A plectrum is a small flat tool used to pluck or strum a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick, and is a separate tool held in the player's hand. In harpsichords, the plectra are attached to the jack mechanism.

Plectra wielded by hand

Guitars and similar instruments

A plectrum (pick) for electric guitars, acoustic guitars, bass guitars and mandolins is typically a thin piece of plastic or other material shaped like a pointed teardrop or triangle. The size, shape and width may vary considerably. Thin items such as small coins, bread clips or broken compact discs and credit cards can be used as substitute plectra. Banjo and guitar players may wear a metal or plastic thumb pick mounted on a ring, and bluegrass banjo players often wear metal or plastic fingerpicks on their fingertips. Guitarists also use fingerpicks.

Guitar picks are made of a variety of materials, including celluloid, metal, and rarely other exotic materials such as turtle shell, but today delrin is the most common . For other instruments in the modern day most players use plastic plectra but a variety of other materials, including wood and felt (for use with the ukulele) are common. Guitarists in the rock, blues, jazz and bluegrass genres tend to use a plectrum, partly because the use of steel strings tends to wear out the fingernails quickly, and also because a plectrum provides a more 'focused' and 'aggressive' sound. Many guitarists also use the pick and the remaining right-hand fingers simultaneously to combine some advantages of flat picking and finger picking. This technique is called ''hybrid picking''.

A plectrum of the guitar type is often called a pick (or a ''flatpick'' to distinguish it from fingerpicks).

Non-Western instruments

The plectra for the Japanese biwa and shamisen can be quite large, and those used for the Arabic oud are longer and narrower, replacing the formerly used eagle feather. Plectra used for Chinese instruments such as the sanxian were formerly made of animal horn, though many players today use plastic plectra.

Plectra in harpsichords

In a harpsichord, there is a separate plectrum for each string. These plectra are very small, often only about a centimeter long, about 1.5 millimeters wide, and half a millimeter thick. The plectrum is gently tapered, being narrowest at the plucking end. The top surface of the plectrum is flat and horizontal, and is held in the tongue of the jack, which permits it to pluck moving upward and pass almost silently past the string moving downward.

In the historical period of harpsichord construction (up to about 1800) plectra were made of sturdy feather quills, usually from crows or ravens. In Italy, some makers (including Bartolomeo Cristofori) used vulture quills. Other Italian harpsichords employed plectra of leather. In late French harpsichords by the great builder Pascal Taskin, ''peau de buffle'', a chamois-like material from the hide of the European bison, was used for plectra to produce a delicate pianissimo.

Modern harpsichords frequently employ plectra made with plastic, specifically the plastic known as acetal. Some plectra are of the homopolymer variety of acetal, sold by DuPont under the name "Delrin", while others are of the copolymer variety, sold by Ticona as "Celcon". Harpsichord technicians and builders generally use the trade names to refer to these materials. In either of its varieties, acetal is far more durable than quill, which cuts down substantially on the time that must be spent in voicing (see below).

A number of contemporary builders and players have reasserted the superiority of bird quill for high-level harpsichords. While the difference in sound between acetal and quill is usually acknowledged to be small, what difference there is is held to be to the advantage of quill. In addition, quill plectra are observed to fail gradually, giving warning by the diminishing volume; whereas acetal plectra fail suddenly and completely, sometime in the middle of a performance.

Voicing harpsichord plectra

The plectra of a harpsichord must be cut precisely, in a process called "voicing". A properly voiced plectrum will pluck the string in a way that produces good musical tone and matches well in loudness with all of the other strings. The underside of the plectrum must be appropriately slanted and entirely smooth, so that the jack will not "hang" (get caught on the string) when, after sounding a note, it is moved back down below the level of the string.

Normally, voicing is carried out by inserting the plectrum into the jack, then placing the jack on a small wooden voicing block, so that the top of the plectrum sits flush with the block. The plectrum is then cut and thinned on the underside with a small, very sharp knife, often an X-Acto knife. As the plectrum is progressively trimmed, its jack is replaced in the instrument at intervals to test the result for loudness, tone quality, and the possibility of hanging.

Voicing is a refined skill, carried out fluently by professional builders, but one that usually must also be learned (at least to some degree) by harpsichord owners.

Etymology and usage

First attested in English 15th century, the word "plectrum" comes from Latin ''plectrum'', itself derived from Greek "πλῆκτρον" (''plēktron''), "anything to strike with, an instrument for striking the lyre, a spear point".

"Plectrum" has both a Latin-based plural, ''plectra'' and a native English plural, ''plectrums''. ''Plectra'' is used in formal writing, particularly in discussing the harpsichord as an instrument of classical music. However, ''plectrums'' is more common in ordinary speech. In vernacular speech the abbreviation ''pleck'' or ''plec'' is sometimes used.

Notes

References

Hubbard, Frank (1967) ''Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Jensen, David P. (1998) "A Florentine Harpsichord: Revealing a Transitional Technology" ''Early Music'', February issue, pp. 71–85.

Kottick, Edward L. (1987) ''The Harpsichord Owner's Guide''. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.

See also

Guitar pick

Hybrid picking

Fingerpick

Mezrab

Flatpicking

Crosspicking

String instrument

Category:String instrument construction Category:Lutes Category:Harpsichord Category:Greek loanwords

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Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788) was a German Classical period musician and composer, the fifth child and second (surviving) son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. He was a crucial composer in the transition between the Baroque and Classical periods, and one of the founders of the Classical style, composing in the Rococo and Classical periods. His second name was given in honor of his godfather Georg Philipp Telemann, a friend of Emanuel's father.

Life and works

Emanuel Bach was born in Weimar. When he was ten years old he entered the St. Thomas School at Leipzig, where his father had become cantor in 1723, and continued his education as a student of jurisprudence at the universities of Leipzig (1731) and of Frankfurt (Oder) (1735). In 1738, at the age of 24, he took his degree, but at once abandoned his prospects of a legal career and determined to devote himself to music.

A few months later (armed with a recommendation by Sylvius Leopold Weiss) he obtained an appointment in the service of Frederick II of Prussia ("Frederick the Great"), the then crown prince, and upon Frederick's accession in 1740 Emanuel became a member of the royal orchestra. He was by this time one of the foremost clavier-players in Europe, and his compositions, which date from 1731, include about thirty sonatas and concert pieces for harpsichord and clavichord. During his time there, Berlin was a rich artistic environment, where Bach mixed with many accomplished musicians, including several notable former students of his father, and important literary figures, such as Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, with whom the composer would become close friends.

In Berlin he continued to write numerous musical pieces for solo keyboard, including a series of character pieces, the so-called "Berlin Portraits," including La Caroline.

His reputation was established by the two published sets of sonatas which he dedicated respectively to Frederick the Great and to the grand duke of Württemberg. In 1746 he was promoted to the post of chamber musician, and served the king with the likes of Carl Heinrich Graun, Johann Joachim Quantz, and Franz Benda.

His publication, ''An Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments'' was a definitive work on technique. It broke with rigid tradition in allowing, even encouraging the use of the thumbs, and became the standard on finger technique for keyboards. The essay basically lays out the fingering for each chord and some chord sequences. The techniques are largely followed to this day. The first part of the ''Essay'' has a chapter explaining the various embellishments in work of the period, e.g., trills, turns, mordents, etc. The second part presents Emanuel Bach's ideas on the art of figured bass and counterpoint, where he gives preference to the contrapuntal approach to harmonization over the newer ideas of Rameau's theory of harmony and root progressions. Emanuel Bach's work was influential on, among others, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.

During his residence in Berlin, he wrote a fine setting of the Magnificat (1749), in which he shows more traces than usual of his father's influence; an Easter cantata (1756); several symphonies and concerted works; at least three volumes of songs; and a few secular cantatas and other occasional pieces. But his main work was concentrated on the clavier, for which he composed, at this time, nearly two hundred sonatas and other solos, including the set ''Mit veränderten Reprisen'' (1760–1768) and a few of those ''für Kenner und Liebhaber''. Meanwhile he placed himself in the forefront of European critics by his ''Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen'', a systematic and masterly treatise which by 1780 had reached its third edition, and which laid the foundation for the methods of Muzio Clementi and Johann Baptist Cramer.

In 1768 Emanuel Bach succeeded Georg Philipp Telemann (his godfather) as director of music at Hamburg, and in consequence of his new office began to turn his attention more towards church music. The next year he produced his oratorio ''Die Israeliten in der Wüste'' (''The Israelites in the Desert''), a composition remarkable not only for its great beauty but for the resemblance of its plan to that of Felix Mendelssohn's ''Elijah'', and between 1768 and 1788 wrote twenty-one settings of the Passion, and some seventy cantatas, litanies, motets, and other liturgical pieces. At the same time, his genius for instrumental composition was further stimulated by the career of Joseph Haydn.

He married Johanna Maria Dannemann in 1744. Only three of their children lived to adulthood – Johann Adam (1745–89), Anna Carolina Philippina (1747–1804) and Johann Sebastian (1748–78). None became musicians. Emanuel Bach died in Hamburg on 14 December 1788. He was buried in the Michaeliskirche (Church of St. Michael) in Hamburg.

Legacy and musical style

Through the latter half of the 18th century, the reputation of Emanuel Bach stood very high. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart said of him, "He is the father, we are the children." The best part of Joseph Haydn's training was derived from a study of his work. Ludwig van Beethoven expressed for his genius the most cordial admiration and regard. This position he owes mainly to his keyboard sonatas, which mark an important epoch in the history of musical form. Lucid in style, delicate and tender in expression, they are even more notable for the freedom and variety of their structural design; they break away altogether from both the Italian and the Viennese schools, moving instead toward the cyclical and improvisatory forms that would become common several generations later.

The content of his work is full of invention and, most importantly, extreme unpredictability, and wide emotional range even within a single work, a style that may be categorised as ''Empfindsamer Stil''. It is no less sincere in thought than polished and felicitous in phrase. He was probably the first composer of eminence who made free use of harmonic colour for its own sake since the time of Lassus, Monteverdi, and Gesualdo. In this way, he compares well with the most important representatives of the First Viennese School. In fact he exerted enormous influence on the North German School of composers, in particular Georg Anton Benda, Bernhard Joachim Hagen, Ernst Wilhelm Wolf, Johann Gottfried Müthel, Friedrich Wilhelm Rust and many others. His influence was not limited to his contemporaries, and extended to Felix Mendelssohn and Carl Maria von Weber.

His name fell into neglect during the 19th century, with Robert Schumann notoriously opining that "as a creative musician he remained very far behind his father"; in contrast, Johannes Brahms held him in high regard and edited some of his music. The revival of Emanuel Bach's works has been underway since Helmuth Koch's rediscovery and recording of his symphonies in the 1960s, and Hugo Ruf's recordings of his keyboard sonatas. There is an ongoing effort to record his complete works, led by Miklos Spanyi on the Swedish record label BIS.

Works list

Media

See also

:Category:Compositions by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

Notes

Further reading

A list and critical account of his voluminous compositions may be found in the ''New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''(1980). A complete edition entitled ''Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works'' is under way and scheduled to be completed by 2014.

References

External links

A Tribute to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach - Sketch of the composer's life with extensive references.

Complete Catalogue of C.P.E. Bach's oeuvre (French)

Website of the edition ''Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: The Complete Works.''

Finding the Lost Manuscripts of C.P.E. Bach ''Greater Boston Arts''

Scores

Trio sonata in C minor, H. 579, first edition (From the Sibley Music Library Digital Score Collection)

Fantasia e fuga in C minor, H. 75.5, for keyboard instrument (From the Sibley Music Library Digital Score Collection)

Category:1714 births Category:1788 deaths Carl Philipp Emanuel Category:Classical era composers Category:Composers for pipe organ Category:German composers Category:German harpsichordists Category:German classical pianists Category:People from Weimar Category:German Lutherans Category:University of Leipzig alumni Category:Viadrina European University alumni Category:18th-century German people Category:German music theorists

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Yuri Landman (born February 1, 1973) is a Dutch experimental luthier who has made several experimental electric string instruments for a list of artists including Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Liars, Jad Fair of Half Japanese and Liam Finn. He has also been active as a comic book creator, musician, and singer.

Biography

Yuri Landman started as a comic book artist and made his debut in the comics field in 1997 with 'Je Mag Alles Met Me Doen' (in Dutch). In the follow-up, released in 1998, 'Het Verdiende Loon', Landman described his negative experiences on a daily job. For the second title he received the ''1998 Breda Prize'', an award for rising new comic artists in Holland. Since then he has published no other comic books.

Together with Cees van Appeldoorn, he forms the lo-fi band Zoppo playing bass and prepared guitar in 1997. After 2 albums and several 7”singles, Landman left the band in 2000. Landman then formed the noise band Avec Aisance (aka Avec-A) with drummer/producer Valentijn Höllander and released a CD, ''Vivre dans l’aisance'' in 2004. After quiting Avec-A in 2006, he focuses mainly on instrument building.

Landman is musically untrained and cannot play chords. While with Avec-A, Landman began creating and building several experimental string instruments, including electric zithers, electric Cymbalum, and electric Koto. Most of them are not regular instruments, but look more like multi-string crossbows and their sounds derive from string resonance, microtonality and overtoning spectra based on the no wave aesthetics of Glenn Branca and the microtonal consonant theory developed by Harry Partch.

In the period 2000-2005 Landman created 9 prototype instruments. In 2006 he changes his musical focus and stops to perform and starts building for other bands. The Moodswinger was the first instrument Landman made for the band Liars. One copy of the instrument is part of the collection of the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, AZ. After the Moodswinger he starts making more instruments for other bands as well.

From November 2006 to January 2007 Landman finished 2 copies of ''The Moonlander'', a biheaded electric 18 string drone guitar, one for Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo and one for himself.

2008 - 2010

The Springtime is an experimental electric guitar with seven strings and three outputs. The first prototype of this instrument created in 2008 was made for guitar player Laura-Mary Carter of Blood Red Shoes. Afterwards he also made copies for Lou Barlow and dEUS' Mauro Pawlowski. For John Schmersal of Enon he built the Twister guitar, an alternate version of the Springtime.

Besides building instruments Landman also gave musicological lectures at venues, festivals and music related educational institutes about a theory based on physical laws. One of these lectures was given at the Primavera Sound Festival in 2008. Landman published the essay ''3rd Bridge Helix - From Experimental Punk to Ancient Chinese Music & the Universal Physical Laws of Consonance'' in which he clarifies the relation between this prepared guitar technique and the consonant values present in non-Western scales especially the musical scale used on the Ancient Chinese musical instrument the guqin. He published an extensive 8 chapter guide how to prepare a guitar.

In 2009 he finished instruments for The Dodos, Liam Finn, HEALTH, Micachu and Finn Andrews of The Veils. For The Dodos and Finn electric 24 string drum guitars called the Tafelberg and for Andrews an electric 17 string harp guitar called the Burner guitar.

He also starts to perform again after a Perpignan Festival hosted by Vincent Moon and Gaspar Claus.

In the same year he developed the Home Swinger project. A gesamtkunstwerk consisting of a workshop where people build a DIY-variant of the Moodswinger in four hours and a musical ensemble performance with the instruments. Landman hosted this art project in autumn 2009 at several European festivals and in Februari 2010 in the U.S. at the Knitting Factory and Eyedrum. The Home Swinger instrument was selected as one of the instruments for the second Guthman Musical Instrument Competition at the Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Feb 2010. Together with the Moodswinger this instrument is also included in the permanent collection of the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix AZ.

In 2010 he forms the KRGGHH*@#$%!!-ensemble, a group of 10-15 musicians playing on his Home Swingers and other self built instruments. Meanwhile he continues on building instruments for artists such as These Are Powers, Women and Kate Nash and comes up with a second DIY-workshop for festivals for building an electric 12 tone Lamellophone.

Instruments

In the period 2000-2005 Landman created 9 prototype instruments.

''The black 4-string movable 3rd bridge zither.''

''The red capozither'', shown on the cover of Vivre dans l’aisance.

''Robocop'', a 6 string heavily adjusted guitar with 2 additional bridges and 3 outputs.

''The 12 string overtone zither'', the first prototype of Aaron Hemphill’s Moodswinger.

''The blonde 3 string stereo-guitar'', 1 bass string tuned B, and 2 thin B tuned guitar strings.

''The green 7 string trio-guitar'', 1 bass string, DAD tuned guitar string and 3 G#-strings.

''The Electric Spring"

''The electric cymbalum'', 72 strings, 12 pickups, one for each tone.

''The blue 4 string supertremolo-guitar'', with no fretboard, but an adjustable pitch control for the left hand.

Moodswinger

The Moodswinger was the first instrument Landman made for the band Liars.

Springtime

The Springtime is an experimental electric guitar with seven strings and three outputs.

Moonlander

''The Moonlander'' is a biheaded electric guitar with 18 strings: 6 normal strings and 12 sympathetic strings. Although it closely resembles an electric version of a harp guitar it is actually an electric sympathetic string guitar, because the droning strings are not meant to be plucked, but resonate on the played tones from the six normal strings. The drone strings cross the plucked strings at an angle, and are attached to the machine head by a raised headstock.

Based on a biplane, Landman combined the theorbo with the electric guitar. The 12 droning strings create a natural reverb, with specific desired frequencies, depending on in which tones the strings are tuned. The standard tuning for the droning strings is a circle of fourths divided over two octaves.

Besides this acoustic reverb possibility the guitar is also a stereo guitar. The two rotated pickups individually send out different signals coming from different strings, to make it possible to play two different guitar parts on one instrument at the same time. The nut and bridge allow repositioning of the strings, modifying the Moonlander into a coursed instrument.

The Moonlander is visually a hybrid of the offset-waist body shaped lake placid blue Fender Electric XII with matching headstock and the Vox Mark VI. The name is derived from the 1979 computer game ''Moonlander'' aka Lunar Lander.

The guitar has four separate outputs:

# The output for the bridge pickup, like on any other normal guitar # The output for the droning strings pickup # Output 3 for the upper rotated neck pickup, for a stereo option # Output 4 for the lower rotated neck pickup, for a stereo option

Similar to the Liars' Moodswinger, two blue copies of this instrument have been made, one for Ranaldo and one for Landman himself. In the same year Landman finished another experimental instrument for Jad Fair of Half Japanese.

Home Swinger

The Home Swinger has 12 strings, an electronic pickup and a movable rod to alter the pitch of the instrument.

Discography

with Zoppo

Audio

''Chi pratica lo impare zoppicare'' (Drowning Man Records, 1998)

''Nontonnen'' promo 7" (Blackbean & Placenta, 1998)

''Double the fun'' splitt 7" (Drowning Man Records, 1999)

''Belgian Style Pop'' (Drowning Man/Transformed Dreams, 1999)

Video

''Flooded'' made by Dan Geesin (1999)

with Avec Aisance

Albums

''Vivre dans l'aisance'' (Drowning Man Records, 2004)

Video

''Not like my sister behaves'' (2004)

''A second too lazy'' (2005)

''Like my friend blue'' (2005)

References

External links

www.hypercustom.com Official website of Yuri Landman's instruments

Category:Dutch cartoonists Category:Dutch comics artists Category:Guitar makers Category:Dutch musicologists Category:1973 births Category:Living people Category:People from Amsterdam Category:Inventors of musical instruments Category:Dutch musical instrument makers Category:Dutch experimental musicians

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