STRADIVARI

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 May 1938, Page 12

STRADIVARI

\ IDLiXS STILL Al HE. t'rit:i!i‘i.i s urea; fc.-.!ival o f music is over. J'or .'mmths ;be city has celebrated the lucent'-num! of her iihisirions citizen. Antoni" Stradivari, with com-'rt ami opi.-ia. and competitive arts, writes Doris. llc'liugs in "This World. And now ,his nm-ie-nt j Lombardian city Ims lakcn the first, step in the realisation of'her dream to become once more the centre, of violin making; .she has delivered to Mussolini the net proceeds of the festival. som<' hi.lire, to be used in the establishment of ;; national must um and school of lute making. J’or 800 years Cremona has basked in the glory of three- great, names; Amati, Cuarneri, Stradivari. hi the shops l of these three—all within the space of a city block: were made the world's greatest violins. Will the world ever sec their like again? Are great violin makers. like peels, born—or made?

I .Just two centuries ago. on Decent- : her US. there died in Cremona the man who dared challenge this dictum. [Antonio Stradivari had no fiddle- niakfer's blood. True, his family tree was

'loaded down with eminent statesmen, jbitt when one is obsessed with the jitrge i<i create the perfect violin, it is lotto thing io have had a senator • patriae among one's distant ancestors and (|iiile another to have had a [father and grandfather who were outIstanding artisans.

I Stradivari overcame- this haiidica; [of heredity in two ways. He chosi [for his instructor the great Xicoli Amati himself, the greatest violin 'maker in al! Italy, and he ac'iiiiiukii led in one long lifetime, (he experi encc of many genera-ions. So well did the apprentice learn his craft mi■dir Amati's expert. tutelage that, before his aged master passed away. ! Stradivari was himself well on his pay t<> fam'-. [ MADE LATE IX LICE. I To lhe mode; n. age-conscious inriusItrial world, the career of this seven-

t<enth-centnry craftsman is of particular interest. At 10, Stradivari was no more than an uncommonly dexter-' cm.i craftsman. with a, prodigious,, capacity for work; at Go lie had only' begun to make the instruments’ whirl to-day coiutiiatid fantastic prices. Al. 70. Stradivari produced the vio

Jins treasured to-day by Miscba Elman and Toseha. Seidel. At 71, the master made the beautiful ’’Gibson'’ Strad which was stolen two years ago from the Polish artist, Bronislaw Huberman. on his- American tour. At 87, Stradivari created the lovely xolden brown fiddle which is partieuarly precious to Jascha Heifetz. The years passed, but. Stradivari’s vitality seemed to increase with the ■ears. Near the end of his life he oeus-ed bis powers on- an instrument

I destined to come into (lie hands- of ; twentieth-century boy genius. Yehud (Menuhin's "Prince KhcvenhulTer.'’ va [made when the master was 89 year; old, Ho was 93- when he made hii last violin. It is doubtful if in alt history one can. find a worker to match this tire less craftsman. For 75 years ho- gave all he had to a capricious- box ol singing wood. A swift worker, he could average two violins a. month; it iff believed some 2000 instruments -•-ceilos, guitars, mandolins, violins — must have borne his label. Of Stradivari, the- man. we know all too little. No portrait of him is in existence. Of the thousands who passed his open door nobody, apparently, suspected he was watching an immortal at. his work and; so nobody put down in writing wh'at- this man looked like, how he liveid, what he

thought. One "ho liked to talk to [him in his old age remarked that he 'was tall tied slim. that, be liked-' to near :i while woollen cap when the weather was cold. Consider only his tenacious will-to-pci ft ctio'm Even at the peak of his fame. St radix mi i refused to delegate to less i cm) i ti.mt hands, tedious details, but himsi. If designed and cut the "f" holes, carved the scrolls, the fingerboards. pegs, tall pieces and bridges. How well he knew that a. violin, more than ;in\ other instrument, demands the subtle co-ordination of every minute part!

SECRET OE VARNISH. Again, the excellence of the Stradivari varnish, which men have spent their lives trying to duplicate, probably d'epended for its .success- upon the perfection with which it was applied. Were the recipe for (hat lustrous, resilient. finish broadcast to-morrow over the world's networks, would “The Lest Secret of Cremona" be solved? Probably not. Thai essential ingredient. the infinite, patience of genius, would still be lacking. Xobody knows, of course, the- technique employed by the master. Many violin makers believe he made his wood pliable with oils and gum. which he patiently massaged into it with his- hands, lhe heat of the palm helping to drive the emollient, into lhe fibre.

Again and again this process must have been repeated, and then theseanointed instruments were hung in lhe “airplane deck” al the lop of the house, there Io be- dried and' seasoned by the. hot Italian, suit.

i • Nor would Stradivari hasten this ■, slow seasoning. When Hie King of [Poland wanted a dozen violins for his [Court, orchestra. ho sent his niesseii--1 ger to t'rcmona with orders to slay | there until they were made. Stradijvat’i kept the- King's emissary waiting three months' I If (lie master could not. impart, to ’others his zeal for perfection, neither . could he bestow upon another his tine •sensibility. It is thought ho could tell ! by (lie sense of touch when the belly of a fiddle had reached the desired thinness. The grain l of a plank, its knots, its texture, its sound- —these things Stradivari understood' through that, sixth sense, intuition, which all -great men. says Carrei. have in' common.

I Of the instruments which went out [into the world from that, busy shop iiu. Cremona, only 800 remain. .Many (acre lost: or destroyed in the wholesale. looting ihat invariably acconrpanjicd militarj l invasions of the period; I others were victims of ignorance and neglect, left to lie for years in damp cellars or attics. Ysaye’s fine Strad was stolen in Spain by an English a.go and has never been heard of since. Kreisler plays a. Strad which was stole nin- Spain by an- English sailor during the Napoleonic wars. The sailor sold the fiddle to an. English saloon keeper who in turn disposed of it to a musician. After a sue-1 cession of owners’ tho violin eventually camo into Krcislcr's possession.