Re: Koboz/cobsa (long)

[Seth Austen <seth...>]

on 1/13/01 12:22 PM, Robert Cohen at zaelic (at) elender(dot)hu wrote:

Bob,

Thanks for all this excellent information.

> you have to know the maker  i.e., a
> little gifty helps) in order to get one that is actually playable.

I'd guess that if the little gifty has alchohol in it, this could help?

> The tuning used in Moldavia and by extension, in Hungary, is GDGc or AEAd with
> all kinds of combinations for the octaves. I have seen a couple of  mandolin
> tuned ones among city musicians, but you can?t really do the tipturi patterns
> well on them. There is a good article in a 1980s edition of the Hungarian
> journal Ethnografia about koboz.

Thanks for clearing up the tuning question. When thinking about the mandolin
tuning, it wasn't making sense to me based on the recordings I've heard, ie,
all the chords sounded like barre chords of just roots and fifths, no
thirds. These chords would be much easier to finger on the tuning you
mention, than it would be to try and avoid all the thirds in mandolin
tuning, although it can be done.

Seth

-- 
Seth Austen

http://www.sethausten.com
email; seth (at) sethausten(dot)com


"Music is far, far older than our species. It is tens of millions of years
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