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Michael Darnton
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Joined: 23 Mar 2007
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Location: Chicago
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 Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 7:57 am Post subject: |
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Yes, of course it is easier to push the blame off to the next person down the line if something doesn't work as it should, but because I have seen instruments that everyone who has picked them up has loved them, I find it less egotistical and more functional to my progress as a maker to assume that if there is something wrong with an instrument I have made or worked on, it's because the maker or I have failed somewhere.
Maybe there's a point where you can blame the player, but starting right off allowing for that as a possible excuse for what you haven't done is a bad way to improve yourself. We should be spending more energy here talking about how to improve, not about how to make excuses for ourselves.
As happens so many times in my shop, yesterday two people picked up instruments they'd had problems with for some time, that had been to other shops (one was 20 years old by a well-known maker, had been back to the maker a couple of times, and to every shop in town, I think), played their instruments, gave a startled "Oh!", and packed them up and took them out--no adjustments required.
I would maintain that what players want from an instrument (not taking into account how their personal neuroses, such as problems with spending money, for instance, invariably enter into the interaction) is relatively simple, and that all of the "choices" they feel it necessary to make are choices they wouldn't have to be making, if things were done right. As I have stated outright before and implied earlier in this forum, makers whose goal is discover what a great violin "is", looking for a set of choices to build fixed into the behavior of an instrument, are doing the wrong thing, and perpetuating the problem.
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actonern
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Joined: 15 Aug 2007
Posts: 444
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| Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 8:55 am Post subject: |
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Interesting stuff.
Wouldn't you agree, though, Michael, that the auditory "pallete" evolves? I thinki it was you that observed that most teenage level violinists always seem to gravitate towards instruments with lots of bass and that are loud? And that you've had to spend time to show them other important "levels" to better instruments that may not have initially been perceived as important? |
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ctviolin
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Joined: 07 May 2009
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Location: Roswell
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| Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 12:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Michael Darnton wrote: | I find it less egotistical and more functional to my progress as a maker to assume that if there is something wrong with an instrument I have made or worked on, it's because the maker or I have failed somewhere.
We should be spending more energy here talking about how to improve, not about how to make excuses for ourselves.
As I have stated outright before and implied earlier in this forum, makers whose goal is discover what a great violin "is", looking for a set of choices to build fixed into the behavior of an instrument, are doing the wrong thing, and perpetuating the problem. |
Then, taking that there is great workable merit in what you're saying (which I don't doubt that there is) What would you say the greatest way for the average violin maker to improve is?
Taking for granted that the individual can build a typically correct violin from historical clues present in violins from the past, such as shape, general correct thicknessing, wood, and finish (and still miss the goal)?
Since the violin is an actual solid object that exists in time and space, then I take it for granted that there exists a particular building method that results in a finished product that would cause the musician to be satisfied with a new violin ? (like they may be satisfied with a classical Italian violin)
To some degree it (such a knowledge, if there is such a knowledge) MUST be connected with building the violin.
To some degree it MUST also be connected with the exact construction techniques used, in some way.
What else is there?
Such information may be difficult to talk about, or to pass on, but not impossible. So I'm going to say that for me, in order to talk about such matters, that it has come down to;
1. learning first how to make a standard violin mechanically or classically "correct" first, then;
2. Learning how to arch and thickness the wood correctly for the type of wood being used, and the type of violin being made.
3. Not much has to do with the finish - other than common sense.
Of course I'm using virtually all American wood, but the Cremonese method (arching and thicknessing of the plates, and general proportions, for example) is still the signature of correct construction because the violin (in it's highest form) is still, in essence, a Cremonese product
Another interesting thing that I think I see in Cremonese products, is an effect of age.
It's hard to duplicate what happens to a wooden hand-crafted product, that has aged for a few hundred years. But in my opinion it adds a certain character, that makes it a difficult thing to duplicate the results of exactly today.
Perhaps that's only really a weakness in my own perception or technique, but That's often part of what I believe I'm seeing or hearing when I go to hear a Cremonese instrument being played live by a great living player, it can be as close to something magical, as there are things that may at certain times appear (virtually) magical...
I'm also convinced that a modern product can exhibit properties so close to those exhibited by older classical violins, that even a skilled listener would not be able to say exactly what was being played (in the hands of a skilled player) with absolute surety...
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