Fiddling About

Fiddling About

"Fiddles are a universe, a pretty self-contained universe. It has gods and lesser gods and people who dirty the universe.”

Originally shared by ****

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When does repair go way beyond reason and recognition? In fact, this two-century-old fetish for violin repair and restoration created a violin world composed largely of smoke and mirrors — according to Joe Peknik, former Metropolitan Museum of Art principal technician in the Musical Instruments Department. “I hate to say it, but it’s all a sham. To modernize an old violin to be played and sound well in a modern concert hall, one has to first stabilize the instrument by removing the top and in many cases, relining or doubling the edges, putting in a breast patch, and in some cases, make it thicker or thinner. Then a new, longer and thicker bass bar must be added, lengthening the neck and tilting it back a bit to put more tension on the top—all to make an instrument louder and stronger. These changes are all made to make an instrument more effective in a large concert hall, the size of which the original maker could never have imagined. The violin is the only object in the world of antiques that increases in value with this large amount of restoration. Most other objects that are restored to this extent would be devalued by half or less.”
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http://lithub.com/the-greatest-violin-no-ones-ever-heard/

Comments

  1. Timothy StreetApril 10, 2016 at 3:08 PM

    Surprisingly, old wooden trunks increase in value with restoration. A sound investment . . . .     ; )

    ReplyDelete

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