Violin Forum/Message Board

jessupe goldastini · Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 3:26 am Post subject: good links/qeustion

here are some links that may be enjoyed....one is to the national music museum, the other orpheum consort....some great pictures of rare classic cremona and other fiddles.....

if any one goes to see,or is fammiliar with the amati { on the orpheum site}it has a much different "barouqe" style tail piece, much more angular}along with inlay...

does this shape have issues with sound?, why did this style tailpeice change?...

second, regarding estetic carving in the scroll, intricate purfling inlay etc....do these effect sound qaulity?.....barring the chello played by yeesun kim on my friends last qaurtet { borromeo qaurtet} { micheal ellison composer}which has a cool dragon thingy going on... it seems most of the concert used violins perferd by top players do not have "astetic bells and whistles"....

http://www.usd.edu/smm/Indices/nmmMakers.html

http://www.mdw.ac.at/I105/orpheon/Seiten/Abra/vazquezcoll.htm#Anchor-11481

Andres Sender · Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 3:00 pm Post subject:

It has been suggested to me that one should not give the attributions on the Orpheon site too much weight. Also many (at least) of the baroque fittings on the site's violins are reconstructions, and should be taken with a grain of salt in the details.

The evolution of the tailpiece consisted of a series of small changes, many of them seemingly just esthetic choices. Aside from variables like string spacing and afterlength, the only consistent change which was likely to impact tone and/or playability was the weight of the tailpiece, which went up as they began to be carved from solid pieces of tropical woods rather than veneered.

As to why this happened, that’s an interesting question which I think requires a more detailed knowledge about the evolution of violin setups to answer accurately. Some would claim that the heavier tailpiece was part of a set of changes geared towards greater projection of sound, but since some of the assumptions of that theory are now being questioned (i.e. that string tension has gone up since the baroque), I think we’re left in the dark for now.

Tailpiece weight changes affect different instruments in different ways. There's probably a generalization to be made about it but I don't know it.

jessupe goldastini · Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 9:32 pm Post subject:

thank you andres....

so what your saying is that perhaps those are not "real" instruments...frauds?....i assume many old violins have many new parts...but i don't understand varifying something fake?...i dunno...what ever the case, they have some nice looking violins....its neat for me to see all differrent period instruments....why i never heard of a baryton before... and i do like the scroll carvings...

Andres Sender · Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 2:39 pm Post subject:

I'm just saying that if it says it's a 1712 Arbuthnot don't put a lot of time into absorbing it as an example of an Arbuthnot without getting confirmation from somewhere else.

Mistaken attributions happen fairly often, even in some museums. You have to step carefully unless the attribution comes from someone with a well-established reputation for expertise on the particular maker.

Also just as a general guide, whenever there has been a profit to be made by selling antique instruments, people have popped up to make and sell 'things' for that market. Although I am not familiar with this sort of thing with regard to things like viols or barytons, I do know that some pretty odd lute and guitar 'objects' were sold to tourists as genuine antiques in the 19th c. and ended up in museum collections until it was discovered that they were hardly playable let alone actual famous-name instruments.