I post here an email conversation I had with François Fernandez after this newsletter:
Dear Daniela,
Thank you for all these new informations!
Let me be friendly: I can just warn all the spalla players and makers that a flat back implies playing without touching the back of the instrument AT ALL! Half a gram of pressure killed the sound of one previous spalla I owned. And to find a position to avoid any contact, my God!!!! Tendonitis, pain, I went thru nightmares!!!
Does it mean a “piccolo double bass” should rather be played da gamba? I don’t know, but I suppose...
Good luck!
Kind regards,
François Fernandez
________
Hallo François,
Thanks for writing me! This is very interesting.
Does this imply that the instruments in iconography all had a carved back? Or that they didn’t care that much about the sound after all, if they were just walking in a procession like in the Bruegel? Both are possible I guess.
Though, the neck seems like a da braccio neck, thick and round, and five strings. Unusual instrument anyway. Cute, but what for?
__________
Dear Daniela,
About what they did and cared for -back in baroque times- is hard to guess. Just: let my experience protect others from unnecessary problems!
I post here an email conversation I had with François Fernandez after this newsletter:
Dear Daniela,
Thank you for all these new informations!
Let me be friendly: I can just warn all the spalla players and makers that a flat back implies playing without touching the back of the instrument AT ALL! Half a gram of pressure killed the sound of one previous spalla I owned. And to find a position to avoid any contact, my God!!!! Tendonitis, pain, I went thru nightmares!!!
Does it mean a “piccolo double bass” should rather be played da gamba? I don’t know, but I suppose...
Good luck!
Kind regards,
François Fernandez
________
Hallo François,
Thanks for writing me! This is very interesting.
Does this imply that the instruments in iconography all had a carved back? Or that they didn’t care that much about the sound after all, if they were just walking in a procession like in the Bruegel? Both are possible I guess.
Though, the neck seems like a da braccio neck, thick and round, and five strings. Unusual instrument anyway. Cute, but what for?
__________
Dear Daniela,
About what they did and cared for -back in baroque times- is hard to guess. Just: let my experience protect others from unnecessary problems!