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Posted by Linda on August 29, 2024 at 3:27pm 0 Comments 0 Likes
Posted by Robert on August 29, 2024 at 3:26pm 0 Comments 0 Likes
If you peruse fine violin shops and auction sites online, a violin maker name you could well run into (depending on your price range preferences) is “Hopf.” An authentic Hopf, perhaps dating back to the early 18th century, should be available for under $10,000 US, sometimes as…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on August 29, 2024 at 7:24am — No Comments
When a feature writer for Great British Life magazine interviewed Sir Neville Marriner, the English violinist who founded and conducted the orchestra at the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, in 2008, he asked the aging virtuoso what he would like written on his tombstone. Pausing for just a moment,…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on June 6, 2024 at 11:05am — No Comments
About a third of violin players acknowledge leaving their instrument vulnerable to theft, a large portion of them in cars. Which is a very, very bad idea.
In most major cities in the developed world, it’s a pretty common truism that leaving something on a car seat is an invitation to thieves. Something so worthless as an empty paper bag might be tempting enough for a smash-and-grab, just on the chance it contains a wallet or smartphone.
The cavalier among us might joke, “Heck,…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on May 7, 2024 at 9:36pm — No Comments
The saying, “Those who can’t, teach,” has never been true. Without teachers, civilized societies would have nothing. Teaching itself requires intense rigor and an ability to master the pedagogy of leading a student to discovery – all the while having the talent and patience required to get…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on April 14, 2024 at 7:16am — No Comments
The challenges and sometimes great triumphs of tracking the provenance and value of art and antiques has been the subject of extensive media coverage and even movies. The 2015 biographical drama, “Woman in Gold,” tracks the story of an elderly Jewish refugee and Holocaust survivor as she and a young attorney reclaim a Gustav Klimt…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on April 14, 2024 at 7:15am — No Comments
Added by Nathan Weiss on March 8, 2024 at 6:19am — No Comments
As every new genre of music stronguilds on what came strongefore it, it’s always interesting to see how certain instruments are employed in completely different ways. The incorporation of classical musical instruments in rock & roll music are a good illustration of this creative stretch strongy…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on December 22, 2023 at 8:19am — No Comments
Just two years after his death, the auctioning of the fine violins, bows, and memorabilia from the estate of Isaac Stern (1920-2001) set the violin universe on fire – with nearly the energy of Tchiakovsky’s Finale: Allegro…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on December 16, 2023 at 12:27pm — No Comments
Fundamentally, shopping online via Amazon in the 2020s is an awful lot like shopping by way of the Sears catalog in the early 1900s. The consumer then and now looked for what they wanted – or browsed for things that caught their eye – and placed an order with payment upfront. That order was then and is now delivered to…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on December 15, 2023 at 5:12am — No Comments
Pity the viola? Not quite a violin, not quite a cello, and a far cry from the double bass. With its lower and deeper sound vis a vis the violin it has largely played the alto voice in most compositions. Audiences rarely attended concerts to hear the viola. At best it was the inner voice in string quartets, an…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on October 26, 2023 at 5:11am — No Comments
Aspects of the cello that most matter when considering cello accessories and parts: The scroll, pegs, pegbox, neck, fingerboard, strings, upper bout, bridge, F-holes, C-bout, fine tuners, tailpiece (aka the tailgut), and lower bout.…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on October 25, 2023 at 12:43pm — No Comments
The innovation of making things smaller – from furniture size radios in the 1930s to hand-held transistor radios in the 1960s, and “car phones” as big as tissue boxes to slim smartphones of today – has a musical precedent. It was the pochette, the almost-pocket-sized version of a violin that was designed for its…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on July 28, 2023 at 5:43am — No Comments
In 20th century America, the music most popular among immigrants from Italy, and Naples in particular, is lively and very often full of comedy. That includes the Sceneggiata, a stage musical form akin to soap operas performed by Neapolitans Mario Merola, Pino Mauro, and Mario Trevi.
But among classical music…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on July 27, 2023 at 8:24am — No Comments
It’s curious to know what led to the development of great instrument making in Europe hundreds of years ago. Certainly, an appreciation for music is at the center of all the centers of violin-making craft. But in the case of Füssen, Germany, geographic location was critical to making it a center of luthiers engaged in the…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on June 24, 2023 at 2:24am — No Comments
The stringed instruments made by the famed Cremonese luthier, Antonio Stradivari, have household name recognition, beyond the sphere of classical music fans and musicians. “Perhaps it’s a Stradivarius?,” is the question almost anyone will ask when they come upon a violin in grandmother’s attic.
Such finds are unlikely…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on June 23, 2023 at 5:44am — No Comments
The story of the Amati family of violin makers is closely intertwined with another, historically prominent clan: that of Catherine de’ Medici (1519-1589), the Italian noblewoman, queen consort of France, and mother of the French kings Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on May 31, 2023 at 1:47pm — No Comments
Hard as it may be to imagine, it was a practice in the 18th and 19th centuries to reduce the size of bass violins (bassos) to what we now know the cello to be. This was even done with one of the 38 instruments made by early luthier Andrea Amati for King Charles IX of France.
First, a little history on the…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on May 30, 2023 at 8:31am — No Comments
In the world of very valuable things – think art, antiques, Stradivarius violins – there is a mix of beauty and threat that is ever present.
Fine art galleries have their works under 24/7 security. Antiques are heavily insured and protected, particularly if they have a connection to historical events. And when a…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on April 19, 2023 at 9:31am — No Comments
The Renaissance was a period so associated with the new, the creative, the break from the status quo, particularly in the arts, it’s no wonder there was an explosion of new stringed instruments used in the creation of music.
Consider first how musical instruments were largely banned in the church…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on April 17, 2023 at 7:28am — No Comments
When virtuoso violinist Ruggiero Ricci died in 2012 (b 1918), the obituaries tracked his storied career. From his status as a child prodigy (two of his five siblings also achieved professional status as stringed instrument players), through a period of feeling like a “has been,” back to a renewed career of triumphal performances…
ContinueAdded by Nathan Weiss on March 26, 2023 at 2:30pm — No Comments
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