Orpharion design issues - created 05-21-2006

Emery, Dana - 05/21/2006.15:37:54

I am working up the design of a plausible 8c Orpharion, a cross between the 9c Praetorius drawing and the extant 7c Palmer instrument. Unfortunately i lack access to drawings of the palmer and rose instruments, tho I have seen some photos.

First question I have concerns general construction details for the end block. I have recently perused photos of the Rose orpharion, in particular one where the top is removed showing the neck block/side/fingerboard joint. It appears that the sides are continuous thru the head of the instrument (tho they may be but-joined there), making the neck and the head block seperate pieces. The finger board extends for several frets over the top, and the sides clearly are a mm or two taller than the endblock. A nail is evident, high and centered (where it is well housed in the thick part of the neck). Paper/parchment fragments reinforce the side/back joint.

The Rose orpharion has a smothly 'waved' side, the Praetorius and Palmer instruments differ by having the lowest 'indent's sharply pointed.

Q - how to orient the grain on the end block? it is something like the endblock of a lute, but the sides are nowhere as acutly angled here.

Q - should the top be glued to the fingerboard or left free below it?

Q - is fabric reinforcement of the side-side joint of the lowest inner lobe (the sharp angled one) appropriate? a violins 'points' come to mind, they have small blocks there, but here the angle is 'in' not 'out' as on a violin.

For those of us who don't know what an Orpharion is:

http://www.ellisium.cwc.net/orpharion.htm

Dana,

I've seen both cross grain and straight grain blocks in like instruments of the period. Tight grain quarter sawn is important. I would do mine as a cello or viol with the end grain facing the top plate and back plate and the grain rings running from the pegbox to the bridge. The heart of the tree being toward the right or left of the instrument. This is opposite of how Robert Lumberg suggested to build lute neck blocks.

The reproductions I've seen have the fingerboard glued to the face plate as in a guitar.

Fabric is traditional (historic) and is strong enough, use linen. It is also lighter than blocks.

Dana I'm not much help at the moment but I've got some Orpharion drawings stored away somewhere which I may manage to find this weekend. Don't hold your breath but if I turn anything up I'll let you know. :-)

Dana,

Something that is important to note about the Rose orpharion/bandora (another taxonomical curiosity) is that the neck is likely joined to the body with pretty much a shaped butt joint and a nail. It's pretty much like an early violin neck joint.

I don't know if the Palmer has been either radiographed or opened and studied yet. Maybe someone else on the list might know. Failing that, Peter Forrester, Bruce Brook, and or Stephen Barber might be good resources to consult, as they've all done orpharions based on either the Rose, Palmer or Barley Tutor (illustration) instruments.

A couple of papers have been done on the Palmer orpharion (one in FOMRHI issue #16, and one by Darryl Martin written in 2003). To my knowledge, no drawings of the instrument in the Claudius Sammlung have been produced for sale yet.

A couple of points to note on neck blocks -- pre-drill any nail holes prior to inserting the nail. Also, to keep the block from splitting, you can either use the forged nail as a reamer to properly shape the hole, and/or orient the flatsawn face to the ribs/nail head.

Generally, the fingerboard should be attached to the soundboard on orpharions and bandoras.

On the reverse corners (points), a well fitted glue joint and either linen or laid paper glued in as reinforcement will go a long way.

BTW, It's great to see you on the MIMF -- I remember you from a few years ago on the Early Music and Lute lists. :-)

Lute end blocks have their orientatino so the end grain gets buried in a glue joint (to the ribs). I suspect the same issue orients viola end blocks (with a different directino, but again, burying the grain against top and back). I wasnt sure if that would apply here if the top wasnt glued to the block, silly me, was actually thinking how much harder it is to disassemble that way (but so much stronger).

The low end of the fingerboard is shaped interestingly, the highest fret(s) only offering stops for one or two courses. Perhaps this reflects intonatino difficulties, perhaps the reality of what can be played so high.

Thanks for looking Andres, my email as given here is quite different from the one we have corresponded with some years ago, look at my profile, such as it is.

Ayup steve, they are angled. Also, not usually in equal temperament. the basses of this era were made longer than the trebles in an attempt to make them sound better, apparantly the difficulties of playing on splayed frets were not an issue, at least, not at first. Later solutions were developed as continuo became important.

IIRC, the consensus in the literature usually puts orpharions and bandoras in the 1/6 or 1/5 comma meantone fretting patterns, with the Palmer orpharion being somewhere between 1/6 comma and equal temperament.

Here are also some important reasons that the treble string length was shortened on orpharions and bandoras:

1) Even out string tensions across the string band, and.

2) Reduce the overall tension on the 1st-2nd courses.

#2 above became somewhat of a necessity, because of several events that happened both in England and on the Continent. Although Meuller-type steel wire and case-hardened iron wire were available at that time, the supply and quality of the wire was very inconsistent up until at least the mid/late 17th century.

Factors that influenced the supply of iron and steel wire included tarriffs and occasional Royal bans on the importation of wire in the late 16th century England (the wire was used in wool cards -- a protected monopoly in post-medieval England). The ferrous wire mills run by Sir Walter Raleigh's family in Ireland were also notoriusly ill-managed and incompetent at producing decent wire for some time. In all, the politics of the 16th and 17th century wire trade are actually pretty fascinating, with lots of black markets, intrigue, industrial espionage, etc. to be found.

By the time Pierre Trichet was writing in france in the 1640's, the quality of the iron and steel wire (both in tensile strength and surface finish) was so bad that he warned of the likelihood of getting cut fingers from plucking the strings. Of course on the Continent, the Thirty Years War also played havoc on steel production for a while. In Trichet's "Traite des Instruments de Musique...," he specifically mentions the multiscale fretting pattern (i.e. mutliple mensurs), as a way of lowering the tension on the treble string to reduce string breakage.

Just a long winded way of saying that the reason the trebles were shortened was out of necessity -- when you have weak treble strings, and a minimum effective length that you can make the bass strings (issues with ecnomomy of material and practical limitations on how tightly you can reliably twist a brass, copper, silver, or gold string), you pretty much wind up with the multiscale layout.