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EPISODE #5 ✨ A conversation about the Tornavoz -

EPISODE #5 ✨ A conversation about the Tornavoz - Marco Ramelli

“At one point, Jonathan Leathwood and I discussed the tornavoz, a metal cylinder used in many historical Spanish guitars, particularly in instruments by Torres. Toward the end of the excerpt presented here, in response to a question from Jonathan, I also explored the relationship between Spanish guitars and blind communities”

➡️ A blog around the article “A Lost Culture of Touch and Sound: The Contribution of Visually Impaired Musicians in the Evolution of the Spanish Guitar” by Marco Ramelli, published by Soundboard Scholar. The article does not merely address the history of blind musicians; rather, it investigates the deep roots of music-making on plucked instruments.

👉🏻Discover more on TouchTheSound Project website [Link in Bio]

EPISODE #4 ✨ Lassel stà… l’è roba de barbu

EPISODE #4 ✨ Lassel stà… l’è roba de barbun (“Leave them alone… that’s homeless stuff.”) - Marco Ramelli

“In one of his most famous songs, El purtava el scarp de tennis, sung in Milanese dialect, Jannacci tells the story of a homeless man—a barbun—and his great love. At the end of the song, the man is found dead. One person reaches out to touch him, while another stops them, saying: “Lassel stà… l’è roba de barbun” (“Leave him alone… that’s homeless stuff.”)

This is a burden we have carried with us for centuries: an instinct that leads us to look away in certain directions, particularly toward the poorest members of society. […]

Even when we look at figures such as Francisco Tárrega, we tend to focus only on the aspects in which we can recognize ourselves—the great composer, the friend of Albéniz, the virtuoso who revolutionized technique—while trying to not look at his identity as a street musician who played alongside blind performers and felt at home among those at the margins of society.”

➡️ A blog around the article “A Lost Culture of Touch and Sound: The Contribution of Visually Impaired Musicians in the Evolution of the Spanish Guitar” by Marco Ramelli, published by Soundboard Scholar. The article does not merely address the history of blind musicians; rather, it investigates the deep roots of music-making on plucked instruments.

👉🏻Discover more on TouchTheSound Project

EPISODE #3 ✨ The Guitar as a Sensory Substitutio

EPISODE #3 ✨ The Guitar as a Sensory Substitution Device (Cognitive Science) - Marco Ramelli

“The parallel with sensory substitution offers a valuable framework for understanding not only the elements García Lorca associated with duende but also their potential origins in blind musical traditions, before they were transmitted to, or adapted by, sighted communities. Once society actively fostered its development—through instrument design, pedagogical practices, and cultural expectations—even sighted musicians could access it, particularly those with heightened sensitivity or a predisposition toward neuroplasticity. It is not, of course, that blind individuals are inherently more predisposed to duende, but ratherthat their lived experience in the past and their way of passing on their skills played a crucial role in developing the very approach through which this condition could be accessed.”

➡️ A blog around the article “A Lost Culture of Touch and Sound: The Contribution of Visually Impaired Musicians in the Evolution of the Spanish Guitar” by Marco Ramelli, published by Soundboard Scholar. The article does not merely address the history of blind musicians; rather, it investigates the deep roots of music-making on plucked instruments.

👉🏻Discover more on TouchTheSound Project website [link in bio]

EPISODE #2 ✨Segovia and Yepes: Last Links to the

EPISODE #2 ✨Segovia and Yepes: Last Links to the Blind Guitarists’ Legacy - Marco Ramelli

“The pedagogical path of Francisco Tárrega, which led him from the world of the blind to that of the sighted, is paralleled, albeit more faintly, in the rise of Andrés Segovia […] Segovia possessed a deep, intuitive control over the vibrations of the guitar. The resulting sound—which remains one of the great mysteries of his technique—captivated his listeners and has exerted an enduring fascination over generations of guitarists. Where, then, did he acquire it?”

➡️ A blog around the article “A Lost Culture of Touch and Sound: The Contribution of Visually Impaired Musicians in the Evolution of the Spanish Guitar” by Marco Ramelli, published by Soundboard Scholar. The article does not merely address the history of blind musicians; rather, it investigates the deep roots of music-making on plucked instruments.

👉🏻Discover more on TouchTheSound Project website [link in bio]

EPISODE #1 ✨Blind Musicians in Ancient Time - Ma

EPISODE #1 ✨Blind Musicians in Ancient Time - Marco Ramelli

“From earliest times, blind musicians have been closely associated with musical instruments and plucked-string instruments in particular, as evidenced by cuneiform sources from Mesopotamia, one of the earliest known forms of writing in human history. [...] The musical abilities of blind individuals in these communities were often associated with other intellectual and spiritual qualities, such as wisdom or a connection to the spiritual world.”

A new blog post around the article “A Lost Culture of Touch and Sound: The Contribution of Visually Impaired Musicians in the Evolution of the Spanish Guitar” by Marco Ramelli, published by Soundboard Scholar.

➡️The article does not merely address the history of blind musicians; rather, it investigates the deep roots of music-making on plucked instruments. It offers a new way not only to narrate the history of the guitar.
👉🏻Discover more on TouchTheSound Project website [link in bio]

Yesterday @tudublinconservatoire hosted “Sound a

Yesterday @tudublinconservatoire hosted “Sound as Vibration: Perspectives on Perception,” the first in a new series of conversations exploring sound as vibration and its role in shaping musical creation and instrument design. It was a fantastic day filled with conversation, ideas, and shared knowledge. Many thanks to all involved!

🔸In dialogue with Jonathan Leathwood (University of Denver), Marco Ramelli (TU Dublin) discussed his recent Soundboard Scholar article, “A Lost Culture of Touch and Sound: The Contribution of Visually Impaired Musicians to the Evolution of Spanish Guitar” (available for download in our stories).

🔹 Pianist and researcher Tom Beghin (Orpheus Institute / McGill University), presented “SEEING, TOUCHING, HEARING: Exploring Intersections of Technology and Disability in Beethoven’s Late Piano Music.”

Many thanks to Mary Lennon (TU Dublin), Tom Beghin, Jonathan Leathwood, Marco Ramelli, and Cliona Doris (TU Dublin).

✨New video on TouchTheSound! Enjoy this beautifu

✨New video on TouchTheSound!
Enjoy this beautiful Nocturne by Paderewski, arranged and performed on guitar by Giulio Petrella.
Check the full video on our YouTube Channel

🎥 Audio/Video by Giovanni Tammaro.
Enjoy!

Liuteria Narrata: Il colpo d'occhio finale La pr

Liuteria Narrata: Il colpo d'occhio finale

La prima chitarra che i liutai di Liuteria Narrata hanno creato in omaggio a Francisco Simplicio è ormai completa. Gli elementi che nelle scorse puntate erano abbozzati, o che pur pronti singolarmente non erano ancora parte dello stesso strumento, ora sono definitivamente assemblati. Seguendo i lavori attorno alla chitarra ci eravamo soffermati su distinti aspetti strutturali e funzionali: la scelta delle essenze, la scelta della tavola armonica e del suo progetto, il ruolo di un eventuale tornavoz. Solo ora, a costruzione ultimata, possiamo fare metaforicamente un passo indietro e ammirare questa nuova chitarra da lontano, abbracciandola con un ultimo sguardo d'insieme. Non si può fare a meno di notare quanto questo strumento, in quanto fedele riproduzione esteriore di una chitarra di Simplicio (la 241/1929), abbia una sua spiccata identità visuale, e quanto questa identità compaia in tutti gli strumenti del maestro di Barcellona. Ma in cosa consiste quindi lo stile Simplicio? In cosa si concretizza? Quali sono i suoi tratti principali e soprattutto quali ne sono le radici?

👉Testo completo (IT-ENG) sul sito:

www.touchthesoundproject.com

✨A Tempo Rubato Vol. 1 – Romantic Music This

✨A Tempo Rubato Vol. 1 – Romantic Music

This is the debut recording by Marco Ramelli and Enrica Savigni as a duo, now available on all digital platforms.

For this album, Enrica and Marco performed on two Viennese historical guitars: a Johann Georg Stauffer (c. 1820) and a Joh. Anton Stauffer (1840).
The repertoire includes numerous transcriptions by Paolo De Lorenzi, Jonathan Leathwood, Mario Parodi, and Miguel Llobet, as well as newly transcribed works by the duo themselves.

➡️In the coming months, the project will be enriched by a beautifully conceived booklet, with reflections and writings from colleagues and friends.

The album’s cover artwork is by the fantastic @riccardo_pagliani , whose vision perfectly captures the spirit of the recording.

Liuteria Narrata: Il vivo contatto con la Liuteria

Liuteria Narrata: Il vivo contatto con la Liuteria Spagnola. Intervista a Luigi Attademo

" [...] non è solo un aspetto ricostruttivo, ma di verità dell’essenza musicale alla quale si cerca di avvicinarsi ed approssimarsi rispetto ad una dimensione sonora… è un modo di vivere la musica, non è solamente una questione ricostruttiva o filologica."

👉Intervista completa (IT-ENG) sul sito:

www.touchthesoundproject.com

Liuteria Narrata: Sul Tornavoz Una delle sfide ch

Liuteria Narrata: Sul Tornavoz

Una delle sfide che da sempre dà filo da torcere ai costruttori di chitarre è la sonorità esile dello strumento.
Se fino alla fine del diciottesimo secolo la chitarra si imponeva fondamentalmente come strumento da strada, e il suono dei rasgueos, ovvero dei vivaci accompagnamenti in accordi, era abbastanza forte da farsi sentire in molte condizioni, la transizione a strumento adatto alla musica colta, con trame sonore più esili, evidenziò la natura flebile del suono dello strumento.
Molte sono state le scelte costruttive messe di volta in volta in campo sin dal diciannovesimo secolo, per ovviare al problema della proiezione sonora negli ambienti via via più grandi con cui la chitarra andava confrontandosi.
Oggi parleremo più da vicino di una di queste soluzioni, il tornavoz, sulla quale ci eravamo in parte soffermati nelle precedenti uscite di Liuteria Narrata.

👉Testo completo (IT-ENG) sul sito:

www.touchthesoundproject.com

Liuteria Narrata: Continuità e Discontinuità con

Liuteria Narrata: Continuità e Discontinuità con la tradizione

Probabilmente suona come una banalità ricordare che il cuore della produzione sonora, in una chitarra classica, stia nella tavola armonica. Il modo in cui ogni liutaio decide di gestire il rapporto tra capacità vibrazionale e tenuta della struttura ha una diretta influenza sul timbro del suono, sulla sua velocità di emissione e sulla sua durata nel tempo. Non solo: la lavorazione della tavola è strettamente correlata a tutte le altre caratteristiche costruttive della chitarra.

👉 Testo completo (IT-ENG) sul sito:

www.touchthesoundproject.com

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