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After too many weeks away from the project, its high time to get back to work on the Left Coast Eisteddfod spoon! This week I'm going to work on the maple leaf and the star.
These elements require radically different handling to make them look as they should. The leaf needs to be soft, curvaceous and 'flowing', while the star needs crisp angles and a uniform rigidity. Those with a keen political eye will note that the maple leaf is on the left and the star is on the right...I'd like to be able to take credit for a bit of a political wit with that one, but it was actually just an accident of placement. Perhaps I should have put them both in the centre (or center) to avoid any political misinterpretations!
Anyway, the key thing with the maple leaf is to make it appear 'leaf-like' which is easier said than done. While cutting the leaf on the scroll saw, I was careful to make the tips of the leaf appear to bend slightly. This creates a bit of tension, which in turn makes the leaf appear to have some movement despite being completely static. To further enhance this illusion, I exaggerate the 'hills and valleys' between each leaf tip by using a curved knife (a gouge works good too) to create a concave surface.
I've become a huge fan of curved knives for this type of work and have pretty well forgotten all about my gouges. Because I work on such a small scale, these knives are the perfect tool and are both light and fast in the hand. I'm careful with leaves to not overwork things and make the surfaces too smooth.
A bit of texturing helps give the leaf a vitality which disappears if the surface is too homogenous. There is a tricky area at the bottoms of the valleys where the wood grain changes direction which must be handled with care. Because I don't want to sand my leaves (which kills the vibrant look completely) I need to be very careful in this area. Nice shallow cuts are generally the answer, but occasionally I will fair out a rough patch with a small, curved scraper blade.
The star is a completely different kettle of fish. Here the surfaces will ultimately need to be as flat an fair as I can get them. The intersections of the angles need to be kept crisp and should be as straight as possible. I like to get a facetted look to the star with each arm having a central ridge from which the wood falls away meeting in a valley between sections. To get each arm faired properly, I take advantage of a skewed knife which allows me to cut on a bit of an angle. When the majority of the shaping is done, I go back over the star with a smaller straight knife to clean up any rough spots or fraying. I could cut the star all flat and on the same level, but I have found that facetting it in this manner makes it look a bit more regal and impressive.
Next week I'll have a go at the Celtic knotwork which is always good, dangerous fun! If the spoon is going to break anywhere, the Celtic knotwork is generally the place it happens. But that won't happen on this spoon because I'm doing it for a cause and my Karma will be good!
Please don't forget that the purpose of this spoon is to raise money for the Left Coast Eisteddfod! Without your support, it will be very difficult to get this worthwhile event off the ground. Every dollar you send in will give you a chance at winning this spoon and I very much hope that you will see your way to making a donation!
From the South Wales Argus :"AS the United States' first black President was sworn in, a Newport-born man had a ringside seat to history being made."Musician and artist Jon Langford, 51, a founder member of the punk band The Mekons, had played at a Washington DC ball to celebrate Barack Obama's inauguration the night before, and had a seat at the event being watched by millions of people around the world."..."Mr Langford performed six hours of country-punk with his current band the Waco Brothers in a sell-out event celebrating Obamas links with Chicago."'The concert was incredible and an illustration of how things are changing. I performed with blues singer David Honeyboy Edwards, whos 94. God knows what things were like when he was a kid,' said Mr Langford."Read the rest of this really fantastic article and what Jon Langford says about the experience HERE .
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9. Were you able to find compositions or music for this instrument? What kind of music was used for?
"The crwth was a folk instrument, and as such was not supported by a written musical tradition. Both the method of playing it and the music for it were traditionally passed down from father to son, and I gather that there was more than a modicum of guarded secrecy. Sorry, ladies, but the traditional belief was that it was such bad luck for a girl or woman to play the crwth that her so doing would literally wake the dead and send bodies from the churchyard wandering around the town. Morris relates an account of that view in his monograph. I personally do not share that view, by the way!
10. You've composed music for the crwth - is there a particular type or style of composition you think it best suited to?
"I prefer either re-created or adapted to composed in most cases. Everything at this site, for example, is music that was initially fashioned by some talented but anonymous folk artist who probably did not read or write a note of music. There is musicality in each of us, just as surely as there is a penchant for verbalizing. As far as actual composition is concerned, I’ve had in my head for years – decades, in fact - a multi-movement piece called “Twmpath Dawns” (“Dance on the Village Green”) for crwth and orchestra, but I’ve only committed a tiny portion of it to writing. That’s one of so many things on my to-do list for post-retirement. Its style is not at all original, but rather based on that of the dance and ballad tunes that I located in my research, although I’ve not actually copied any of the melodies."
11. How important is the crwth in the Celtic musical tradition?
"I would regard the crwth as very important, although I have come to consider the oral-aural tradition supporting both the playing of it and the music for it, along with music for other folk instruments and vocal music, as even more important, not only because oral-aural tradition is the foundation on which so much else in folk culture is built, but also because what exists only in memories is so volatile and easily lost. Instruments are concrete phenomena and hence more durable entities. That is part of why my doctoral dissertation was on the oral-aural processes in melodic transmission, preservation, and change rather than on an instrument."
12. Do you believe that the crwth can make a comeback? Does it have a place in the mainstream musical tradition?
"I think it already has made a comeback as part of the larger emergence of both popular interest and scholarly inquiry in Celtic music. As to whether or not it will attract a huge following, I suspect not. We must remember that, of all the music education programs in our schools, strings in general tend to be the smallest group in terms of participants. For example, in American public schools, band members outnumber orchestra members ten-to-one, although, interestingly, studies have shown that string players are more likely than wind or percussion players to keep playing their instruments after finishing their formal educations. In my son’s high school, there were four huge bands and one orchestra of modest size. Given the limited number, although usually the deep dedication, of string players, I suspect that the crwth attracts and will continue to attract a relatively small but intensely devoted group of adherents.
Technically the crwth is in general far less facile then modern orchestral string instruments, and it’s not supported by either the huge written musical tradition or anything even remotely approaching the instructional regimen that exists for them. It is best suited to the music for which it was created, which is but one enjoyable but narrowly circumscribed segment of the entire Western instrumental music repertory. Hence I suspect that, while someday the crwth may enjoy an even greater status than it now occupies as an historical instrument useful in, for example, certain movie soundtracks or period and/or regional compositions, it will never stand as an equal partner with the violin. This is certainly not to speak disparagingly of the crwth in any way. After all, within the continuum of its particular repertory it can provide its own accompaniment and in so doing perform a feat at which the violin is far more limited except in the hands of a few of the greatest virtuosi.
There always is the possibility, of course, that a composer will come along who specializes in writing for instruments outside the usual academic milieu. There, in fact, was such a composer in the last century. His name was Harry Partch. He even invented some special instruments, in some cases by adapting earlier designs, and I seem to recall that he wrote for some antique instruments such as the panpipes. To the best of my knowledge, he wrote nothing for the crwth."
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13. Other than on this site where can people obtain samples of your work?
"There is my personal website, which includes the main crwth page that’s linked on my Americymru page. For direct access to my online bibliography of publications and presentations, go to http://home.earthlink.net/~llywarch/pubpr.html.htm It includes listings for my studies in other areas as well as those on the crwth.
My other “crwth pages” are as follows:
http://home.earthlink.net/~llywarch/cth02.html (performance advertisement)
http://home.earthlink.net/~llywarch/cth04.html (thesis bibliography with additional references)
A copy of my thesis is available via university interlibrary loan from the Music Library of the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, 76203. Also, as I’ve previously stated, I make and mail copies for the cost of production and mailing. I plan to put the whole thing, with revisions reflecting what appeared in my running supplement of addenda, online eventually."
14. Do you give live performances or demonstrations with the instrument?
"Yes, I do, although not all that often. I’ve performed with a harpist at the Mucky Duck Pub in Houston, a location where entertainment often includes live Celtic music, and I’ve performed at wedding receptions and various fundraisers for the arts in the Houston area since the late 1970s. At one point I was with Young Audiences of Houston. Also, I was once on “Inside Area-5,” a feature news program in the Dallas area, not too long after completing my thesis. For more detail, see my performance advertisement listed above."
