One sunny (or maybe cloudy) day, a musician (who’s not a musician) was walking, (although not really walking), with a musical instrument (which didn’t look like an instrument). He got fired.
Episode 7 - The Artifact – a walking cane violin
Short Summary
In the episode titled “The Artifact”, the story revolves around a dance teacher named Dominick who faces an accident that leaves him unable to walk properly, leading to his dismissal from school. Despite this setback, his devoted students insist on continuing their lessons. However, they face the challenge of finding a place to rehearse and lack of music. In a creative solution, they fabricate a violin shaped like a walking cane for Dominick, allowing him to both walk and tap the rhythm while accompanying his students. The host, Francisco Chaves, explains the contradictory nature of the prompt and highlights the historical existence of such violin canes, with examples found in music museums. The episode concludes with a jazz improvisation played on a walking cane violin from a museum in Barcelona, shedding light on the declining but still existing craft of making these unique instruments.
Hello and welcome to another Danetka’s podcast. My name is Francisco Chaves and I’ll be hosting this episode.
The Danetka we are going to play today is called “The Artifact”.
One sunny (or maybe cloudy) day, a musician (who’s not a musician) was walking, (although not really walking), with a musical instrument (which didn’t look like an instrument). He got fired. Accompanying each Danetka we have an image. In this image we see people dancing in what it seems like in the clouds. However, one man is sitting down while the others are dancing. We don’t know exactly where they are. Who was the non-musician? Why was he walking and not walking at the same time? What was the musical instrument which didn’t look like an instrument? And why did he get fired?
I will now read the five rigolettos we have for today.
The first Rigoletto says 5, 6, 7, 8, heads up, feet straight.
The second Rigoletto says: Am I hearing music? But he didn’t seem to be carrying any instrument. So apparently we have music going on and people dancing, but there doesn’t seem to be any instrument in sight.
Let’s continue. Third rigoletto, where can we rehearse now? You need music and I need support.
Fourth rigoletto, Dominick, do you need a place to sit? So the third and the fourth rigolettos say that someone needs a place to sit. Someone needs a place to sit down. Why would someone need a place to sit down?
And now the fifth rigoletto, can you combine an instrument with a stick? Apparently you can. Those are all the five rigolettos. Feel free to pause the audio and try to solve this Danetka yourself.
I will now read the answer, the artifact. Dominic, a dance teacher, got into an accident while performing. He could hardly walk and ended up being dismissed from school. His students loved him so much that they insisted on continuing his lessons.
Even though they didn’t have where to rehearse and there wasn’t any music in the streets, Dominick was very happy about his students’ motivation. Since he was injured and unable to walk or stand for long period of time, his creative students found a solution. They fabricated a violin specially shaped like a walking cane, fulfilling both purposes. Thus, Dominick was able to walk, tap the rhythm and accompany his students with the violin. I hope you liked the answer. This personally is one of my favorite riddles.
Because of the confusing prompt, I will explain it step by step. One sunny or maybe cloudy day. So we know that they were dancing, so we don’t know if the day was sunny or cloudy, but for sure was not raining otherwise it would have been not a pleasant experience. Then we have a musician who’s not a musician. Yes, he was a dance teacher that could play the violin. So a musician that’s not really a musician.
He was walking, although not really walking, because he was using the cane with a musical instrument, which didn’t look like an instrument. So the prompt is constantly contradicting himself, and that’s why I like it so much. And then in the end, a bit unrelated, but also related to the story, he got fired.
I repeat, this is one of my favorite prompts. Did this Danetka really happen? No, this is an invented story, but the violin cane is a historical artifact that indeed existed. In museums dedicated to music, you can still find fully-functional examples. Let’s listen to one of those examples.
We just listened to a jazz improvisation played on the walking cane violin. This instrument is currently in a museum in Barcelona, and it was played by Spanish violinist Oriol Saña. There are many instruments with walking canes. The most popular are flutes and violins. Original antiques might be sold for thousands of dollars, but nowadays you can find modern replicas sold on the internet for a couple hundred dollars.
Even though the artistic craft of making them has been declining in recent decades, some modern luthiers still build them at the request of clients. We reached the end of our episode, The Artifact. I hope you liked this episode.
I wish you all a nice day and bye-bye!
