Hear the Only Playable Stradivarius Guitar Left in the World “The Sabionari” Made in 1679

[shadowplay]

No, I wasn't familiar with her. I admit I haven't listen to anyone play modern, original music on a viola da gamba before. Thanks for that, lots to explore there.

If you are interested I've cued up a section of an interview where she talks about her viola de gamba's and her unorthodox techniques and tunings. If you listen beyond the section on the VDG I feel she has some very interesting things to say about incorporating influences into your music while being true to what you are.

She's IMO an incredible artist with a real independent spirit who has a very impressive body of work and interesting progression where she started off as an instrumental artist and then all of a sudden decided to sing.

D

[leokula]

... I'm wondering which factors made the Stradivarius violin the endgame of violins ...

Double blind tests between Strads and modern violins have shown, multiple times, that neither players nor specialist audience listeners could tell which was which. Just like in frequent wine comparisons, when drinkers are given no visual cues from a label experts and commoners alike cannot tell which is a $200 wine and which is a $20 wine.

Back in the day, Strads were expensively sold violins, that only the rich could afford. So you'd get boutique vibes of limited availability when they were new. Thus "Rock Stars" played them "on stage" and so mere mortals soon began associating more emotions on those instruments than physics. Just like today a "Rock Star" player can make a three string shovel sound great.

Because those violins are wood and glue and metal .. most have been well curated over the centuries and at times repaired/maintained by experts and likely improved more than they ever were coming directly from 'the factory'.

Same thing happens with guitars. Run a marginal guitar across the bench of a great repair person and the playability of a guitar becomes less about the factory and more about the guitar tech. Have enough years between the factory and a couple of good guitar repairs or fret levels and people ask "why can't they make guitars like the old days? Like this one right here?"; because the factory didn't actually make them that good. Custom Shop level work was done by one or several repair people over the years turning an average guitar into greatness. All the poorly made guitars or good guitars that were wrecked at the hands of poor players/poor guitar techs vanished into partscasters or landfills so the only surviving examples are now awesome. "They don't make them like they used to" because they never did.

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Well said, brother!

[StrangeIdols]

Could it have been an oboe d'amore? Those can be just haunting. And I agree about the viola d'amore, it's an incredible instrument.

Hope I've not broke the quote system, but I've never heard an oboe d'amore called that, unless I'm getting confused i thought the musician in the video was playing a cor anglais, are they different instruments or just different names?

Incidentally, the first instrument i played was oboe, then cor anglais, fun but it's really difficult to hold the *ahem* embouchoure after a while

[Embenny]

The oboe d'amore is a bit of an oddball. It's pitched a third lower than an oboe, in A, as opposed to F for the cor anglais. It also has a more muted, warm tone than either. Sonically, it's kind of the French horn of the double reed family, if that makes sense.

The cor anglais is a beautiful instrument in its own right. I find it quite haunting when used well. Never had the opportunity to play one. The only double reed instrument I played for a short while was the bassoon, which I found to be equal parts regal and comical. It can be so dignified, and yet it also sounds like a cartoon duck farting. Scaling up the reed size also makes the embouchure less taxing, I found a new respect for oboe players after my experience. Clarinet was my main reed instrument and it was almost unfair how much less work that took.

[StrangeIdols]

The oboe d'amore is a bit of an oddball. It's pitched a third lower than an oboe, in A, as opposed to F for the cor anglais. It also has a more muted, warm tone than either. Sonically, it's kind of the French horn of the double reed family, if that makes sense.

The cor anglais is a beautiful instrument in its own right. I find it quite haunting when used well. Never had the opportunity to play one. The only double reed instrument I played for a short while was the bassoon, which I found to be equal parts regal and comical. It can be so dignified, and yet it also sounds like a cartoon duck farting. Scaling up the reed size also makes the embouchure less taxing, I found a new respect for oboe players after my experience. Clarinet was my main reed instrument and it was almost unfair how much less work that took.

Ahhhh, i never came across one while i played, thanks for sharing that, learning something new every day!

And i'd agree, i only played cor anglais for a while, and only for a dvorak piece, someone else probably made it sound nicer, but it was really fun to play!

Going back to guitars a bit, my only regret from playing in an orchestra is not being there when they performed the concerto de aranjuez, which after ditching oboe for guitar got me back into classical music