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Thread: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

  1. #1

    Default Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    Never thought I'd see the day when usually-calm mandolin players take to protesting and rioting in the streets, but here we are. Video:



    (or direct link)

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  3. #2

    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    If you think that's bad, you should see how bad the riots are from the 12-string guitarists, and sitar players. And harpists, OMG!!

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  5. #3
    Lurkist dhergert's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    Was that a banjo player on the street corner?
    -- Don

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  7. #4

    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    Not funny at all

  8. #5

    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    Quote Originally Posted by James Vwaal View Post
    If you think that's bad, you should see how bad the riots are from the 12-string guitarists, and sitar players. And harpists, OMG!!

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    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    Why do I think they won't spend the tax money on music programs in the schools?
    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

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    Registered User Freddyfingers's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    Thanks for lightening the day!
    Its not a backwards guitar.

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    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    Spectacular!

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    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    That’s pretty good!
    Timothy F. Lewis
    "If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett

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    Kelley Mandolins Skip Kelley's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    That was funny! Thanks for sharing!

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    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    I knew there was a reason I never took up hammered dulcimer -- but I do have several Autoharps -- looks like I'll owe Uncle Sam a bunch...

    So, that means we all need to buy accordions, whistles, concertinas, bodhrans -- even bagpipes! Although those may be subject to nuisance abatement laws, and may well be taxed in years to come. Of course, who can "reed" the future...?
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    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    Don't give 'em any ideas.
    I know of one state that taxes cats . . .

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    MandolaViola bratsche's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    This time of year, again. LOL The robot voice sounded too much like all the scammers who leave messages on my answering machine.

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    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    Good thing I didn't buy that used double-neck harp that I saw last week . . .

    I just hope that at some point Mr. Rhippemhauf (who I am told used to be a lawyer at the firm of Wee, Cheatum & Howe) doesn't realize (if you really think about it) that a piano is a stringed instrument too.

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  27. #15

    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    Thanks to everyone for the kind words.

    Quote Originally Posted by Ranald View Post
    Why do I think they won't spend the tax money on music programs in the schools?
    Especially for trombone-playing 4-legged felines. (It was the least-boring clipart I could find.) But yeah...

    Quote Originally Posted by Freddyfingers View Post
    Thanks for lightening the day!
    You're welcome.

    Quote Originally Posted by allenhopkins View Post
    I knew there was a reason I never took up hammered dulcimer -- but I do have several Autoharps -- looks like I'll owe Uncle Sam a bunch...

    So, that means we all need to buy accordions, whistles, concertinas, bodhrans -- even bagpipes! Although those may be subject to nuisance abatement laws, and may well be taxed in years to come. Of course, who can "reed" the future...?
    Ah bagpipes... if I were to try to take up pipes again (I once tried and mostly failed at Uilleann pipes many years ago) there would almost certainly be some nuisance abatement laws that would come into effect fairly quickly. Never could get the reeds to cooperate for any length of time... compounded by the likelihood that things probably weren't setup/adjusted correctly but I didn't have the experience to know how/what to improve. It was worse than fiddle, at least with fiddle I could play for the usual-back-then local drunken dances, but my piping didn't even reach that level of (in)competence.

    Quote Originally Posted by rcc56 View Post
    Don't give 'em any ideas.
    Good point!

    Quote Originally Posted by bratsche View Post
    This time of year, again. LOL The robot voice sounded too much like all the scammers who leave messages on my answering machine.
    Yeah the digital 'voice' wasn't my first choice, but I'd made so many last-minute revisions to my script that I would have had to get my earlier volunteer actual-human narrator to re-record the whole thing, and I was kind of in a bind for time to get it completed by the 1st (else wait until next year) so I just went with the robovoice. Somewhat less annoying than my own voice anyway.

    Quote Originally Posted by MikeZito View Post
    Good thing I didn't buy that used double-neck harp that I saw last week . . .
    Yeah, see, that worked out good!

    Quote Originally Posted by MikeZito View Post
    Mr. Rhippemhauf (who I am told used to be a lawyer at the firm of Wee, Cheatum & Howe)
    Most likely, yes! You're very observant.

    (Before settling on that name, I tried to make sure that it wasn't actually any real person's last name, and - hopefully - that it didn't translate to anything objectionable in some other language.)

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    Registered User Frankdolin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    In todays busy world, how ever did you find the time? Oh wait. Nevermind.

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    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    Quote Originally Posted by JL277z View Post
    ... if I were to try to take up pipes again (I once tried and mostly failed at Uilleann pipes many years ago)...
    And the world was spared another source of quavering, nasal whining, at something near accurate pitch -- just my opinion...

    Has anyone ever heard the French reed instrument the bombarde? Now, there's something that should be prohibitively taxed outa existence. Something like a bagpipe chanter on steroids.
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  32. #18

    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    Quote Originally Posted by allenhopkins View Post
    Has anyone ever heard the French reed instrument the bombarde? Now, there's something that should be prohibitively taxed outa existence. Something like a bagpipe chanter on steroids.
    Lol I had to look that up. Yeah, a bit shrill, reminds me of other types of similar-sounding instruments from other countries.

    Here's a guy on YouTube describing one (I like his voice) and playing one, the music demonstration starts at 1:24...


    (or direct link)

    He points out two important advantages to the instrument:

    "I think this is a very recommendable thing because it is loud and it is not so expensive."

    Well... can't really argue with the "loud" feature, I guess...

    Here, apparently, is another French bombarde example, I actually think this one is kinda cool (has a good dance-music rhythm and a kind of timeless and/or ancient vibe), although I did have to turn the volume down:


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    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    Quote Originally Posted by allenhopkins View Post
    Has anyone ever heard the French reed instrument the bombarde? Now, there's something that should be prohibitively taxed outa existence. Something like a bagpipe chanter on steroids.
    In Breton music, the bombarde usually comes with a biniou (a set of pipes that sounds like the dentist from Marathon Man). You'll notice that the bombarde player has to pause every now and then for a breather, and the pieces are written to provide that.

    the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world

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  36. #20

    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    Quote Originally Posted by Frankdolin View Post
    In todays busy world, how ever did you find the time? Oh wait. Nevermind.
    Yeah the video project kept me busy for awhile.

    But now, I'm between projects again (hate that), need to decide what to work on next.

    Options include the usual more-normal music stuff, or non-music things such as sorting through and digitizing the rest of that big pile of old family photos that I've been mostly ignoring for a couple years now already.

    Skimming through part of the photo pile a while back, though, turned up some unexpected things such as two 1950s pics of the first-ever nuclear submarine with active-duty sailors milling around onboard, at port on the Willamette River in Portland Oregon (more specifically, tied up along the riverfront between the Steel Bridge and the Burnside Bridge), during some sort of public showing of the then-still-new technology. I will probably put those two pics online somewhere eventually, but I haven't got around to it yet.

    Also found, unrelated to subs and in a completely different time frame and geographic location, some awful pics of me as a teenager playing a couple different mandolins that I don't even remember. No I won't post the mando pics, I look ridiculous in them, and the hairstyles OMG I'd forgotten about those.

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    Barn Cat Mandolins Bob Clark's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    Quote Originally Posted by rcc56 View Post
    I know of one state that taxes cats . . .
    What???!!! I'd be broke!!! Oh, come to think of it, I am already broke.

    I've really enjoyed this thread! Thanks!
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    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    Quote Originally Posted by allenhopkins View Post
    And the world was spared another source of quavering, nasal whining, at something near accurate pitch -- just my opinion...

    Has anyone ever heard the French reed instrument the bombarde? Now, there's something that should be prohibitively taxed outa existence. Something like a bagpipe chanter on steroids.
    Perhaps a forefather of the oboe? Almost sounds like it might work with klezmer.
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  41. #23

    Default Re: Mandolinists RIOTING over unfair String License fee

    Quote Originally Posted by allenhopkins View Post
    ... French reed instrument the bombarde ...

    Quote Originally Posted by A-board View Post
    Perhaps a forefather of the oboe? Almost sounds like it might work with klezmer.
    As near as I can figure out from skimming through a bunch of stuff today, it looks like bombarde and oboe are all related to a family of instruments called "shawm", and - if I'm reading this stuff right - the shawm likely originated in the Middle East and was later brought to Europe. (This is the most research I've done since high school back in the dinosaur age, so I'm very out of practice, corrections welcome if necessary.) Anyway, here are some quotes I found... kinda fascinating history...


    The Encyclopedia Britannica says, about shawms and oboes:

    "Shawm, (from Latin calamus, "reed"; Old French: chalemie), double-reed wind instrument of Middle Eastern origin, a precursor of the oboe....

    "It appeared near the beginning of the Christian Era and was widely disseminated by Islamic influence....

    "The shawm was introduced into Europe during the Crusades and was widely used in dance and ceremonial music. Instruments of various pitches, from treble to great bass, were constructed in the 16th century. Though it declined in Europe after the 17th century, it survived in Spain, modernized with complete keywork, as the tenora (tenor) and tiple (treble), which lead the bands for the sardana, the national dance of Catalonia. Its compass is about two octaves."


    The "Early Music Instrument Database" shawm page at Case Western Reserve University has a lot to say about shawm and bombarde, here are a couple of highlights:

    "The reed instrument which was undoubtedly heard more than any other in the Renaissance was the shawm....

    "For the larger shawms, Praetorius uses the term Pommer, a corruption of the French word bombarde, meaning a "cannon." The sound is rather an assault on the ears, too, which made it the favored instrument for large gatherings, both indoors and out...."


    The Oboe History page at Vienna Symphonic Library says:

    "It can no longer be ascertained for certain whether modern oboes are direct descendants of the Greek and Roman double-reed instruments or whether they were lost during the migration of peoples in Europe and returned there later by way of Byzantium and Asia.

    "In the Europe of the early middle ages, however, an instrument was in use that consisted of a single tube and was known as the calamus (calamus is the Latin word for reed). It is from this word that the English name shawm was derived (as was the German Schalmei and the French chalemie and chalumeau). The term shawm was not restricted to any one single instrument but described an instrument type which was played with a single or double reed.

    "The Renaissance shawm family included not only crumhorns, dolcians and bagpipes but also the bombarde or pommer groups, which are regarded as the direct precursors of modern double-reed instruments.

    "In keeping with Renaissance custom, the bombarde family consisted of instruments of every pitch, from the treble shawm (third octave above middle C) to the great bass shawm (contraoctave). The treble shawm was the oldest member of the bombarde family,..."


    The shawm page at Wikipedia has some tantalizing tidbits:

    "Instruments resembling the medieval shawm can still be heard in many countries today, played by street musicians or military bands. The latter use would have been familiar to crusaders, who often had to face massed bands of Saracen shawms and nakers, used as a psychological weapon. It must have had a profound effect, as the shawm was quickly adopted by Europeans, for dancing as well as for military purposes."



    Wikipedia continues:

    "The standard outdoor dance band in the fifteenth century consisted of a slide trumpet playing popular melodies, while two shawms improvised countermelodies over it. In many Asian countries, shawm technique includes circular breathing allowing continuous playing without pauses for air....

    "By the early 16th century, the shawm had undergone considerable development. The harsh tonality of the medieval shawm had been modulated somewhat by a narrowing of the bore and a reduction in the size of the fingerholes. This also extended the range, enabling the performer to play the notes in the second octave. Larger sizes of shawm were built, down to the great bass in Bb, two octaves and a major third below the soprano in D. However, the larger sizes were unwieldy, which made them somewhat rare.

    "The smaller sizes of shawm, chiefly the soprano, alto and sometimes the tenor, were more often coupled with the Renaissance trombone, or sackbut, and the majestic sound of this ensemble was much in demand by civic authorities. The shawm became standard equipment for town bands, or waits, who were required to herald the start of municipal functions and signal the major times of day. The shawm became so closely associated with the town waits (die Stadtpfeifer in German and I pifferi in Italian) that it was also known as the wait-pipe.

    "The shawm was reserved almost exclusively for outdoor performance - for softer, indoor music, other instruments such as the crumhorn and cornamuse were preferred. These were double reed instruments fitted with a capsule that completely enclosed the reed, which softened the sound but still did not allow for any variation in dynamics."


    Additional possible origins of the word "shawm", again from the above Wikipedia page:

    "However, it is also possible that the name [shawm] comes from the Arabic salamiya, a traditional oboe from Egypt, as the European shawm seems to have been developed from similar instruments brought to Europe from the Near East during the time of the Crusades. This Arabic name is itself linguistically related to many other Eastern names for the instrument: the Arabic zamr, the Turkish zurna, the Persian surnay, the Chinese suona, the Javanese saruni, and the Hindu sahanai or sanayi."



    (Bold added for clarity, in the quoted text.)

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