The harp is a little masterpiece. Frankly, it's like looking at a thousand-year-old bonsai tree or something. It makes you want to find words to express how you feel about its, but that's not what it's about. Quite the opposite. Words fail. It inspires stillness. Awe. (Hell, I just have to remember to mop the drool off my keyboard once in awhile.)
I looked closely at my guitar headstock to guesstimate the size of the harp inlay, and compared it to the Alembic emblem (say that quick three times). I came up with a rule of thumb:
Using your thumb and forefinger, pretend to hold a silver dollar. 'Bout that big.
Look how incredibly figured the slivers of wood are, and perfectly arrayed to infer 3D.
I'm going to digress for a moment to point something out that's so cool.
The photographer Ansel Adams created
Zone System, which divides light into ten zones. I taught it at a camera store I worked at in college, which should give you an idea of how stupid-simple it is (I have take my shoes off for anything above 11, if that tells you anything).
I can show you the principle, in fact. After all, it was created decades before color film or light meters: hold your hand out at waist level with fingers spread, and look at its shadow. The degree of sharpness along the edges is what you want to look at. If they're razor sharp, that's a 10. Now close your eyes. That's zero. Now divide the difference into ten zones. Piece o' cake. It applies to every image you've ever seen in your whole life. Every painting, every photo.
There's some other stuff, but that's all we need for now.
The reason I mention it is because our eyes are drawn to lighter shades, and by placing light in the background and darker shades in the foreground, it creates a sense of distance between them (Ansel called that the event) as well as from the perspective of the viewer. Our hunter/gatherer-evolved eyes travel through the scene. You can't help it. (It also explains why dogs aren't impressed by photographs.)
Italian intarsia artists were particularly good at it:
Let's take a look at that baby again:
See how carefully they selected just the right shade of just the right figuring on just the right wood and angled the grain to suggest size, punctuated with those two skinny, tall triangular strips of maple(?) They chose just the right piece of abalone for the foot of the harp (I looked it up, that's what it's called) to make it look so solid, you could knock it over (a reality check technique popular in the 70s).
It's simply stunning. Any chance of the artist(s) taking a bow, to bask in the warmth of our adulation until sated, utterly?
Sorry about the visual aids, but like I said: words fail.
That hasn't stopped me from trying, though.
P.S.; the maestro on the body end of the neck is playing THE Alembic acoustic guitar. Nice touch. I'll bet they didn't drink any coffee that morning.
(Message edited by Ed_zeppelin on March 03, 2016)
