1619 image of scheitholt and trumscheidt

[Andreas]

Hi all,

I was in a rare book library today, in northern Germany, and came across an image of a scheitholt from 1619. There is also an image of a trumscheidt, a four stringed beast.

I will be able to scan and post these once I get home in a few days.

Question - can you add an image to a post here? If so, how?

Thanks,

Andreas

[KenH]

If you save your pictures to an imagehosting site like Photobucket, the site will give you several addresses for each picture. If you copy and paste in Image address into the Post a reply window, the picture will show up below your text. You can have more than one picture in a post.

[strumelia]

We'll be looking forward to it, Andreas!

[Dusty Turtle]

I am looking forward to this, too, Andreas. Please make sure to let us know what book or manuscript the image is from.

D.T.

[Andreas]

Thanks for the 'how to' about the image. Give me a bit - am still on business travel.

The image is from a postcard of a book, bought at the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbuttel (a rare book collection). Here is what it says on the back of the postcard:

Michael Praetorius
Theatrum insrumentorum seu sciagraphia, image xxi
string instruments, in praetorius, syntagma musicum, vol. 2
Wolfenbuttel 1619: Elias Holwein.
Herzog August Library, Wolfenbuttel.
Sign. 1.1 Mus.

so I assume Praetorius (known for the song 'es ist ein Ros entsprungen') is the author. I am not sure who Holwein is, though, but hope to ask this morning. Only scholars are allowed to look at the books - unfortunately - so I won't be able to dig around more.

The cool thing about the trumscheidt is that it is twice as long as the scheitholt, with four strings, of different lengths, and no frets. The scheitholt has odd fret spacings, which I can't figure out, but perhaps 100% accuracy was not intended.

Andreas

[kwl]

Here is a link to some information on Praetorius and the Syntagma Musicum. When I was in Germany several years ago, I visited the town where he was born. I remember that they had some really good beer there.

Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

[strumelia]

Andreas, are these engravings from the book (like this one: http://www.orpheon.org/oldsite/Bildmate ... Violin.jpg ), or photographs of actual antique instruments?

[Andreas]

Hi Strumelia,

That is exactly the picture.

Praetorius published a multi-volume work on musical instruments between 1615 and 1620. The image is taken from one of them.

I can see that I need to stop in Leipzig next time, where I believe the best old instrument collection is located. Hopefully they permit photography.

Andreas

[KenH]

Too bad that Praetorius didn't know or care that "scheitholt" is about as common a name for a German folk zither as "Hog Fiddle" is for a dulcimer in America. The name was common only in a small area of the Tyrol...

[strumelia]

I think it it would be good if we could ask Praetorius himself what he knew or cared about in 1615. We might well be surprised by his answers! It's never good to be too certain about things over 400 years ago.

[strumelia]

I believe we can buy modern editions of Pretorius' volumes Syntagma Musicum, which contain not only the engravings mentioned, but some detailed descriptions of such instruments and how they were supposedly played and tuned.
http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en ... =&gs_rfai=
Jean Ritchie quoted Pretorius' descriptions of the Epinette des Vosges and the Scheitholt in her Dulcimer Book, I believe (without actually going to look it up again). She talked about how her father Balis used the same CGG tuning on his dulcimer as Praetorius described was used for the French epinette.