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Compañeros - I am trying to properly translate an essay on an old Torres guitar, and the Spanish is too hard for me. I wonder if some of the experts here could help. (1) The essay refers to the "junquillos" along the edge of the body. "Yellow floral patterns"? (2) "El placado de la cabeza"? (3) "Varetas"? Actually this whole sentence: "El vientre de la tabla armónica conforma un leve peraltado gracias a la adición de un abanico de cinco varetas (estas muestran un degradado en altura en las puntas, más acusado en la zona del puente)." Which I render something like: "The belly of the soundboard of the guitar has a slight peraltado [??] due to the addition of a fan of five varetas, whose height declines slightly, and more markedly near the bridge. " (4) And then this sentence: "La guitarra que nos ocupa admite una restitución compositiva decididamente ARMÓNICA, revelando una aproximación de las dos 'mandorlas' o bulbos del 'ocho', prácticamente de homotecia geométrica". Yikes. "Mandorlas"? ""Bulbos de ocho"? I would be most grateful for any help!
RE: Spanish translation help - guita... (in reply to Steelhead)
I am intrigued by some of this stuff. Here is some speculation about one obscure bit.
‘Mandorla’ is the Italian word for ‘almond’ but it is also used for the shape of the frame surrounding pictures of the entire body of some religious figures such as Christ or the Virgin Mary. Although usually a pointy-almond shape it is sometimes a shape based on two intersecting circles (see we are getting guitar shaped now). So for mandorla read ‘bout’ – he/she is trying to make a point about the shapes of the two bouts which are also described as ‘bulbos de ocho’ – the two shapes that make up the bulbous figure 8.
‘homotecia geométrica’ - a homothetic transformation in geometry is one that (among other things) preserves symmetry. That is if you transform one shape into another, one will look like an enlargement of the other. You could make a guitar outline by overlapping two different sized circles (all circles are mathematically similar to each other). If you imagine that you are making a guitar shape by overlapping two slightly different shapes that are roughly similar to each other I think you have arrived at what is being stated.
We had some interesting discussions here a few years about how to draw a guitar shape
RE: Spanish translation help - guita... (in reply to Steelhead)
and the two bits that weren't answered yet:
leve peraltado = slightly curved vareta = strut
(I think...)
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RE: Spanish translation help - guita... (in reply to Piwin)
quote:
leve peraltado = slightly curved
Peraltada is used for 'banking' or 'hump' so a fairly literal translation could be
The belly of the harmonic table forms a slight hump/dome thanks to the addition of a fan of five struts (these show a gradient in height at the tips, more pronounced in the area of the bridge)
RE: Spanish translation help - guita... (in reply to Steelhead)
quote:
El mástil se une a la caja mediante un zoque
The Zoque is not just the heel but the whole system that attaches the neck to the body. We use the term spanish heel construction. So no just the outside but the inside too, so that's the slipper aswell.
They're basically saying that the neck is attached to the body using the spanish heel method.
RE: Spanish translation help - guita... (in reply to RobJe)
quote:
forms a slight hump/dome
That makes sense. "hump/dome" gives you a more precise 3D image of what's going on than just "curved", which I suppose could mean curved any which way. Thanks for the correction!
_____________________________
"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."
RE: Spanish translation help - guita... (in reply to Steelhead)
I think all of your questions have been answered. What is strange about this is that the spanish used is very academic and uses none of the specific terminology of the guitar-maker. I would suggest that is was written by someone who knows very little about guitars or that is was translated from some other language into spanish by a lay person. Do you have any information about the author or the translator?
RE: Spanish translation help - guita... (in reply to johnguitar)
I had the same feeling – or possibly the work of an organologist (so-called expert in the history and classification of musical instruments) who really has expertise in just one branch of instruments. This often gives rise to unhelpful information at musical instrument auctions, often just the length of the body.
The use of “mandorla” is relatively common. I found this
RE: Spanish translation help - guita... (in reply to Steelhead)
This essay is part of the liner notes for a forthcoming CD produced by flamencologa María Luisa Martinez (with some input of mine), focusing on 19th-c. versions of rondenas, including some previously undiscovered notations of El Murciano that she unearthed and analyzed. (Cf my earlier queries about rondenas in this forum). Some of the "grabations " were done with an old Torres in a museum in Granada. I'll inform when the cd is out. I think it makes a nice contribution. (I'm not sure who authored this short essay on the guitar.) Many thanks to ppl here for their input.
RE: Spanish translation help - guita... (in reply to Steelhead)
quote:
María Luisa Martinez
Flamencólogos in Andalucía generally know how to use computers and databanks but don´t even know how to play palmas (Faustino Nuñez is the exception), and cannot distinguish one palo from another.
RE: Spanish translation help - guita... (in reply to Steelhead)
It all becomes clear now, for publishing in academic journals that is exactly the language demanded. Furthermore, we can't expect the musicologists to necessarily be familiar with the guitar-maker's terms.
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RE: Spanish translation help - guita... (in reply to johnguitar)
quote:
ORIGINAL: johnguitar
It all becomes clear now, for publishing in academic journals that is exactly the language demanded. Furthermore, we can't expect the musicologists to necessarily be familiar with the guitar-maker's terms.
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