http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080214/ap_en_mu/odd_fractured_fiddle
What a shame. Apparently the instrument was made in 1772. If I had a $1M violin I would hire a team of bearers to transport it on a feather pillow. I wonder if it was insured?
How will he replace it? Are there old violins just laying around to be picked up by anyone with a spare million? And why would yahoo call it a fiddle? A fiddle is something you pick up at the 76 station for $18.95 with a 10 gal fill up.
Replies
Who's the nut that lent him a Stadivarius after his London "show"?
Can lightening strike twice? ........ I wouldn't risk it.
...The unspoken word is capital. We can invest it or we can squander it. -Mark Twain...Be kind to your children....they will choose your nursing home....aim low boys, they're ridin' shetland ponies !!
It's kind of like tools - you can buy the most expensive but it still comes down to how well he can play. He'll either get it fixed and move on, or buy another one and move on. But for now, he's got everyone talking about him. :)
For historical reasons, I hope they can fix it.
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Edited 2/17/2008 9:50 am by Ted W.
Sorry, the analogy with tools simply doesn't hold up. It's not a question of a Stradivarius (or several other exceptional instruments from that time period) costing more or exhibiting finer workmanship, the attention paid to these instruments is due to the fact that they simply do sound better. Modern day luthiers are exceptional in their craft but they cannot replicate the sound of a Stradivarius. Many have suggested that trees grown during the mini-ice age are the reason, others have said that Stradivarius irregularly planed the wood to ensure consistent density, while others (including my ex's grandfather, an immigrant from Italy who spent a lifetime repairing string instruments for symphonies and professional musicians around the world) have said that it was that the wood was submerged in salt water for years prior to milling it.In the end it is likely a hundred small things that come together to make a Stradivarius but one thing is without question, they can't be reproduced today.
woodman 41,
That is also what I was told why a Stradivarius violin sounds as sweet as it does. The the logs had been submerged deep in the Mediterranean which provided some aditional sweetening of the wood since the bound water would be forced out by water pressure..
There is some discussion now going on about the logs submerged deep in Lake superior which supposedly might have similar musical properties..
The wood was deep enough to release the bound water in the cells without the required oxygen which would decay the wood..
Since most of the trees harvested were eatern white pine etc.. there is no real interest.. However several maples have been harvested including one with the highly desireable fiddleback or curley trait. That log was reportedly sold for $99 a bd.ft. and is rumored to be carefully drying in someones barn.
Frenchy,
It was a trip back in time going to the old man's workshop. An old bandsaw the only machine in sight and not an apprentice under 50. I don't suspect he was anything but stubborn and would likely have benefited from a little modernization but fine instrument restoration is a business that moves at a glacial speed and the margins are high enough to support a low pace of work. My respect for the man ran deep, his knowledge of the characteristics of wood, how to manipulate it, and techniques that will eventually be completely lost were encyclopedic and representative of a man who spent a lifetime deeply devoted to a craft and a genuine love for the instruments he worked on. What I did always find curious is that he never expressed an interest in building new instruments, just repairing and restoring those from the past. It's funny to think about the things I remember of him now, like the fact that he always had the delicate hands of a musician and could just as easily pick up an instrument make beautiful sounds as he could a gouge to carve a fine detail.
Woodman41
That's a place where I could go and sit quietly in a corner and watch for hours upon end.. There is no way My skills would allow me to achieve what they do daily but simply to be in their precense would be wonderful.
Ehhhh... the idea of a Stradivari sounding "better" needs some qualifying. Things can be approached by first basically two general "schools", a kind of yin-yang, curiously similar to the Les Paul/humbucker vs. Strat/single-coil thing in the electric guitar world, one more or less thinner, sweeter and more "major" sounding (Strad) and one thicker, darker and more "minor" (Guarnerius). These are kinds of "schools", generally, of playing styles as well. Until fairly recently this was pretty sharply defined as an East/West thing, listen to old recordings of the Oistrakhi and Azharkin for "Guarnerius" playing on actual Guarnerius instruments and compare to "Western" masters of the same era, on Stradivarii. Then there's bluegrass, which is a whole other thing and as sophisticated and demanding as any other "school"- not to mention Indian violin playing, which is simply intimidating.Right off the bat there isn't one "better" or "best" in sound and playing.As far as the instruments, common sense and experience with wood and sound tells you right away that you'll have to wait some centuries before you can really compare the new with old. Even metal machines, in musical context, change with time, and quickly. For example, I have an Alexandrov-designed Gefell microphone and every musician and technician I know has noted that it has changed in sound over the last seven years- thicker, warmer, softer. Whatever "scientists" may say about whether or not that's possible, it's audible to the people for whom it matters. Wood, even when not subject to massive tension and continual periodic vibration for centuries, obviously changes. Hell you can magnetize a ferric rod by pointing it north and hammering the end, and I'm only 40 but can personally attest to the very tangible changes in the wood I worked as a teenager. As noted by some team researching Stradivarii with lasers and such (at MIT if recall correctly), it is very likely that when new, the great fiddles had the same kinds of relative hardness, "stiffness" and brightness in the sound as the fine new violins of today. For the record, I'm "Guarnerius school" in taste, all the way, have been since ealiest memory. But in whiskey I'm "bluegrass"- bring a bottle of Booker Beam if you ever visit. No whiskey drinker could fail to grasp the concept of mellowing and ripening with age.-Cameron Bobro
Cameron,
Sound is of course subjective. My point said another way is that if you polled a thousand professional musicians, producers, and composers the result would be that a majority would state that the Strad does indeed sound "better" than a modern day equivalent according to whatever their definition of the term is. A more interesting angle to explore would be whether or not they would feel that way not knowing the instrument in question is a rare Stradivarius. I suspect that those with the ear of a professional, such as yourself, most would conclude that the Strad does indeed have a sound with a warmth and character that is highly appealing.
Hi,
This violin, will in all probability, be repaired. I havent seen any photos, so I can't begin to estimate the cost.
While working at a local music store I repaired a rental pool of approximately 1000 violins every year with walk-in traffic and guitars.
Every year it would seem that a family would come in with their "heirloom violin" that Junior had broken. Usually they had a Sears fiddle or nice old German student model. Well one year, I got a call from a nice woman who was very distraught, telling me that she had just backed her car over her grandfathers violin. I thought, OK, here we go again, I'll explain and probably spend time on an estimate that will go nowhere and just chalk it up to goodwill. She brought in the violin and told me that her grandfather had performed as second chair in some symphony in Europe, but, she couldn't remember where. Her son laid down this very flat case and looked at me with this " you gotta get me out of this one PLEASE!!!" expression. I open the case and there is this very nice Galliano from around 1780-1790. I immediately told the woman to call her insurance agent and commence to plan the reassembly and repair. Long story short (not really) anything short of splinters can be repaired if the budget allows. The real question that always bothers me is if I can restore the tonality and projection. The childs father commented on picking it up that he could not see the patch or any of the crack repairs and the teacher commented that she thought it was louder than before the accident. I personally believe that fresh strings were responsible for the increase in apparent loudness, but, not having played the fiddle before, don't have a good baseline for an opinion. I had documented the repairs with polaroids, but these were lost in the '93 Mississippi flood, oh well.
I guess what I'm trying to say is a luthier with experience should be able to restore this instrument. The real question is this instrument worth the effort and expense. In this situation obviously, yes. Most of the time, no.
I think you've made a good point. A lot of people seem to want to point at one thing and say " this finish is why" or " the ammonia from the hog pen is the key" to why these fine violins sound so sweet. I once read that a luthier was excited that he was able to extract a bristle from the varnish brush from an obscured spot on a Strad and that this would allow him to recreate this last step to duplicate the tone. I believe it all matters, every detail. They are all unique and no instrument made from wood, can ever be perfectly duplicated.
Thos.
OK, so now for some heresy-"Smashed to bits" sounds like newspaper hype. If the bearer of said violin was not hospitalized with a subdural hematoma, and the violin was in a case, I'm guessing that its wounds were serious, but less than mortal. But "smashed to bits" does make good copy.These debates about the sounds of Strads and other antique instruments are based more on psychology than physics, IMHO. I don't doubt that a Stradivarius or other antique classic violin sounds great- but when was the last time that you heard one played by an incompetent? When the player is of the caliber of Isaac Stern, the instrument tends to sound pretty good. Audible experiences are about both the physical and the psychological. There are some who say that mp3s cannot duplicate the quality of uncompressed music. But as the bit rate increases (>200k) the differences become indistinguishable to the human ear. Yet still, those with golden ears claim they cannot abide listening to compressed music- even in their car or with ear buds, environments that are not likely to bring out the subtle. The real question for me is what happens double blind? If both he audience and the player are unaware of the instrument's origin- can they perceive a difference? Before you answer consider some similar experiences: there are many examples in blind wine tasting by experts that the great clarets (Petrus, Margaux, etc) have come out second to "lesser" vineyards. It was the success of California cabernets in such a tasting in the 1960s against their French rivals that established their reputation (and shocked and outraged the French). Interestingly, the president of Perrier USA was unable to distinguish his product from... wait for it- seltzer in a blinded test.So double blind testing is the standard. I've not heard of such an experiment using Strads, but until I do, I'm drinking seltzer.My take is that Strads are examples of outstanding craftsmanship and sound great- whether modern instruments are the lesser, I remain doubtful.
Glaucon
If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...
Glaucon
You make an excellant point. However I doubt that really great violinists will be so fooled. Simple feel of each classic style instrument would be differant enough to influeance the performance of the violinist.
"Smashed to bits" sounds like media hype. I keep my guitar in a hardcase, though it's no strad it will take quite a bit of abuse in there. Must have been some fall. I'm guessing he was going down the stairs, fell backwards the case hit the step taking his full body weight. Maybe that fiddle saved him from a head injury?
"'Smashed to bits' sounds like newspaper hype." You're probably right, Glaucon. I went back and re-read the article. The direct quote from the violinist stated "much of my [violin] had been crushed." It was the author who described the "smashed to bits" bit.
"Crushed" could mean the top (or back) was pushed in, maybe the neck loose, that kinda thing. "Smashed to bits," in my mind, means splintered (ouch!).forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Gittercritter,
I read with great relish your comments.. Please excuse me if this sounds foolishly fundamental but didn't Stradavarius make several violins and aren't they all reported to have his wonderful sound?
IF so shouldn't the details which made his sound so exceptional be repeatable? I mean he repeated it didn't he?
Hello Frenchy,
Thanks for your kind words. I believe there are approximately 600 Stradivari that are still surviving. Maybe more.
They tend to sound close to each other, but there are subtle differences that are apparent when you listen to them side by side. I have had the great privilege of hearing a very well known soloist playing his Strad and a locally owned Strad played in the same hall when during rehearsal. They both admired the others instruments and swapped for a few scales. They did indeed sound close, yet different.
I have never made a complete violin, but I have made replacement tops and necks. This always changes the sound. I have made identical guitars from consecutive slabs out of the same tree and they sound different. These tonal varieties are sometimes subtle and sometimes very obvious.
That being said I do believe that once synthetic materials become more accepted, the instruments made from those materials have the possibility of having repeatable tones. Graphite bows are very commonly used now and I have seen a carbon fiber fiddle that sounded decent. I don't believe these materials will change or improve with use.
Thos.
Just recently saw something on a Stradivarius. Trees at the time had survived the medieval mini ice age. Very slow growth, tight growth rings. You can't find that type of lumber today.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
What was the case made of? Saran Wrap?? Tissue paper?? Sheesh. I can understand a crack, maybe, but smashed "to bits"??!?
To answer some of the questions asked about this:
It was insured.
Yes, it is possible to find a great violin for sale, if you wait a bit. I hear about one being sold at least once a year, and those are only the exceptionally rare violins.
It was not a Strad that was destroyed. He's borrowing one for the moment though. Many collectors of these instruments are happy to loan them out, as the instruments lose their voice if not played. I'm guessing there were words regarding the care with which he'll carry the loaner :-).
It appears that the case survived, but wasn't well enough padded to protect the violin. I'm not sure any normal violin case would've protected the violin from being smashed against concrete steps.
I paid more attention to this story than it really warranted, as my wife is a professional violinist.
Mike
Nothing a shot of WD-40 and some duct tape wouldn't fix.
Or some pocket screws.
Interestingly enough, and not mentioned in any of the news coverage of this story AFAIK, "smashed" fiddles are supposedly some of the best. Maybe it's legend, but there are stories of great fiddles being deliberately smashed and then reworked, for a better sound. And the Guarnerius that floated out to sea... if I recall correctly, Henry Temianka wrote about these things in "Facing the Music".
-Cameron Bobro
"Nothing a shot of WD-40 and some duct tape wouldn't fix."
Here, here...that's my line. If we're getting back to the redneck tool kit, then it is a fiddle. :)
Haha, I thought that was a kind of universal line, my dad says it as a kind of poetic reference to shoddy workmanship. That and "stack lamination" and "biscuit joints". Of course we always had WD-40 in the shop.The great violinists also call their Strads and Guernerii "fiddles", by the way. A lot of them came from an Eastern European Jewish fiddling tradition, wild fiddling at weddings.-Cameron Bobro
Can someone tell me how these violins sounded 200-300 years ago? Can someone tell me how a violin made today by a competent luthier will sound 200-300 years from now?
By the way, I live in the South. A violin has strings, a fiddle has strangs...same instrument.
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