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05/11/11(Wed)13:20 No.25836143>>25836064
>>25836108
copy-pasting from ponychan, but read it anyway to settle the 'what instrument is she playing' debate:
>By the way, the question of what instrument Octavia is playing is an interesting one; she's clearly holding her instrument in the manner in which one holds an upright bass, but the body of the instrument is that of a member of the violin family and her bow appears more similar to a cellists than a bassists. I see two possibilities:
>1) Since the ponies are, of course, 'little,' they are forced to play cello in the upright position in order to effectively reach the strings.
>2) Octavia is actually playing a true bass violin (which is distinct from the modern string base, a hybridized bass viol) Given that a full-sized bass violin is a little over 7 feet tall (slightly larger than a full-sized bass viol-most bass players use a 3/4ths or 7/8ths), and if we guess that ponies are about 3 feet tall from hoof to mane when standing on all fours (I don't know why exactly we think that, but I've heard that number several times before), it appears that she's probably using a 5/8ths or 1/2 bass violin.
>Personally, I like the second idea better, as it allows for some interesting speculation into the musical history of Equestria (Did they never invent viols? Do both bass violins and string basses exist side-by-side? Is Octavia's preference an exception, an affectation, or the norm?).
>Oh, I suppose there's also the Doylist interpretation, which would be, "It's a string bass, but the shape is a little screwy because whoever animated it wasn't a musician, and the size is wrong because they made it the right size for their pre-made pony models." But that's boring. |
