I am experiencing problems determining whether the solo instrument which is on the left hand side of the sound stage on "The Gates Of Istanbul" during the introduction is a mandolin or, in fact, the meanest piece of harp playing I've ever heard.

I would be grateful for some enlightenment on this matter.

quote:

Originally posted by Cymbelinus:

quote:

Originally posted by Fedelma:
Although, in the beginning of Caravanserai, Loreena also plays the harp.

Nope, she does not. If you see the liner notes, Loreena plays the harp only in 'The English Ladye and the Knight', nowhere else .It is not a harp you hear, it is a canoun. I told you , the sound of the canoun is very much like a small harp, because it works in a similar way, however its sound is unique and a bit more 'crisp' than that of a harp (like playing only the smaller chords of a harp, and not with fingers, but with metallic rings). And, no, Cocoa, it is again the canoun in the end of Never-ending Road, you can see that also in the liner notes.
It may sound to you like a harp, because you have never before heard the sound of a canoun, but I have been listening to canoun my whole life and I am 99.9% sure it is a canoun (a moderator can assure us for that). In fact it is one of my favourite instruments, along with the lyra (also present in this album), the oud (as well), the mandolin, the santouri and the lute.

Thankyou for that clarification Cymbelinus. Unfortunately, with diminishing size of records, the accompanying text tends to get smaller too which due to failing eyesight I am no longer able to read (without a magnifying glass )

quote:

Originally posted by Fedelma:
Although, in the beginning of Caravanserai, Loreena also plays the harp.

Nope, she does not. If you see the liner notes, Loreena plays the harp only in 'The English Ladye and the Knight', nowhere else .It is not a harp you hear, it is a canoun. I told you , the sound of the canoun is very much like a small harp, because it works in a similar way, however its sound is unique and a bit more 'crisp' than that of a harp (like playing only the smaller chords of a harp, and not with fingers, but with metallic rings). And, no, Cocoa, it is again the canoun in the end of Never-ending Road, you can see that also in the liner notes.
It may sound to you like a harp, because you have never before heard the sound of a canoun, but I have been listening to canoun my whole life and I am 99.9% sure it is a canoun (a moderator can assure us for that). In fact it is one of my favourite instruments, along with the lyra (also present in this album), the oud (as well), the mandolin, the santouri and the lute.

I thought Loreena played her harp at the end of the song "Never-Ending Road"... But when I read the booklet it states that Loreena only played her harp in "The English Ladye and the Knight"... I'm really confused, maybe it is the canoun too?? But it really sounds like the harp to my ears.

Although, in the beginning of Caravanserai, Loreena also plays the harp.

Canoun:

http://www.panasmusic.com/catalog/images/kanun.jpg

Santouri:

http://www.musicheaven.gr/html/images/presentations/santouri.jpg

quote:

Originally posted by robin_v:
I am experiencing problems determining whether the solo instrument which is on the left hand side of the sound stage on "The Gates Of Istanbul" during the introduction is a mandolin or, in fact, the meanest piece of harp playing I've ever heard.

I would be grateful for some enlightenment on this matter.

My friend, unless I am very much mistaken, the instrument you are referring to is the canoun, a n instrument very common to the eastern mediterranean. It works like a small horizontal harp, though it produces a very distinct sound (you can hear it almost solo in the very beginning of the introduction of 'Caravanserai'), and it's played with the indexes of the player, where he/she attaches two metal rings. It's name is kanoun in turkish and kanonaki in greek (from the medieval greek 'kanonion'). The name comes form the ancient greek word 'kanon' (still in use today) which denotes the measure of length (kanon in ancient greece was a rod used as the measurement unit in eucleidic geometry - and because it was the measure by which everything was measured, the word passed to regulation and legalistic-ecclesiatical use). The instrument is called kanonion because the analogies of the chords are canonical, which means that their respective lengths have an analogy to the kanon, the unit of measurement (which in this particular instrument, is the longest of its chords). Another version of this instrument is the santouri, which is similar in construction but is played differently (with two sticks covered with piecesof cloth or cotton on their ends). I hope you found the information useful.