On the archive.org website I have found two books showing the musical instruments collection of a museum in Cöln (Cologne).
The second volume of the catalog describes the plucked instruments. For this article I have selected the mandolin family and extracted the pictures. The quality of those pictures is not the best, but they are very interesting anyway.
Musikhistorisches Museum von Wilhelm Heyer in Cöln : Kleiner Katalog der Sammlung alter Musikinstumente, verfast von Georg Kinsky
Recently I have made a scan of a guitar method by Eduard Bayer and added it to my score catalogue at musicaneo.com.
Eduard Bayer was a guitar virtuoso and composer of the 19th century. He played a special guitar with 10 strings, an early version of the harp-guitar. I have found the following video of a performance of the Souvenir d’Amour by Eduard Bayer played by Brian Torosian on a reproduction of a guitar like the one played by Eduard Bayer:
Brian Torosian performs Bayer’s Souvenir d’amour on 10-string Harp Guitar
Dr. Brian Torosian performs “Souvenir d’amour (Fantasie Brillante), Op. 22” by Eduard Bayer (1822-1908) on an R. E. Brune reproduction of a classic 1850’s Scherzer 10-string harp guitar at the 8th Harp Guitar Gathering November 13, 2010.
I believe this is the first-ever recording of this virtuoso harp guitar piece.
Video copyright 2010 The Harp Guitar Foundation
If you enjoyed this video, please visit Harpguitars.net and support our non-profit work.
Some notes about the life of Edward Bayer can be found in the famous book “The Guitar and Mandolin” by Bone (click any image to open gallery):
Portrait of Eduard Bayer
Biography of Eduard Bayer – Part 1
Biography of Eduard Bayer – Part 2
Biography of Eduard Bayer – Part 3
Biography of Eduard Bayer – Part 4
The guitar method does also contain some notes and reviews (in German) – here is the cover and the notes from my scan of the guitar method – (click any image to open gallery):
Recently I have listened to many video clips from a great playlist that I have found – a playlist about the baroque guitar, the lute and other baroque instruments.
One of the many great videos that I have listened to was a clip by Rob MacKillop who first plays a tarantella piece and afterwards explains some of the strumming techniques that he uses. This music sounds very modern, especially with the strumming.
Obviously the popular music of this time has found its way to the compositions and arrangements by musicians like Gaspar Sanz who has set one of the greatest hits of that time – Canarios – for the baroque guitar.
Strumming Tips for Baroque Guitar
Somebody asked me how I strum, so here is a rough performance of the Terantela from the Coimbra MS and an explanation of what I’m doing. The original has only one line of chords: C G C G F E Am but I introduce it with the chords which underlie the punteado part: Am G C G Am E Am. Only the first punteado part is original, to which I added four other diferencias – basic stuff.
This is not the dainty repicco found in some publications, so whether it is ‘authentic’ or not, well, who can say?
This is the link to the complete playlist by youtube user lorod with more than 80 instersting video clips with many interesting pieces for the baroque instruments. Just listen to the music and let you be surprised!
historical instruments
