Graham McDonald - 12-14-2010 at 11:16 PM
Hello folks,
I am a mandolin and Irish bouzouki builder in Canberra, Australia and I am working on a book on the history of mandolin family instruments from the very
earliest days of plucked strings. It will be looking at the way double strung instruments have been built over the centuries, with lots of
illustrations. Ouds come into this story of course and as part of my research I recently had the opportunity to spend a couple of days rummaging
through the Stearns Collection at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. This is a fascinating collection of all kinds of musical instruments which
was donated to the university at the beginning of last century and includes 3 ouds and bits of another which is described as a kuitra
One of the ouds No. 1035 in the catalogue (which can be found on the web as a pdf) is from the original donation in 1899, so is older than that. It is
described as Egyptian with a string length of 60cm. There is no obvious label, and the inside is lined with paper printed in German. Nos 1562 and 1563
are a later donation, maybe from the late teens or 1920s, as the original catalogue was published in 1918 and lists 1464 items. 1562 is only described
as an oud, and has a 54.5cm scale. 1563 is called a Syrian oud and has a 61.4cm scale.
I would be grateful for any more information that anyone might have on these instruments. I do have more pictures, but not as many as I would have
liked to have taken Too many instruments and not enough time.
cheers
graham
ExtreamTarab - 12-14-2010 at 11:46 PM
Check out this...
http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=3041&pa...
adamgood - 12-14-2010 at 11:48 PM
Wow I would love to visit the collection some day!!! It looks amazing
http://www.music.umich.edu/research/stearns_collection/index.html
The oud that is lined with German language paper, did you take a pic of the inside? Is it newspaper? Pretty interesting....
adam
Graham McDonald - 12-16-2010 at 01:48 PM
Thanks for the link to the other discussion thread. I have been delving through the various discussions on this site, and it has been very
illuminating. The chapter I am currently working on for the book is looking at the early evolution of the oud and the ways it might have developed
from the Persian barbat and connections to central and east Asian plucked instruments. A later chapter will look at long necked instruments through
the middle east and central Asia. It is a whole group of stories, rather than just one.
The Egyptian instrument (1035) is lined with what looks like a German newspaper, but I didn't get a photo of the inside. I was hoping that one of the
experts here could give me some better info about these three instruments' possible origins. The Stearns Collection is a treasure trove of interesting
things, but dreadfully under-resourced. The Director has a whole lot of other responsibilities at the University and the Curator only works half-time
and is more concerned with the small proportion of the instruments actually on display. He has no specific expertise in musical instruments, but is
eager to learn more about the items in the collection. Any specific information I can find about these ouds will go back to the curator to augment
their knowledge of them. I am also very open to suggestions of how best to illustrate the section in the book about ouds. I have written a couple of
books previously on instrument building, one on Irish bouzoukis and a more recent one on mandolins. The mandolin book included a chapter on mandolin
history which can be downloaded as a pdf from my website if anyone is interested. The new book will be a much wider expansion of this, looking at the whole group of
double strung instruments.
cheers
graham
Nahat
spyrosc - 12-16-2010 at 05:07 PM
The one you are calling Syrian is indeed Syrian, and I believe I can discern the name of Nahat in the star-shaped rosette. Furthermore, the shape,
proportions, the shape of the bridge etc, look very much like a Nahat.
It might be a Gorgy Nahat. He loved the star-shaped rosettes.
I would appreciate any information you can get on it, including more pictures, as I've been studying Nahats for a few years now and I have never seen
one with a "compound" rosette of moon and star before.
It's a very unique piece.
Thanks
Spyros C.
FastForward - 12-16-2010 at 10:04 PM
Good eyes Spyros, that reads "Ikhwan Nahat" --> Nahat Brothers. The oud carries a lot of Nahat touches but the rosettes are something I've never
seen before.
Graham McDonald - 12-17-2010 at 06:29 PM
Here are the other pics I took of that instrument. Hope they help.
cheers
Nahat
spyrosc - 12-18-2010 at 01:20 AM
Well, it is definitely a "Ikhwan Nahat", which means Abdo and Rufan Nahat, and probably from the first decade of the 20th century.
I'll look at it in more detail and post some more findings.
Spyros C.
Danielo - 12-18-2010 at 01:35 AM
I'm puzzled because this oud does really look like it was made by George Hanna, not by Abdo and Roufan (not only the star shams but also the pickgard,
the extended fingerboard, the inlay around the soundhole and on the back..) .
Could it be that Tawfik and George Hanna, that were brothers, also made some ouds under the Ikhwan Nahat name ?