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From: SNaru~-online.de (Siegfried Naruhn)
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 96 16:42 +0100
Subject: RE: Wooden coverplates

On 10-6-96 Paul Farmer wrote about his experiments with different materials for
his MK chromatic.

Thank you Paul that you mentioned also wood as an eventual cover material.

Same as Pat Missin, who did his 'last' shot to the 'Reed fatigue' subject (I'm
not quite sure) and then loaded his gun for the next shot, I have to qualify
Vern's comment to my 'last word to the material'.

The 'last word' is spoken at funerals, but harps have a long life. DougT has
obviously even thought about 'eternal life' with his 'Renaissance'. So, the last
word about harp material is delayed for the time being. Relating to the subject
I would like to report about an event I had a couple of years ago when strolling
the streets of Cologne downtown.

In big cities 'street music', performed by all kinds of instruments is a
generally wellcomed entertaining topic. However, a tenor sax is normally not
heard on Cologne streets. But one day, I heard one without seeing the player,
more exactly, I supposed to hear a tenor sax. When I approached and turned round
the corner, I didn't realized to my greatest astonishment a sax player but a man
with a bamboo flute. He had attached an original sax mouthpiece on his flute and
could 'imitate' the tenor sax sound in such a staggering way that apparent sax
players stopped to check his marvel. Moreover, by various flute designs (or
mouthpieces?), he could even 'whistle' like bariton and alto saxes.

Though a sax is considered a wood instrument, the possibility to produce a sax
sound by a wooden flute seems to be a remarkable indication for the knowledge
that the sound color of music instruments depends on the overtones an instrument
produces. Electronic devices are doing nothing else, isn't?

I've never forgotten this event and one day I splitted a piece of bamboo and
inserted a stripped Mellow Tone to hear what would happen now. Nothing
remarkable happened.

In this connection I have to detail the statement of the mentioned German
accordion expert Gotthard Richter, when we talked about my harp modifications.
He made no exceptions in his meaning about the irrelevance of material for the
sounding when I mentioned also my bamboo experiment. Maybe, very thin wooden
covers might have an influence, he restricted a little. Again the shape?

I only wanted to mention this as a possible further indication that the shape
might dominate the material in the 'sound question', though a safe, practically
proved 'scientifical' (hypo)thesis concerning the harp accoustic lacks up to
now. I can imagine the reason. It might eventually depend on the bad image the
harp has as a music instrument. I apologize an underlining this sad fact in
advance by a 'last' shot.

The 'Battle of Waterloo' (Beethoven?) is performed by using rifles and
cannons to 'illustrate' the last fight against Napoleon, but would a
philharmonic orchestra accept besides the 'Bumblebee' also a 'South Pacific
Express'?

Excuse me, I couldn't resist.

Siegfried Naruhn