If Da Vinci Designed Dulcimers
July 19, 2024
Good Morning, Y'all!
As you're reading this, I'm sitting on a sunny beach — oh wait, not this week — I'm actually at a dulcimer festival in Northern Michigan. The ODPC Funfest, in the town of Evart, to be precise - held at the Osceola County Fairgrounds. Hanging out with hundreds of dulcimer players, making music, vending, and repairing instruments.
Next week, I'll have lots of festival photos to show you, but for now, here's what I've been thinking about today...
Next week, I'll have lots of festival photos to show you, but for now, here's what I've been thinking about today...
We use a laser cutter/engraver for putting sound holes into dulcimer tops. Here's our latest creation (and I say "our," as in Folkcraft's - I had nothing to do, personally, with the creative genius that did this creative work):
An oak leaf. With some neat branches behind the leaf. If you look really closely, you can see that I've set our laser cutter/engraver (which costs about the same as a modestly-priced car) to cut through the top where we have the leaf shape, and to cut about halfway through the top where we have the branches.
Upper bout
It got me to wondering what would a great artist like Leonardo da Vinci have done with a tool like this? Or Michelangelo? Da Vinci, especially, was a multimodal creator - painting, sculpting, writing, engineering - he was genius at pretty much everything.
Lower bout, with part of the strum hollow visible.
Once da Vinci got past the mechanics of learning to use a computer, I suspect he would have figured out ways to do all kinds of creative work with the tools we take for granted. Software like Adobe Illustrator, mice, and pressure tablets for input, computer monitors to help visualize the software's output, and the laser cutter/engraver to bring the creative work (in the computer) to the physical world.
Would he have done the original Mona Lisa on wood, instead of on canvas? Would he have been able to create equally-enduring images of Lisa del Giocondo's six children? Or would da Vinci have gotten bogged down with software updates?
I suspect he would have doubled his output of creative work, and given us even more history to appreciate. Da Vinci used the best tools and materials available to him - fine marble, great canvases, the best paint brushes. He would probably do the same now, but his tools wouldn't be limited to fifteenth and sixteenth century technology. I suspect he would use both paintbrushes and computer programs to make "real" what his fertile mind imagined.
Of course, da Vinci died long before the mountain dulcimer was invented. So he really missed out!
I suspect he would have doubled his output of creative work, and given us even more history to appreciate. Da Vinci used the best tools and materials available to him - fine marble, great canvases, the best paint brushes. He would probably do the same now, but his tools wouldn't be limited to fifteenth and sixteenth century technology. I suspect he would use both paintbrushes and computer programs to make "real" what his fertile mind imagined.
Of course, da Vinci died long before the mountain dulcimer was invented. So he really missed out!
One last thing, here's this week's volume of Shelley Stevens' Baker's Dozen series which is on sale this week. Just $3.99 -- regularly $12 - just until next Friday.
This fantastic book offers 13 dulcimer duets with both standard notation and tablature and promises to elevate your dulcimer playing to new heights. (19 pages)
So, think of me, as I sit on the beach — I mean, in the barn, at the Osceola County Fairgrounds — talking to dulcimer players this weekend!
Richard Ash - luthier-who's-really-glad-he's-in-the-woodcarvers-barn-and-not-the-pig-barn-this-year!
Richard Ash - luthier-who's-really-glad-he's-in-the-woodcarvers-barn-and-not-the-pig-barn-this-year!