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Tuesday, January 16, 2024

The tune is changing

 I’m still working at adding beads to Antiks. It’s turning out well, but no pictures yet. Perhaps Thursday. In the meantime, I’ll share some thoughts from past conversations elsewhere:

In music, there is much opportunity for embellishing a simple tune. A famous example is the Twinkle variations. Mozart wrote down his embellishments for us to imitate. Here’s an excellent video posted by Rousseau.

How can we apply these design concepts to tatting? I’m glad you asked!

In the video, you can clearly see how many keys are being played at a time by the white bars that appear above the keyboard. The first statement of the theme is just 2 notes at a time. Much like a simple ring and chain pattern worked in plain thread. (Here when teaching I show a plain flower or butterfly with no picots.) The next statement of the theme has more notes added in the top part. Much like adding decorative picots. Keep track in the following statements and you can detect more than 2 notes (chords) and the melody switching to the left hand. I like to think adding beads relates to adding chords. Color can also be used to express these compositional techniques.

So, that’s how I try to work in beads in a tatting pattern. Yes, I know there will be some designers who don’t support embellishing at will. There are composers who can’t stand hearing their music played any way except how they imagined it. I try to keep my music and tatting embellishing within good taste so that I do not offend or disappoint designers and composers.

Incidentally, if you wish to embellish any of my patterns, please do! Share a picture of your creation. I love seeing how tatters create!!

2 comments:

  1. It would be a shame to insist musicians or tatters stick to the original. I love seeing how things evolve.

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  2. I agree with you and Jane, and nice analogy. Too many strictures would just stymie creativity and expression. I don't mind my patterns being embellished or tweaked. In fact often other versions turn out so much better than my original!

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