 |
Articles |
More than strictly an Italian job
Violin makers still copy the old Cremona masters, but the
craft’s in revival worldwide.
By Chris Pasles
Los Angeles Times, 1/04
Cremona is a magical name to musicians and music lovers.
Master violin makers Antonio Stradivari, Guiseppe Guarnaeri and Nicolo
Amati-these are only the best-known 17th and 18th century craftsmen who
put the Italian town on the international map.
Currently, a collection of more than 50 modern Cremonnese violins,
violas and cellos is at the Thomas Metzler Violin Shop in Glendale, where they
will remain – and fro sale – until the end of the month. Sunday
afternoon, three players will be on hand to demonstrate them for the public. “One
cannot say that these are today’s Stradivari”, says Metzler. “But
the quality is way up there. The makers are working in a strict tradition,
and they’re proud of that tradition. A lot of the results are in keeping
with the masters they have copied, visually and tonally. They’ve created
some beautiful instruments.”
But to talk to musicians, other retailers and experts on
stringed instruments and it soon becomes clear that the Italians have long
since lost their corner on this particular market. Worldwide, a renaissance
in violinmaking is underway.
“There is a mystique about Cremona,” says Michael
Selman, director of the U.S. office of J & A Beare Led., a London-based
firm widely regarded as the authority on Strads and other high-end instruments. “Unfortunately,
other violin makers have latched on to that. The best violins go back to the
golden age. But just because you live in Cremona doesn’t mean you’re
a great violin maker. The better makers are upset that some have set up shop
there.” In contemporary violin making, Selman says, “there are
great European makers, there are wonderful American makers, there are wonderful
Japanese makers. Anywhere you look, there are great makers now.”
A number of factors have fueled this revival, especially in the
U. S. For one, great European makers came to these shores in the years immediately
before and after the Second World War and started schools of violin-making
in, among other cities, Salt Lake City, Chicago, and Boston. Graduates received
further training at instrument repair and restoration shops. The students where
often mortivated by countercultural values, rejecting industry and academia
and turning instead to music, crafts, craftsmanship. On top of that, market
demand exploded as the prices of older instruments began spiraling to stratospheric
levels in the ‘70s. more and more players around the world were chasing
a very limited supply. Even superstar artists found instruments priced out
of their reach
Conventional
wisdom, of course could never be as good as the older ones. Stradivari and
his compatriots, this thinking went, knew some secret that has long been lost.
Maybe it was the varnish. Maybe, one more recent version goes, it was that
the wood was soaked in the swamps around Cremona. “there is no such secret,” says
Brooklyn-based maker Samuel Zygmuntowicz. “violin making is a highly
sophisticated, pre-modern technology, wit quite a developed body of empirical
knowledge.” “the secret is contained in all the little things you
do-the shapes and styles and all the details you see. It’s a thousand
different variables. Any of those will affect the outcome. The secret is in
plain view.”
To be sure, all contemporary makers use Strads and other golden
age instruments as models-taking them apart, copying parts, making replicas.
Professional violinists sometimes use such copies in their concerts because
the originals may be fragile or because there are insurance risks. Yehudi Menuhin,
for instance, had his 1742 “Lord Wilton” (made by Guarneri) copied
for those reasons. And Isaac Stern similarly commissioned two touring copies
of his Guarneri-made instrument from Zygmuntowicz. Amazingly, at a recent auction
of Stern memorabilia, Zygmuntowicz’s copies sold for a total of neatly
$200,000. “that sent shock a wave through a lot of people I know,” the
violin maker says. “They were not used to people paying such money for
modern instruments.”
But, says, Maryland-based maker Christopher Germain, “the
better makers today have had the opportunity to examine, study and work on
and learn from the great masterpieces and incorporate some of the knowledge
they’ve gained to produce great contemporary instruments. “Many
of those have the characteristics that professionals seek out in an n instrument-great
projection, brilliance of tone, balance and tonal qualities-all the hallmarks
of a great instrument.” In fact, during blind tests, in which a
musician plays from a mix of fine contemporary and older instruments many people
are unable to tell which is which. “the great old instruments truly are
great,” says Germain, “But it’s very difficult sometimes
to tell the new instruments from the older ones.” The modern renaissance
in violin making is also fueled by makers’ willingness to share what
they know. “Traditionally, the field has been very secretive,” Germain
says, “trade secrets were passed down from family to family and workshop
to workshop. There was a fear of sharing, of losing a competatitive edge. “Today
people realize that opening up and sharing information raises the level of
everyone’s work. That enables a synergy for everybody to learn from everyone’s
experience. The profession is a very competitive one, that’s true. But,
as someone once said, there’s plenty of room at the top.”
Anyone contemplating purchasing a new violin must first decide
what he or she is willing got pay, the experts say. “You might spend
$10,000 for a violin built by a younger maker who hasn’t yet established
himself,” say J & A Beare’s Selma. “that won’t
necessarily be an less of a violin. The price might triple in a couple of years
because violin makers are at different points in their careers.” Germain
suggests that potential buyers contact the American Federation of Violin and
Bow Makers Inc. at www.afvbm.com. “that’s
a group of about 120 members in the U. S., and it’s a professional organization
which has very stringent standards of
admission and membership,” he says. “That’s one way
to determine people who are professionals.”
Now that so many fine instruments are available, a few apostates
say that perhaps its’ time to the think the unthinkable and go beyond
the Cremonese models. Gregg Alf, a Michigan maker who trained
in Cremona, is planning a brainstorming session in the Italian region of Tuscany
this spring with a number of prominent makers and shakers-to ponder the state
of the art. He also plans to raise the issue of innovation. “We’re
all copying Stradivari and Guarneri,” Alf says. “If you likened
that to painters copying the Mona Lisa, you can say we can make better and
better copies, but does that mean I’m as good as Leonardo? Maybe we should
re-brand contemporaty violin making on our own terms and no longer compare
by how close we get to looking like out predecessors. WE might just start by
giving makers permission to consider building violins on their own designs,” he
says. “This would be absurd if we were talking about painters. They don’t
do Leonardo anymore. As things are now, we have there painting-Stradivari,
Guarneri, and Amati- and we’re doing them again and again, over and over.
Nothing about this is anyway ay should be considered my disenfranchising old
instruments. I love them. My reputation is built on getting a Strad into my
shop, taking it apart and rebuilding replicas. But for the most part, the copying
we do today in the future won’t get as much mention as the violin makers
who branch off and did new things. I’m trusting the people who come tot
the Tuscany session to be very creative and have fruitful visions. It could
get wild. And that would be a good thing.”
1221 Prospect Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48104
(734) 665-2012 fax: (734) 665-4623
email: violins@alfstudios.com