* The Fine Art of Italian Violinmaking

The Fine Art of Italian Violinmaking
by Sandro C.H. Chiao

Many consider Italy the “soul” of western art and culture. This nation, an historical crossroads of peoples, cultures, and ideas, has been a font of invention and innovation in many fields; of which is music is one of the more significant. Italian craftsman focused their attention and skills on instruments that had originated in Europe, western Asia and elsewhere and turned them into works of structural and aesthetic beauty. It was in Italy that instrument making established itself as a distinct field of artistic creation. Within this new field, no instrument received more attention - or achieved greater heights - than the violin.

Liuto (the Lute)

The lute, a plucked string instrument with historical roots that reach back to ancient Egypt, Greece, and Persia, came to prominence in Europe during the Baroque Period (17th and 18th c.). Because of its resonant tones and ability to produce soul-searching chords, contemporaries called the liuto (as it is known in Italian) the “king of musical instruments”. The typical Baroque lute had either thirteen or nineteen strings, and was an aesthetically beautiful piece of artwork. An exceptionally complex instrument, lute making demanded a level of skill and experience significantly higher than that required of modern violinmakers. From the Italian word liuto (lute) came the name of the art of building stringed instruments: Liuteria. Similarly, Italian lute makers were known as Liutaio … a name that survives today to describe makers of violins as well as its cousins (e.g., violas, cellos, double basses). Baroque liutaio are the patriarchs of today’s violinmakers.

The Earliest Violins

The classical lute led creative instrument makers to experiment with ways of producing sound other than by plucking. Bows, made of horsetail hairs drawn taught across frames of arced wood, were found to produce pleasant sounds. The era of “bowed-string lutes” had arrived. The earliest bowed-string lutes were of dimensions and specifications similar to modern violas. As makers became more sophisticated and musicians demanded increased tonal range, “violas” of varying sizes were produced. Larger violas came to be known as Viola da gamba (literally, “leg violas”) because they were played resting on a performer’s leg. Medium-sized violas became known as Viola da bracio (“shoulder violas”) because they were played resting on the shoulder. The smallest, called Viola da more (“viola of love”), was played resting under the cheek. This new instrument adopted innovations in string arrangement, enhanced the resonance and clarity of strings, and often featured the delicately carved head of a woman at the top of the instrument neck. This new instrument family was called Violia, with subgroups including the Violino (the suffix ino in Italian meaning “small”), Violoncello, and Contra basso (the suffix “o” in Italian inferring “masculinity”). The range attained from this instrument family, with the violino at the top and Contra basso at the bottom, filled the spectrum required by musicians.

Hallowed Ground - Cremona Italy

The town of Cremona in Italy has long been held sacrosanct by violinmakers, players and aficionados the world over. It was here that Andrea Amati created the modern violin and established a liutaio dynasty that included Antonio, Nicola and Girolamo Amati. Included among the many who trained under Antonio Amati were the now legendary violinmakers Antonio Stradivari, Andrea Guarneri and Carlo Bergonzi. Students of the Amatis in turn founded their own liutaio dynasties, which drove the Amati school of violinmaking into predominance. As Cremona’s reputation spread throughout Italy, talented liutaio throughout the country began to adopt the basic Amati style, elevating it to the fore of the various violinmaking schools. Already established as a branch of the “fine arts”, the violino di Cremona has since secured its place as an ageless Italian art form.

A Violin’s Value

Undoubtedly, a certain portion of any violin’s worth lies in the brilliance of its tones rendered under the bow of a skilled performer and in the skill of the composer of the music played. However, the violin (and its cousins) is unique among musical instruments in encompassing an additional “special value” that goes beyond its quality of performance. In order to appreciate this, we must abandon traditional precepts that focus solely on pecuniary value. Because such valuations are susceptible to manipulation as well as consider factors (e.g., broker commissions) extraneous to the instrument itself, they cannot encapsulate a violin’s true “value”. The “special value” of a violin, like that of a painting or other piece of fine art, reflects its significance as an objet d’art – and the significance of violin “art” lies in its creator. The path of the professional liutaio is fraught with myriad hurdles and challenges; and, while time, determination and patience are essential to master basic instrument making skills, an entire lifetime is required to refine techniques and establish a distinctive style. A violin made by a prodigy liutaio, even if expertly crafted and producing fine tones, will never be truly “valuable” if the maker never makes another. This is because a key element of any violin’s intrinsic value is derived from its distinctive “style” – apparent only in reference to the maker’s other violins produced over the course of his or her career. Centuries of tradition, the influence of one or more liutaio “schools” and the infusion of personal style all join together in the work of the professional liutaio. Each step in the lengthy process of handcrafting a new violin seeks to achieve “perfection”. Only thus can the finished instrument realize its true “value”. As the personal creation of a single liutaio, a violin differs from other musical instruments that embody the work of many individuals and reflects the character of an individual artisan in every detail.

Since the 15th century, many of the world’s most talented and celebrated liutaio, including Giovanni Paolo Maggini (1580~1632), Niccolo Amati (1596~1684), Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu (1687~1745) and Antonio Stradivari (1644~1737), have been from Italy. Violinists aspire to play their instruments, while collectors and curators treasure them as “crown jewels” in their collections.

The Violin Making Process

The process of making a violin can be divided roughly into the following steps: material selection; building the violin “form”; constructing the violin; varnishing; mounting the bridge, pegs, and strings.

Material Selection:

Soundboard: Pine from the Italian Alps is used for the top (sound) board. Air-dried for more than ten years, the best wood is relatively lightweight, with an evenly spaced grain running straight and parallel
Backboard and Ribs: Maple from mountains in the former Yugoslavia is used for the backboard and ribs. Boards are air-dried for more than ten years and selected for their high, uniform density.

Neck / Scroll: A solid block of 10+ year air-dried maple from mountains in the former Yugoslavia is used for the violin neck / scroll. Each neck blank is selected for grain characteristics that match or complement those in the backboard and ribs.

Internal Wood Supports: Naturally air-dried willow or pine is used along the inside the violin to increase a violin’s structural integrity.

Design and functional requirements vary within the violin itself and have an absolute bearing on material selection and handling. Factors including growing region, soil, environment, climate, growth conditions and so on determine the suitability of a particular log being sectioned into violin wood and defining its violinmaking grade. Material properties and character affect violin tone, quality and stability. Also critical to finished violin quality are the processes used to dry, cut and store violin wood.

The Violin Form:

In violinmaking, forms are classified as either “internal” or “external”. External forms are typical of large-scale violin production operans, where manufacturing speed takes precedence. Violins made in the Cremona tradition of Francesco Bissolotti are only constructed using an internal form. The open spaces within the form allow for temporary clamps to be attached in order to hold violin ribs flush against the form perimeter.

Violin Construction:

 Making the Ribs: Ribs are one of the four primary components of a violin. Six wood blocks, four along the side and two, respectively, at the top and bottom, are attached (temporarily) with clamps to the internal form. Next, six thin segments of appropriately sized wood are planed to a uniform thickness of 1.2 mm, warmed and shaped over a heating iron and then glued to the wood blocks so that the rib segments fit snugly around the violin form.

Making the Lining: 12 sections of willow wood are planed to a thickness of 2 mm and fitted along the juncture of the ribs and backboard to strengthen the instrument’s structural integrity.

Making the Neck / Scroll: The design and execution of the violin’s neck and scrollwork tells to which violin “school” the violinmaker belongs. Holes in the pegbox must be precisely spaced and match exactly the dimensions of pegs in order to hold violin strings securely in place.
Making the Soundboard: The prominent arc arising from the edges and climaxing at the center of the soundboard is a critical element that affects the structure, vibration characteristics and tone of the violin.

Backboard: The curved arc of the backboard, more subdued than that of the soundboard, is designed to reflect and amplify sound waves transmitted via the soundboard. Master violinmakers will take into full consideration the characteristics of wood used in the soundboard and backboard and tailor board curvature and thickness to achieve the richest possible sound and tone quality.

Making the Bass Bar: The bass bar both reinforces soundboard structure and “smoothes out” the sounds produced when a bow is drawn over the strings. This fitted piece of wood is called a “bass bar” because its enhancing effects are particularly evident at the lower end of the musical scale. Like the soundboard, the bass bar is made of pine of consistent characteristics across its length and straight, even grains spaced (ideally) a consistent 1 mm apart. The fit between base bar and soundboard must be perfect, with no gaps and no irregularities. Master violinmakers will adjust bass bar width and depth to maximize the soundboard’s sound and tone quality.

Purfling: The four lines of purfling along the front and back of a violin - like scrollwork - reflect the maker’s individual artistic sensibilities and tell to which violin “school” the violinmaker belongs. Apart from its aesthetic attributes, purfling provides both the base and soundboards a certain measure of protection from splitting should the violin be dropped or hit from the side.

After parallel lines are marked in the wood with a purfling knife, the violinmaker carefully chisels out two channels, each 1.2 mm (W) x 2.0 mm (H). Once finished, a 3-ply veneer consisting of a layer of un-dyed (white)

willow wood sandwiched between layers of black-dyed willow wood is cut into 2.5 mm wide strips. These strips are then heated and bent to achieve an appropriate curvature before insertion into purfling channels.

Varnishing:

Varnish: The formula for traditional violin varnish is a trade secret of the liutaio that has been passed down through tens of generations of violinmakers – from teacher to student. The all-natural varnish contains over two-dozen different natural ingredients and includes a variety of minerals, plant extracts … and even bee propolis.

The character and application of varnish impact significantly upon a violin’s sound quality. Violin varnishes, in general, are classified as either oil- or alcohol-based. The alcohol-based varnishes overwhelmingly preferred by master Italian liutaio not only bond tightly with the wood’s cellular structure; they work progressively in concert with violin wood to make tones increasingly full, ripe and resonant. Even through several dozen layers, traditionally prepared varnishes, properly applied, impart a clarity and vibrancy to notes played, while fully expressing the aesthetic beauty of wood selected to make the instrument.

Mounting the bridge, pegs, and strings:

Final steps in making the violin ready to play include fitting the bridge to the curvature of the violin soundboard as well as installing the soundpost, top and bottom nuts, pegs, tailpiece, fingerboard, strings, and chin rest.