The Quartet of Peace

Up and coming concerts

2011-08-13T14:37:00.001+02:00

Been quite a while since I last updated this blog and so many things have transpired!

All the information is on our web page which has included concerts in Leipzig, London at Kings Place, Picasso's studio in Paris and several other local concerts in Cape Town.

We are delighted to have a Patron, Jessica Bailey who has taken ownership of the instruments.

Shortly we will begin our next series of benefit concerts in Greyton, Graaff Reinet, Cradock and Cape Town between the 27th of August to the 1st of September.

Booking and info for these concerts can be found on our web site http://www.quartetofpeace.com/

To make a booking for the Cape Town concert at the wonderful venue of Erin Hall in Rondebosch please phone 0794124579.

Inaugural Gala Concert ...

2010-11-24T11:01:00.003+02:00

Our inaugural concert in Stellenbosch was such a wonderful evening and a night I will remember for many years to come.

There was a lovely atmosphere which included the children from the Hout Bay Music Project performing in the foyer of the hall. Those beautiful voices resonating to the accompaniment of strings.

We were honoured to have such fine musicians perform at this inaugural concert; David Juritz - Leader of the London Mozart Players, Suzanne Martens - Leader of the Amici Quartet, Gareth Lubbe - Principal viola of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, Germany and Peter Martens - cellist of the Amici Quartet.

It was a full house and one of the most interesting aspects was that a large portion of the audience were there more for their affinities to what the Quartet of Peace represents than for the music. It was wonderful to chat to a lot of them after the concert and hear how much they enjoyed hearing the instruments and that string quartet music will now be a gendre that they will listen too!

At the end of the main concert there were solo tributes to each Nobel Laureate in turn. The violins being accompanied by Jane Theron on harp.

The lights were dimmed and it was so moving, not only the heart warming music but to be reminded of how far we have come as a country!

Last week on the 17th, November there was a concert in Leipzig played in the famous St. Thomas Church were J. S. Bach is buried.

The musicians said it was an inspiring experience playing Art of the Fugue with the great Master in earshot!

Our other exciting news is that we have three new musicians that have joined the group. Samson Diamond, Xandi van Dijk and Abel Selacoe. Their profiles are on our web site www.quartetofpeace.com

We are thrilled to have them on board and so looking forward to hear them play together!

Below is a video of the Stellenbosch concert. I have included a few excerpts and not the entire works. I do not have footage of the entire concert including the first solo tribute to Chief Albert Luthuli so have included the sound recording of that tribute with visuals of the making of the instruments.

The video below is best viewed in HD and full screen. For email subscribers the video can viewed by clicking here: Inaugural Gala Concert

Quartet comes to life ...

2010-11-01T09:41:00.000+02:00

These last few weeks have been such an exciting time for all of us involved in the Quartet of Peace initiative ... suddenly the pieces of wood have come to life, there are faces behind the numerous emails from around the world and our identity as a Quartet of Peace has been established!

It was the usual frantic rush to get the cello ready in time and after working for three days with very little sleep. It was completed at 6.00 pm on the monday exactly one hour before our first rehearsal!

Although it is rather stressful working this way it somehow always lends itself to the incredible focused concentration of fitting a bridge and soundpost which I really love doing ... those micro millimeter adjustments of fitting a soundpost which I do almost entirely by feel as one very gently flexes the back and front apart, intuitively establishing the best position.

The Italian name for the soundpost is ‘anima’ which means ‘the soul’ and this is certainly true! The soundpost is a small spruce dowel inside the instrument under the treble end of the bridge, spanning the space between the top and back plates and held in place by friction.
Quite incredible how such an small piece of wood is the most important part of the violin!

The first rehearsal and the coming together of instruments for the first time was on monday the 11th of October at Suzanne and Peter Marten's house. David Juritz had literally just flown in from London a couple of hours before and Gareth Lubbe from Germany made up this inaugural group of musicians. There was such excitement in the air and for me hearing those first few notes played as an ensemble was such a moving experience and the fulfillment of a long held vision and dream!

A couple days later there was a rehearsal at the Hout Bay Music Project which was three hours long giving the children there an opportunity of experiencing what goes into string quartet playing. One of the highlights of the rehearsal was having the kids clapping, keeping the time for some incredibly difficult interwoven rhythms.

We were all amazed at the sense joy that the musicians shared when playing together and that really came through at the concerts.

We do have some exciting news in that there will be three additional musicians joining the group; two of them are young black South Africans from Soweto. I will elaborate more in my next blog which will also be about the concerts with some video footage ... but for now the video below is of the first few rehearsals - please forgive me for the shaky footage ... after hardly having any sleep for about two weeks whilst getting everything ready, I was not quite myself during these recordings!

The video below is best viewed in HD and full screen. For email subscribers the video can viewed by clicking here: Quartet comes to life

Varnishing the viola ...

2010-08-01T15:06:00.011+02:00

I have taken many hours off regular workshop time to further my research on varnish, realizing that to get close to old Cremonese instruments is only possible using 17th century materials.

This has led me on a wonderful adventure: constructing a primitive distilling plant, making traditional Indian Yellow (collecting urine from cows fed on mango leaves), contacting Kirstenbosh Botanical Gardens about "Weld" and going into the mountains in search of this plant, stopping on the highway at night to pick an aloe leaf.

There is always great excitement when fellow violin makers get to gather and share their ideas on the holy grail of varnishing - each one believing emphatically that they have discovered the secret to Stradivarius varnish!

What is usually more fascinating than their actual recipes is how they 'discovered' the magic formular - conjuring up romantic stories of receiving this recipe from an an elderly violin maker on his death bed, or a crumpled piece of parchment found in the inside cover of an old bible or manuscript!

After all my research I am now using a varnish made entirely from natural materials which is an incredibly simple mixture! Rather hard to believe after viewing my varnish cupboards! I must have a sample of almost every colour, resin or oil that is available on the planet, from the most obscure to odd bits of resin collected from a nearby tree!

I begin by using a wonderful primer which I import from my friend and colleague Koen Padding in Holland - Magister. This is brushed onto the wood and thereafter The instrument is exposed to the sun for several days giving a lovely golden colour.

I then burnish the maple (back and sides) with a cloth that has very little colour varnish on it. This brings out the figure of the wood without destroying the reflective qualities which happens if a stain was used.

This is followed by applying a 'silica' powder to fill the pores of the wood which forms almost a mist over the instrument. The wood comes alive once again when applying the clear ground coat as can be seen in the video below.

The actual varnish which I cook myself, is made from Walnut oil and Strasbourg (Silver fir) turpentine, with small amounts of Mastic and Sandarac added for durability and to help with drying. This process is such a delight to do and for moments one can be transported to 17th century Cremona identifying with the apothecaries and varnish makers of that time!

Exotic scents of evaporating resin waft through the air, enlivening the neighbourhood. Once the resin has been cooked for several days it is then dissolved in warmed sun thickened walnut oil. It is more common these days to use linseed oil but I have found walnut oil tends to be more flexible and has a much better long term prognosis.

Each instrument has an inscription placed on the back. This has been drawn onto the ground coat with a charcoal pencil before applying the varnish. 'Freedom' for Albert Luthuli, 'Peace' for Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 'Reconciliation' for FW de Klerk and 'Hope' for Nelson Mandela.

For colour, I use madder lakes (made from the madder root plant) which I get from Magister and then tone down these incredibly bright colours by using less color and more dark varnish or alternatively adding a small amounts of indigo lakes. This is all hand ground into the varnish on a slab of glass.

All of my varnishing is done with my fingers which gives one an incredible control of applying it evenly and thinly. I do some shading of the varnish to give an aesthetically pleasing look contrasting the rich red madder to the golden colour of the primed wood. The fingerprints flow out whilst the varnish is drying.

My varnish has a soft 'waxy' appearance, which is not over polished and has a lovely texture - I achieve this by leaving the surface without extensive rubbing down.

The video below is best viewed in HD and full screen. For email subscribers the video can be viewed by clicking here: Varnishing the viola

Fitting the neck ...

2010-07-20T16:47:00.000+02:00

One of the few things that has changed in the violin making world in the last 200 years is the way the neck is attached to the the body of the violin. Originally violin necks were nailed onto the top block of the violin on the same horizontal plane and the elevation (angle) was achieved by using a tapered fingerboard.

Gradually from the early 1800's most violins have had their necks replaced and the new slightly longer necks inserted into the the violin body via a mortise joint. This has accommodated the extra tension from the Baroque pitch of 415 to todays 440 for a concert A.

The neck joint is done by chiseling out the mortise of the top block and filing it level. When fitting the neck one takes into account the elevation (angle), wether it is aligned straight along it axis, how deep it is inset, its length and that it fits snugly against the protruding button of the violin back.

Before gluing the neck it is is roughly shaped with a knife and rasp.

Once it is glued to the body the button of the back is marked out using a compass and the excess wood chiseled away.

The finishing is done using finer files ensuring that all bumps are removed and finally the neck is polished to a silky finish by working through different grades of garnet paper.

Now the woodwork is over and one commences with the lengthy but fascinating finishing process.

I am traditional with all the finishing and varnishing I do, using only materials that were available in the 17th and 18th centuries.

I begin firstly by using a fine scraper to clean up the instrument followed by burnishing the violin with horsetail grass (Equisetum). Horsetail grass is a plant made up of bunches of leafless tubular stems or rushes. The essential element, silicon, is present in large amounts in the horsetail grass and therefore is very similar to a fine sandpaper. The major difference being that when one 'sands' the violin with the horsetail grass it does not deaden the reflective qualities of the wood but rather enhances them!

It grows along the river Po and is supposedly the material that the great old Italian master violin makers used to finish their instruments with. My two cats Jessica and Jasmine were fascinated by the long cylindrical tubes and had lots of fun playing with them!

A recent development of the Quartet of Peace is the generous offer of the world renowned string makers Pirastro to sponsor us with strings! We are delighted with this especially as Pirastro make such incredible gut strings which are ideally suited to chamber music being an organic material offering a warm, rich and complex sound.

These last couple of weeks have been rather exciting as I handed over the finished viola to Gareth Lubbe (viola player of the Quartet). See video below.

These videos are best viewed in HD and full screen. For email subscribers the videos can be viewed by clicking the links: Fitting the neck and Sound of the new viola

Carving the scroll ...

2010-06-14T12:47:00.005+02:00

Sharon Peddie is one of South Africa's leading goldsmiths; her specialty being that of copying antique Victorian jewellery. She was one of my students at the violin making class I run once week.

After beginning her first violin Sharon decided to pause work on the violin body and began carving a scroll. I was in such awe of the scroll that she produced that I promptly decided to 'confiscate' it and use it on my own violin!

That was two years ago and ever since she has been making scrolls for my instruments. I have travelled all over the world and seen many, many scrolls and I have never seen scrolls carved with such grace, balance and flow ... it is certainly a great privilege to work together with her on my instruments!

Sharon assists me on a part time basis as she runs High Hopes a tranquil guest house in Greyton, Western Cape.

One begins the scroll with a solid block of wood planing the surfaces square. This is followed by the marking of the template and roughly cutting out the shape.

Then using different shaped gauges one carves away the excess wood, systematically ‘building up’ the volutes of the spiral shape. Being a three dimensional object it requires a keen eye to make sure that there is a unifying tension and an inter-relationship between the different curves.

Once the side view has been cut the surfaces are scraped to smooth out the tool marks and blend the curves into each other.

The fluting down the spine of the scroll is carved and once completed the delicate and almost flower like qualities come to life!

Then the peg box is hollowed out to accommodate the pegs and strings and lastly one adds a chamfer on the edges softening the clinical appearance and defining the outline as it reflects on-coming light.

The video below is best viewed in HD and full screen. For email subscribers the video can be viewed by clicking here: Carving the scroll ...

Web page and Facebook group ...

2010-05-13T12:35:00.001+02:00

I am amazed how this initiative has been developing and all the wonderful people that have joined the 'team'!

All of us sharing the same passion and vision which is to use the income generated from the concerts to support at risk children in war effected areas of Africa.

Two new people are now involved in arranging the concerts and helping raise funds. Both passionate about the project. Charl van Heyningenand and Jernej Gregoric.

There has been a lot of interest in the quartet from all over the world, people wishing to write articles so we thought it best to have all the information on a web page.

Please feel free to visit the web page: www.quartetofpeace.com and also we would love you to join our Facebook group and share any of your ideas and feelings towards the music projects we hope to support.

I shall be away in Canada for the next week attending my nephews wedding and on my return I will post the next violin making blog on carving scrolls.

Assembling the violin ...

2010-04-28T11:58:00.004+02:00

Assembling the violin is a gratifying and inspiring stage to reach. All the separate parts coming together for the next five hundred years or so!

To ensure that the violin remains on a horizontal plane I glue the back onto the rib structure with the mould still in place. Once dry I use a blunt knife to loosen the blocks and can then remove the mould.

I now begin the interior work which includes shaping the inner blocks to remove as much excess wood as possible and to trim down the linings. I uses gouges and knives for these two jobs.

Once done and all the excess glue is removed the label is glued in.
For the Quartet of Peace instruments I have a slightly modified label which includes a symbolic peace dove ... hopefully this symbol will ensure that these instruments are used with that in mind at all future concerts!

The dove was drawn by my dear friend Virginija who lives in Lithuania! During one of our evening chats I thought it would be a wonderful idea for her to use her creative talents and suggested that she designs a label ... well a few weeks later I was emailed three distinct labels but the one with the peace dove and gold border caught my eye!

Once the label is glued in I apply a sealer coat to the inside of the violin. When it comes to anything related to sealers and varnishes violin makers tend have their own ideas - each of us trying to be a 17th century alchemist!

I seal the inside of my violins with a mixture of Strasbourg turpentine and sun thickened linseed oil. This is done by rubbing it into the wood and then wiping it off almost immediately. It does not penetrate very deeply as it is extremely thick. This sealer allows the wood a chance to breathe but slows down the rate of humidity flowing in or out of the violin, hence the instrument being less prone to sudden changes in tone associated with fluctuating humidity levels.

The front is then glued on and one begins shaping the edges. For this I use a file followed by fine sandpaper always trying to make sure that the edges remain reasonably crisp. The sandpaper is folded many times to make a stiff 'board' so as too remove mainly the high spots and keep the edges flowing with tension.

The video below is best viewed in HD and full screen. For email subscribers the video can be viewed by clicking here: Assembling the violin ...

Concerts and musicians ...

2010-04-14T15:41:00.004+02:00

Over the last month things have developed and the Quartet of Peace seems to be finding its own identity!

Valerie Pole (above) has now become the project Co-ordinator and in a short space of time has done some amazing things! She has undertaken the project with real passion and commitment to make sure that the concerts are in alignment with the ideals expressed by the quartet and are run smoothly.

A few days of synchronicity brought the musicians together to form the quartet! It was a phone call form Eugene Skeef in London that got the ball rolling after he had miraculously secured Kings Place in London for the 5th of December which is usually booked up well in advance ... the one criteria though was that we needed to have the musicians and program ready in two days time! I was thrilled as the one amazing thing about Kings Place as a concert venue (above) is that the concert hall is built from one 500 year old oak tree!

So within the space of about three hours we had the commitment of four world class South African string musicians! The enthusiasm for these concerts from the musicians is quite incredible and there is a unified vision that we all share; that of using these concerts to benefit Musequality which supports music projects to some of the poorest children in the developing world.

The inaugural concert on the quartet will be played in St. Thomas Church (above) in Leipzig, Germany. One could not ask for a more appropriate venue as this is the church where the great Johan Sebastian Bach was choir director and is buried. The quartet will begin the concert performing excerpts from "Art of the fugue".

Here is a list of the concerts to date:

17th November - St. Thomas church, Leipzig, Germany

5th December - Kings Place, London

7th December - Ljubljana, Slovenia (European Union House concert)

Then other planned concerts will be at the European Parliament in Brussels, The United Nations in Geneva and in Paris. These dates still to be confirmed, but the concerts will be during December 2010.

The musicians of the quartet are:

First violin: David Juritz (leader of the London Mozart Players).

Second violin: Susanne Martens (previous concertmaster of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and member of the Rosamunde Quartet).

Viola: Gareth Lubbe (principal viola of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Germany).

Cello: Peter Martens (previous principal cellist of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and member of the Amici String Quartet).

The program for these concerts will be:

The Art of the Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach
The work was most likely started at the beginning of the 1740s, if not earlier.. It contains 14 fugues and 4 canons. "The governing idea of the work", as the eminent Bach specialist Christoph Wolff put it, is "an exploration in depth of the contrapuntal possibilities inherent in a single musical subject."
Ravel String Quartet in F Major
Maurice Ravel completed his String quartet in F major in early April 1903 at the age of 28. Dedicated to his friend and teacher Gabriel Fauré, the work was introduced in Paris by the Heymann Quartet on March 5, 1904. The quartet follows a strict four movement classical structure: Moderato très doux begins as a sonata form allegro, the following Assez vif-Très rythmé functions as the quartet's scherzo, while Très lent acts as a contrasting foil. The last movement, Vif et agité, reintroduces themes from the earlier passages and ends with a striking finale.

String Quartet No. 19 in C Major by Mozart
The String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, nicknamed "Dissonance" on account of its unusual slow introduction, is perhaps the most famous of his quartets. It is the last in the set of six quartets composed between 1782-1785 that he dedicated to Joseph Haydn.
Uxolo (Zulu/Xhosa for forgiveness) by Eugene Skeef
“I am writing what I believe will be a beautiful piece, not least of all because the concept and spirit of the Quartet of Peace is truly humanising.”

Sound holes and bass bar ..

2010-03-23T11:46:00.002+02:00

The sound holes or F holes are in some ways the stamp of individuality of an instrument's character and each violin maker has his own unique design.

The shape and positioning of the sound holes plays a crucial role in the tone of the instrument and even a minor variation can greatly effect the sound. The most important aspect of this being the distance between the sound holes at the bridge - if too wide then the wood will be too flexible if too close too stiff. Considering that most of the sound seems to be generated by the movement of the front in this area it is desirable to have the correct balance between stiffness and flexibility.

From a visual point of view one flutes the outside wing of the sound hole which in some ways give an appearance of the f hole almost 'growing out' of the wood instead of appearing as though it was placed on top. This fluting is done with a gouge and then a scraper.

The sound holes are sawn out using a very fine fret saw and then cut to the line with a sharp and long pointed knife.

The bass bar is an oblong piece of spruce, fixed lengthwise inside the front of a violin running in the same direction with the strings, below the lowest string, and acting as a beam to strengthen the front against the pressure of the left foot of the bridge, as the sound-post does against that of the right foot.

One carefully shapes the bass bar to fit perfectly against the front using chisels. Once glued in the bass bar is shaped using small thumb planes and finished with sand paper. When doing this shaping one flexes the front to see once again that it has enough flexibility but at the same time giving optimal strength. Each violin maker has his own ideas of where to leave the wood thick or thin in the bar but owing to my arching height and thicknessing methods I tend to leave the bar fairly high at the ends and of an average height in the middle.

The video below is best viewed in HD and full screen. For email subscribers the video can be viewed by clicking here: Sound holes and bass bar ...

Arching and thicknessing ...

2010-02-24T12:48:00.009+02:00

For me doing the arching and thicknessing on an instrument is the most fascinating aspect of violin making. It is here that one feels like a carver molding the wood not only visually but also molding the tone of the instrument!

The outside arching or shape has a huge impact on how the instrument will vibrate and also on how well it will resist the enormous tension of the strings. Different archings give different types of sound. 

The shaping of the arching is done with small planes known as 'thumb planes'. One generally does this work in a darkish room with only one low angle light illuminating the work. This casts shadows showing up the bumps and hollows. I often imagine working in Italy at sunset where the sun replaces the low angle light siting in a lofted workshop with the sounds of 17th Cremona below me! 

There is a theory that says highly arched instruments have a sweet sound and flat instruments have a more brighter and powerful sound ... however from experience that is not true! From hearing so many instruments and experimenting on my own it is the relationship between the arching and how thick one makes the wood that really determines the sound. And probably even more important where you leave the wood thicker and where you leave in thinner.

The final finishing is done using flexible scrapers. I use a contour gauge to draw a contour map using the flat under surface as a reference point which shows up any discrepancies that might be there. The final finishing, however, is done by eye looking down at the curves to see that the required tension and flow is achieved.

I tend to leave a fair amount of wood in my instruments as I have found that instruments that are too thin might be very appealing when first played but they lack tonal colors that expressive players need to enhance their playing.

Thin instruments tend to be bright and free sounding but with a little extra wood a violin tends to have more depth and intensity and does not ‘choke’ when applying lots of bow pressure close to the bridge.

The thicknessing has to take into account the flexibility and density of the wood. I do this by weighing the backs and fronts and by also flexing the pieces between my fingers. 

The video below is best viewed in HD and full screen. For email subscribers the video can be viewed by clicking here: Arching and thicknessing ... 

Inlaying the purfling ...

2010-01-12T11:30:00.002+02:00

The inlay or purfling as it is known, is the graceful and elegant inlay that adorns most violins.

The purfling being made of a light wood veneer sandwiched between two dark or stained pieces of wood. The pieces are glued together and once dry are cut into thin strips, seen below being inspected by Jessica!

These thin strips of wood are inset about 4mm from the edge. Not only do they enhance and define the violin visually they also prevent knocks to the edges from developing into cracks. The purfling tramway lines are marked very lightly and then one carefully cuts along these lines to a depth of about 2mm. Once done one chisels out between the lines creating a neatly flowing channel.

The wood that I use for the purfling is made from Stinkwood an indigenous wood growing along the east coast of South Africa . These days it is rather difficult to find Stinkwood that is dark enough but I was very fortunate to obtain a lifetime supply from one of the original saw mills in the area ... they had a small pile of really old off cuts hidden in the corner of their previous warehouse where I located the wood.

I cut the miters of the purfling with a chisel and trial fit them to get the correct length. These points are slightly offset pointing more towards the inner C bout. This is done in order to give a harmonious and aesthetically pleasing look which one could compare to that of hanging a painting in the 'middle' of a wall which never quite looks 'right'.

Once fitted the pieces are glued in and gently hammered down. On drying the purfling is gouged slightly below the edge thickness and the violin's outline now comes to life!  

The video below is best viewed in HD and full screen. For email subscribers the video can be viewed by clicking here: Inlaying the purfling ...

Outline and rough carving ...

2009-12-22T19:54:00.013+02:00

An exciting part of violin making is placing the rib structure on the back and fronts and marking out the outline. This is done once they have been planed perfectly flat. One has to take into consideration the grain of the wood and decide where to place the instrument to maximize its beauty.

Once the rib structure is clamped along the centre joint I lightly mark around the ribs with a sharp scriber and then with a hard pencil using a brass spacer which was kindly given to me by my friend and fellow violin maker Patrick Jordan in Canada.

In fact some of my really good tools have been sent to me by Patrick including my prized Lie-Nielson plane that I used to trim the rib ends in the last video!

Once marked the outline is sawn out and one begins the rough carving developing a relationship with the wood and feeling its texture. I love to listen to the sound the gouge makes as it gently guides itself through the wood. One can tell an enormous amount about the future sound of the instrument through this listening, although I would never attempt to put it into words, as it is simply an abstract interpretation and the accumulation of years of experience.

After the rough carving the outline is neatly rasped to the pencil line, again ensuring the curves flow. Finally the edge thickness is gouged and filed down. One leaves the inner C bout edges slightly thicker to compensate for the optical illusion of them looking thinner. The corners are also left thicker to allow for wear which happens naturally over the decades.

The video below is best viewed in HD and full screen. For email subscribers the video can be viewed by clicking here: Outline and rough carving ...

Bending the ribs ...

2009-12-06T10:03:00.004+02:00

I am always fascinated by the structure of the violin and, despite its aesthetic beauty, its remarkable structural qualities.

Not being familiar with the mathematics of structure and just using my layman’s intuition, I am amazed that violins have withstood the passage of time considering that the average thickness of the ribs (sides) is around 1.1 mm thick!

So whenever I am bending the sides on the hot bending iron I am in total wonderment at how delicate the pieces are, yet as a structure they can support so much tension. So I guess the old adage comes to mind that the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts.

Regarding the bending of the ribs. There are numerous methods in doing this. Some violinmakers bend the ribs precisely to a pencil line marked on a flat board of wood. Others use a full depth outside mould (the French system) and then there is the Italian way of using an inside mould about a third of the ribs height in thickness. This is what I use and owing to its nature adds a unique dimension to the violin of the inner c bout ribs being slightly concave and the top and bottom ribs slightly convex, thus naturally adding a unique character to each instrument.

On doing the bending I have developed a system of using the natural moisture and flexibility of the piece to fit snugly against the mould – not by bending the ribs to the exact shape but bending them ever so slightly and then pulling the rib around the mould. Thus the curves have a natural tension in them as I mentioned in an earlier blog post. They tend to fit better around the mould and retain their flexibility without becoming too brittle from excessive heat bending.

For email subscribers the video can be viewed by clicking here: Bending the ribs ....

(Best viewed in HD at full screen)

Bending the linings ...

The linings are thin strips of wood 2 mm in thickness and 7.5 mm deep. They reinforce the ribs and add an extra gluing surface when finally gluing on the back and front. The wood I prefer to use is spruce although many violin makers use willow and Edi my one student used an old cricket bat!!

For email subscribers the video can be viewed by clicking here: Bending the linings ...

Planing of the wood ...

2009-11-13T18:25:00.001+02:00

The wood for the spruce fronts arrived as thick pieces, which is ideal, giving me a chance to split a small piece from the sides. One then marks a line parallel to the split ensuring that the joint will follow the natural growth line of the tree. This is achieved by sawing the wood into two pieces along this pencil line.

This can bee seen in the video below. The person in the video doing the splitting is Vincent my part time assistant who has been learning violin making with me for close on four years now. He is a wonderful jeweller by trade and has his studio and shop near Cape Point Nature Reserve. To view his unique designs it is well worth visiting his web site: Casimi jewellery

It is always a great delight to take that first shaving after having sharpened my plane iron .... to listen to the crisp shearing of the wood unearthing its hidden exuberance, as yet unsung.  

Once the two halves have been carefully planed and matched to fit each other they are glued together using traditional hot glue.  This glue is quite remarkable and nothing of the modern era seems to match all its characteristics – that of being flexible, not leaving a glue line and being reversible - that in the long life span of a violin it can be easily repaired and taken apart without causing too much damage.

The cello produced quite a few wide shavings which Jessica and Jasmine thoroughly enjoyed playing in! (Not to mention luxurious hamster bedding for Vincent’s daughter’s hamster!)

For email subscribers the video can be viewed by clicking here: Planing of the wood video

(Best viewed in HD at full screen)

Arrival of the wood ...

2009-10-30T23:03:00.024+02:00

The Californian poppies are out in full bloom and my long awaited wood has finally arrived after a few interesting and amusing language problems with my supplier in Italy - instead of receiving a ‘Pro forma’ invoice as requested I received a ‘performing invoice’ which was hopefully appropriate!

As to the wood .... it almost seems as if a silent bond has been made between me and the seedling. It is a great honor to be a small part in its life, acting as an intermediary from the forest to the making of music.

The wood for the back and sides is European maple. Having counted the year lines of the wood for the cello back I see that it dates back to 1844, that being the oldest piece in the set. It also coincides with the year Mendelssohn wrote his famous violin concerto!

These maple backs are for me the foundation of a string instrument, they support the free flowing other parts. For the fronts I have chosen wood best suited to the type of timbre I am striving to achieve. Hazel or bear claw spruce for the viola and cello, being a more complex structure it tends to have a slightly darker sound and for the violins I am using this flexible spruce from Northern Italy which is ideally suited to chamber music playing as with the extra flexibility the sweetness is more pronounced.

My focus has always been on achieving a sound similar to those 1950 romantic movies where thick honey flows from the violins. Recalling also a really old recording I heard soon after I began my violin making career of Mischa Elman in tandem with Caruso both interweaving where it is difficult to tell the violin from the voice!

This huge box was delivered a few days ago much to the delight of my two cats Jessica and Jasmine (mother and daughter) who were fascinated by its arrival, as can be seen on the video below. (Please note that the video can be viewed full screen in HD (high definition) by clicking on the HD and full screen symbols.)

For email subscribers the video can be viewed by clicking here: Arriving of wood video

The maple figure (curl or grain) is of medium width, lovely and deep giving an appearance similar to that of a tiger’s eye gemstone, changing from light to dark depending on the angle of light. Below is a photograph of a side of the maple that water was applied to, to show off this effect as well as a photo of the wood acclimatizing to its new environment in the hot African sun. This will also help stabilize the wood before joining the pieces together.

The concept and moulds …

2009-09-16T15:33:00.012+02:00

An original idea is formed, a design is envisaged and that design is then brought to life.  This is the process of how most things come into being.   Some suggest that great ideas already exist and that all we have to do is get out of the way and allow them to fill that empty space. If this is in fact so, then I can only thank my dear friend Andre Spier for his insight many years ago when he came up with the idea of making a String Quartet of Peace long before most South Africans realised that South Africa had four noble peace prize winners! 
 
 So from a rather simple and relatively calm existence I started on my quest to see this quartet come to fruition. Many disappointments later, after trying unsuccessfully to gain funding, I put the idea aside. It was then a chance meeting in February this year with Lainey Trequesser that brought it back to life again.  Her vision and passion to make things happen is remarkable and the ember of hope that has lingered ever so faintly has now been rekindled, not only in me, but within two remarkable musicians Maestro Jean Pierre Wallez and Eugene Skeef.  Both of whom have undertaken to help organise the concerts that will be held in Geneva, Paris and London. I am indebted to them for the passion and enthusiasm they have shown. 
 
 So this was how the idea came to be a reality.  Now on to the designs. Fortunately, living so far from the mainstream of violin makers I have managed to avoid the pressure to conform, so I do not make copies of Stradivari or Guarneri instruments. Not because I strive to be different and not because I don’t adore those two famous Italian luthiers, I simply feel more comfortable doing things from scratch, so to speak.  
 
 Tending to steer away from anything that is too scientific e.g.  by analysing instrument structures using sophisticated software, I prefer my designs and archings to emerge from numerous drawings done on a piece of paper and to visually alter the curves for my templates.
 
 Science certainly has its place and it is wonderful for those instrument makers who can embrace its logic. For me, however, the voice of a violin is measured on how many goose bumps you get when listening to the hauntingly beautiful melodies resonating in concert halls around the world.   The highlight of my listening experience occurred at a guard post in the Namib desert as a 17 year old conscripted soldier. Graced by a trillion visible stars paying homage to each note that resounded softly in the primitive headphones in my ears.  Listening to David and Igor Oistrakh playing Bach and Vivaldi double violin concertos it was a night where I felt caressed by music which transported me away from the harsh desert wind and the lifeless rifle beside me.  And above all in those moments I felt saved from having to bear the mask of brashness where anything remotely sublime was considered taboo. It was on that night that I felt I wanted to in some way become involved with string instruments.

Okay, now back to designing the shapes and outlines of this quartet. These were inspired by a great teacher of mine, Heinrich Woldering, who as a more advanced student at the Newark School of Violin Making gracefully took me under his wing. I vividly recall him saying that what’s more important than the actual shape is the tension that holds any object together. He then demonstrated this by bending a perfectly uniform piece of string and then a twig from the garden. Of course the string looked limp without form or direction and the uneven twig was beautiful as its tension and grace held itself together. So that’s the way I have always aspired to make my violins, copying master instruments not in form but more in presence, pretending to be living in a casa in Cremona in 1715, limiting myself to materials that were available then and keeping all the curves flowing with tension, rather than precisely making everything identical and symmetrical as with the corners or sound holes.

Above is a photograph of the first violin’s mould and template for the quartet with the spruce blocks in place, shaped ready to receive the sides (ribs) and create the beautiful inner architectural structure reserved for the luthier’s eyes only!

The beginning ...

2009-09-06T13:49:00.010+02:00

I sit in my workshop and listen to gentle gusts of wind outside, which in this last hour has blown the mist upwards towards the ethers. The cold days are almost over and spring has revealed its first traces of new life. The light still soft and ethereal is gladly embraced by the bougainvillea and strelitzias, which are in full bloom, not yet dimmed by the harsh African sun. Their colours are more vivid now than at any other time, reflecting what I hope to achieve as I begin making a unique String Quartet.

The Strelitzias remind me too of my late grandmother Sara-Fima who grew them at the entrance to her house that I often visited in my early days as a violin maker.

As with the mist, the veil of anticipation of making these four instruments has lifted. Well timed with Spring’s new beginnings. The arrival of the wood for the quartet should coincide with the first flowering of my Californian poppies, expected in the next two weeks.

These two violins, viola, and cello are to be made in honour of four great men. Men who have withstood the harshness and winter of South Africa’s apartheid past, bringing new light and vision to a land parched by discrimination and misunderstanding.

Each instrument will bear a name in their honour. Hope for Nelson Mandela, Peace for Bishop Desmond Tutu, Reconciliation for FW De Klerk and Freedom for Dr Albert Luthuli. The culmination of the wood passing through my hands will be three special concerts to be held in Geneva, Paris and London.

So I leave now with a quote from my favorite book on violin making by Ed. Heron-Allen. (1885)

“ Gentle Reader, au plaisir de vous revoir : give me rest now. Let me lay down the goose-quill to take up the gouge, and for a space let me resume again the solution of the problem : - “ Given : A Log of wood : - Make : A fiddle.”