Titan was saved by fireman from the
fire. Because of that the lacquer of
the topdeck turned craquale. Also the
touch was not as it should be.
Fortunataly there was a thick oakwood
violincase around her during the fire.
After some negotiation I bought Titan
for 750 guilders.
No violinbuilder considered worth the
time and money to restore her.
Thus I did that myself. Thanks to Joost
for the rabbitglue!
Titan is a few centimeters taller then
a normal violin. Therefore she can be
tuned slightly lower to produce the
sound of a Viola d'Amore.
In that time it was often usage to
build a violin especially for just one
concert. I do not know this is the case
with Titan, but it is possible.
The striking inlay around the topdeck
and, invisible on the photograph,
bottomdeck belongs to the Romantic
Time.
It had also a certain significance,
what comes from the Renaissance, the
time thick standard books where written
about the meaning of tones in Music and
images in Art. Now we call this science
Iconolgy.
I have not looked up the meaning, but a
possible significance could be
something like:
"When I was alive I was silent, but now
I am dead, I sing."
Dramatic, is it not?
In the violincase I found a 125 year
old tuningfork. I still prefer to use
that because the A from that time is
something lower. It is called the A of
Puccini.
In Puccini's time an A was adjusted on
432 Hertz. It produced less overtone
that made the Music sounding very warm.
For example Bach and Beethoven loved
the Amore's because that sound.
Later the A is screwed up to 440 Hertz.
Then the compactdisc was introduced and
in steps from 4 to 10 Hertz the A was
screwed up further.
On this moment the Concertgebouw
Orchestra plays with an A-frequency of
468 Hertz. That makes the sound very
trumpet alike, very sharp.
That is the wish from the audience.
But I still play with the normal good
old but right A.
