Page 39 - Otis Tomas: Making Instruments & Tunes

ISSUE : Issue 56

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1991/1/1

Recently I made an instrument, it was along the same design, but I moved the soundhole. Mainly for acoustical reasons. What I was trying to do was lower the res? onance a little bit by moving the sound- hole, effectively making the closed part of the body longer... Just because I start out with an idea and draw it out, it doesn't end there. I'll listen to the in? strument, see how it works. And maybe I'll think that I want to move in a certain di? rection, and I'll change it. (So an instrument, when it's finished. isn't necessarily finished.) Well, no-- generally when I say "I'll change it"-- what it means: the next instrument I make, I'll try something a little different.... Because I don't want to become a slave to a design that was just conceived in an ab? stract way. Like I say, I have these sort of rational principles and ideas that I'm working into the design and that I'm trying to express at the same time. But it's not only that. That's kind of one side of it. I'm trying to be creative with the materi? als. And I'm seeing how they react with the actual performance of the instrument. "Nemo's Jig" and its Story 4 Otis Tomas: I made that (tune)--it was on the eve of my daughter's birth. We were (living) in the teepee. It was the night before she was born. I was up kind of late, just playing the fiddle a bit. And there came that tune. Just playing around, that one was the one that was there. Like I say, to me, it's almost like--all of a sudden there's something there ready to be discovered, the tune. I called it "Nemo's Jig" because, actually, when our daughter was born--we didn't real? ly get a good look at her first. She was just kind of born and we wrapped her up in the towels and, you know, held her. You know, put her up with Deannie. There was a woman there helping us with the birth. It happened, really, you know, sort of fast. And she said, "Oh, you've got a little boy. Here you go." And kind of wrapped her up. So we thought it was a boy. Just first glance, you know. The first thing wasn't to give her a physical exam or anything. The first thing was to get her warm and put her to Deannie and.... So we didn't really think too much of it. We just said, all right, you know, a little boy. And it was only an hour or something later when we figured we'll check--changing the diaper or whatever, or putting a diaper on the baby, when I said, "Dean, there's something wrong here!" So it turns out it Fresh Flowers • Potted Plants YOUD PDE6TIGE FLOQIST TOD QUALITY ' (SERVICE VISA& MasterCard Accepted by Phone Silk & Dried Flowers & Plants SPECIALIZING IN WEDDING & FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS ASHBY NURSERIES 564-8162 174 Ashby Road ?SYDNEY '' 862-3374 V 539-7844; Piummer Av • NEW WATERFORD la farmers Co-operative Dairy Umited A Complete Line of Dairy & Juice Products ?? IceCraam ?? Yogourt ?? Long Life ?? Cheese Products Fanners Co-dperative Dairy LiinHed Sydport, Sydney 562-2434 Owned by Nova Scotian Fanners Cultivate your family xq Your public library has: How-to Books, Directories, Guides CensusMtal Statistics Records County and Local Histories Family Histories Old Newspapers Land Records and Maps The Local History and Genealogical Collectton is concentrated on Inverness, Richmond and Guysborough counties - the library's sevice area. Eastern Countiefi Degional Library 390 Murray Street, P. O. Bag 2500 Mulgrave, Nova Scotia BOE 2G0 Telephone (902) 747-2597 FAX: (902) 747-2500

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