Re: Period vs Modern instruments?

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Sightreader <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>"Dr.Matt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
>news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> We DO still have chitarrones, gambas, and arpeggiones.
>> And kotos, qins, shos, rebabs, detars, reyongs, and even accordions.
>
>Are they successful instruments? 

Some of them have been in use continuously for over 1000 years.

> Aren't there practical
>problems with many of them that have prevented them
>from gaining wider use?  Might it be worth while rethinking
>their design and seeing if there's a way of solving those
>problems?

Wider use can be the result of things other than solutions
to practical problems. One of the most problematic instruments
in the world is the guitar. Modern innovations have done nothing
about its problems. But between 1940 and 1980, guitar ownership
expanded exponentially, on the heels of a few well-placed celebrities.

What are you looking for?


-- 
       Matthew H. Fields http://personal.www.umich.edu/~fields
                        Music: Splendor in Sound
  Brights have a naturalistic world-view. http://www.the-brights.net/