george wilson
12-28-2011, 11:47 AM
This violin is a baroque violin I made for a concert master. He was a specialist in baroque music,and the only violinist I ever heard in person who could make a baroque violin sound the way it should. I wish he could have been selected to play the violin in my 1974 film about making a spinet and a baroque violin. He came along a few years after that,however,and I had no say in choosing the musicians anyway. That was handled by the music adviser for the museum.
The lion's head I previously posted was made after this one,and I never finished making a violin from it before I became toolmaker,and my interests went in other directions.
I even made the varnish for this violin. Varnish making was a major research project for me for several years. It is of great importance in the World of violin making. The colors in violins is not stain. It should be in the varnish. These colors here are the result of making the varnish in the presence of iron. When melted and hot,some resins are very chemically active,and attack any iron in their presence,becoming shades of brown. This color can never fade because the oxidized iron is at the end of its chemical chain.
This,and my other violins,are truly Neanderthal work: Everything was done completely by hand. The tops and backs were hand carved,as were the peg heads. Sides were bent around a hot pipe as they have been done for many centuries.
The violins of Stradivari,Amati,and the other great old makers so sought after today,all began as baroque instruments. Their string lengths were shorter than those of today,the neck angles were different,and their internal brace under the tops were smaller. These old violins,set up the way they were,had a more flute like,and less strident tone. The pitch of music was lower in those days,A being about 420 cycles. Today,in order to make music louder,A is 440 cycles.
The necks of the original masterpiece violins have been lengthened,and their original peg heads cleverly grafted onto the new necks. The necks of modern violins angle back more,and the bridges are higher,making the down bearing pressure on the soundboards greater (about 29 #) than it was in past centuries.
Originally,violins were held differently,and had no chin rests: they were not held under the chin,but rather cradled lower down,like some old time fiddlers do today. The strings were of gut,not ever metal as they are sometimes today,especially the highest (E) string,which is most often steel today. Their tailpieces had no mechanical tuners attached. Tuning was strictly by tuning pegs. Metal strings are more touchy to tune than stretchy gut strings,so mechanical tuners on the tail pieces are often used these days.
It is not shown in these pictures,but in the 17th. and 18th.C's,the necks of violins were not angled back,but were parallel with the sides,seen from the side view of the violin. Their fingerboards were wedge shaped,and awkward looking,as they made the thickness of their necks much greater as the player played higher on the scale. Today,the necks are angled back,and are much more nearly the same thickness in the higher registers.
In the earlier music,players did not shift about as much as we do today,so these early necks were not the hinderance we would regard them as today. The early fingerboards were also sometimes bound,and had inlaid lines inside the bindings. This is not seen today: Since the violin is not fretted,and notes are made on the bare wood of the fingerboard,players do not want any inlay which might eventually swell up and cause off-noting. In a sense,modern violin fingerboards are more "pure" to the needs of the music.
Musical taste has changed greatly over the centuries. Though Strads were valuable in their day,and Stradivari was a very rich man,the violins of Jacob Steiner(or Stainer),an Austrian( who was the only maker outside Italy to use the Cremona varnish),were extremely sought after in their day. They had fatter,fuller arches which gave them a fluty tone which was desired at that time. The violins,like Strads,which were better able to be adapted to modern taste have gained modern preeminence.
Stainer went insane eventually,and had to be chained to his stone workbench. Stradivari worked until the age of 93,having made about 1200 violins,and some other instruments. No doubt,he had many helpers who did most of the "grunt" work. Stradivari likely chose the wood,and carefully designated the arching patterns of the top and back,and tuned the plates of the top and back. And,just about everyone in Northern Italy used the famous varnish. The varnish is not "the secret".
You will see that the head of the lion is very similar to the one posted in FAQ section. The rest of the peghead is decorated differently from the other(and nicer) head. After I made this one,I had further thoughts about how to adorn the rest of the peghead. I was somewhat limited anyway,because the concert master wanted his name carved into this peghead.
The lion's head I previously posted was made after this one,and I never finished making a violin from it before I became toolmaker,and my interests went in other directions.
I even made the varnish for this violin. Varnish making was a major research project for me for several years. It is of great importance in the World of violin making. The colors in violins is not stain. It should be in the varnish. These colors here are the result of making the varnish in the presence of iron. When melted and hot,some resins are very chemically active,and attack any iron in their presence,becoming shades of brown. This color can never fade because the oxidized iron is at the end of its chemical chain.
This,and my other violins,are truly Neanderthal work: Everything was done completely by hand. The tops and backs were hand carved,as were the peg heads. Sides were bent around a hot pipe as they have been done for many centuries.
The violins of Stradivari,Amati,and the other great old makers so sought after today,all began as baroque instruments. Their string lengths were shorter than those of today,the neck angles were different,and their internal brace under the tops were smaller. These old violins,set up the way they were,had a more flute like,and less strident tone. The pitch of music was lower in those days,A being about 420 cycles. Today,in order to make music louder,A is 440 cycles.
The necks of the original masterpiece violins have been lengthened,and their original peg heads cleverly grafted onto the new necks. The necks of modern violins angle back more,and the bridges are higher,making the down bearing pressure on the soundboards greater (about 29 #) than it was in past centuries.
Originally,violins were held differently,and had no chin rests: they were not held under the chin,but rather cradled lower down,like some old time fiddlers do today. The strings were of gut,not ever metal as they are sometimes today,especially the highest (E) string,which is most often steel today. Their tailpieces had no mechanical tuners attached. Tuning was strictly by tuning pegs. Metal strings are more touchy to tune than stretchy gut strings,so mechanical tuners on the tail pieces are often used these days.
It is not shown in these pictures,but in the 17th. and 18th.C's,the necks of violins were not angled back,but were parallel with the sides,seen from the side view of the violin. Their fingerboards were wedge shaped,and awkward looking,as they made the thickness of their necks much greater as the player played higher on the scale. Today,the necks are angled back,and are much more nearly the same thickness in the higher registers.
In the earlier music,players did not shift about as much as we do today,so these early necks were not the hinderance we would regard them as today. The early fingerboards were also sometimes bound,and had inlaid lines inside the bindings. This is not seen today: Since the violin is not fretted,and notes are made on the bare wood of the fingerboard,players do not want any inlay which might eventually swell up and cause off-noting. In a sense,modern violin fingerboards are more "pure" to the needs of the music.
Musical taste has changed greatly over the centuries. Though Strads were valuable in their day,and Stradivari was a very rich man,the violins of Jacob Steiner(or Stainer),an Austrian( who was the only maker outside Italy to use the Cremona varnish),were extremely sought after in their day. They had fatter,fuller arches which gave them a fluty tone which was desired at that time. The violins,like Strads,which were better able to be adapted to modern taste have gained modern preeminence.
Stainer went insane eventually,and had to be chained to his stone workbench. Stradivari worked until the age of 93,having made about 1200 violins,and some other instruments. No doubt,he had many helpers who did most of the "grunt" work. Stradivari likely chose the wood,and carefully designated the arching patterns of the top and back,and tuned the plates of the top and back. And,just about everyone in Northern Italy used the famous varnish. The varnish is not "the secret".
You will see that the head of the lion is very similar to the one posted in FAQ section. The rest of the peghead is decorated differently from the other(and nicer) head. After I made this one,I had further thoughts about how to adorn the rest of the peghead. I was somewhat limited anyway,because the concert master wanted his name carved into this peghead.