Simple is better, or, anyway, a perfect place to start from.
On making strings for the cello da spalla and on making the Wagner.
In 2004, when I was a partner of Aquila Corde Armoniche company, better known as simply Aquila Strings, I met for the first time a Violoncello da Spalla. It came to me white and naked, no strings on, with his maker, Dmitry Badiarov, who was as white as the instrument and as unease as he was naked as well. This because he had promised the instrument to Sigiswald Kuijken for the following Saturday when he had some free time to start practising with it. But the lovely little thing’s sound, with some strings designed at a distance with no good notions on how the instrument was made, was not satisfying at all. It was embarrassing.
I was not worried at all. I knew we would make it. After finding the good first string, it was easy finding the second, then the first acted as a core for the third and the second for the fourth. When we look at it today, it’s nothing but a regular cello set, just shorter, 1/3 shorter, and tuned one fifth higher. It makes perfect sense, as the strings of a standard cello (like any other string), when stopped at 1/3 of the length, give the fifth note.
We still had to make the fifth string, and that was harder. But after a good sleep, it came out that the same idea could be applied, just winding the fourth once more, so with twice the metal. So, maybe also the fourth (which was not brilliant admittedly) could be made the same way, taking the third and winding it once more. Then, adjustment after adjustments, following the fagott-geige idea (bassoon-viola), Aquila strings and Mimmo Peruffo went far from that first set, proposing today a set with an extra thin gut core and a massive load of metal.
That first set remained impressed in my mind because I learned a lot from it. And I still prefer it for the simplicity involved, for the possibility to make a complete set with little variety of materials. The main takeaway was that using lesser materials is always a good starting point. Then you can go wild experimenting, but a solid base to return to is a good thing to have.
When I had my first Cello da Spalla in white, made by Alessandro, those were the strings I was trying to have, but I didn’t have a voice in the company anymore, so that I couldn’t get them. I also tried experimenting with a pure gut third, using a 220. The one I got was not extra flexible, so the sound was not convincing, but I believe it could work if a very flexible string is provided. My idea at the time was that of a cello, so two guts and two wound strings, with a top added string. So the whole set had to be three guts and two wounds.
Now, after a bit of research and especially after reading the work by Agnes Kory on tenor cello, I am convinced that we’d better look at the cello da Spalla as a tenor cello with an extra bass added. So I think that a set composed of two pure guts and three overspun basses is a correct option, even because it allows us to use a standard cello set for the first four strings.
Two weeks ago, Eliakim Boussoir surprised me with the offer of a set of basses for my Wagner, all of them made with the same core, which incidentally was the same gauge of my first string! I felt more than excited at the idea! The D is wound with copper, the G with silver, and the C with double silver. And the copper and the silver have the same gauge. So they have a very similar response and voice under the bow. On top of this, a whole set is made with just four materials, two gauges of gut and two wires. He amazed me with a set that was as simple as the one of my dreams but admittedly worked better than that. Wow!
Of course, when I received that magic package of strings, the first video to share had to be that of all single wound basses. It has such broad implications in today’s polemics about the actual existence of the short Cello da Spalla that it couldn’t wait.
You can read about it here.
But just after those “revolutionary” strings, I had to try this fantastic simple set. It worked perfectly!
I mean, after all, having this little thing playing, it’s a matter of thinking with their head, with what they had. Without allowing distractions from the modern age to come in the way. It “just” took someone prepared who doesn’t give up easily and rejects prejudices. And the little thing works, with or without double wound strings!
Here a video with this “simple” set:
As promised last week, a few more words about the Wagner making process, as you can see some pictures going in the video.
The Wagner was made in Saxony, in Borstendorff, a tiny village where almost everyone was an instrument maker, before 1760. So it was contemporary or a little later than the Hoffmann’s and not so far from Leipzig, 110 km. But the two instruments are very different. The Hoffmanns are made in the usual way for professional instruments, that is to say, with a neck nailed on the ribs and upper block and with corner blocks. Instead, the Wagner is a cheaper instrument: the upper block is inbuilt with the neck, and the ribs are inserted on its sides.
No corner blocks but some fabrics to help keep them together. And there are no purflings, only painted purflings! These features don’t seem to have affected its vitality, as it was used a lot and survived until today.
I made mine without any mould, a procedure completely new for me and a bit of a nightmare in some passages! I enjoyed using linen instead of corner blocks and linings. On the other hand, I don’t think I will ever paint purflings again! It takes a better artist than myself, it takes the brush control of a painter, or a Shodo-Ka, which unfortunately I am not.
I am not sure this “cheaper” way without mould is faster or easier. I think next time I would try a mould of a sort, to have a better control of the shape. But, who knows… I may also try to do better persisting with this method…
News from da Spalla world
On Monday at 6 p.m. in Bolzano’s Conservstory Alessandro and I will give a presentation on the Wagner’s project. There will be slides with iconography, we will play some music, and (this is the cool thing) there will be two instruments available to try: the Wagner and the Badiarov. If you are around, show up and play a few notes!
Updates from our workshop
The new cello is almost ready for it's first notes!! Alessandro is working on the setup now so that I will try it in the weekend! We enjoyed working for this customer because he allowed us some personalisations of the model, which is still a Badiarov in the measures but with shorter corners for more comfortable playing and personal ff holes. I particularly love his choice of wood for the settings, as he wants everything in pastel colors wood. No ebony, but pearwood and boxwood instead. It looks it will be very elegant!
Featured video of the week
Enjoy a classic!
