The Sight of a Violin - Magical

June 8, 2011 at 8:46 AM

It's great to see the joy on people's faces when they see a violin, isn't it? No matter how cheap, the sight of a violin to most people causes their facial muscles to automatically pull into a smile. Violins seem to have a strange, wonderful and magical mystery to them that a lot of other instruments do not seem to hold.

I remember the first violin I ever got. I was 9, and I'd had a dream since the age of 6 to play the violin. When I saw orchestras on TV, I was always drawn to the violins - the players' fingers would be whizzing up and down the fingerboard and their bows were always in perfect unison. I would stare at the screen, mesmorised. At that point, being on a screen was the closest a violin had ever got to my house. I longed to see a real one. And when my lucky day came - the day I recieved my first violin - I felt so in awe of it that I was almost afraid to touch it. It was beautiful!

Since then, I've grown to realise, of course, that there are good quality violins and bad quality ones. But when I was younger, and even now, just the sight of a violin at all puts a smile on my face, as it does with many other people. Of course, the real magic held in an older, played violin, or one which has been lovingly crafted is far superior to VSO's out there. They tell a story of how they arrived in their place they are now. All those fingers that have played those older violins out there have helped to shape the instrument. All those people who have loved their instrument and taken care of it have helped to shape it. Or the time taken over a newly hand crafted one is all a violin needs to start its journey of hopefully many, many years with many different owners.

A violin is not just a piece of wood with a few strings that some people play; It is a symbol of sheer beauty. And from the day I recieved my first ever violin, I have felt pure joy and gratitude at the fact I can look at and soak up all the magic from my violin when ever I like. It is my dream, one day, to buy a violin which has been crafted lovingly, or has got a lot of history to it. I want to get to know its personality, its strengths, its weaknesses, and I want to produce beautiful music from it. That's my dream.

From Julian Stokes
Posted on June 8, 2011 at 1:25 PM

The violin is constructed according to the golden ratio - as found throughout nature, art and architecture, including seashells and the human body. It is a proportion deeply rooted in the psyche - a thing of beauty.

From Joe Lail
Posted on June 8, 2011 at 5:24 PM

I, like you have always had deep respect for the violin . However, I was never close enough to one to be possesed by it. I recently acquired a 3/4 violin for my wife, and made the tragic mistake of touching it. That was all it took. Immediately I was involved in a new romance. I suddenly became entangled with her , and I fear that it may never be undone.

She has now lived with us for one week , and today I will be placing an order for her sister to soon join her. As a typical "manly" man , I feel somehow emotionally collapsed by this. The simple act of screeching out some sounds on her , has the ability to bring me to tears.

I can only relate it to a deep passionate first romance , that has the ability to inspire such joy, but yet have the ability to smash your heart into pieces small enough to pass through the eye of a needle.

Logically , I realize that it is a creation of art , hand and nature, but it also has some type of strange mystical power. In this endeavor , I have had to remove my head , and just let my heart and hands take over. If I try to play by what I "know" there is no music, but if I just 'play" , there is magic. So I think that I will just let go , and enjoy the ride. Perhaps finally finding freedom !

From Anne-Marie Proulx
Posted on June 9, 2011 at 12:01 PM

Romance? It depends who plays... A lot of the romance idea also comes from the public who ignores how hard a discipline violin is at a high level. Perhaps most players would tell it's great but not at all like in the movies lol

Yet, I agree they are beautiful art objects and great fun to look at even if most of us will never have the beautiful sound as the great players. But that certainly doesn't mean that the journey won't be fun and worthy!

Make us dream? Absoluntly, who never took their violin and imagine their were going to play magnificiently... Who never talked to their violin... (no that's not crazy... Rostropovich once said in an interview that he sometimes took his cello on his laps and said to it everything he had in his heart : )

Anne-Marie

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The Sight of a Violin - Magical

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