SOUNDPOST

Letters, emails, online comments

MYSTERY FOR THE AGES

VIOLIN PHOTO CHRISTIAN BAYON

While clearing out the house of my late grandfather, my wife came across a violin made in 1889 by the American luthier Jerome Bonaparte Squier. Not having come across the name before, despite being a violinist herself, she typed the name into Google and almost immediately emitted a cry of astonishment. It turned out that a painting of Mr Squier himself had been hanging on the wall of her own grandfather, since before she picked up the violin herself, 40 years ago! It seems that the luthier sat for a painting by the respected artist William Bicknell (above), and the artwork now hangs near the cloakroom at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA. Given that both of us have spent most of our lives in California, we feel there must be some cosmic meaning to this coincidence!

NICHOLAS CLEARY Santa Fe Strings, CA, US

PIZZ AND PIECES

Davina Shum’s recent Opinion piece (‘The problem with pizzicato’, April 2024) triggered some thoughts of my own. While I was at the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam, studying the harp as my second instrument, I learnt that a plucked note cannot sustain. Therefore the harpist must make a motion after the pluck, in order to show the style they were going for.

Secondly, I found out from a bass guitarist that a different kind of pizzicato sound can be made with no hand motion, just with a straight finger plucking the string horizontally. To me it gives a more threatening sound, with untold possibilities for interpretation. Finally, many conductors try to cue pizzicato with a downward motion on the beat. However, pizzicato is an upward motion from the string. It would be good if the conductor could arrive a little before the cue and ‘give’ the pizzicato (as if the baton were plucking the string). I explained this to Edo de Waart, our conductor in the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, when he asked in frustration: ‘How do you cue a pizzicato?’

MARILYN KLERX-HARDIE Malmedy, Belgium

SLUMP DOCTOR

In February’s Making Matters article, Christian Bayon touched on a common problem of antique instruments – a slump of the neck angle accompanied by a bulge at the top end of the front (right). It should be noted that wood is not a purely elastic material, such as steel, but is subject to ‘creep’ when stressed. Also, this creep is facilitated by a change in humidity, which in turn changes the moisture content of the wood. This effect was investigated in my own article in the September 1986 issue.

There are various ways in which the slump or bulge can occur. Perhaps the wood was made too thin, or the long profile too steep, at the neck end of the front. Or perhaps the instrument had been kept with string tension, in a place such as an attic, where there are extremes of humidity. Once the bulge starts, neck slump can become a persistent problem. The steep profile of a bulge is not as resistant to creep as a sloping profile.

One way to reduce the problem is to fit a wooden wedge with a leather base, under the end of the fingerboard, when the instrument is not in use. The fingerboard should be lifted with one hand, while inserting with the other, to avoid damaging the varnish.

In extreme cases I have steamed the bulge out, removed some wood underneath, and grafted fresh wood on the surface. This gives a better profile without increasing the thickness appreciably.

Finally, in my opinion, the distorted profile present in some antique instruments should not be copied slavishly by contemporary makers. It is not the same profile as originally made, and will not be as resistant as the original profile.

ALAN BEAVITT Scoraig, Scotland, UK

ARMENIAN CHAMPION Many thanks for the recent articles bringing to light the achievements of the lesser-known Russian pedagogues such as Yuri Kramarov (September 2022) and Natalia Shakhosvskaya (March 2023). May I suggest if this series is to continue, that The Strad consider an article on the Armenian violinist and tutor Ioannes Nalbandian (1871– 1942)? Although virtually forgotten today, he was possibly one of the most influential pedagogues of the 20th century, having mentored such star players as Jascha Heifetz, Efrem Zimbalist and Miron Polyakin. He was also the teaching assistant to Leopold Auer for many years at the St Petersburg Conservatoire, and indeed accompanied Auer when he left for America. Consequently, I believe his own achievements have always been overlooked.

Another of Nalbandian’s students in St Petersburg was Yuri Yankelevich, whose name appears in the biographies of numerous Russian violinists, as well as the above-mentioned articles in The Strad.

KURT BÖHLER Innsbruck, Austria

ONLINE COMMENT

Davina Shum’s Opinion piece on the teaching of pizzicato touched a few nerves on The Strad ’s social media pages: (bit.ly/3Qd9Gay) JEFFREY SOLOW I frequently mention to students that there are two things that are seldom (if ever) practiced but which should be: pizzicato and page turns! TREBLE STRINGS Owing to the fact that a lot of string players start with pizzicato and learn left and right hand separately for a while, it starts to feel like a beginner thing – something to be left behind with the beginner tunes and bow hold exercises. None of those things should be treated as something to be left behind, and review is good for everyone. But there is so much other stuff to practise, and more music to play than a lifetime allows. DWIGHT BROWN I think most of us find pizz, col legno, sul ponticello etc. as things we wish they hadn’t told composers about. Especially trying to get us to bash the hell out of our good bows. JANEEN CEPARANO WILKINS Bass players do…