Strings and rings

We have just bought you "the most fabulous violin in the world," wired the parents of American heiress Huguette Clark, when she was a teenager in New York and they were visiting Paris in 1920. They brought home a Stradivarius violin – a Kreutzer Stradivari, named for its first-known owner, French violinist and teacher Rodolphe Kreutzer – and presumably she got some use and enjoyment out of it. Huguette died a recluse in 2011 and the instrument was found in the closet of one of her homes. It is now up for auction by Christie's and expected to fetch between $7.5 million and $10 million. Musical instruments specialist for the auction house Kerry Keane holds the violin and explains, "We did a dendrochronology of it. It matches four Stradivaris from 1730 to 1734 made from the same tree. That is a great find. It's like a fingerprint."

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Flutes flown

Canadian musician and part-time Brockton, Massachusetts, resident Boujemaa Razgui (IMAGE ABOVE) is a virtuoso flutist who performs regularly with the Boston Camerata and is scheduled to play with Camerata Mediterranea in February. He has crafted several of his instruments, including neys and kawalas, using special reeds and is one of only about 15 people in the U.S. who play these ethnic flutes. Razgui was flying back from Morocco to Boston over the holidays with stops in Madrid and New York with 13 of the instruments in his luggage. He says he has flown in and out of the country many times without a problem, but this time when he arrived at his destination the flutes were no longer in his bags and he was provided with a number to call. A U.S. Customs official at New York’s JFK Airport had mistaken the instruments for pieces of bamboo – a prohibited agricultural item – and destroyed them. “And now they’re gone,” mourns Razgui. “This is my life....They told me they were destroyed. Nobody talked to me. They said I have to write a letter to the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. This is horrible. I don’t know what to do."

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Viola organista

Polish concert pianist Slawomir Zubrzycki has a knack for building musical instruments in addition to playing them. He decided to bring to life the viola organista which existed only as a sketch and notes by Leonardo da Vinci in his 12-volume Codex Atlanticus. Zubrzycki spent 3 years and 5,000 hours putting together something that looks like a baby grand piano. But when the notes are played, the strings are not struck by wooden hammers but rubbed by 4 spinning wheels wrapped in horse-tail hair. This causes the instrument to make sounds described as something between a harpsichord, a cello, an organ, an accordion, and a violin (or perhaps midway between a glass harmonica and a katzenklavier). Zubrzycki debuted the viola organista - never heard by da Vinci himself – at the Academy of Music in Kraków (VIDEO HERE). Zubrzycki notes, ‘‘I have no idea what Leonardo da Vinci might think of the instrument I’ve made, but I’d hope he’d be pleased.’’

AdvertisemenThe flat bed of its interior is lined with golden spruce. Sixty-one gleaming steel strings run across it, similar to the inside of a baby grand.

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Geißenklösterle flute

 

Since the 1st archaeological exploration of Geißenklösterle cave (photo of the entrance here) in 1963, it has offered several superlatives, including the oldest sculpture of a human being, but the reanalysis of objects discovered in the early 1970s adds another claim to fame. It has now been confirmed that the cave in Blaubeuren, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, yielded up flutes dating to 42,000 years ago (5,000 years earlier than previously thought), making them the world's oldest musical instruments. Researchers from Oxford and Tübingen retested the flutes and published the new radiocarbon dates in the Journal of Human Evolution. Two of the flutes were fashioned from swan bones (photo here), which are already hollow, so they are considered relatively unsophisticated. (A replica of the bird bone flutes was made and can be heard here.) But the 3rd had been carved from mammoth ivory (images above), which the artisan would have had to split, hollow out, and then glue back together with a perfectly airtight seam. Though it was made of the highest quality material available at the time, it was found in 31 pieces. When reconstructed, it had 3 finger holes, measured 18.7cm long, and would have been capable of playing relatively complex melodies. "This 3rd flute is like a Rolls Royce compared with a Hyundai," described Nicholas Conard from the University of Tübingen. Friedrich Seeberger, an expert in prehistoric music, made a replica in elder wood and commented, "The tones are quite harmonic," but hopes to make an even more faithful replica out of mammoth ivory. Carbon dating expert Thomas Higham of the University of Oxford notes that although the flutes are the earliest yet discovered, they do not pinpoint how old music is as a technology: "We just don't know....The problem is that we have virtually no other evidence for this behavior archaeologically to be able to comment more confidently. There are other musical instruments like these, for example at Isturitz in the French Pyrenees, but whether these are the same age is not known. There are later examples, from the Gravettian, Solutrean and Magdalenian periods, but from this period, nothing else. It seems unlikely that we have the oldest examples. The likelihood is that this behavior is older, but by how much is a guess."

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Previous posts about musical instruments:

Violin violence

Cello passenger

Katzenklavier

Glass harmonica

Harps, played and painted

Gibson guitar

Happy New Year!

Birds and bombs

Beatrice Harrison (1892-1965) was a British cellist who studied at the Royal College of Music in London and made her debut in the Bechstein Hall in Berlin. Beatrice was from a very musical family and had 3 sisters: May (a violinist), Monica, and Margaret (a pianist).

"The Harrisons were very much part of the London social life when they lived in Cornwall Gardens from 1901 to 1920. After their move to Foyle Riding in Oxted, Surrey, in 1922 their music room was visited by most leading musicians of the day. Their garden was the scene of many social charity garden parties, and received visitors from all over the world to see `The Garden of the Nightingales'. These included coach parties of all kinds of people from London who were always served tea by the sisters. None of the sisters ever married," writes David Candlin, Chairman, The Harrison Sisters' Trust.

Beatrice was important in musical circles for being the 1st to perform several important English works, but became popular among the public because of recordings of her cello-playing accompanied by the sound of nightingales that were broadcast in the early days of sound radio (listen to the 1st link here) from Beatrice's garden in Foyle Riding, Surrey.

Transmitted by the BBC. The broadcasts - with or without the cello music - became an annual event, even after Beatrice moved in 1936. To quote Retronaut, "On May 19th, 1942, as BBC engineers were recording the bird-song prior to transmission, a faint hum gradually became audible, slowly increasing in volume, as 197 bombers flew overhead on their way to raids in Mannheim. Realizing the security risk, the broadcast was halted. But not the recording…" (listen here).

Mannheim 197 aircraft - 105 Wellingtons, 31 Stirlings, 29 Halifaxes, 15 Hampdens, 13 Lancasters, 4 Manchesters. 11 aircraft - 4 Halifaxes, 4 Stirlings, 3 Wellingtons - lost. 155 aircraft reported hitting Mannheim but most of their bombing photographs showed forests or open country. A concentrated group of about 600 incendiaries in the harbour area on the Rhine burnt out 4 small industrial concerns. Only light damage was caused elsewhere. The only fatal casualties were 2 firemen. Minor Operations: 65 'freshmen' crews to St Nazaire but bombing results were poor, 9 aircraft minelaying off Lorient and near Heligoland, 13 aircraft on leaflet flights to France. 1 Wellington lost on the St Nazaire raid. Total effort for the night: 284 sorties, 12 aircraft (4.2 per cent) lost.~Campaign diary of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command for the night of May 19, 1942

Beatrice gave the 1st performance of Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto outside London in 1921 and it became the work with which she was most closely identified. Less than a year after she performed it with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1940, the old Queen's Hall in which they had played was destroyed by German bombing. In fact, during the performance itself - during which Beatrice's style was particularly animated - there was a rattle of gunfire outside and plaster fell inside the hall.

Reminders of war indoors and out...

Violin violence

There are 2 violin stories circulating in the weird news. One contrasts with an unfortunate earlier (and less malicious) incident:

Jan. 2012:
A reader named Erica wrote to Regretsy about a heartbreaking experience she recently had with PayPal about a violin carrying the mark of early 20th c. French instrument-maker Maurice Bourguignon (like the example, 2nd image):

"I sold an old French violin to a buyer in Canada, and the buyer disputed the label. This is not uncommon. In the violin market, labels often mean little and there is often disagreement over them. Some of the most expensive violins in the world have disputed labels, but they are works of art nonetheless. Rather than have the violin returned to me, PayPal made the buyer DESTROY the violin in order to get his money back. They somehow deemed the violin as 'counterfeit' even though there is no such thing in the violin world. The buyer was proud of himself, so he sent me a photo of the destroyed violin (1st image). I am now out a violin that made it through WWII as well as $2500. This is of course, upsetting. But my main goal in writing to you is to prevent PayPal from ordering the destruction of violins and other antiquities that they know nothing about..."

Representatives from PayPal defend their advice, which is included in the fine print, and the matter is under dispute.

Feb. 2008:
After virtuoso British violinist David Garrett, then 26, finished performing at the Barbican, he tripped and landed on his 290-year-old instrument. He describes, "I was all packed up and ready to go when I slipped. People said it was as if I'd trodden on a banana skin. I fell down a flight of steps and on to the case. When I opened it, the violin was in pieces. I couldn't speak and I couldn't get up. I didn't even know if I was hurt – I didn't care. I've had that violin for 8 years. It was like losing a friend." Made by early 18th c. Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari, the violin could have fetched more than £1,000,000 and was expected to cost £60,000 just to repair, and it likely never sounded the same again. Due to perform again the following night, Garrett was loaned another Stradivarius by a violin dealer - who made sure it was guarded by a 3-man security team.

And the other parallels earlier stories:

Dec. 2011:
Taiwanese violinist Muchen Hsieh, studying at the New England Conservatory in Boston, hopped a bus to Philadelphia and didn't realize that she had left her instrument in an overhead bin until after she had been picked up at her destination. Valued at $172,000, the violin had been made in 1835 by Vincenzo Jorio in Naples - and it wasn't even hers! It was on loan from the Chi Mei Culture Foundation. Hsieh called the bus company immediately, but it took 3 days to locate the instrument in a holding facility.

Aug. 2009:
Korean musician Hahn-Bin (photo here), then 22, played a concert in the Hamptons, took a bus nfortunto Lincoln Center, and then caught a cab to his apartment in Chinatown. He was exhausted and it was by then 12:40AM. Unfortunately, he left his violin in the taxi - and it was not just any violin. It had been crafted in the early 19th c. by Italian violin-maker Giovanni Francesco Pressenda and was valued at up to $600,000. He quickly realized his mistake and called 311. The driver had gone home to New Jersey unaware of his precious cargo, but was tracked by GPS. Violinist and violin were reunited later that day.

Accidentally leaving one's musical instrument behind in a means of transport has been called "pulling a Yo-Yo Ma," referring to the time in 1999 when the American cellist (photo here) left his $2.5 million cello, made in the 18th c. by Italian luthier Domenico Montagnana, in the trunk of a New York City cab (from which it was retrieved later that afternoon). “You could probably string together an entire orchestra from the folks that have left cellos, violas and violins in the back of cabs,” said Matthew W. Daus, the chairman of the Taxi and Limousine Commission. In fact, there is a blog...

Cello passenger...

...or lute, or guitar. Stringed instruments are among the most vulnerable traveling companions and musicians who have consigned them to the aircraft's baggage compartment have lived to regret it. Despite the promises of protective cases, instruments like violins and violas are easily damaged in transit. Knowing this, cellists, violinists, and guitarists fight tooth and nail for the right to carry them on board, even when it means purchasing an expensive 2nd seat. "When I fly, I have to buy a ticket for my cello, often a first-class seat; one airline even threw a net around it once. It looked like a caged animal," describes American cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Many balk, however, at airlines insisting that instruments fly first class, since the rules are applied so inconsistently. When the instrument is mistreated by flight attendants or damaged by baggage handlers, musicians have complained - loudly. Ma relates, "I was once on a western airline with two other cellists, Nathaniel Rosen and his wife, Jennifer Langham. We got on the plane but they tried to bump our instruments. You should have heard Nick Rosen yell." He further describes the treatment of his 250-year-old instrument: ''A woman guard at the Houston airport wouldn't believe it fit through the X-ray machine so she opened it up and tapped the wood with her long fingernails. That's one of the few times I really lost my cool.'' Young British violinist Francesca Rijks campaigned for the right to carry her instrument into the cabin as hand luggage. Canadian guitarist Dave Carroll posted the retaliatory video "United Breaks Guitars" after a 2008 incident at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. For musicians trying to avoid travel pitfalls, Michael Bersin of the Department of Music at Central Missouri State University offers some useful hints, including having each carrier issue a frequent-flyer card for the instrument, as he has done for "Cello Dbags Bersin."

Images: Martha Reikow, principal cellist with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, boarding a flight to New York with her instrument in tow for a performance this Spring at Carnegie Hall.

Glass harmonica

I had never heard of the glass harmonica, let alone heard it played - surprising considering its long history. The instrument was invented by Benjamin Franklin in the 18th c., and music was composed for it by Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn. The invention was inspired by the idea of creating music by running the fingers around the rims of glasses filled with varying amounts of water. Franklin had a glassmaker create 37 graduated hemispheres that he nested together from largest to smallest on an iron rod linked to a foot treadle, so that it could be spinned and played with moistened fingers. The sound of the glass harmonica (also known as the glass armonica, bowl organ, or hydrocrystalophone) has been described as "celestial" and "haunting." When Franklin's wife heard the sounds of the glass harmonica for the 1st time, coming from their attic during the night, she thought she had died and was hearing the angels. But the effects of playing or listening to it have been said in earlier times to be sinister. Consider:

• Some of those who played it regularly complained that it upset them emotionally, with the vibrations entering their fingertips and causing them mental anguish (sometimes attributed to the lead in the glass).
• It was also purported to cause spasms and convulsions.
• There was a rumor in Vienna that the sounds of the glass harmonica caused players and listeners to go mad.
• The music of the glass harmonica was used by German physician Franz Mesmer to lull patients into a state of hypnosis.
• A musicologist warned that melancholy musicians may be moved to suicide by the instrument.
• Playing the glass harmonica at midnight was believed to summon ghosts.
• After a child died at a German concert, the instrument was banned in some places as a public danger.

The glass harmonica fell into disuse because its sound could not be amplified for performance in large concert halls. Though this is no longer an issue, there are only about a dozen performers worldwide today.

Happy New Year!

Let's ring in the new year! I've compiled some information about unusual musical instruments, with links that include audio or video.

First up, we have Chinese Bianzhong bells, which are hung in a wooden frame and struck with a mallet. A complete ceremonial set of 65 was discovered in a tomb dating back nearly 2,500 years. The original cast bronze set of bells was painstaking recreated so it could be played by modern musicians - most recently during a performance at Beihai Park in Beijing yesterday to pray for good fortune in the upcoming year.

Next, the Ice Music of Norwegian musician Terje Isungset, who says, "Ice is extremely beautiful on a visual and musical level...Although it is cold it gives out a warm sound....The quality of the ice and the ambient temperature determine the tonality of the music." Isungset custom-creates his own ice instruments for each concert and intends them to last only for the limited duration of the actual performance.

And lastly, the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra. Founded in 1998, the VVO performs around the world using instruments of their own creation, including carrot and radish flutes, pumpkin basses, leek violins, cucumberphones, and celery root bongos (that is an eggplant clapper pictured). Vegetable parts left over after creating the instruments are made into a vegetable soup which is served to the audience after the concert!

If none of these suit you, choose among

• More traditional instruments
• Homemade instruments
• "Magnificently modern" instruments

or

• Odd instruments, including wind harps, stalactite organs, and singing stones.