Biog 1977 Luthery

After being greatly impressed with the sound his violins could produce, I began working with John Brown, of Sanquhar, a guitar and violin-maker then in his eighties. The first task was to have the instruments assessed by players with highly-developed musical skills. The results were startling. John's violins - in terms of balance, tone, dynamic response and projection - were compared to classical instruments.

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This early success, encouraging as it was, had to be seen in perspective. Some of the enthusiasm expressed was a consequence of the very large number of mediocre hand-made instruments then being offered to players. Since many more questions remained to be answered, a study of the history of Luthery was begun, together with a reading of the contemporary scientific papers then available on the subject. The knowledge gained was essential for further progress, though little of it added very much to what John Brown had already outlined.

As the tone and playability of John Brown’s violins continued to be assessed by a number of players, usually positively, one recurring criticism began to hinder progress; the construction was frequently judged to be unconventional and therefor questionable. John had been a highly skilled woodcarver but age, arthritis and lack of mobility had taken their toll; to such an extent that he had to design and make special tools that his hands might still control. On top of that, as a fine judge of wood, he had made several of his violins out of discarded ammunition boxes. It was quality Canadian maple but sometimes required jointing and other expedients before being useful for violin Necks and Scrolls. John’s skills as a guitar-maker ensured sturdy work, but to at least one London expert the construction remained 'suspect'.

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By this time I had begun a study of viola-making, because the problems of that particular instrument - long the butt of orchestral jokes - intrigued me. From the history of the instrument, and the available evidence, it was clear that copying existing models was unlikely to prove productive. I concentrated instead on ways to achieve the maximum possible balance and harmony between the many acoustic resonances involved in all members of the violin-family of instruments.

Received wisdom was that a viola with a body-length less than about 410 mm was a waste of any maker’s time. The first viola I made, less than 390mm long, won an award for tone-quality in a 1984 London competition and was compared by a professional violist to classical instruments he had experienced. Later, while on loan to a pupil at the Yehudi Menuhin School at Stoke d'Abernon, this viola was used in a number of solo concerts.

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The next viola, body-length 415mm, was used in a Radio Documentary by a Scots student then at the Juilliard School. Again the judgement was that it had qualities similar to the best Italian instrument the student had till then experienced.

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Several facts were thrown into clearer focus by these early ventures, not least of which was that a surprising level of ignorance, suspicion, hostility, even intrigue, continues to operate against any signs of success in the violin-making business, just as actively as was the case in previous centuries.

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 On a positive level, the very helpful advice and opinion of some professional players helped clarify a further problem; it is not sufficient to make a good violin or viola, the maker has to learn how to set up each individual instrument to take optimum advantage of its potential. In fact, the more powerfully resonant the basic instrument, the more care and expertise it needs in string-selection and set-up if it is not to startle even experienced players. John Brown had been asking all the right questions, but it was clear by now that he had not always settled on correct answers.

The process of achieving some understanding of these ancillary but important aspects of luthery was a time-consuming business. For example, throughout the 1990's many experiments were carried out to investigate classical-period artists' materials and methods and how they might affect violin acoustics if used in Luthery. The outcome of some of these experiments, sent for scientific assessment, finally provided helpfully positive results.

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At the 26th International Viola Congress, Glasgow, 1998, I exhibited four violas, the end result of the research to that date. Three were of proven dimensions but one was an experiment to establish if the acoustic theories developed could be applied to a viola constructed as small as a standard violin. This violin-size viola [generally regarded as a contradiction in terms] attracted bewildered praise from some participants but - apart from Les Amis de l'Alto - the instruments were not reported on. Later, a young student at Glasgow's Junior RSAMD used that violin-size instrument to study for the Associated Board examinations for Viola. She achieved 95% pass marks in both grade 7 and grade 8.

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As work progressed from there I was reminded of a question that had exercised me from the outset. In the 1970/1980Õs some scientific publications contained dogmatic statements by researchers concerning the so-called Helmholtz resonance of the violin-family instruments. Measurements I had made about that time, though with very basic electronic equipment, indicated a quite different interpretation. When I raised this informally at an Acoustics conference in Edinburgh, in the early 1990's, the scientist concerned was disinclined to believe there was anything worth a second thought.

Early in the 2000's, during further experimental work, I again stumbled over the Helmholtz resonance question and decided to re-investigate it myself, this time with more care and over a much wider range of string instruments. The results were identical to those found twenty years earlier. A number of violins and violas benefiting from these latest findings have been enthusiastically received and are now in the hands of professional players.

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Though a great many related parameters must be taken into account when striving to make instruments capable of standing comparison with Italian classics, correct identification of and design around the Helmhotz resonance has proved to be one of the most important factors involved. Properly exploited, even very mediocre instruments can be improved beyond recognition.

When completed, details of the work on making high-quality violins and violas will be made available. In the meantime, the parameters that ensure some much needed improvement in basic, mass-produced string instruments can be defined with accuracy.

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