Mystery Hammered Dulcimer Player?

ceadach · Post by **ceadach** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 6:50 pm

Talasiga, what is there to say man,

Exactly which part of my past posts is too tense for you.

At issue are not my tension levels. If I get much more relaxed, I'm liable to slip into a coma. Rather worries the wife sometimes.

Tal, Lately you take a very condensing and frequently hostile tone with anyone who offers a slightly different explaination to yours. It's totally uncalled for. Can't we simply agree to disagree??? You clearly are an intellegent guy, why go there with people? Why ramp up your own blood pressure in the process???

Yes, do you really think that Farsi, Turkish, Hindi, Punjabi etc are written in English Roman script (alphabet)? In the script used in each of these languages, the word is consistently written one way. The difficulty occurs in transcribing from how it is written in the languages' script to writing it in a script (the Roman script) used in English or in the Franco Roman script.

At risk of starting a minor war here....I agree that there are certainly issues with translating terms from one language's writing system to another....yet Devanagari is phonetic script. It cuts both ways, you have specifics sound symbols, but then can be combined in different ways to "spell" the same word. I 've seen a couple acceptable ways of spelling words like "Sitar", "dogri", "Lakshmiji" etc. which easily can account for some of the confusion on translating these words into English. Here's a nice website on the topic:
http://www.garretwilson.com/education/l ... netic.html

Ptarmigan · Post by **Ptarmigan** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 6:50 pm

Exactly right Steamwalker & as Talasiga is clearly a linguist with an inside knowledge on this subject, & is so obviously very keen to display his undoubted knowledge on this subject here, I am at a loss to understand why he would not take up the challange & correct the errors on Wikipedia's Santur & Santoor pages.

That's your mission Talasiga, should you choose to accept it?

...... this post will self destruct in Five seconds!

ceadach · Post by **ceadach** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 6:54 pm

Oh man...not more exploding posts!!! Now at the airport they'll ask you to take off your shoes and any Chiff posts you might have on your person!!!

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 8:47 pm

[url=http://chiffboard.mati.ca/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=2915]dow[/url], in his signature wrote:Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently motivated fool.

Nuthing iz phoolprooph two a suphishantly moetivaeted phool.

ceadach · Post by **ceadach** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 9:55 pm

Tal,
Get help....

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/pobrien48 ... freaks.htm

Ptarmigan · Post by **Ptarmigan** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:08 pm

They're waiting for you Tal!

Wikipedia - Santoor

Wikipedia - Santur

Go on, don't be shy!

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 7:20 am

It is not I they await
But those who are confused
To awaken .....

ceadach · Post by **ceadach** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 3:43 pm

Ah yes, the old..." I'm going to hijack a perfectly lovely thread about a photo of an Irish dulcimer player for my own nominally related topic, after which due to a lack of a sense of humor, I will have a childish tantrum, and when I get called out on to the mat for having this hissy fit, I will play the wise sage and avoid answering any solid questions"... gambit.

Tal, see my previous post.

If you want to have an intelligent discussion about the Hindustani Santoor or the Persian Santur, this would be a great time to start one up. Ptarmigan posed some good questions and I'm sure there are others on this forum who'd be interested in the topic. If all you want to do is continue having a pointless pissing contest (invented by the Irish, see our mythology) over a couple of fecking vowels, you only serve to make yourself look "the motivated fool".

"Bewilderment is not the void".
Musashi

Post by **Nanohedron** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 6:30 pm

I'm going to do what Timothy Leary did to Hunter S. Thompson and "Om" the both of you off. Maybe that'll work.

ceadach · Post by **ceadach** » Sat Jul 07, 2007 11:48 pm

Nice!!

That boxes this off nicely!

P.S. Like this new quote Nano. 'Tis quite true.

Ptarmigan · Post by **Ptarmigan** » Sun Jul 08, 2007 2:38 pm

O. K. So now that we've put the sub-topic to bed, let's get back to the original question, shall we.

Here's that photo again:

& here's an early one of John Rea! So what do you think? Could it be the same man? The photo on the LP cover was taken, I presume, about 1969/1970!

I must admit the old photo looks like it was probably taken much earlier in which case, as the men look about the same age, it probably isn't John Rea at all, ( .... at all. )

ceadach · Post by **ceadach** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 1:19 am

Indeed Ptar, back to it.

Taking my own advice, I’ve summoned professional help…from the science community!!!

I asked my friend Giovanna, an archeologist with a great interest in Irish and British cultures, to take a look at the picture of the photo of the mystery man and compare it to the four photos I found of John Rea. The photos we used were the “Drops of Brandy” album cover photo, the picture of John on David Kettlewell’s site (see below) the photo of John with a flute player from Fintan Valley’s “ Companion “ book and the photo from John’s album "Traditional Music on the Hammer Dulcimer".

She has training in identifying people from photos, remains, etc, and although she did not run any hard tests (like using a computer point system to match facial features for example) and warned me that she was giving just her opinion and not a conclusive finding, she had some interesting things to say about this photo. She also wished not to be quoted as “going on the record” with all this, but allowed me to post her “opinion” here. (Scientist really don't fool around!!!)

Her opinion: Although it is possible, the person in the photo is unlikely to be John Rea. However she thinks it’s “almost certainly someone very closely related to John Rea on his father’s side, possibly his father or uncle, a brother or first cousin.”

Her evidence: The man in the mystery photo appears only a few years younger than the three photos of John taken circa 1965-1970. The unknown player appears between 40 and 50 years old. Given John’s birth in 1924 and the picture appears to date from the 1940s or 1950’s, this would rule him out as the subject, but may point to an older relation.

When she compared the facial features of the mystery player and the later photos of John, she found they were “remarkably consistent between the two men in all the photos, these point to them being very close relatives.” She explained to me that there are tell tale facial features like the shape of the brow, the eyes, the nose and other physical features such as the shape of the hands are very similar between fathers and sons and other close male relatives and are passed on through the father’s side. She pointed out these features in recent photos of John’s relation Willie Rea, to demonstrate these similarities.

SO…all this information points towards another Rea family member. Could this be James Rea's father? Perhaps a surviving member of John’s family could help clear up this mystery for us once and for all!

John Rea, renowned Antrim Dulcimer player.

Ptarmigan · Post by **Ptarmigan** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 2:12 am

Fascinating stuff Ceadach, your working well Sir.

SO…all this information points towards another Rea family member.
Could this be James Rea's father?
Perhaps a surviving member of John’s family could help clear up this mystery for us once and for all!

That looks like the next step all right.
I'll contact the most likely person, William Rea, & see if I can arrange a meeting, so that I may show him a copy of this old photo & see if he can help us to solve the mystery.

He's a Hill Famer & is usually quite hard to pin down, so on this mission I'll be sure to take my Wellies, emergency rations & a good Collie Dog!

Thanks for your efforts thus far. I will of course keep you fully informed.

Oh & tell your friend, the next time they're passing through Ballycastle, Co Antrim, the Guinness is on me!

Cheers
Dick

ceadach · Post by **ceadach** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 10:22 am

God bless Willie Rea.

He's a Hill Famer & is usually quite hard to pin down, so on this mission I'll be sure to take my Wellies, emergency rations & a good Collie Dog!

And your dulcimer of course!! Last time I went to a farm without mine, I nearly had a riot on my hands!! Luckily the pipes were in the car.

Oh & tell your friend, the next time they're passing through Ballycastle, Co Antrim, the Guinness is on me!

Will do. Gio's a truly fascinating person. She travels quite alot and next year is going to be doing something at Durham University, working a dig in Northumberia, a "stones throw" from you comparitively speaking! She is a closet hurdgy gurdy player as well...

Ptarmigan · Post by **Ptarmigan** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 11:08 am

I wonder has Gio been in contact with this Hurdy Gurdy group over here? I am getting mail from their members all the time so I know they are an active bunch. Might be worth her while sending them an E-mail, if she fancies doing some Gurdying while she's over.

hg@hurdygurdy.com