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The
bass bars of most sixteenth- through eighteenth-century violins have been
replaced, and this can be said for a great many nineteenth-century violins as
well. Bass bars support the longitudinal arching of the violin’s top, and if the
arching has collapsed from the pressure exerted by the strings and bridge feet,
one method of restoring the proper curve is to put in a new bar. When heavier overspun strings began to be used at the end of the seventeenth century, violins
came under greater tension, and longer and stouter bass bars gradually replaced
the more delicate original ones to help the instruments cope with the added
stress. Rising pitch also caused string tension to increase, and this was
another factor responsible for the installation of stronger bass bars.
The acoustical function of the bass bar is not
well understood, and surprisingly little scientific work has been done to
discover precisely what it does and how it may be proportioned and installed to
make it work better. Empirically, violin repairmen have found that new and
heavier bass bars tend to restore or increase sound projection. In fitting a
bar, some restorers trim it so that it fits perfectly prior to gluing, while
others maintain that some structural or acoustical advantage is gained by giving
the bar an extra bit of curvature and gluing it in under tension.
Scientific studies of violin plate vibration have shown that
the bass bar has a stiffening effect upon the top, which raises its modal
frequencies.3 One very interesting study by Thomas Croen and
William Atwood has demonstrated that the bass bar compensates for the loss of
longitudinal stiffness that occurs when the f-holes are cut, and that bass bars
installed under tension cause the violin’s high-frequency response to increase
significantly.4
We tend to think of
the work of Stradivari as the pinnacle of violin making, yet Count Cozio di
Salabue (the famed late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-century collector) sent
new instruments that he had bought in 1774 from the merchant son of Antonio
Stradivari directly to the Mantegazza brothers in Milan to have them “thinned to
perfection” and renecked to suit the prevailing tonal aesthetic. Cozio remarked
that three of the instruments he had acquired from Paolo Stradivari had bass
bars that were not properly glued in. He also wrote that some
of these instruments had already been thinned to an extreme in order to produce
a nasal sound that previously had been fashionable.5 Twenty
years after Cozio’s death, many of the instruments from his collection were
again “modernized” in the shops of Paris
luthiers, and by the end of the nineteenth century they were once more renecked
and rebarred in London. When such instruments found their way
to New York in
the twentieth century, the procedure was repeated. As a consequence, few
original or early bass bars have survived.
The Hill bass
bar collection includes fifty bass bars: thirty-nine for violin, seven for
viola, and four for cello. These were carefully removed by the Hill workmen
(including Alfred Ebsworth Hill, who initialed some of them) in the course of
restoration and marked with the maker’s name and the date. In some cases, there
are supplemental remarks (see Table 1). Data on nineteen bass bars are tabulated
in the Hills’ Antonio Stradivari: His Life and Work, and though most of
these can be identified among the fifty bars that form the present collection,
there are some notable exceptions.6 For example,
the bass bar dated 1716 is undoubtedly the one that is presently displayed in
the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, with the violin known as the “Messiah”
(note that it is somewhat longer than the original Stradivari bars documented in
this article). The Hill bass bar collection was listed by Sotheby’s, London, in their October 1995 sale of musical instruments,
though it was not sold, and Mr. James Warren of Chicago purchased it privately from the Hill
family.7
In 1969,
Robert Lewin reported that the violin maker Cyril Jacklin possessed notebooks,
patterns, and other relics once owned by Joseph Maurice Somny, the
Mirecourt-born violin maker and restorer who worked for the Hills at both their
Hanwell and Baker Street, London, locations between 1888 and 1931. Among these
relics were a number of bass bars, which were presumably removed by Somny when
he was employed by the Hills. It is not known whether these were ultimately
recovered by the Hills and whether they are now part of the collection presented
here.8
Gross dimensions, weight, and grain
direction for each bass bar are given in Table 2. Modern makers generally employ
vertical-grain (radially cut) spruce for their bars. Curiously, many of the bars
in the Hill collection are sawn on the slab (tangentially cut), including one of
the five that came out of Stradivari’s instruments. Slab-sawn spruce has a lower
Young’s Modulus (a measure of stiffness) than vertical-grained spruce (approx.
1.03 vs. 1.56). This means that a bass bar cut on the slab is somewhat more
flexible than one that is vertically grained and comparably dimensioned. To
provide the same stiffness as a vertically grained bar, a slab-cut bar would
have to be made stouter and thus heavier.9 The grain of many of the
bars in the Hill collection is not precisely oriented in either the radial or
tangential direction, and it should be noted that the Young’s Modulus for a beam
of wood that has angled grain (chordally cut) is lower than that of slab-sawn
wood.10
The Hills presumably felt that these
bass bars were original. However, in cases where several bass bars are
associated with a particular maker, there are often stylistic differences
between the bars. For example, of the two bars marked A. & H. Amati, the
longer one is slab-sawn and gradually tapers to points at either end, whereas
the shorter bar has vertical grain, is squared off at the ends, and is fairly
uniform in width throughout. Of the bars marked Nicolo Amati, the one that is
dated 1665 has a delicately curved profile, whereas the 1671 bar is more crudely
fashioned. Regarding the Stradivari bars, the bar marked 1703 has vertical
grain, whereas the bar from the 1704 “Betts” is slab-sawn. Both
come to points formed by two straight, intersecting knife cuts, whereas the ca.
1680 and 1719 Strad bars have squared-off ends. (The tip of one end of the
“Betts” bass bar was broken off and a new piece was scarfed on by the Hills.) Of
the G. B. Guadagnini bars, one has vertical grain, while the other is slab-cut.
The Stainer violin bass bar has the tight, wiggly grain pattern that one often
observes in the tops of Stainer’s instruments, which supports its authenticity.
Because these bass bars have been separated from their
instruments, it is difficult to draw precise conclusions about the acoustical
qualities they once imparted. Their general delicacy, however, speaks of another
time and reminds us that the sound made today by Strads, Guarneris, Amatis, and
others is quite different from that produced by these instruments when they left
their makers’ hands. It is hoped that this documentation will be of use to those
building and restoring violins for early music ensembles and soloists.
I would like to thank the present owner of the collection,
Mr. James Warren, for generously allowing me to examine and to write about
them. Photocopies made from full-size photographs of the violin and viola
bass bars may be obtained by contacting the
author.
Table 1
Bass Bar Inscriptions*
Violin Bass
Bars
1. Filippo. Fratello ai
Montesecco. 1615. .A. E. H. 2. A. H. Amati.
1621 3. A. & H. Amati. 16_ 4.
Jacobus. Stainer. 1656. 5. N. Amati,
1665 6. N. Amati. 1671. A. E. H. 1890. 7.
F. Ruger 8. Matthias. Albanus.
1674. 9. Strad. period 1680 10. Willems 11. Ioannes
Schorn 1696. 12. M. Albani. 1700. 13. Pasta. 17 14. Jacobs 1702 15.
Stradivarius 1703. / Taken. Out. 1896. A. E. H 16. Stradivari 1704 Betts A.
E. H. 1893. .New. Piece. added - Old.Broken off / J. B. V.
1859 17. Stradivari. 1719 18. F. Gobetti period 1720 19. A. Gagliano.
1721. 20. A. Gagliano, 1724 21. N. Cross. 1725 22. N. Cross. 23. C.
Tononi. 1730 24. David Techler 1734 25. S. Seraphin 1736 26. Carlo
Bergonzi 1740 27. P. Guarnerius. Venice 28. R. Duke. 1750 29. Januarius.
Gagliano. 1750 30. Sanctus. Seraphin. 1757. A. E. H.
1901 31. Carlo Bergonzi period 1760 (The Cozio) 32. Nicolo Gagliano.
1760. 33. J B. Guadagnini. 1760 34. Thomas Balestrieri 1770 35.
Gabbrielli 1774 36. George Klotz. 37. Lupot. Orleano 38.
Vinaccia 39. Lockey. Hill.
Viola Bass
Bars
40. Rocca. 1834. / Guarnerius. Copy. 41. Taken
from Jacobus Stainer 1660 42. M. Albani, 1688. Tenor. 43. J. B. Guadagnini
Tenor. 1757. 44. Ferdinandus Gagliano. 1783. 45. V. Panormo / Taken from
Panormo tenor 10/4/59 46. V. Panormo. 1800.
(Alto)
Cello Bass Bars
47. Antonio Catini. Modena 1660. or 8. 48. Antonius.
Stradivarius. 1667. Taken out in 1893. A. E. H. / Strad:V:Cello:purchased in
Sicily.
1893. 49. A. Gagliano, 1725 50. Januarius Gagliano, 1736
*Inscriptions and punctuation follow the original
Table 2
Measurements of Bass Bars**
|
No. |
Maker/Date |
Length |
Height |
Thickness |
Weight in
grams |
Grain direction |
|
1. Violin |
Filippo Fratello,
1615 |
228 |
5.6 |
4.1 |
1.50 |
Vertical |
|
2. Violin |
A.& H.
Amati, 1621 |
270 |
5.7 |
4.3 |
1.53 |
Slab |
|
3. Violin |
A.& H.
Amati, 16__ |
234 |
6.4 |
3.9 |
1.54 |
Vertical |
|
4. Violin |
Jacob
Stainer, 1656 |
250 |
6.7 |
4.9 |
1.68 |
Vertical |
|
5. Violin |
N. Amati, 1665 |
235 |
5.0 |
4.4 |
1.19 |
Vertical |
|
6. Violin |
N. Amati, 1671 |
217 |
6.2 |
5.0 |
1.72 |
Vertical |
|
7. Violin |
F.
Ruger |
263 |
7.4 |
4.6 |
2.13 |
Vertical |
|
8. Violin |
M. Albani 1674 |
216 |
4.8 |
3.3 |
1.12 |
Vertical |
|
9. Violin |
A. Stradivari, ca.
1680 |
242 |
6.8 |
5.2 |
1.55 |
Vertical |
|
10. Violin |
Willems, ca. 1680 |
238 |
7.0 |
6.1 |
2.82 |
Vertical |
|
11. Violin |
I. Schorn 1696 |
254 |
5.6 |
3.5 |
1.32 |
Vertical |
|
12. Violin |
M. Albani ca.
1700 |
234 |
6.3 |
5.3 |
1.69 |
Vertical |
|
13. Violin |
Pasta ca. 1700 |
249 |
5.6 |
3.7 |
1.50 |
Slab |
|
14. Violin |
H. Jacobs 1702 |
244 |
6.6 |
4.3 |
1.63 |
Vertical |
|
15. Violin |
A. Stradivari 1703 |
237 |
6.5 |
3.6 |
1.48 |
Vertical |
|
16. Violin |
A.
Stradivari 1704 |
249 |
6.3 |
4.0 |
1.88 |
Slab |
|
17. Violin |
A.
Stradivari 1719 |
241 |
6.6 |
4.7 |
2.09 |
Vertical |
|
18. Violin
|
F. Gobetti ca.
1720 |
252 |
6.8 |
4.0 |
2.16 |
Vertical |
|
19. Violin |
A. Gagliano 1721 |
186 |
6.6 |
5.8 |
1.37 |
Vertical |
|
20. Violin |
A. Gagliano 1724 |
267 |
7.5 |
5.3 |
2.30 |
Vertical |
|
21. Violin |
N. Cross 1725 |
222 |
6.5 |
3.8 |
1.43 |
Vertical |
|
22. Violin |
N. Cross |
254 |
8.2 |
3.8 |
1.86 |
Slab |
|
23. Violin |
C. Tononi 1730 |
225 |
4.5 |
4.4 |
1.28 |
Vertical |
|
24. Violin |
D. Tecchler 1734 |
239 |
5.3 |
4.0 |
1.35 |
Vertical |
|
25. Violin |
S. Seraphin 1736 |
244 |
6.2 |
5.3 |
1.62 |
Vertical |
|
26. Violin |
C. Bergonzi 1740 |
245 |
6.8 |
3.9 |
1.73 |
Vertical |
|
27. Violin |
P. Guarneri Venice |
242 |
7.2 |
4.8 |
1.90 |
Slab |
|
28. Violin |
R. Duke 1750 |
251 |
7.9 |
4.7 |
2.68 |
Slab |
|
29. Violin |
Januarius Gagliano 1750 |
244 |
7.2 |
4.3 |
2.14 |
Slab |
|
30. Violin |
S. Seraphin 1757 |
257 |
6.8 |
4.6 |
2.41 |
Vertical |
|
31. Violin |
C. Bergonzi 1760 |
262 |
7.2 |
4.9 |
2.77 |
Vertical |
|
32. Violin |
N. Gagliano 1760 |
251 |
12.3 |
6.3 |
3.17 |
Vertical |
|
33. Violin |
J. B. Guad. 1760 |
249 |
7.1 |
4.6 |
1.78 |
Slab |
|
34. Violin |
T.
Balastrieri 1770 |
277 |
7.7 |
4.5 |
2.46 |
Slab |
|
35. Violin |
Gabbrieli 1774 |
246 |
5.0 |
5.4 |
1.87 |
Slab |
|
36. Violin |
G. Klotz |
251 |
7.3 |
4.6 |
2.74 |
Vertical |
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