These do turn up in odd places from time to time. They use the same technology as the one-string fiddle I remember from the odd jug-band or two back in the '60s'.
Tone ?
Well, not as good as a proper fiddle, obviously.
Volume ?
Maybe a bit more.
Basically it's a mechanical technology that has been superseded by electronics.
I actually own one of these. It sounds terrible (a friend said "it sounds like it's coming from inside my teeth"), but it's a neat little conversation piece.
They used to use them in the early recording days, before microphones. The more focused sound was apparently better at cutting wax for recording. If you listen to 78rpm records, you can often recognize the metallic horn-like tone off of a Stroh violin (I could swear Coleman used one on his recording of the "Blackthorn Stick")
These days, they still pop up in gypsy bands (the volume is handy), and I'm told they're popular in Burmese music.
One must understand that Mickey Zekley (the piper in the video) is the former proprietor of the musical instrument business known as Lark in the Morning, and as such he has handled and owned just about every kind and sort of instrument known to modern man.
The Stroh Violin was reviled by the musicians in the early 20th century that were expected to use it in the recording studio, before the advent of electrically recorded discs using microphones. According to his student and protege Hugh Gillespie, Michael Coleman said of it "I nearly broke it in two, the roars of it." It was the biggest curse in the sudio, that Stroh fiddle.
Probably the only kind of fiddle that has a chance of being heard with the Scottish pipes!
Indeed, these were used in pre-electrical recording, where the grooves were cut by the power of collected sound alone. Only the stongest voices and instruments could achieve this successfully. Tenor banjos and accordions recorded OK; pianos were plumbed in directly.
So successful was the directivity of the Stroh fiddle, it needed a smaller horn aimed at the ear for foldback. The tone is pretty bad for a number of reasons - no wood or cavity to mellow it, and the natural resonance of a horn is about 3 octaves wide, compared to the 10 octaves we normally enjoy. That bandwidth limitation was reinforced by a similarly sized recording horn. But it was the limiting of energy into the ear's most sensitive range that made successful recording possible without the use of electrical amplification. A necessary evil.
a strange fiddle
a strange fiddle
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1111014/morrisons_irish_jig_by_the_zekley_family_band/
Can someone tell me what kind of fiddle is that one played by the child?
thanks thanks thanks
# Posted on July 29th 2009 by marite
Re: a strange fiddle
was it this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroh_violin_or_Horn-violin
# Posted on July 29th 2009 by Wyogal
Re: a strange fiddle
These do turn up in odd places from time to time. They use the same technology as the one-string fiddle I remember from the odd jug-band or two back in the '60s'.
Tone ?
Well, not as good as a proper fiddle, obviously.
Volume ?
Maybe a bit more.
Basically it's a mechanical technology that has been superseded by electronics.
# Posted on July 29th 2009 by Guernsey Pete
Re: a strange fiddle
I remember Julia Clifford playing one of these, I think there is a picture of her with it in Matt Cranitch's fiddle book.
# Posted on July 29th 2009 by cathycook
Re: a strange fiddle
I actually own one of these. It sounds terrible (a friend said "it sounds like it's coming from inside my teeth"), but it's a neat little conversation piece.
They used to use them in the early recording days, before microphones. The more focused sound was apparently better at cutting wax for recording. If you listen to 78rpm records, you can often recognize the metallic horn-like tone off of a Stroh violin (I could swear Coleman used one on his recording of the "Blackthorn Stick")
These days, they still pop up in gypsy bands (the volume is handy), and I'm told they're popular in Burmese music.
# Posted on July 29th 2009 by Georgi
Re: a strange fiddle
One must understand that Mickey Zekley (the piper in the video) is the former proprietor of the musical instrument business known as Lark in the Morning, and as such he has handled and owned just about every kind and sort of instrument known to modern man.
The Stroh Violin was reviled by the musicians in the early 20th century that were expected to use it in the recording studio, before the advent of electrically recorded discs using microphones. According to his student and protege Hugh Gillespie, Michael Coleman said of it "I nearly broke it in two, the roars of it." It was the biggest curse in the sudio, that Stroh fiddle.
# Posted on July 30th 2009 by Jumper
Re: a strange fiddle
Probably the only kind of fiddle that has a chance of being heard with the Scottish pipes!
Indeed, these were used in pre-electrical recording, where the grooves were cut by the power of collected sound alone. Only the stongest voices and instruments could achieve this successfully. Tenor banjos and accordions recorded OK; pianos were plumbed in directly.
So successful was the directivity of the Stroh fiddle, it needed a smaller horn aimed at the ear for foldback. The tone is pretty bad for a number of reasons - no wood or cavity to mellow it, and the natural resonance of a horn is about 3 octaves wide, compared to the 10 octaves we normally enjoy. That bandwidth limitation was reinforced by a similarly sized recording horn. But it was the limiting of energy into the ear's most sensitive range that made successful recording possible without the use of electrical amplification. A necessary evil.
Terry
# Posted on July 30th 2009 by Terry McGee
Re: a strange fiddle
Thanks guys.............. you are fantastic! As usual if I need some information here is the place where I have to ask!!!!!!
# Posted on July 30th 2009 by marite