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From: urban@trwspp.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Beware: Old Instruments aren't performed traditionally
Message-ID: <421@trwspp.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 14-May-84 13:53:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: trwspp.421
Posted: Mon May 14 13:53:18 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 15-May-84 03:13:31 EDT
References: <872@eosp1.UUCP>
Organization: T R W, Redondo Beach, CA
Lines: 29

* <- nasty bug

>> Methods of making reeds may have changed.  Shawms always seem to have a
>> shwoopsy attack below pitch for every note.  I have heard the alto and
>> tenor shawm played with a clean attack on every note.  It can be
>> done, but WAS it traditionally done?

I've been playing soprano shawm for all of six weeks, so I'm a real
expert by Usenet standards :-) ...  Generally I find that the
"shwoopsy" attack on a note is the result of my own inexperience
with the instrument.  It's a matter of attacking underpitch
and then immediately correcting the note.  Like an oboe, a
given fingering on the shawm can provide a whole host of notes
depending on air pressure, reed pressure, and reed position.  Lots
of variables to play with.  Then there's atmospheric condition.
In any case, the more experienced shawm players I know always
attack their notes dead on.

But the pictures of Renaissance musicians don't show them playing
the instrument like an oboe at all!  Instead, they seem to have
placed their mouth way down the reed to the mouthpiece (accounts
for the cup-shaped mouthpiece) and blown with their cheeks puffed
out instead of the tight-cheeked oboe-like embouchure.  This
produces a blatty duck-like sound that's pretty ugly to modern
ears.  I'll play my krummhorn when I want to make peculiar sounds.

By the way, re: galliard tempo -- we play (and dance) galliards
at the local Renaissance Faire, and generally go as up-tempo
as the musicians and dancers can handle it.