Saturday, January 7th, 2012
Post No. 1
This is my first post ever. Pretty scary but here we go.
I don’t particularly like when people write about their own writing too much, but want to explain how this blog idea came about – how I decided to write about my husband’s violin making and specifically about the enormous challenge he took upon himself this year: to build and complete a full stringed quartet.
But let me back up a little – about 10.5 years ago I married a great guy who was a civil engineer and worked in an architect’s office in Tel-Aviv doing restoration of historical buildings. He was very good at what he did but not very happy. To make a long story short, after our first son was born, we moved to Italy for four years, where he studied to become a Violin Maker (Liutaio in Italian) at IPIALL: the Stradivari International Violin Making School in Cremona.
What a change in life!
Until that time, violin making was as foreign to me as, say, quantum physics or medieval architecture … or Chinese. Gradually, however, as sometimes happens when your partner-in-life embarks on an intensive new process, I found myself drawn by the rich, vast new world of violin making. From how the special wood is grown in very specific locations in northern Italy and the Balkans; through how it is treated and then hand-picked; through the infinite terminology, details, myths, tools, materials, smells and colors that make up the building process, and then of course to the fact that what once was a piece of spruce and two pieces of maple, becomes a playing violin, viola, cello or double bass. So in a way, though personally I couldn’t build a violin if you gave me a million dollars and a decade of free time …. violin making has become a part of my life.
Amazingly enough, Yonatan seemed to have found exactly what he was looking for; exactly the right place for him in life – doing something he loves and is apparently extremely competent in. Now how many people can say that?
Since we have returned from Italy, Yonatan opened a violin making workshop in the Artisans Compound at Kibbutz Ein Carmel, and his business is growing steadily. Though he often fixes and restores existing instruments, Yonatan’s love for this profession centers around the art, the process, the magic of creating beautiful new hand-made instruments from raw blocks of wood.
And if this in-and-of-itself isn’t challenging enough, this year he will aim to build an entire quartet – two violins, a viola and a cello – all at once, all made in parallel and all from the very same tree. Think about the beauty of this – four instruments, originating from the same hundreds-of-years-old tree trunk, created simultaneously to form a perfect quartet. It was just too romantic a notion, too unique an opportunity, to much of a challenge to pass up.
I decided to accompany his creation process by creating my own blog.
So as the New Year begins, from my perch as the wife of a violin-maker, I will try to accompany this unique process of creation by hopefully managing to share some of the steps, thoughts, decisions and pictures with you, and together we will witness how pieces of raw wood will gradually, lovingly turn into a stringed quartet.
One hint for future reference – time is a major factor here, since the entire quartet needs to be ready for submission by November 2012. We have 10 months to go – and the countdown has begun!
Until next time – you can check out Yonatan’s website and see existing instruments as well as a slide presentation of how “a violin is born“.
David Samuels said:
Brava! It will be fun to follow your perspective, and compare it with mine. Great first post. Keep them coming 🙂
Jana said:
Great! Yonathan’s work is very nice, but we can see much more. He didn’t find just the job which makes him happy, gives him the satisfaction, he found much more – his life is completed with a supporting, loving wife and lovely children. We follow the challenge of the new project!
Jetty and Peter said:
Great start of a good story. Good luck to Yonatan for the project. Thanks for including us in the followers. Looking forward to the next update.
Love,
Peter and Jetty
קרן said:
אביבית
זה יפיפייה וכל כך רומנטי מכל כיוון אפשרי.
נרשמתי לעקוב באדיקות אחרי הפרוייקט
בהצלחה לך וליונתן בעשייה ובתיעוד
נשיקות
קרן
עוזיא said:
הי אביבה,
הפוסט מרתק, המבצע נשמע מדהים.
אני ממשיך לעקוב..
הרבה הצלחה, דש ליונתן ולילדים, ומקווה שבין בניית כינור לוויולה יהיה לנו גם זמן להפגש.
נשיקות ושנה טובה לכולכם
עוז
violin maker's wife said:
thanks everyone for the lovely encouraging words!
don;t forget to register if you want to see further posts (I won’t bother your mailbox again…:))
Angelika said:
Bravissima! Sono troppo contenta di questo blog – and will follow, of course.
Doubi said:
הריאלטי הכי טוב בעיר (בכפר). בהצלחה
varda ezroni said:
רעיון נהדר,מחכים להמשך,בהצלחה
Eyal Gurevitch said:
Waiting with anticipation for the next post…
מרגלית חי said:
הי אביבית
זה מקסים ומרגש, כתוב להפליא ובאהבה גדולה
מחכים להמשך
מרגלית
Amedeo Ferri said:
שלום אביבית. מה שלומך? (I hope that Google translator did not make mistakes).
Ciao, Avivit!
Sono contentissimo di aver ricevuto il link di questo interessantissimo blog. Conosco il talento di tuo marito dal 2004, da quando Yonatan era allievo presso la scuola di liuteria IPIALL Stradivari e io ero il suo insegnante di lingua italiana.
E’ bello leggere dell’ambizioso progetto di Yonatan: sono sicuro che il quartetto d’archi che sarà terminato nel novembre prossimo sarà uno splendido lavoro.
Rimango dunque in attesa di leggere i prossimi posts, per essere aggiornato sullo stato di avanzamento dei lavori.
Un grandissimo abbraccio a tutti voi!
Hello, Avivit!
I’m delighted to have received the link of this interesting blog.
I know the talent of your husband since 2004, when Yonatan was a pupil at the school of violin-making in Cremona and I was his teacher of Italian language.
It’s nice to read of Yonatan’s ambitious project: I’m sure that the string quartet he’s building will be a great job.
So I stay waiting to read the next posts, to be updated on the progress of the work.
A warm hug to all of you!
פולדו-לאה said:
אמנם אני דוד זקן מהדור הקודם אבל מבין אני באשר ואין הרבה דברים בעולם השווים לו
וכאשר האושר מתמזג עם עבודה אמנות ופרנסה הוא גדל וגדל ומשתף את כל הסביבה
והנה ההוכחה הוא הבלוג המאוד מעניין היו שמחים ומאושרים בכל אשר תלכו נשיקות וחיבוקים
סבא פולדו וסבתא לאה
violin maker's wife said:
תודה רבה לכם יקירי!