Kantele categorised as "zither"?
Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2013 11:27 am
Hey guys!
I was just going through some stuff of mine and I noticed that a piece I had uploaded, for kantele and violin, had been put under the "zither" categories (e.g. "for zither, violin" or "scores featuring the zither" etc).
In the broader sense of the word, a kantele is a zither (as is a a piano and harpsichord) but in a practical sense, a kantele is a separate instrument of its own, with a particular history and culture behind it (in the baltic countries, finland, and karelia for example) and I think it should be in its own separate category. For one I would like to transcribe a collection of kantele pieces and upload them here, but wouldn't feel comfortable having them in the "zither" category.
(For one, I am confident that if a finnish person wanted to look some kantele scores up, unless they had some musical background and were aware of the kantele being a "zither-like" instrument, they would never search under "zither" for kantele scores.)
I don't know the implications in terms of the category walker and other tools, but on principle (and generally speaking) I feel it is justifiable to create a new category for not-so-common instruments (e.g. electronics, electric guitar, etc), even if there is only one piece per category - at least this opens up the possibility for other people to be creative and fill those categories, rather than trying to squeeze compositions in already-defined (and to a certain degree arbitrary) categories.
I was just going through some stuff of mine and I noticed that a piece I had uploaded, for kantele and violin, had been put under the "zither" categories (e.g. "for zither, violin" or "scores featuring the zither" etc).
In the broader sense of the word, a kantele is a zither (as is a a piano and harpsichord) but in a practical sense, a kantele is a separate instrument of its own, with a particular history and culture behind it (in the baltic countries, finland, and karelia for example) and I think it should be in its own separate category. For one I would like to transcribe a collection of kantele pieces and upload them here, but wouldn't feel comfortable having them in the "zither" category.
(For one, I am confident that if a finnish person wanted to look some kantele scores up, unless they had some musical background and were aware of the kantele being a "zither-like" instrument, they would never search under "zither" for kantele scores.)
I don't know the implications in terms of the category walker and other tools, but on principle (and generally speaking) I feel it is justifiable to create a new category for not-so-common instruments (e.g. electronics, electric guitar, etc), even if there is only one piece per category - at least this opens up the possibility for other people to be creative and fill those categories, rather than trying to squeeze compositions in already-defined (and to a certain degree arbitrary) categories.
