Violins and Violinists

18/01/2020

Quote of the Day - "The Sound Post is called in French ye Soul of ye Viol ...Whereas without it neither of, nor any Viol or Violin give good sound."

I'm slowly working on a project with the famous Talbot Manuscript, an abortive attempt at encyclopedia of musical instruments drafted between 1680 and 1709. Here's one of the more interesting footnotes that crop up and make me smile.

12/01/2020

http://violinsandviolinists.com/2020/01/09/fake-or-fortune-is-it-a-real-stradivarius/

Every year we have dozens of people getting in touch to tell us they think they’ve found a priceless Stradivarius violin. Before you get excited, here are the facts you need to know. Benjamin…

12/01/2020

http://violinsandviolinists.com/2020/01/09/riccis-the-glory-of-cremona-hints-on-trying-instruments/

As a violin dealer, it always surprises me the varied ways that people try instruments. It’s clear to me that there is no standard technique that people learn as a student and the results at …

12/01/2020

http://violinsandviolinists.com/2020/01/08/antonio-stradivari-a-gala-celebration-1737-1987/

Touring around the 1987 Antonio Stradivari Exhibition in Cremona. It goes without saying that I was far too young in 1987 to take a trip to Cremona for the legendary exhibition, 250 years after St…

12/01/2020

http://violinsandviolinists.com/2020/01/07/nicolo-paganini-george-pattens-1832-preparatory-study-from-life/

A chance find in a German sale-room proved to be a little better than the auctioneer had suggested… Benjamin Hebbert lucks out. My luck was in one evening, surfing the usual channels and com…

12/01/2020

http://violinsandviolinists.com/2020/01/05/lights-show-how-heifetz-plays-violin/

In 1952 Jascha Heifetz met with the photograph Gjon Mili for an experiment in capturing the movement of his bow. Published in the 2 June issue of Life Magazine, here are some remarkable photographs…

12/01/2020

http://violinsandviolinists.com/2020/01/02/thomas-smith-and-the-apollo-belvedere-neo-classical-violin-making-in-piccadilly/

As London’s population grew in the early eighteenth century, areas of Westminster between the Royal Palaces and the City of London became increasingly prominent. By the 1720s Piccadilly was one of …

12/01/2020

http://violinsandviolinists.com/2019/12/13/london-amateur-orchestras/

There’s a great page on facebook for amateur orchestras in Britain, unsurprisingly called UK Amateur Orchestras, but with a terrific number of groups in London and the surrounding area I thou…

12/01/2020

http://violinsandviolinists.com/2019/11/22/ekphasis-the-paragone-and-baroque-violin-playing/

How music should be seen but not heard in paintings, and its implications for understanding musical iconography.

12/01/2020

http://violinsandviolinists.com/2019/06/23/gainsborough-abel/

Every few years viol players in England return with the same question, asking what the viol is in the famous painting of Carl Friederich Abel painted by Thomas Gainsborough. A surprise observation …

12/01/2020

http://violinsandviolinists.com/2019/06/19/voller-plain-and-simple/

The Voller Brothers are famous as forgers and copyists, but their work takes many forms including some relatively ‘straight’ instruments. Ultimately for anyone making a serious judgemen…

12/01/2020

http://violinsandviolinists.com/2019/06/06/a-superparticular-computer-how-viol-makers-probably-calculated-ratios/

How did sixteenth century English viol makers negotiate the reasonably complex task of negotiating proportional ratios when they made their instruments. Whilst my research indicated that they favou…