Spotlight
GREAT VIOLIN-MAKERS

The earliest of violin-makers were Gaspare da Salo, Giovanni Maggini and Andrea Amati. It was under Andrea Amati's grandson Nicolo that the greatest of violin-makers, Antonius Stradivarius (1644-1737), did an apprenticeship for about seven years in the little town of Cremona in Italy which he and other violin-makers made famous, not unlike Mi raj in India for sitars and tamburas. The families of da Salo, Maggini and Amati — three of the greatest families in the history of violin-making — remained in Cremona as three parallel streams, each striving to modify, refine and thus improve the violin generation after generation, with an almost obsessive dedication.
While Giuseppe Guarneri (1626-1698), also known as Giuseppe del Gesu, was influenced by Maggini and laid more emphasis on robust tone (rather than visual perfection) which was what attracted Paganini, Antonius Stradivarius started his own label in 1666. He was a prodigious worker, constantly experimenting in his quest for perfection. He turned out at least 1116 instruments — violins, violas, cellos and guitars — out of which about 600 are known to exist and still in excellent condition. Stradivarius married twice and all his eleven children became violin-makers. There was such a surge of demand for his violins that he became affluent enough to create a common expression in Cremona: 'rich as Stradivarius". Not unnaturally, there had been a proliferation of spurious 'Strads' and, even today, some 'proud owner' turns up with what turns out to be a fake.
Occasionally one hears about an old violin which has been lying in someone's attic and it is discovered to be a priceless Guarneri, Amati or Strati. Because the actual number of genuine ones is small and limited, their prices have been skyrocketing, not merely because they are coveted by leading violinists and collectors but also because of the activities of predatory dealers who pick them up in the sure knowledge that resale can only mean a premium. In 1984 a Stradivarius auctioned by Sotheby's in London fetched no less than £ 396,000 (approximately Rs. 60 lakhs), and earlier this year another Strad fetched about Rs. 43 lakhs. Stradivarius did not just 'churn out' violins of the type he had learned to make from Nicolo Amati. He experimented indefatigably and in 1690 produced what is referred to as the 'long Strad' which was 14 3/16 inches long and 8 inches wide.
He persisted, shortening the body, varying the size Arman (1920): Anita of the Violins and design of the pegs and the fingerboards. The earlier violins had an arched and deep belly and back. Stradivarius realised that by making the body shallower he could achieve a more vibrant tone. He even tried different types of wood and varied its thickness, applied different varnishes with his own secret formula, varying in colour from bright orange to dark red and deep red, Many Strads earned individual names like 'Viotti' and 'Dolphin' just as some Guarneris acquired names such as 'Bale' and 'Count D'Eqville'. The last of the modifications in the design of the violin took place in the nineteenth century with the advent of large auditoriums which demanded a greater volume of sound from the violin. (The happy fact that electronic amplification has not been successful on the violin speaks for its individuality). To attain this, the bridge was heightened, and the bass bar as well as the sound post thickened. The neck was angled back more steeply to enable the player to apply more pressure on the bridge. The soft intimate tone of the violin became more brilliant.
A violin is not easy to make. Various types of wood like sycamore pine, ebony, pearwood, maple, etc., go into its making. The air enclosure of the body determines the tonal quality and, therefore, its exact proportions are important, as are the place and size of the T hole, the curvature and even the quality of wood used for the sound post. The strings used on a violin are made of pig gut or sheep gut or aluminium wire wound round gut or they are made of steel or nylon. The thin wooden bridge is held in place, midway to the T hole by the pressure of the strings on the belly. The fingerboard is of ebony and has no frets (unlike its predecessor, the viol). The sound post is positioned directly under the treble 'foot' of the bridge and inside the belly (under the fourth string).
This little stick of pine, wedged between the top and bottom boards, transmit the vibrations to the back of the instrument. Then fixed under the belly, and running lengthwise is a narrow wood bar, the bass bar, which is what gives the violin its resonance. The bow is made of a wooden stick strung from one end to the other with horse hair, Originally, (the bow curved outwards and it was Francis Tourte, the greatest bow-maker of them all who died in 1835 at the age of eighty-eight, who devised the modern bow with the inward curve which gave the player greater control. On the cheaper bows available today, horse hair has been substituted by artificial fibre.
T.C. SATYANATH