Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] ask a simple question!

Graham, I like the phasing you get with unison G, I like the low D string on my D instrument but there isnt much power...is it best just to put a heavier string on than go for unison tuning? What size would you recommend in gut?

Also for the big bourdon I tune that to D too have a 2mm Bass Viol string on which sounds really cool... I dont have any G strings on my D instrument, I sometimes use the mouche in A to add a chord.

I didnt know there was octave G chanterelles in use until I saw Claire Dugues instruments at Towersey. How far back does the octave string date, is it a fairly recent development? I see your point about the octave strings giving more options, do many players use the high string on its own?

 

What about Capos...anyone use them?

 

I didnt realise how niave I was being in asking the D or G question :-)

best wishes

Scott

Graham Whyte <graham@...> wrote:

Well there you are !

 

As far as I know unison D is uncommon

 

The whole point of octave tuning is to enrich the sound, not just make it louder

Octave strings played together have a very special roundness, richness, sonority and penetration

 

Unison strings just get a little (3db) louder and are difficult to get to sound perfectly in tune

You get no change in tonal color

There is no point in using them separately

 

With octave strings you get 3 very different tonal colours

With careful choice of different drones there are a large number of very different total HG sounds available

 

Playing the low chanter alone in the top octave is the same pitch as the high chanter but very much sweeter

 

As you may have guessed, unison chanters are not my favourite

 

Graham

 

----- Original Message -----

From: scott marshall

To: HurdyGurdyForum@...

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 6:44 PM

Subject: Re: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Hi everyone....I didnt mean 'which is best' 'in the Poll...just what people had their instruments tuned to just out of interest.

Does anyone tune unison D?

I love unison tuning in G

 

Graham Whyte <graham@...> wrote:

Mike,

 

I agree with you entirely on most of what you said in your first mail

Octave Gs are so much more useful

 

I play a lot in D on my G/C Colson (only 2 chanters of course)

I wind the petit bourdon up from C to D and let the gros boudon down to low D

It is a huge sound in D and to some degree better than a D/G HG because you can pay tunes in D that go down to the sub dominant

 

I also was lucky enough to borrow the famous cat gurdy for OTW http://www.hurdygurdy.org/morepicscatgurdy.htm

This has octave G chanters and a third chanter in D

All of Gilles Chabenat's material was written in G for a D/G gurdy and would have had to be played well up to the top end of the keyboard on a G/C HG

All I had to do was pop on the D chanter and transpose into C fingering

It worked very very well (built in F#s and C#s) and made life so much easier

 

I am intrigued by you reference to Bb / F playing

Where do you put the drones ? I would like to try it

 

Graham

----- Original Message -----

From: Eaton Mike

To: 'HurdyGurdyForum@...'

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 4:34 PM

Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Phil -

 

I've experimented with Bb (or F, depending on your chanters) and written a rather pleasant hornpipe in that key.  Retuning your drones to play in Bb (or F) gives the sound of the HG a new dimension. One of the interesting side-effects is that the interval between the drone and the open chanter is a major 3rd. This means that when you momentarily lift your finger off the keyboard you now get a chord instead of the chanter disappearing behind the drone. A very pleasant effect.

 

All you need to do to play in Bb (/F) is to retune your drones and get your head round the extra accidentals you need to play in that key.  But that's not too hard if you've come from a keyboard background.

 

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: JULIE BARKER [mailto:drohne@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 14:06
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

I think Mike has highlighted the futility of polls. What is the convention for tabloid newspapers and radio phone-in progs is not neccessarily a welcome addition to the hurdy-gurdy world. While we are on the subject, does anyone in the UK play gurdy in F / Bflat? so I can do some duets with my new pipes.

"F the key of the furure of merely a way of ensuring melodeon players don't bugger up your session tunes?".....discuss.

Drohne

Eaton Mike <mike.eaton@...> wrote:

erm ... D or G chanters in the light of what?

 

Both have their uses ... and limitations.

 

Given the choice between Octave G or Unison G chanters I'd use Octave G chanters: a much richer sound, and the choice of more voices.

 

If the key were not an issue, I I'd usually choose Octave G chanters over Octave D chanters because of their more robust depth of sound.

 

I'd also tend to use Octave G chanters over Alto Octave D chanters, for their more robust and brighter sound.  

 

But for playing a bass line accompaniment I'd use the low low D of Alto D chanters.

 

And for violin-like single-string playing, the top D chanter works best for brightness.

 

I find that you have a more satisfying selection of drones using D chanters: both D and G tunings are normally very well balanced and you can also re-tune your deep drone to a very low D to give an extra richness.  By comparison I find that playing in C with G chanters, the drones are a little high pitched (or too low if you lower the drone by an octave) for my liking.

 

Of course, you may not be able to play in the key you'd want to, particularly in a mixed-instrument band, which can have a big impact on the choice of chanters you use.

 

So, for example, D-chanters are useful when playing with DG melodeons, since not only will you normally be playing in D and G, but melodeon players will use Em as their prefered minor key (Em is particularly easy with D-chanters, just as Am is particularly easy with G-chanters), although you will also have to retune your D drone to E, or play drone-less.

 

So, D or G chanters?  The answer is that I prefer to have both!!  (And, indeed, that's what I've ended up with:  an instrument with both G and D chanters.  Of course,  that introduces its own problems ... but that's another story)

 

Mike

 

 

 -----Original Message-----
From: HurdyGurdyForum@... [mailto:HurdyGurdyForum@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 10:05
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
HurdyGurdyForum group:

Tuning  D or G Chanters?

  o D
  o G


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/HurdyGurdyForum/polls

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

---

All new Yahoo! Mail "The new Interface is stunning in its simplicity and ease of use." - PC Magazine

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

Scott,

 

What do you mean by "phasing" ?

If you mean the "beating" "wobbling" sound, that's because the 2 strings are slightly out of tune

2 strings perfectly in tune will dissapear totally into each other

 

I use the high chanter on its own to give a clean sweet sound

The low chanter on its own is plenty loud enough and has a very rich, sonorous "viola/cello" sound

Together they make as Mike said "a much richer sound"

 

My low chanters are NRI hand made, silver on gut

They are quite flexible and need careful control of finger pressure

An off the shelf wound string that works pretty well is Savarez Corelli Crystal Viola G 733M(Medium)

This is very fine silver on Stabilon and is incredibly stable, a new string will settle very quickly

The string diameter is slightly less than the high G gut so no problems fitting it

You probably will need little or no setup change

You can feel the string vibrations through the keys, strange at first

If you want more wellie try the heavy (fort) version

 

D/C capo on the trompette is very useful but it really should be adjustable

Some players have several capos

Gilles has capos all over the place on his drones

Also I think 4 chanters and 3 trompettes

 

I think octave G chanters are a recent thing probably less than 100 years ago

 

It is common for Baroque HGs to have 2 strings in the keybox but only one row of tangents

My 2 certainly did, I know because I added the second rows

To that extent, unison chanters may be also a relatively recent thing

Why only one row of tangents I don't know

If you have a good ear, unison chanters can be a real pain, never quite in tune

This is especially true on antique HGs with significant key wear

Chris Allen made a new set of ebony keys for my Colson this year

This has transformed the instrument

I can get almost every single note exactly in tune on both strings all the way to the top G

 

Graham

----- Original Message -----

From: scott marshall

To: HurdyGurdyForum@...

Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 12:03 AM

Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] ask a simple question!

Graham, I like the phasing you get with unison G, I like the low D string on my D instrument but there isnt much power...is it best just to put a heavier string on than go for unison tuning? What size would you recommend in gut?

Also for the big bourdon I tune that to D too have a 2mm Bass Viol string on which sounds really cool... I dont have any G strings on my D instrument, I sometimes use the mouche in A to add a chord.

I didnt know there was octave G chanterelles in use until I saw Claire Dugues instruments at Towersey. How far back does the octave string date, is it a fairly recent development? I see your point about the octave strings giving more options, do many players use the high string on its own?

 

What about Capos...anyone use them?

 

I didnt realise how niave I was being in asking the D or G question :-)

best wishes

Scott

Graham Whyte <graham@...> wrote:

Well there you are !

 

As far as I know unison D is uncommon

 

The whole point of octave tuning is to enrich the sound, not just make it louder

Octave strings played together have a very special roundness, richness, sonority and penetration

 

Unison strings just get a little (3db) louder and are difficult to get to sound perfectly in tune

You get no change in tonal color

There is no point in using them separately

 

With octave strings you get 3 very different tonal colours

With careful choice of different drones there are a large number of very different total HG sounds available

 

Playing the low chanter alone in the top octave is the same pitch as the high chanter but very much sweeter

 

As you may have guessed, unison chanters are not my favourite

 

Graham

 

----- Original Message -----

From: scott marshall

To: HurdyGurdyForum@...

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 6:44 PM

Subject: Re: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Hi everyone....I didnt mean 'which is best' 'in the Poll...just what people had their instruments tuned to just out of interest.

Does anyone tune unison D?

I love unison tuning in G

 

Graham Whyte <graham@...> wrote:

Mike,

 

I agree with you entirely on most of what you said in your first mail

Octave Gs are so much more useful

 

I play a lot in D on my G/C Colson (only 2 chanters of course)

I wind the petit bourdon up from C to D and let the gros boudon down to low D

It is a huge sound in D and to some degree better than a D/G HG because you can pay tunes in D that go down to the sub dominant

 

I also was lucky enough to borrow the famous cat gurdy for OTW http://www.hurdygurdy.org/morepicscatgurdy.htm

This has octave G chanters and a third chanter in D

All of Gilles Chabenat's material was written in G for a D/G gurdy and would have had to be played well up to the top end of the keyboard on a G/C HG

All I had to do was pop on the D chanter and transpose into C fingering

It worked very very well (built in F#s and C#s) and made life so much easier

 

I am intrigued by you reference to Bb / F playing

Where do you put the drones ? I would like to try it

 

Graham

----- Original Message -----

From: Eaton Mike

To: 'HurdyGurdyForum@...'

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 4:34 PM

Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Phil -

 

I've experimented with Bb (or F, depending on your chanters) and written a rather pleasant hornpipe in that key.  Retuning your drones to play in Bb (or F) gives the sound of the HG a new dimension. One of the interesting side-effects is that the interval between the drone and the open chanter is a major 3rd. This means that when you momentarily lift your finger off the keyboard you now get a chord instead of the chanter disappearing behind the drone. A very pleasant effect.

 

All you need to do to play in Bb (/F) is to retune your drones and get your head round the extra accidentals you need to play in that key.  But that's not too hard if you've come from a keyboard background.

 

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: JULIE BARKER [mailto:drohne@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 14:06
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

I think Mike has highlighted the futility of polls. What is the convention for tabloid newspapers and radio phone-in progs is not neccessarily a welcome addition to the hurdy-gurdy world. While we are on the subject, does anyone in the UK play gurdy in F / Bflat? so I can do some duets with my new pipes.

"F the key of the furure of merely a way of ensuring melodeon players don't bugger up your session tunes?".....discuss.

Drohne

Eaton Mike <mike.eaton@...> wrote:

erm ... D or G chanters in the light of what?

 

Both have their uses ... and limitations.

 

Given the choice between Octave G or Unison G chanters I'd use Octave G chanters: a much richer sound, and the choice of more voices.

 

If the key were not an issue, I I'd usually choose Octave G chanters over Octave D chanters because of their more robust depth of sound.

 

I'd also tend to use Octave G chanters over Alto Octave D chanters, for their more robust and brighter sound.  

 

But for playing a bass line accompaniment I'd use the low low D of Alto D chanters.

 

And for violin-like single-string playing, the top D chanter works best for brightness.

 

I find that you have a more satisfying selection of drones using D chanters: both D and G tunings are normally very well balanced and you can also re-tune your deep drone to a very low D to give an extra richness.  By comparison I find that playing in C with G chanters, the drones are a little high pitched (or too low if you lower the drone by an octave) for my liking.

 

Of course, you may not be able to play in the key you'd want to, particularly in a mixed-instrument band, which can have a big impact on the choice of chanters you use.

 

So, for example, D-chanters are useful when playing with DG melodeons, since not only will you normally be playing in D and G, but melodeon players will use Em as their prefered minor key (Em is particularly easy with D-chanters, just as Am is particularly easy with G-chanters), although you will also have to retune your D drone to E, or play drone-less.

 

So, D or G chanters?  The answer is that I prefer to have both!!  (And, indeed, that's what I've ended up with:  an instrument with both G and D chanters.  Of course,  that introduces its own problems ... but that's another story)

 

Mike

 

 

 -----Original Message-----
From: HurdyGurdyForum@... [mailto:HurdyGurdyForum@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 10:05
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
HurdyGurdyForum group:

Tuning  D or G Chanters?

  o D
  o G


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/HurdyGurdyForum/polls

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

---

All new Yahoo! Mail "The new Interface is stunning in its simplicity and ease of use." - PC Magazine

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

----- Original Message -----

From: Eaton Mike

To: 'HurdyGurdyForum@...'

Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 9:15 AM

Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] ask a simple question!

Scott,

 

As far as I'm aware, octave D tuning started in the middle of the last century in the Bourbonnais region of France, hence it's sometimes referred to as 'Bourbonnais' Tuning.  Bourbonnais tuning combines octave D chanters with both low D and low low D drones.  Octave G chanters are more recent still (perhaps just 20 years? and only now becoming really common). My guess is that it took longer because it needed improvements in materials technology: you need to be able to string a low G chanter with enough tension that it has a reasonable volume and isnt so slack that it hits the backs on the tangents as it vibrates inside the keyboard.  Although I've never tried it I dont think gut G's could satisfy these criteria.

 

I can see what you mean about the 'phasing' you get with unison G's: you get a hint of beating if the two notes are slightly detuned (squeezeboxes enrich their sound by a similar means of course when they engage their 2nd set of reeds, which are slightly detuned).

 

Capos are an excellent idea.  Unfortunately its not easy to design a good capo.  And since there are so many variants in body shape, each model of HG really needs its own design.  In my experience makers constantly come out with 'better' capo mechanisms for their models.  I must admit I've never been 100% happy with mine.  The best capo I've had was of my own design, for a Chris Eaton lute-back. It was a very crude affair consisting of a matchstick glued to a small piece of wood (approx 20mm x 5mm x 5mm).  Since the bourdon was directly over the soundbox for its entire length, I could sit the capo on the soundboard with the match wedged underneath the string, lifting the string very slightly.  I marked on the string with a pen where the match should be wedged to produce an E.  It was easy to use, and you could very quickly whip the capo out if you happened to have an arrangement which changed key from Em to D of Dm. (Not often admittedly!)

 

Unfortunately the drones on my Weischelbaumer don't lie above the soundboard, so I cant play the same trick.  I have custom-made capos, but I tend not to use them because they are too much of a faff and dont stay in tune particularly well.

 

 

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: scott marshall [mailto:the.maud@...]
Sent: 17 October 2006 00:03
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] ask a simple question!

Graham, I like the phasing you get with unison G, I like the low D string on my D instrument but there isnt much power...is it best just to put a heavier string on than go for unison tuning? What size would you recommend in gut?

Also for the big bourdon I tune that to D too have a 2mm Bass Viol string on which sounds really cool... I dont have any G strings on my D instrument, I sometimes use the mouche in A to add a chord.

I didnt know there was octave G chanterelles in use until I saw Claire Dugues instruments at Towersey. How far back does the octave string date, is it a fairly recent development? I see your point about the octave strings giving more options, do many players use the high string on its own?

 

What about Capos...anyone use them?

 

I didnt realise how niave I was being in asking the D or G question :-)

best wishes

Scott

Graham Whyte <graham@...> wrote:

Well there you are !

 

As far as I know unison D is uncommon

 

The whole point of octave tuning is to enrich the sound, not just make it louder

Octave strings played together have a very special roundness, richness, sonority and penetration

 

Unison strings just get a little (3db) louder and are difficult to get to sound perfectly in tune

You get no change in tonal color

There is no point in using them separately

 

With octave strings you get 3 very different tonal colours

With careful choice of different drones there are a large number of very different total HG sounds available

 

Playing the low chanter alone in the top octave is the same pitch as the high chanter but very much sweeter

 

As you may have guessed, unison chanters are not my favourite

 

Graham

 

----- Original Message -----

From: scott marshall

To: HurdyGurdyForum@...

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 6:44 PM

Subject: Re: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Hi everyone....I didnt mean 'which is best' 'in the Poll...just what people had their instruments tuned to just out of interest.

Does anyone tune unison D?

I love unison tuning in G

 

Graham Whyte <graham@...> wrote:

Mike,

 

I agree with you entirely on most of what you said in your first mail

Octave Gs are so much more useful

 

I play a lot in D on my G/C Colson (only 2 chanters of course)

I wind the petit bourdon up from C to D and let the gros boudon down to low D

It is a huge sound in D and to some degree better than a D/G HG because you can pay tunes in D that go down to the sub dominant

 

I also was lucky enough to borrow the famous cat gurdy for OTW http://www.hurdygurdy.org/morepicscatgurdy.htm

This has octave G chanters and a third chanter in D

All of Gilles Chabenat's material was written in G for a D/G gurdy and would have had to be played well up to the top end of the keyboard on a G/C HG

All I had to do was pop on the D chanter and transpose into C fingering

It worked very very well (built in F#s and C#s) and made life so much easier

 

I am intrigued by you reference to Bb / F playing

Where do you put the drones ? I would like to try it

 

Graham

----- Original Message -----

From: Eaton Mike

To: 'HurdyGurdyForum@...'

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 4:34 PM

Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Phil -

 

I've experimented with Bb (or F, depending on your chanters) and written a rather pleasant hornpipe in that key.  Retuning your drones to play in Bb (or F) gives the sound of the HG a new dimension. One of the interesting side-effects is that the interval between the drone and the open chanter is a major 3rd. This means that when you momentarily lift your finger off the keyboard you now get a chord instead of the chanter disappearing behind the drone. A very pleasant effect.

 

All you need to do to play in Bb (/F) is to retune your drones and get your head round the extra accidentals you need to play in that key.  But that's not too hard if you've come from a keyboard background.

 

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: JULIE BARKER [mailto:drohne@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 14:06
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: RE: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

I think Mike has highlighted the futility of polls. What is the convention for tabloid newspapers and radio phone-in progs is not neccessarily a welcome addition to the hurdy-gurdy world. While we are on the subject, does anyone in the UK play gurdy in F / Bflat? so I can do some duets with my new pipes.

"F the key of the furure of merely a way of ensuring melodeon players don't bugger up your session tunes?".....discuss.

Drohne

Eaton Mike <mike.eaton@...> wrote:

erm ... D or G chanters in the light of what?

 

Both have their uses ... and limitations.

 

Given the choice between Octave G or Unison G chanters I'd use Octave G chanters: a much richer sound, and the choice of more voices.

 

If the key were not an issue, I I'd usually choose Octave G chanters over Octave D chanters because of their more robust depth of sound.

 

I'd also tend to use Octave G chanters over Alto Octave D chanters, for their more robust and brighter sound.  

 

But for playing a bass line accompaniment I'd use the low low D of Alto D chanters.

 

And for violin-like single-string playing, the top D chanter works best for brightness.

 

I find that you have a more satisfying selection of drones using D chanters: both D and G tunings are normally very well balanced and you can also re-tune your deep drone to a very low D to give an extra richness.  By comparison I find that playing in C with G chanters, the drones are a little high pitched (or too low if you lower the drone by an octave) for my liking.

 

Of course, you may not be able to play in the key you'd want to, particularly in a mixed-instrument band, which can have a big impact on the choice of chanters you use.

 

So, for example, D-chanters are useful when playing with DG melodeons, since not only will you normally be playing in D and G, but melodeon players will use Em as their prefered minor key (Em is particularly easy with D-chanters, just as Am is particularly easy with G-chanters), although you will also have to retune your D drone to E, or play drone-less.

 

So, D or G chanters?  The answer is that I prefer to have both!!  (And, indeed, that's what I've ended up with:  an instrument with both G and D chanters.  Of course,  that introduces its own problems ... but that's another story)

 

Mike

 

 

 -----Original Message-----
From: HurdyGurdyForum@... [mailto:HurdyGurdyForum@...]
Sent: 16 October 2006 10:05
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] New poll for HurdyGurdyForum

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
HurdyGurdyForum group:

Tuning  D or G Chanters?

  o D
  o G


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/HurdyGurdyForum/polls

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

---

All new Yahoo! Mail "The new Interface is stunning in its simplicity and ease of use." - PC Magazine

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

Baroque hurdy-gurdies & single string.
We have a Colson which had only one set of tangents. I had a second row
added, but to little avail. It just makes tuning much more difficult
with little increase in volume. When we gave a Wigmore Hall concert in
the early '80s Doreen used only one chanterelle and it was quite loud
enough to go with musette, oboe or violin and continuo (cello &
harpsichord.) Boismortier's Balet de Village was a great success and
probably heard for the first time in England for 200 yrs. (if ever).
For anyone getting bored with their repertoire there are dozens of
pieces from this period.
Incidentally, the hurdy-gurdy (vielle) as we know it today was
developed for the performance of this music and not for folk music.
During the 19th cent it moved from the court and upper classes to the
cafés and taverns, and also into the countryside.

Its true..

I have some wonderful music by J.Hotteterre, M.Baton, & E.P.Chedeville, but
no one to play it with......

Maybe its becuase i play pipes....

Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: HurdyGurdyForum@...
[mailto:HurdyGurdyForum@...]On Behalf Of Michael Muskett
Sent: 17 October 2006 17:37
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] Baroque single string


Baroque hurdy-gurdies & single string.
We have a Colson which had only one set of tangents. I had a second row
added, but to little avail. It just makes tuning much more difficult
with little increase in volume. When we gave a Wigmore Hall concert in
the early '80s Doreen used only one chanterelle and it was quite loud
enough to go with musette, oboe or violin and continuo (cello &
harpsichord.) Boismortier's Balet de Village was a great success and
probably heard for the first time in England for 200 yrs. (if ever).
For anyone getting bored with their repertoire there are dozens of
pieces from this period.
Incidentally, the hurdy-gurdy (vielle) as we know it today was
developed for the performance of this music and not for folk music.
During the 19th cent it moved from the court and upper classes to the
cafés and taverns, and also into the countryside.






Yahoo! Groups Links

I am doing a bit of work on the forum's myspace...have a look!

http://www.myspace.com/hurdygurdyforum

also how common are three or more chanters on gurdies?

--- In HurdyGurdyForum@..., "Scott Marshall"
<the.maud@y...> wrote:
>
> I am doing a bit of work on the forum's myspace...have a look!
>
> http://www.myspace.com/hurdygurdyforum
>
> also how common are three or more chanters on gurdies?

Very impressive site Scott, well done.

I've built a 4 chantrelle gurdy, 2 at octave d and 2 at g. It worked
well enough, but the finger pressure had to be quite strong to get
clean notes and vibrato was a bitch! I have a plan in the back of my
mind to devise a mechanism which will overcome that problem and I've a
feeling that's where it will stay.
>

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Muskett [mailto:michaelpmuskett@...]
Sent: 17 October 2006 17:37
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] Baroque single string

Baroque hurdy-gurdies & single string.
We have a Colson which had only one set of tangents. I had a second row
added, but to little avail. It just makes tuning much more difficult
with little increase in volume. When we gave a Wigmore Hall concert in
the early '80s Doreen used only one chanterelle and it was quite loud
enough to go with musette, oboe or violin and continuo (cello &
harpsichord.) Boismortier's Balet de Village was a great success and
probably heard for the first time in England for 200 yrs. (if ever).
For anyone getting bored with their repertoire there are dozens of
pieces from this period.
Incidentally, the hurdy-gurdy (vielle) as we know it today was
developed for the performance of this music and not for folk music.
During the 19th cent it moved from the court and upper classes to the
cafés and taverns, and also into the countryside.

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Marshall [mailto:the.maud@...]
Sent: 17 October 2006 19:27
To: HurdyGurdyForum@...
Subject: [HurdyGurdyForum] Forum Myspace/ & Multi Chanters?

I am doing a bit of work on the forum's myspace...have a look!

http://www.myspace.com/hurdygurdyforum

also how common are three or more chanters on gurdies?

This email, including any attachment, is a confidential communication intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It contains information which is private and may be proprietary or covered by legal professional privilege.

If you have received this email in error, please notify either the sender or telephone ++ 44 (0) 1963 370551 upon receipt, and immediately delete it from your system. Anything contained in this email that is not connected with the businesses of Thales Naval is neither endorsed by nor is the liability of this company.

Whilst we have taken reasonable precautions to ensure that any attachment to this email has been swept for viruses, we cannot accept liability for any damage sustained as a result of software viruses, and would advise that you carry out your own virus checks before opening any attachment.

Made a new link folder for teachers...put mike and chris in so
far...anyone else want to be put in?

Hello Mike,
Of course, simple hurdy-gurdies with a flat front and back and
slightly incurved sides were around in the 16th cent and even as
early as the 14th. Larger instruments were popular in parts of
Germany and the lowlands during the 17th and 18th cents. as depicted
by Mersenne (1636) and Georges de la Tour (1600-1652). More refined
instruments appeared in France from the late 16th cent and were
clearly the preserve of the wealthy, as indeed were the German ones.
Even more refined instruments were developed in the 18th cent,
pandering to the latest Court fashion of aping country folk. I said
that the `HG as we know it today' was developed for the performance
of newly composed music for the bourgeoisie. The refined vielle en
guitar and vielle en luth appear to have been developed around 1720,
possibly by Baton (not the composer) but the evidence cannot be
relied on.
Sometimes in iconography expensive instruments are being `played' by
seeming beggars, but remember that artists are given to romantic
exaggeration. Such people could not possibly afford to buy such an
instrument. How long would it take a busker today to gain £2000
surplus cash? And the disparity of wealth was vastly greater in those
days.
As for `sweet tones' it is interesting that all HGs make a good sound
and I am sure that no self-respecting player would settle for less.
It is not only sweet tones that were required, but precise mechanisms
for the playing of subtle and expressive music. I expect beggars
used very simple instruments which could be made by the local
carpenter, and probably sounded like it.
I play only occasionally these days at the local folk club and
compared with all your modern tunings I'm an old fossil. But I still
know how to play and teach!
Michael

Hello Mike,
Of course, simple hurdy-gurdies with a flat front and back and
slightly incurved sides were around in the 16th cent and even as
early as the 14th. Larger instruments were popular in parts of
Germany and the lowlands during the 17th and 18th cents. as depicted
by Mersenne (1636) and Georges de la Tour (1600-1652). More refined
instruments appeared in France from the late 16th cent and were
clearly the preserve of the wealthy, as indeed were the German ones.
Even more refined instruments were developed in the 18th cent,
pandering to the latest Court fashion of aping country folk. I said
that the `HG as we know it today' was developed for the performance
of newly composed music for the bourgeoisie. The refined vielle en
guitar and vielle en luth appear to have been developed around 1720,
possibly by Baton (not the composer) but the evidence cannot be
relied on.
Sometimes in iconography expensive instruments are being `played' by
seeming beggars, but remember that artists are given to romantic
exaggeration. Such people could not possibly afford to buy such an
instrument. How long would it take a busker today to gain £2000
surplus cash? And the disparity of wealth was vastly greater in those
days.
As for `sweet tones' it is interesting that all HGs make a good sound
and I am sure that no self-respecting player would settle for less.
It is not only sweet tones that were required, but precise mechanisms
for the playing of subtle and expressive music. I expect beggars 
used very simple instruments which could be made by the local
carpenter, and probably sounded like it.
I play only occasionally these days at the local folk club and
compared with all your modern tunings I'm an old fossil. But I still
know how to play and teach!
Michael

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

Made a new link folder for teachers...put mike and chris in so
far...anyone else want to be put in?

Hi, I am currently awaiting delivery of a Morillo-Dolcini chromatic
symphony from the EMS. I have long wanted to learn the HG and this
seemed a reasonable way to start.

I had heard that there was a regular meeting of HG players in Audlem in
Cheshire, which is only a few miles from me. Does anyone know when and
where they meet, so I can get in touch with like-minded people?

Keep up the good work,
Geoff Turner
Moreton Say
Shropshire