Baroque to the future

MAKING MATTERS

Points of interest to violin and bow makers

Mathijstheyligers (far let) discussing the project with members of La Scinilla

A s a luthier, I ind it fascinating to work in close contact with musicians. Being a musician myself, this is logical. But working with the whole string section of an orchestra and its conductor is a totally diferent experience. It brings the work of the luthier on to a diferent level: facing the ensemble as one instrument (made of many diferent elements), rather than working with a single musician.the result is very interesting and applicable to many orchestras, but it needs the full collaboration of the musicians. A musician obviously can’t be forced to have their instrument worked on, and there will always be someone scared and reluctant to take the big step. But considering an orchestra as one single musical instrument and trying to give it a speciic, recognisable sound certainly gives a new dimension to ensemble playing.

In 1998 members of the Zurich Opera House founded the Baroque orchestra La Scintilla (he Spark), inviting players who wanted to develop their Baroque performance techniques.they were inspired by the work of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who had conducted numerous extensive Monteverdi and Mozart projects from the 1970s onwards, among other things reintroducing the use of gut strings and Baroque bows. Now partially separated from the Opera House, Scintilla has always been fed by the curiosity of its members to improve their knowledge, leading to the constant feeling of a work in progress. With the arrival in 2017 of Riccardo Minasi as artistic director and chief conductor, this feeling has developed further.

LA SCINTILLA HAS ALWAYS BEEN FED BY THE CURIOSITY OF ITS MEMBERS

My collaboration with Minasi dates back to the early 1990s, and his curiosity and continuous wish to improve have inspired our work together. His has very deined ideas about sound, based on a profound knowledge of the existing literature, and supported by his technical facility in violin playing. Every new document discovered in the archives has led him to new experiments with the instrument, all tested during the concert toursthe has been continuously involved in.

In particular,the has experimented tirelessly with every possible string solution: variations in string size, composition and preparation have been developed in conjunction with the string makers. Rediscovering lost techniques in string making has always been his goal. his is evident in his very particular choice for the strings on his Amati violin, resulting in a tone quality that is radically diferent from the mainstream Baroque sound. Working with string makers,the examined archive documents and historic paintings of instruments to come up with strings of much larger diameter than normal, made with a diferent method (by ‘weaving’ and twisting many thin gut ropes together) so that they were thick but lexible, and easy to play. his is now known as the ‘Venice’ method, and is used for the middle strings. An E string of 0.7mm or even up to 0.74mm became his trademark, the other strings of comparable thickness to reach the ‘equal tension’ balance.the resulting sound was surprisingly rich, even and powerful, nothing like the irst Baroque experiments of the 1960s and more akin to the exuberant, overwhelming sound that 17th-century musicians would have made.

It was my task as Minasi’s luthier to make these strings work on the instrument, and to make it possible to perform on them in the waythe had in mind. Regarding set-up, the black bridges that one sees on 16th- and 17th-century paintings prompted us to try every possible material and treatment. We even experimented with a bridge made completely of ebony, which gave a very interesting, but not very practical, sound – very ‘stif’ and ‘blocked’, as if there was a special kind of mute on the violin. We had the best results with an ink treatment on a late Baroque bridge of common maple. his treatment hardened the wood, giving the sound more focus and power. We also carried out experiments on models and massvariations of bridges, soundposts, tailpieces, saddles, nuts, neck angles and ingerboards (see Trade Secrets, April 2017). In particular, putting the thick strings very close to the ingerboard made their response very natural and easy.

Stages of the ‘re-Baroquing’ process

AN EBONY BRIDGE GAVE AN INTERESTING, BUT NOT VERY PRACTICAL, SOUND

On Minasi’s arrival at La Scintilla, the musicians proved very responsive to his endeavours and were eager to be guided at his workshops. his gave him the idea of equipping all the players’ instruments with the same set-up, to give the entire string section a balanced overall sound.the leadership of the Zurich Opera House agreed that Minasi could involve his own luthier (me) and even supported the musicians inancially.the task was carried out not without diiculty, as every instrument was diferent (from the 17th century up to the present day), in a diferent state of Baroque set-up and, of course, played with a diferent bow by very diferent musicians. Furthermore, there were several factors that made the task even more complicated. All the instruments (apart from a few that remained the way they were) were one after the other converted to a state as close as possible to Minasi’s ideal. ‘Give strings a chance’ is his motto, and workshops have been organised tothelp the musicians discover the new potential of their instrument with this diferent set-up.

Some musicians who at irst proved sceptical were quickly won over, and the prevailing atmosphere was one of inspiration and enthusiasm. Over the next few concerts, a radical change in La Scintilla’s sound was noticed and admired. Subsequent adjustments to the set-up of some of the more reluctant instruments perfected the overall balance of sound of the ensemble; the new Scintilla sound was a fact.