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Bad Things Happen in Threes

August 27, 2007 at 6:04 AM

So I snapped my bridge today while teaching a lesson.

I think what happened was, the humidity from a long rainy spell, combined with a slight uncorrected tilt after a string change, may have ever so slightly warped the feet of my bridge. Today when I went to adjust it (same as I always do), it popped right out and shot to the floor, broken. For a moment, I sat paralyzed. How could I have been so careless to do such a thing? I carefully pried up the tailpiece and looked beneath it. Of course, it had put a nice little scratch in the varnish. Oh no. My heart sank as I shook the body lightly. A rattling, rolling sound confirmed what I already suspected: the sound post was down, too. My mouth fell agape in shock, all while my student watched. So I tried to play it off: "Ha, well, now you know how old violins got to looking the way they do."

In reality, it felt worse than that time when I backed into my parent's rental car yesterday.

(...And I don't want to hear any advice about how I should have supported the bridge with both hands, or, what about that rear view mirror, eh? Just--don't.)

Tell Burgess you're sending it to him for a new bridge and a setup. He owes me.
You think I should stick my fiddle in the mail? I'm still waiting for Bad #3. Who knows what horrible thing could happen in the mail.

Oh, good, that's right, I'm sailing to Cordova tomorrow. Certainly nothing bad could happen while sailing to Cordova.

Unless you want to collide with an iceberg you need to destroy the fiddle totally.
No, I'm taking the fiddle on the boat, and when we hit the iceberg I will lie upon the floating case until I'm rescued from the freezing waters, and I will always remember how no one else could fit on the case that fateful day except me and feel a little sad about it.
That would be a good thing, but remember, you're looking out for a bad thing. Besides, good things don't happen.
Yikes! Remember to play "Nearer my God to thee" as the ship goes down.
This has happened to me before. I SO sympathize.
This has happened to me before. I SO sympathize.

How long before you were rescued from the freezing waters?

In reality, it felt worse than that time when I backed into my parent's rental car yesterday.

This won't make you feel any better, but yesterday moving my daughter out of Kinhaven I backed into a tree.

Two weeks earlier we were an hour and a half into our trip when we realized we'd forgotten to pack the viola.

The former is the kind of thing I do all the time; the latter you do only once.

Oh Emily, I'm so sorry! I hope your violin and you are fixed up and happy again soon! I remember my bridge snapping off under similar circumstances a couple of days before a competition and I had to play on my violin which sounded horrible after a poor repair job since no one where I lived at the time was capable of fixing it properly.
Yes. If you use a typical local repairman, you're lucky if it doesn't come back painted a different color. No exaggeration.
I actually played a minor role in a french tv documentary which should be shown later in FR3. After some of the usual interviews about climate changings they wanted me to play the 'cello' sailing in the ice. I did so, but I am not sure that it was a good idea.

I had to cool my cello slowly down to the sea temperature with a lot of measuring instruments, my fingers were freezing, and an underestimated problem was that rosin loses its glueing qualities as it gets colder. And I tried desperatedly to play Saint-Sans 'l'Elephant' where you need all the rosin effect you can get.

I hope that none of you can see FR3.

So will you redo the soundpost yourself?

This happened to me a week before a wedding I wasn't really ready/in any imaginable way, to play at. I finally found a luthier within driving distance, which cost me a grueling 3 hour trip each way, a hundred bucks for logistics, and though the luthier was going to do it for free I dropped him forty as well.

The end result though, was that my soundpost was adjusted to make my instrument better'n before; and, he carved the bridge soooooo nicely for me; and, let me watch while sharing his luthier-life experience with me--a fascinating experience, as well as a little juicy gossip about the local scene.

It's not a luxury to turn the negatives into positives in this crazy crazy world--it's a necessity.

There are two kinds of stress: daily, and lifetime. Daily we can renew, lifetime wise we must protect the perimeters at all costs. (an image from Hans Holzer, paraphrased and generalized)

Summary: Threes suggest a fox at the northern fence! I'm sending extra grit your way. Now say loudly: argh!!!!