Anna’s Blog: the Curious World of Violins

18 May 2013

Continuing the theme of violins and shoes (see posts on Paganini and the modern sculptor Janet Orselli), here are some limited edition shoes designed by Kobi Levi ‘footwear art’.

Specially designed for the “8 variations for Stradivari” exhibition at Cremona, Italy (May 2013), this style is Kobi’s view of the classic instrument.
The brown leather mimics the warmness of carved wood and with “strings” up the heel and S-shaped “holes” on the insole and sole, the transformation into a shoe shape is complete.

You live and learn – all these years we’ve been thinking it was an ‘f-hole’….   (Ed)

17 May 2013

Anything that is too stupid to be said, is sung.
François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire

Because of his well-known criticism of the Church, which he had refused to retract before his death, Voltaire was denied a Christian burial, but friends managed to bury his body secretly at the Abbey of Scellières in Champagne before this prohibition had been announced. His heart and brain were embalmed separately.

On 11 July 1791, the National Assembly of France, which regarded him as a forerunner of the French Revolution, had his remains brought back to Paris to enshrine him in the Panthéon. It is estimated that a million people attended the procession, which stretched throughout Paris. There was an elaborate ceremony, complete with an orchestra, and the music included a piece that André Grétry had composed specially for the event, which included a part for the “tuba curva” (an instrument that originated in Roman times as the cornu but had recently been revived under a new name.
François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire

12 May 2013

The first task for the teacher is to ”teach music and singing in school in such a way that is not a torture but a joy for the pupil; instill a thirst for finer music in him, a thirst which will last for lifetime.” Zoltán Kodály

More details→

11 May 2013

From: The Second Book of Great Musicians by Percy A Scholes, 1922

Franz Schubert needed friends. His father was poor, and the school life, though happy in many ways, was in others a hard one. At the time Franz was admitted to school he had ten or eleven brothers and sisters, and as the years went by more came into the world, so that in the end there were seventeen children in the family. Now the father, though a hard-working man, did not earn a great deal of money. So when, to his great joy, he managed to get his clever son Franz into the school I have been speaking of, which was the Emperor’s choir school, and trained boys for the court chapel, he could not supply him with those little luxuries that boys at a boarding-school seem to expect, and it is quite certain, for instance, that Franz had no ‘tuck-box’. ‘Tuck-box’ indeed! Why, he had not even enough plain wholesome food, as you may find from a letter he wrote some time after this to his elder brother, Ferdinand, who was his favourite brother and always, through his whole life, very good to him. This is what he wrote:

MY DEAR BROTHER,
I have been thinking over my life here, and I find it’s really not a bad one, on the whole, but there are some ways in which it could be improved. You know how much one enjoys a roll or an apple now and again, and all the more when one has to wait eight-and-a-half hours between dinner and supper! All the money Father gave me, which wasn’t much, has gone long ago, so what am I do do? This is what I’ve been thinking – can’t you let me have a shilling or two a month?

Dear Schubert, we’d like to order this for you, what is your address?
Best wishes, Martin Swan Violins

7 May 2013

From: The Violin, Its Famous Makers and Their Imitators,  George Hart 1909

Tradition has it that the Nile, having overflowed Egypt, left on shore a dead Cheli (tortoise), the flesh of which being dried in the sun, nothing was left within the shell but nerves and cartilages, and these being braced and contracted were rendered sonorous.  Mercury, in walking, struck his foot against the shell of the tortoise, and was delighted with the sound produced, which gave him the idea of a Lyre that he later constructed in the form of a tortoise, and strung with the sinews of dead animals. This account of the origin of Lutes, Fiddles and catgut is classic and picturesque.  Tradition and myth have played parts of much consequence in the work of civilisation: they have, however, at length fallen upon a critical and remarkably sceptical age, and rapidly fade and die under the inquisitorial torture of modern inquiry – a result at least to be expected from the contact of their own dreamy and delicate nature with unromantic matter.

Cartoon by MJBivouac

29 April 2013

In the early 1920s, the Thompson Sub-Machine gun was introduced, and mob families like the Chicago Mafia took them to heart, calling them “Chicago Typewriters“.

Someone had the bright idea of using violin cases to carry the guns without attracting attention. The parts of a Tommy Gun when stripped down could all fit inside a violin case, though with some models the stock of the gun was too long, so a viola case was used instead.

The idea took off and gangsters later carried other machine guns in violin and guitar cases.  The mobster “Buster From Chicago” reputedly carried his machine gun in a white violin case and there were even stories that he’d modified a guitar case so he could fire a gun without opening the case.

More details→

20 April 2013
In most aspects of running a business together, Martin and I agree, or at least manage to converge to a common position. The only thing I really hold against him is that a couple of years ago he had a fit of irrational tidiness and sold our collection of violin mutes… He’s promised never to let one go again and I am slowing re-building the collection.

14 April 2013

I want to make good citizens. If a child hears fine music from the day of his birth and learns to play it himself, he develops sensitivity, discipline and endurance. He gets a beautiful heart.

—Shin’ichi Suzuki

More details→

12 April 2013
If anyone has conducted a Beethoven performance, and then doesn’t have to go to an osteopath, then there’s something wrong.
Simon Rattle

Interview with Magdalena Kožená

4 April 2013

When we dispatch a violin, viola or cello we pack it carefully, either using an old case and a double-walled cardboard box or else a 2-box plywood-reinforced system.  We also apply our years of experience and a good deal of bubblewrap.

Sculpture by Philippe Guillerm

We also choose our couriers carefully.  This guy gets points for flair, but we’re not letting him anywhere near our instruments! More details→

1 April 2013

Sadly, this iPhone app for instantly discovering the age of a violin by visual analysis of the wood was an April Fool, but the principle of Dendrochronology is sound.  More details→

27 March 2013
It seemed like the perfect solution for luthiers and bow-makers who wanted to use ivory without being implicated in the slaughter of elephants – mammoth ivory! More details→

27 March 2013:

I don’t know if Janet Orselli has heard the story of Paganini’s ‘Shoe Violin’ (see previous post) but I hope that she was thinking of it when she created this piece of violin art.

26 March 2013:

From: Watson’s Art Journal 3 Aug 1867 More details→

17 March 2013:
From: Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of Celebrated Violinists, Dr T L Phipson, 1877 More details→

5 Feb 2013: Best known as England’s leading contemporary fiddler, Sam Sweeney has one of our Hardangers, and has recently been getting into the cello! He asked us to produce a small instrument for him, so we decided to copy the Guadagnini “Simpson”, a superb cello with a back length of only 711mm. His instrument is nearly finished, and this 7/8 model will be generally available from spring 2013. More and more cellists are realizing they don’t need a big brute of an instrument to make a great sound, and we hope the Guadagnini model will be very popular. Here are some photos of the cellos being made.

More details→

20 Dec 2912: Photos from a recent stringed instrument auction.

So many violins, so little time…
More details→

26 Nov 2102: We have decided to sell new violin, viola and cello bows by Brazilian makers Alessandro Carlesso and Alecio Luiz Dos Reis. Carlesso is a fantastic maker who uses very dense wood to produce bows with unusual strength for their weight. Working to models by Lamy and Sartory, his bows are of very similar technical quality at a tenth of the price of the originals. Alecio Reis is a young maker based in Cheltenham UK who apprenticed in Brazil with M. Francisco and Renato Casara. His bows are very well balanced and represent exceptional value for money.

Look for our first selections by clicking the ‘Bows’ tab on the left of this page.

20 Nov 2012: The Ashmolean is famous for the Stradivari Messiah, but it also has several wonderfully austere Amati violins and this fabulous decorated Stradivari.  We went to visit the museum last week. For more info about the Ashmolean collection look here.

Click on these images to enlarge, then use to expand further

More details→

19 Nov 2012: Violins for beginners: the naming of parts. From a display in the Ashmolean Museum.

Click on these images to enlarge, then use to expand further

More details→

19 Oct 2012: Violins for beginners: this display in the Ashmolean Museum is a useful starting point for understanding violin construction.

Click on these images to enlarge, then use to expand further

More details→

16 Oct 2012: I recently took part – as a listener – in a trial of violins being played as soloist instruments with an orchestra in a concert hall in Paris.  More details→

26 June 2012: Results from the March sales in London are now on our tone evaluations page – you can see sale prices and tonal ratings for Bromptons, Tarisio, Sothebys, Gardiner Houlgate and Bonhams. The sales were mobbed, and prices were high…. More details→

11 June 2012: We are starting to think about producing a violin and a cello on a baroque pattern, and we’d welcome your input. More details→

6 June 2012: We’ve just set up a YouTube channel. So far we’ve put up a playlist featuring some of Martin’s music – More details→

3 May 2012: Roger Francois Lotte worked for his father Francois Lotte until around 1960. Prices for good Lotte bows have risen rapidly over the last few years – More details→

17 March 2012: Since publishing her research on player preferences among new and old violins Claudia Fritz has had to cope with a media storm – More details→

… to online sources of information about the violin family.

More details→

Your chance to network with other players (and to extol the virtues of your new Martin Swan violin should you feel so inclined!)

More details→

There’s been a media flurry over the publication of research showing that experienced violinists couldn’t tell from sound alone whether the instrument they were playing was old or new – More details→

Violin Strings : you’re probably bored to tears hearing me singing the praises of Warchal Karneol – well it’s about to get worse. More details→

It’s easy for a players at any level to fall into the trap of thinking that the more expensive a violin is, the better it will sound. More details→

When this question appeared on violinist.com, Al Ku made the following comment: More details→

Why does one instrument sound great while another doesn’t …?

“There are so many rules about how to make a good violin, and yet so few makers actually succeed! More details→

It’s not easy buying a violin – most players, professional or amateur, are obsessed with the search for a magical instrument. More details→

Advantages of buying online rather than visiting a violin shop

More details→

Make sure you have a period of grace to try out the instrument, at least 7 days, and that you will be refunded promptly if you send the item back.

More details→

You can now get all our news through facebook. More details→

The excellent online violin community Violinist.com now has a section for Martin Swan Violins. More details→