A Maple day
Finished rakett, mandora mold behindWell. I didn't work on the cello concerto yesterday. Instead, I slices up some pieces of maple and ran them through the planer to make thin strips for the mandola project.
Mandora is like mandola or mandolin or a whole lot of other stringed instruments.
That thing that looks like a gigantic honey dipper is the mold for the mandora.
I've got to steam a bunch of thin slices of wood over the mold and fit them together to make the body of the thing.
So anyway, yesterday M wanted to get up early and drive out the Maple Valley road to Black Diamond to a bakery (CJ's) for a serious ingestion of sugar and coffee.
We each had all we could eat of a cinnamon roll drenched in maple sauce (a soft version of the frosting on a maple bar)
Then we got a little lost finding our way to Southcenter mall and Kenelley Keys where I bought a mouthpiece for the rakett.
That's not the new mouthpiece. If you look closely, you'll see a little chunk broken out of the edge of the one in the rakett.
I dropped it.
Kinda ruins the playability.
That piece of paper it's sitting on is for one of the violin parts to the 2 violin concerto.
Later on, we had maple flavored sausage for dinner. Mapleness tripled.
Later that night I found Keth watching "Airplane" with earphones (it was after midnight) Didn't need to hear it myself, that's just what they would expect me to do.
Later in the week it became now.
posted by Lane Savant at 11:44 AM
37 Comments:
Hallo, Lane!
The "rakett" is an interesting-looking instrument. Could you please play a few notes on it with your new mouthpiece sometime for me? Is this mouthpiece also usable on clarinettes?
Best wishes for the 'cello concerto when you get back to it!!
Tschuess,
Anonomann (+LL)
Well, you have sent me off to the net in search of some frames of reference for your projects:
The Renaissance rackett is a double reed wind instrument related to the bassoon.
There are several sizes of rackett, in a family ranging from soprano to great bass. Despite a relatively low tone, the rackett is actually quite small (the tenor rackett is only 4 1/2 inches in height, yet its lowest note is F, two octaves below middle C). This is achieved through its ingenious construction. The body consists of a wooden chamber into which nine parallel cylinders are drilled. These are connected, alternately, at the top and bottom, resulting in a long wind passage contained in a very small body.
However, its unusual construction presents some problems for the player. Because of the unusual arrangement of the pipes, the fingering pattern is somewhat strange.
The baroque rackett (developed by the Nuremberg maker J. C. Denner, 1655-1707) had an entirely rationalized simpler fingering due in part to the addition of a number of tetines. Tetines are tubular metal extensions covered by the middle joint of the index fingers as well as the pinkies during playing. It cannot be tuned by altering its length. While some say that moisture buildup may become a problem, condensation usually remains in the coil of the removable brass crook, thus being fairly simple to expel during pauses. Despite idiosyncrasies, the baroque rackett is a highly versatile instrument with a wide range of notes and tones. With a good reed, the baroque rackett has a similar chromatic range to the baroque bassoon (BBb to g'), and thanks to its agility, it can tackle any bass-instrument repertoire from the time in which it was in vogue.
The mandora or mandore refers to various types of lutes. At first, in the Renaissance, the term was applied to the treble lute and in such usage it is difficult to distinguish from the mandola, the simple lute that is the ancestor of the mandolin. Later the term was used for the gallizona or gallichon, a type of 6 or 8-course bass lute (possibly a descendant of the guiterne and/or chitarra italiana) used, mainly for basso continuo, in Germany, Austria and Bohemia particularly during the 18th and early 19th centuries. The Scottish mandora is a tenor instrument, more similar to the mandola.
Gosh, is that bakery in Black Diamond downtown, near the saloon? Never have stopped there. Leave it to Miss M to ferret out the treasures. Rather than following the Maple Valley highway all the way back to Renton, you must have tried to slip across Kent's east hill? That could turn one around for sure. It is an incredible thing that you make instruments the way you do, even ancient ones not easily available for study, no plans or graphics out there to guide you. The photo is kind of a still life, with lots of wonderful wood texture and color, maybe the beginnings of a photographic coffee table book put together by you for public consumption; just photograph all your many Palmer instruments in lush lighting, and you will be on your way; kind of like those macro close up photos of old leather and pistols and pioneer guns. "Mapleness tripled". i like that, might be a poem in there somewhere.
Glenn
Well, dang me, taking the body of your posting, dissecting some things, elongating others, tweaking it here and there, and badda bing, the poem emerged full blown, intact, ready for consumption.
Maybe it's not legal, or ethical, but it sure is
fun, enit?
Glenn
fingering is somewhat strange all right. This clarinet rakett has only seven holes and is tricky enough.
I made a tenor rakett from instructions in a library book.
It has ten holes and I've never been able to get a reed to work for more than half the tones.
You've got to use all your fingers and your palm to play the darn thing.
My mandola (or whatever) will have six strings and is about twice the size of a mandolin.
CJ's bakery is just north of Black Diamond about a half mile on the east side of the highway.
Hallo, Lane!
Your current (new) "About me" photo looks too bourgeois -- like you wanted to get readmission to the 5th floor of the Cuckucks' Nest.
Your "rakett" sounded great when you demonstrated it for me. How about a "Sonata for Rakett & Piano"??
Tschuess,
Anonomann
Wow, that Douginasuit pic
does shake up your image
as a grease monkey
and blue collar man of the arts. But it is also cool,
showing that most of us
can clean up real good
and look like the sharp
dudes we know we are
inside, enit?
Gosh, this is the fourth
change of icon since I
have been hanging about.
Were there others from
2006 when it all began?
My new glasses are fabulos-oo
but now I have to get
used to having something
perched on my face full time.
Beats the hell out of
keeping track of several
pairs though. Had to arbitrate
a conflict over at the TFC
concerning the film we will
screen on July 25 at our
summer picnic gig. WHERE'S
POPPA? is out; too dark and
tasteless it seems, and
IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD
WORLD is in, a madcap piece
of fluff first done for
Cinerama starring 25 of the
most famous comedians of that
era, a who's who of the early
60's. Sounds like the rackett
is a base kind of woodwind.
Can you get your computer
program to make sounds like
it for some of your compositions?
Glenn
Well, holy cow, you a man of many many many talents.
Do you have a band saw too? And a router? And a rip saw? And a sawzall?
One day I may be brave enough
to buy a lap top and then
when I go on road trips
I will be able to keep
up with blogging and
cruising the web.
Tomorrow, my miss M
and I will hit the tarmac
and drive off toward Colorado.
But hey, old men, isn't
the whole idea of a vacation
getting away from computers
and stress and technology?
Oh yeah, good point.
Maybe Jannie has changed
her tune a bit, and now
will like a man with a
router or band saw!
My P/T person, Judy, let
me meet her husband the
other day. He was very
impressed with my no-frills
personality, and my movie
collection in the bowels of
the man cave. He gave me
two tiny wooden pots that
he had turned on his mini-wood
lathe. They are very well
done, quite delicate and
great looking. Melva will not
like them because they will
become yet one more thing
to have to dust. The grain
on them is gorgeous.
Will get off early tomorrow
so that we can hit the road
before any of the traffic
builds up bad. Probably shoot
up over Yakima canyon and cut
a diagonal toward Pendleton,
and try to make some part
of Utah the first leg of
our journey. Expect super
hot weather. I do function
very well in that kind of
heat, but that's what air
conditioners are for. Had
some real accommodation
issues with my new glasses
yesterday; too long working
on the computer I guess,
and sported a puffy eye
and headache for most of
the evening. It is just
one damned thing after
another, enit?
Hope the anonymous gang
speaks up in my absence
to keep the comment section
here humming.
Glenn
Our participation is contingent upon the whims and moods of one
Lane Savant, wouldn't you agree?
.......Emily
Poisenally, I hopes da punk is gonna let us talk some. No udder
blog will do dat so much.
..........Vinnie
Maybe Doug will actually write some poetry and have it posted proudly before Glenn returns. That would be special.
........the Churchlady
Ramada Inn.
Ramada Inn.
Ramada Inn.
.......George Gobell
Jannie will probubly fling a bra or three whilst dat Glen punk is out of town. We luv it so when she duz dat. It perks up da day.
..........Vinnie
Oh, I'm sure that the precious Miss Emily will make an appearance, even if the rest of us don't get much attention.
.......Edgar Poo
Eat your heart out, troll.
.........Emily
Well, it is good to see that the gang is still here and ready to chirp in. Tell Anonomann that the word verification for this comment is "mightwad". Oh what a poet could do with that.
Glenn
Perhaps Doug should do a start up music publishing company, and then he could put out several CD's of his compositions, and transfer my stuff on the album SIDEBURNS to CD. That would be bitchin'.
..........Eddy Emerald
I doubt there will be any gay banter while Glenn is off in the wilds of the Southwest. Lane is less receptive to allowing us to voice our dissent and bitches.
..........George Mikel
Well, of course, there are several more appropriately homosexual blog sites that we shoot our mouths off on regularly, but it is fun to drop by here and churn up some shit.
............Liberace
Maybe you could name your new rackett, George. That would be different.
..........George Foremann
Savant is not anti-Semetic per say, but he does not have a lot of Jewish participants on here.
...........Woodie Alan
"I had a terrible education. I attended a school for emotionally disturbed teachers."
.........Woody Allen
Jews, smooze, cool your bagels, Woodie. By the way do you remember my short section in HISTORY OF THE WORLD, PART I, called JEWS IN SPACE? Now that was relevant.
.......Melvin Bruks
What about openly gay Jewish men who are knighted?
.......Elton's John
You would have been happier if the Queen had dubbed you "Dame" Elton's John, enit?
.......Thomas Buildsafire
I was never as tall as Palmer, but I managed to become more famous, and that is something, isn't it?
......General G.A. Custer
Custer, what the hell is your problem, feeling insecure because Palmer is getting too much attention? Why I ought to come over there and bitch slap you!
.......General George Patton
Better bring your dog, old man. You are a little past slapping younger men.
.......Custer
Why you meally-mouthed little Indian abuser! I will slap you so hard your mother will feel it in Boston.
..........Patton
Can't we all just get along?
.......Tiny Tim
Button yer lip, geek-boy, or some1 will shuff dat ukelele up your bum.
..........Vinnie
Promises, promises.
.......T. Tim
Violence! Violence!
.......Sandy Dennis clapping her hands in glee in that scene from
WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOLFE.
I do so enjoy reading this blog site, while sit here so lonely on my ranch. No one visits me now. No one tells me what to do. So I just count my money and drink Lone Star
and daydream that I am still the most powerful man on the planet.
.......George W. Bush, Jr.
Loved you in Oliver Stone's movie, W, starring Barbra's step-son, that Brolin brat. He nailed you.
...........Stephen Speelburg
I resemble those remarks. I have been told that I should resent that movie, but I kind of liked it; made me more of a person to some, and less Howdy Dowdy for the Great Oil Party.
...........W.
I painted you last week, there in Texas, bent over nude, riding a wild pig, with a dildoo shoved up your rectum, with your mom riding an armadillo, and your dad riding your wife, with very tall elephants in the back ground, one of them carrying Osama Bin Laden, with berka-wearing topless women running backwards, and several clock faces weeping, with oil wells spouting blood, with a blizzard of green backs whipping up from the great fence in the south, with a rattlesnake wearing a Stetson dangling from your right hand, and a severed gas pump handle dangling from your left hand, you wearing a fez with golden tassels, and three one-legged Iraq veterans chasing after
your caravan of shame, with an alligator holding your flight suit in its mouth, and a knot of fire ants waving small American flags. I call it "Fun With the Bush's".
.........Salvador Dali
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