Audio Sample

The Contrarian
 
          I was taught that there was a good way to make violins.  And for this violin I did other things.  By this I do not say that I believe this to be a bad violin.  If you listen to the recording you will hear it is anything but. 
          There are many aspects of this violin that the people who taught me how to make would never do themselves, nor would they teach it to their students.  In fact they may caution their students against making this instrument.  As a matter of fact I was teased for purchasing this back by my teacher—it was too heavy and the flame was not consistent enough.  And the arching I put on this violin is pejoratively called "chicken breasted" by my teachers.  And my compatriots and I were direly warned never to make such an abomination.  I have also watched students being told they need to remake entire tops for cutting their tops in one spot as I did for the entire top.  And there are many more things I’ve done to this fiddle which would land it in the burn pile were I not my own maker.
         Why would I do this?  Well of course once you leave the confines of the school walls, open your eyes, and study the wonderful instruments that exist, and have existed for hundreds of years, each of these ideas has been done before!  For every thing someone tells you not to make there is certainly a dozen instruments or more that they would sell for half a million dollars which have done so.  And those instruments are often quite lovely.  And they have sounds which have not been made but for the scant few in history which made them so. And so many of us are taught not to use them, so these ideas in violinmaking are not explored.
         But I find the sound coming from this instrument intoxicating.  I am not one to practice slowly, but this instrument begs to be played in a way where you can simply soak in the tone.  And so I find myself playing pieces I know at a much more steady pace.  It’s a wonderful experience to have an instrument inspire you to play differently than is your custom.