The Inspiration

I knew in 2007 when I anticipated my retirement, that returning to music and my love of the violin was a necessity. I did not realize at the time what would unfold over the next two years.

I knew it would be challenging. I had neglected my instrument. I had rarely played it for nearly forty years. My first thought, like so many amateur violinists was to find a new and wonderful sounding instrument. If that wouldn't improve my sound it would at least motivate me to work hard recovering the skills I had lost. Soon I was overwhelmed by the variety and cost of instruments available and decided to have my old student violin brought to its best.

Luckily with the work of skilled luthiers my $200 German shop violin (Anton Schroetter, Mittenwald) from the 1950's was reworked with new soundpost, bridge, great strings and a reshaped finger board. The sound was surprisingly resonant and powerful.

I started lessons and began practicing and in the Fall of 2008 joined two orchestras playing regularly with the Indianapolis Philharmonic and the Athenaeum Pops Orchestras.

The summer of 2008 my family invited me for a visit with them to Florence, Italy and St. Albans, England On my trip I read Toby Faber's, "Stradivari's Genius'. I soon became determined to see any Stadivari violins possible while I was in Italy and the U.K.




On the day before I was to leave Tuscany I wanted to do some traditional last minute sightseeing. In particular I had decided to go to the Galleria dell' Accademia in Florence to see Michelangelo's David.

What a happy surprise. Upon first entering the gallery I was very fortunate to come across the exhibit of the Department of Musical Instruments of the Conservatorio "Luigi Cherubini". In this collection I was able to view a number of instruments of both the Amati and Stradvari families.

From the Faber book I had learned of the Hill collection of historical instruments located at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England . On the return to England the final week of the trip I asked my niece, Leslie if she could drive me and my grand niece Charlotte to the Ashmolean Museum the afternoon we were in Old Headington, Oxford, visiting with her mother-in-law and father-in-law, Nancy and Tony.

That afternoon on July 15th, 2008 would be a turning point in my violin odyssey. There were two instruments I wanted to view. The most important I had thought would be the oldest violin in existence, the 1654 Andrea Amati. This violin was part of a commission for Charles the IX of France and was an historical must see.












However, the one that took my breath away was the 1716 Antonio Stradavari violin referred to as the 'Messiah'. This is known to be one of the most pristine violins credited to him. It was acquired by Count Cozio di Salabue from Paolo Stradavari around 1775 and then passed from the Count's collection to Luigi Tarisio after 1823. It was eventually sold around 1855 to Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume of Mirecourt the great 19th Century Parisian luthier. From 1843 onward the Messiah was admired and copied. By 1872 it had acquired a cult following.

After the trip I could not stop obsessing on the Messiah and at the suggestion of my violin teacher I began considering commissioning a local luthier to make a violin for me inspired by the 'Messiah'. I began researching technical information about the science of violin making in earnest after reading "The Violin Maker" by John Marchese.

A couple of months into 2009 I began talking to folks about the possibility of commissioning a violin based on the Strad "Messiah". I finally approached Benjamin Parrot an emerging local talented luthier trained with a degree in Stringed Instrument Technology from Indiana University's Jacob's Music School. Ben is shown below with a top he carved.

Benjamin did fine work on my Shroetter violin. I had had the opportunity to play two of his violins and a viola all of which impressed me very much. Benjamin suggested that I look at the information he had on the 1716 Medici and 1715 Cremonese violins for which he already had a form. See images below. After further research it appeared that they were very close in construction to the "Messiah".

The body measurements in millimetres of the Messiah, Medici, and Cremonese are listed below respectively:

Total Length of Instrument - 593, 587, 587; Body Length - 356, 356, 355.5; Width, Upper Bouts - 168, 166.8, 167.2; Width, C Bouts - 112, 109.4, 110; Width, Lower Bouts - 213, 206.6, 205.5; Depth of Sides - 29 to 32, 27.5 to 30.7, 29.5 to 32.2; String Length - 330, 331, 329

An article I came across verified that thickness graduation of the 3 instruments front and back had similar characteristics. As well, there was little question raised as to the authenticity of the Medici and Cremonese Strads.

With this information I seriously discussed the commission with Benjamin. I decided to go with his proposal to use the Medici mold he had used on previous violins. I felt that the similarity of the three instruments and the fact that his skill and sensitivity increased as he produced more instruments with the same form would result in the best instrument. We reached an agreement that I would be able to audit and document the process as it unfolded. The result is the journal I am keeping and posting to this blog or perhaps I should refer to it as a Vlog since it is in fact a Violin Log.

The Violin Journal Begins

April, 2009

Friday April 17, 2009

I decided to have Benjamin use wood he had selected and aged 9-10 years ago.

Top - 2 piece

European spruce (probably Bosnian) aged 10 years, light, perfect run out, reflective.

Back - 2 piece
European Maple (Bosnian) aged 9 years, reflective, straight. Piece not as square as top and requires more leveling/flattening.

Leveling and Squaring Halves for the Back and Top

1. INCA power jointer plane used for first stage of leveling and squaring the pieces as well as making the sides to face toward the inside of the violin flat to be joined for the top and back.

2. Ben hand planed the pieces for the remaining leveling and joining to make both halves so perfectly straight/square there will actually be suction taking them a part.

3. After checking the joining for perfect fit no further hand planing will be done until after gluing the halves.

Monday April 20,2009

Gluing the Top and Back Halves

Ben joins the back and top halves using the clamping method rather than the traditional"rubbed joint". The edge of the wood is heated so that glue does not gel up. The heated glue is applied to the back pieces and they are clamped first. Glue is put on from the other side to ensure swelling the joint tighter in case missed on initial glue. The top was glued next. Photos below show the glued back and front from the side that will face outward on the finished violin.

Friday April 24, 2009

Preparing the Corner Blocks: The Classical (Italian) Inside Mold

Ben prepares the the mold/form initially gluing on 4 spacers rather than screws. I have opted to have Ben use the form he created previously based on the Medici Strad. This is based on the Stadavari G short for Grande mold.

Next he must prepare the blocks. Ben uses Canadian Black Willow. Willow was used by both Stainer and Stradavari. The willow does have frequency dampening effects and being very light brings out the human voice quality in the violin.

He splits and then planes to make flat surfaces. He will get only corner blocks from the piece and depends on fracture lines after the initial two splits.

Run out was uneven in the willow piece he started from. It was necessary to use the spindle sander to smooth the sawed edge. Then planing was required to get the right angle surface.

Next smoothing/cleaning was done to remove leftover glue and wood bits from the last violin made with the Medici form. Thickness of the form is exactly the space between the linings. Spacers raise the form enough for blocks to extend down.

Measure height to make blocks 33mm. Height needed to be cut down to measurement on the band saw. The blocks will be smoothed and glued to plates as well as ribs. Chamfer: level to fit better. A lot of time was spent getting block roughs fitted. Surfaces had to be planed to fit form but angle so it would not bind when form has to be knocked away.

Final task for the day was gluing blocks to the form.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Ben and I took a hiatus from work on the violin and are just picking up for the first time since April.

Shaping the C Bout Blocks and Leveling the Inside Back and Top Surfaces

The first job this morning was to shape the 4 C bout blocks with a scribing gouge. Ben has moved most of his workshop to a new location with Indianapolis Violins in downtown Indianapolis. Since he doesn't have all of his sanding drums he could only complete the chiseling this morning.

Next on the list was leveling the inside surfaces of the violin back and top. The rough preparation was done in April on a sanding machine but now the inside facing surfaces have to be perfectly leveled by hand planing.

Ben inserted a bench dog in the workbench to hold the the back and top pieces while he did the planing.

He leveled the back first and the the top. He noticed slight drop offs from the sanding machine work. He planed down the surface to eliminate the irregularities. Interestingly, the wood grain began to display its beautiful flaming and reflective qualities as the surface became level and smooth. Throughout the process it was necessary for Ben to check for imperfections by laying a straight edge on the surfaces of checking horizontally, vertically and diagonally.

Finally, Ben went back over the surfaces with a scrapper which does an even finer cut removing any planing irregularities.

Ben worked skillfully. The leveling process for the inside surfaces was at times made challenging by the wedge shapes of the outside facing surfaces of the top and back. As the plane and scrapper were applied the pieces had a tendency to rock when working across the grain.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Thinning the Rib Wood and Shaping the C Bout Blocks

The maple rib wood Ben has matched to the violin back so that it is beautifully flamed similar to the two pieces shown above joined for the back of my violin. He prefers to select rib wood from pieces that could actually be used for a back so that the ribs are of equal beauty to the backs of his violins.

The fours strips to be used on my violin ribs he sanded down to approximately 1.2mm in thickness. The final thickness of 1 mm is reached by careful scraping,

Throughout the process he periodically checks the thickness with thickness calipers of varying sensitivity. An individual shaving is usually no more than one hundredth of a millimeter. This final thinning with a scrapper also removes all traces of sanding marks and reveals the grain.

After the final thinning Ben identifies the rib pieces and portions of the pieces that have the most regular flaming with lengths of about 140 to 143 mm that will be cut for the C bout sections. As with masny of the Strads in the old days Ben will match the flaming around the instrument to run in the same direction.

Today Ben also finished the shaping of the 4 C bout corner blocks using an oscillating spindle sander and carefully sanding down to the penciled outline from the form. This required great skill and care as he overlaid the blocks with the form itself for the finish work.

The final activity was cutting of a black willow piece for the violin end block.

The next session is planned for Thursday July 23. At that time the C Bout rib pieces should be cut shaped and glued. As well, the final block for the violin neck should be cut.