A young student writes about her half size violin ; it's past, present and future !
I am going to talk about my violin. It is special to me because it is one of the oldest objects in my house and it has a history to it. Picture this; it was made in Paris in the year 1896, which makes it 105 years old. The design is from a violin made by the master of all violinmakers, Antonio Stradivari. He made his famous violins, and other instruments, in Cremona, Italy, starting in the late 1600’s.
It is a half size violin, made for a child to use between the ages of 7 to 10, which means on average, it could have changed owners every three years. This violin could have had up to 35 owners. The mystery is how it got from Paris to a tiny violin shop in the centre of Bristol.
The body of a good violin is made from maple and spruce. The best woods have to be cut from wood at a high altitude as they grow denser and more slowly. The trees must be cut in winter when they are dormant. They must be cut from the colder North facing slopes. The wood is cut to shape called quarters, and cured slowly usually for ten years; the best wood is at least fifty years old.
The fingerboard is made from ebony, which is a tropical hard wood, and in consequence many of the early violins used artificially darkened hard woods from Europe as in the 1600’s ebony was very hard to get.
Almost as important as the violin itself are the type of strings and the quality of the bow. There is no point in having a good quality violin and a poor quality bow or strings. The strings need to be "Dominant" and the bow needs to have a good weight and balance.
One lesson my violin tutor looked at me, and with a great sadness in his eyes he said “Edie, I am sorry, you are going to have to give this violin up, its no good any more” My heart sank. “I should have practised more, I’m useless, he’s fed up with teaching me” He saw my anguish “No its not you, it’s the violin. You need a bigger violin. Don’t worry, I will come with you, we will find an instrument that has some colour to its sound”
That
following Saturday we went from shop to shop, nothing seemed good enough for
him, “No, too dull. No, too squeaky. No too shrill. No! No! No! No! No! Then
the old man in the shop came to his last little violin, hanging from the rack
close to the ceiling, he dragged an old wooden ladder over to reach the
instrument and pulling it down he handed it to my tutor, “Edie this feels
good, this could be it! Play it for me”. I played a tune, a little study we
had been working on, “yes, yes this is the one, buy it, you must have it”
“How much?” said my father, a cautious individual where ever money is concerned, “What!! How much? We want to buy the violin not the entire shop,” said he. After a great deal of shouting, furious stamping of feet, tantrums and finally, “this always works”, tears, my father finally gave in and agreed to buy it, I looked on bemused at my tutors extraordinary out burst.
And here it is, it’s not mine, it’s not anyone’s, in two years time someone else will borrow it for a while and then pass it on.
Written by a promising Young Student,
Westbury Park Strings,
Bristol, UK
www.wps.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
June 2001