SOUNDPOST

LETTER of the MONTH

SWEET RELIEF

I have repaired a great many instrument top plates with cracks starting at the edges of the saddle.

I wonder why, over the centuries, violin makers have cut out a rectangular pocket for the saddle and cut through the purfling. This makes the stress at the sharp corners several times higher than the average plate stress. The windows of aeroplanes are never rectangular with sharp corners for this reason. I was taught by luthier Edward Campbell in his workshops to put a radius at the corners of the pocket, drill a 10mm-diameter hole at each end, and cut the pocket tangent to the holes.

This relieves the stress concentration at these corners and the purfling will reinforce the plate. Violinists and restorers in the next century will thank you if you do the same!

CHARLES WOODS

Ridgecrest, CA, US

INCONVENIENT TRUTHS

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (right) was indeed the ‘son of George Bologne de Saint-Georges (a wealthy planter of Huguenot descent) and Anne Nanon (an enslaved chambermaid of African descent)’, (‘The remarkable revolutionary’, February). The author surprisingly omits to reveal that George was himself a slave owner, and that Nanon was among the people he counted as his legal property. At the time of Joseph’s birth, the 16-year-old Nanon was the chambermaid of George’s wife Elisabeth.

We learn that ‘there was a real affection between father and son’, but not that George was Joseph’s owner, too.

There is no mention of what happened to Nanon when George ‘deliberately took Joseph away from a life of legal racial restrictions’, but one wonders what say she had in the matter. It appears that George (who, the author writes, ‘opened doors’ for his son) chose not to do the same for the child’s mother.

LAUREN BLYTH

Reading, UK

STAND AND DELIVER

Despite more than three decades of playing the viola I have yet to find a collapsible music stand that is (a) durable, (b) lightweight, and (c) the right size. Surely the stand of my dreams exists somewhere – if anyone reading this has any suggestions, I would be extremely glad to hear them!

In the hope that this last-ditch cry for help will work, I’ll set out exactly what it is I’m looking for.

Basically, I need a stand that can be collapsed and put up again daily. It doesn’t feel as if I’m asking too much here, but the height adjustment screws on every single collapsible metal music stand I have ever owned lose their grip after no more than six months of daily use. This seems to be less of a problem with plastic stands, but these tend to fail the durability test in different ways. The angle adjuster at the top soon breaks, or one of the foot stabilisers snaps, rendering the whole thing useless. My feeling is that the perfect stand is probably made of metal, but if anyone has any leads on an unbreakable plastic version I am all ears.

Except for the travel-unfriendly orchestral-style models, the vast majority of music stands I have encountered are not deep enough to hold a whole programme’s worth of music. Or, if they are, they don’t have long enough ‘wings’ to support the fold-out parts that many of us use. I’ve come across some that extend widthways, but again these are not suitable for travel, and they tend to be so big that, in a chamber music setting, they stop you from seeing what your colleagues are doing.

Collapsible, light, durable, big enough to hold lots of music, small enough that I can see what’s going on – any ideas?

JAMES HUME

Leith, UK

AHEAD OF THE CURVE?

I very much enjoyed Paolo Sarri’s detailed but accessible article on the evolution of the bow (‘Behind the curve’, February). I hadn’t previously made a connection between the ‘beautiful staccato, with only one run, both ascending and descending’ of the Mannheim school that the obviously impressed young Mozart described in a letter to his father, and the obvious need for a bow with an internal curve. On the other hand, Sarri’s assertion that ‘the Mannheim school of composition laid the foundations for the great Central European symphony’ did strike me as quite a dramatic reading of the history, and one that doesn’t take into account the existence of competing centres of musical innovation.

It would be silly to argue that the undoubtedly inventive inhabitants of Mannheim did not have an outsize impact on the development of the symphony. In particular, Johann Stamitz and his son Carl Philipp had a very clear and significant influence on the form’s early direction. But their colleagues in Berlin, Dresden and Vienna – and Paris, Milan and Venice – had no small role to play in the promotion of the symphony to its position among the most prestigious instrumental forms. Even by the early 18th century, the musical cultures of central Europe were connected by common artistic ambitions.

BEE O’NEILL

West Jordan, UT, US

ONLINE COMMENT

News of a petition calling on easyJet to reverse its decision to stop passengers carrying their violin or viola as hand luggage was met with an outpouring of support: bit.ly/3qSb1Ey

DOUGLAS CANN Yet more efforts to kill off the music industry! With Covid and Brexit, I guess we can kiss goodbye to professional, amateur and youth orchestras touring again!

MECHTELD DE BOER It’s really crazy: first you lose at least 80 per cent of your income because of cancelled concerts, and then also have to pay double because your life support (your instrument) is not allowed as hand luggage. And when you check it in as hold luggage, you get it back in pieces, without compensation or explanation.

DOROTHEA VOGEL To buy an extra seat doesn’t work as the instruments are too small to be strapped in anyway. Please think about all the extra business from musicians.

MATTHEW ELSTON You’d think one struggling industry would be looking out for another!

TOP 3 ONLINE POSTS

1 Opinion: Why we should all be violists bit.ly/3rcOGSj

2 Maxim Vengerov (below) launches educational website bit.ly/2XzVbBV