The Knee Trumpet

image Musicians will appreciate this. It's a little known instrument, popular back in the Middle Ages, known as the Tromba Da Gamba, or Knee Trumpet. According to Virgilanti (who managed to acquire one of these rare instruments): "It was gaining a lot in popularity by the start of the 17th century but encountered a bit of a PR problem in 1619 when, according to the story, the pope (presumably Pope Paul V) saw the instrument being played by a woman. He was shocked at the suggestiveness of the performance and made his displeasure very apparent. It wasn't long before most of the upper class throughout Europe regarded the instrument as crude and vulgar." (Thanks, Virge)

Entertainment Folklore/Tall Tales

Posted on Tue May 18, 2004


Comments

I looked closely at the picture of the so called "Knee Trumpet". There are lots of 3D software packages that could produce the image. Lightwave, Maya, 3D Studio Max, Softimage, Strata, Truespace, etc...
I've been in the computer graphics industry for years and can spot the subtle clues, it's too perfect, a common sign of CG. 😊
Posted by Lenny  on  Sun Jun 20, 2004  at  07:12 PM
i didn't know the human knee could exhale
Posted by john  on  Sat Jul 03, 2004  at  08:24 PM
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