Phil -> RE: Old Flamenco (Jan. 11 2004 23:44:40)
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Tom said,quote:
When I say "it appears", that is what I meant. It is possible that others used it to some extent but I have no evidence. I obviously can't see how the guitarists on these old recording are playing, which is why I also used words like 'seems' and 'appears'. I can only go by my ear (a notoriously untrustworthy ear, I might add), but it does sound to me like Miquel Borrull, hijo, is using standard picado simple because it is so fast. By no means am I claiming to be able to tell the difference solely by the sound. (There are a few people over at F-T that probably could, though. [;)]) I know (via Chuck Keyser's books) that Diego del Gastor used lot of thumb upstrokes on single strings where other guitarists would use rapid downstrokes. I think the technique is still referred to as 'alzapua' even if only one string is involved. 'Alzar' = 'to raise' and 'pua' = 'plectrum', so as I understand it, any continuous up and down action of the thumb is called 'alzapua', whether you cover multiple strings or only one. I could be wrong and I'd like to hear what others have to say regarding their understanding of 'alzapua'. I still have a gut feeling (from listening to these old recordings) that the i,m, picado pre-dates Sabicas. I may take this question to the 'Bad Boys List'. There are of few rational people like Brook Zern and John Moore that still post there. Not that I'm doubting you, Tom, but as Ronald Reagan used to say about the Russians, 'Trust, but verify.' [:D] To change the subject -- there's a 1909 recording of Chacon accompanied by Juan Gandulla 'Habichuela' on the CAF web site. In order to clean up the sound the first thing they did was to play the disk backwards and re-record it. They did this in order to reproduce the sound from the opposite side of the groove, which was not as worn down as the side that the needle normally rides against. I thought that you might find that interesting since you have an interest in recording, I know that I did. I wonder if they heard any satanic messages? Phil
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