6 string Bass Viol II

Six string english bass viol, based on the Iohn Rose at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

All gut stringing. Found it interesting to see how the gut basses are much more sensitive to the soundpost than the overspun ones...(or perhaps it is just the instrument...)


























Sei sokako biola baxu bat, Iohn Rose en instrumentu batean oinarrituta, Victoria and Albert Museum en dagoena.
Soka guztiak tripazkoak jarriak. Tripazko baxuak askoz sentikorragoak dira arimaren doitzeeri, edo agian instrumentu hau izango al da?




Bajo de seis cuerdas basado en un modelo de Iohn Rose en el Victoria and Albert Museum.

Encordado en tripa.
Curioso ver como los bajos de tripa pura son mucho más sensitivos a los cambios del alma, o quizá sea sin más este instrumento.

TV or not TV

o LA TELEVISIÓN ES NUTRITIVA? (2)

So we appeared again on the Basque regional television, on the second channel, the one which is spanish spoken (the first one is basque spoken).
Three minutes and a half in a program which makes live connections. In this case I did not find much sense to make a live footage of an instrument maker with a mobile unit, but as it is paid with public money it does not seem to matter too much. These should not be the times to make use of public money so freely but...

Pues sí, de nuevo aparecemos en la televisión autonómica Vasca (esta vez en el segundo canal, que es hispanoparlante, a diferencia del primero que es en euskera o vascuence). Nada, tres minutitos en una conecxión en directo y que bien queda el taller en la tele (lo que hace la cámara). Por cierto, el equipo, Maite y David, muy majos (a los de la unidad móvil no tuve el gusto de conocerlos).

Ba bai, maiatzak 2 an etb2 an agertu giñan, zuzeneko programa baten. Ondiokan ez dot ondo ulertzen zergaitik ein zezten zuzenian elkarrizketa bat...
Ondo, ze politta ikusten dan tallarra telebisiñuan, ze ona kamaria. Grabatzera etorri ziran bixekin egixa esanda oso ondo, jente jatorra Maite eta David.

6 string Bass Viol

Six string english bass viol, based on the Iohn Rose at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Again,a bent top on five pieces and no decoration except for the single purfling on the soundboard (the original has a double one)(and now that I remember tailpiece and fingerboard are also decorated)











Allways liked the scroll very much, since the first time I saw it at the museum, and when we had the opportunity to handle it and have a close look at it, I was further asserted on that opinion.
I found it very well proportioned in all aspects (for my personal taste).



Sei sokako biola baxu bat, Iohn Rose en instrumentu batean oinarrituta, Victoria and Albert Museum en dagoena. Bost piezatako tapa armonikoa eta ez du apaingarri berezirik, jatorrizko instrumentua bezain soila, agian kordal eta diapasoian apaingarriren bat sartuko dugu?
Boluta edo marraskiloa instrumentu hoetan beti iruditu zait zoragarria, mantentzen dituen proporzioengaitik batez ere.

Bajo de seis cuerdas basado en un modelo de Iohn Rose en el Victoria and Albert Museum.
Tapa doblada en cinco piezas. Apenas tiene decoración excepto el fileteado en motivo de nudos en el diapasón y cordal.
Realmente bonita y bien proporcionada la voluta original.

Back to work again

Barriro be lanera
De vuelta al trabajo

This is a nice seven string bass, Cheron model. Pretty well done and finished. But the bridge was not the best design for this instrument.
We changed for this one and the sound opened and changed to less nasal.

It is something I can not understand, when the maker takes the time to make a beautiful instrument, but does not pay attention to the setting.

Zazpi sokako baxu bat, Cheron en modelu bat. Oso instrumentu polita baina zeukan zubiak ez zion laguntzen soinuari behar bezala irtetzen. Jabeak eskatuta zubi berria jarri diogu eta soinua asko hobetu da, gehiago zabaldu da eta ez da horren sudurkaria (nasala) (I love Euskalbar).

Bajo de siete cuerdas, un modelo de Romain Cheron. Un instrumento muy bonito, pero con un puente que no hacía justicia a su factura. Se le ha cambiado por otro, y el sonido se ha abierto más y ha dejado de ser tan nasal.

7 string bass viol

Last viol I made.

7 string french bass viol, Bertrand small model.

I wish I could play properly (or I wish I had time to practice).

Bajo de viols de gamba francesa. 7 cuerdas. Modelo pequeño de Bertrand.

7 sokako biola baxua. Bertrand modelu txikia.

Renaissance violin

Renaissance violin
Strung all in gut with equal tension strings.


Viol´in encordado con las cuatro cuerdas de tripa y tensi´on igual.

back to work ¡¡¡

After a couple of months of inactivity (due to a newcomer in the family, to whom I have not found the on/off swich) we are back to work.
This time a small seven string Bertrand model bass viol.
On the picture a three piece bent soundboard.
Tras un pequeño periodo de inactividad estamod de vuelta en el taller. Esta vez otro bajo de viola, el modelo pequeño de Bertrand. En la foto la tapa doblada en tres piezas.

Hilabete batzuk tallarretik kanpo egon ta gero berriz gaoz bueltan. Oraingoan beste gamba/zango biola baxu bat egiten, Bertrand en modelu txiki bat. Argazkian hiru piezatako tapa.

A ‘Soundposted‘ Renaissance viol

I was asked to make a ‘reproduction’ of early renaissance viol by a player who was not satisfied with the sound of other flat top instruments he owned. He wanted a more powerful instrument, so he asked for one of these instruments where the treble bridge leg acts a soundpost.
It is based on a on a wall painting in the Knights' Hall from the Goldegg Castle in Southern Austria. These paintings are atributed to Hans Bocksberger (or Bocksperger) the older (c.1536). He might have learned with his father and perhaps made some learning years in Italy.His style points both German and Italian elements[1].

Photo by Heinz Kaiser, Kulturverein SCHLOSS GOLDEG
Even though the instruments do not seem to be very accurate representations,we took the ‘tenor’ viol on the right as the reference to work from, as it has been depicted with more detail than the rest.
From this instrument we got the overall proportions between neck and soundbox length, choosing a 565mm stinglength for a tenor and 375mm for the treble.

One of the characteristical features of this instrument is the bridge.
The treble leg goes down on to the back trough a hole on the soundboard. This makes the sound closer to an instrument with a soundpost (closer to a baroque viol) )even though the treble string gives a weaker sound than the rest (At least in this case, where the soundboard is evenly thicknessed and there is no longitudinal bar).
This kind of bridge/soundpost is also depicted 'on the title pages of the superius, altus and bassus part books of the copies in theBasel Universitätsbibliothek of 'Reutterliedlin' printed by Christian Egenolph in Frankfurt am Main (1535)' according to E. Segerman in his article ‘The development of European bowed instruments’[2] See below.

This is not such an uncommon feature as it seems at a first tought. It is found in many traditional instruments from eastern europe to south america. There are also bass instruments with this feature in Castello del Principe (Museo Civico) di Merano[3] and scattered in some places as Slovakia, the southern part of Poland, other parts of Tirol, eastern part of Germany, the Italian Alps or Slovenia.

Bridge is positioned quite low on the soundboard and it is clearly curved.
It looks quite high for the idea we have of rennaissannce viols.

This instrument shares some features with the vihuela de mano.
It has been built on a board using no mould.

Each rib being a separate piece bent with heat (as stated on the violeros ordinances)[4] instead of carving the soundbox from a block or sawing the ribs in one continuous piece from a board (carved ribs) a common way of building at that time(as can be seen in some extant lira da Braccio and some viol paintings).
It has no corner blocks and the joints are reinforced with linen strips. The soundboard is glued on ribs using no linings at all.

The ribs are inserted in the neck, which goes inside the body and works as a top block.

The neck in not angled backwards, it is in the same plane as the soundboard. To get the string height, the fingerboard is wedge shaped, giving a thick neck close to the body joint as we can see in the painting.

The soundboard is flat with two small transversal bars aligned with the corners.(Impossible to say what the original has but this is something we can see in the extant vihuelas and for example in the Grünewald isenheim altarpiece).

The bow is very light and with not many hairs. It has no nut.
Hairs are inserted in a mortise on where the nut would be(on a baroque bow) and it goes trough a hole in the stick at the tip.
Held as the musicians on the painting do it works quite nicely (once one gets used to play with a nutless bow).

The tuning choosen for the tenor has been g c' e' a' d'' taken from the Munich University Library 4º Cod, ms. 718 dated (1523/4) which comes to be the same as Gerle gave in his Musica Teusch (Nuremberg 1532).

[1]http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Bocksberger_der_%C3%84ltere

[2]http://www.nrinstruments.demon.co.uk/Bowed2.html#footnote28

[3] MOENS, Karel ‘ La nascitá del violino nei Paesi Bassi del sud: alla ricerca di un luogo dove collocare l`inizio della storia del violino’ en /Claudio Monteverdi, omperatore della musica/, Rovereto, Academia Roveretana di Musica Antica, 1993.

[4] Ordinances for the craft of Joiners and ‘violeros’ from Sevilla 1572
http://fondosdigitales.us.es/books/search/digitalbook_view?oid_page=143259
Livro dos Regimentos dos offiçiaes mecanicos da mui excelente e Sempre leal Cidade de lixbona Anno MDLxxij A Viola de Mão em Portugal (c. 1450-c.1789). Manuel Morais Nassarre. Revista Aragonesa de Musicología XXII http://ifc.dpz.es/publicaciones/biblioteca2/id/9

The Vazquez Collection of Historical String Instruments from 1500 to 1789

The Vazquez Collection exhibition

Basauri (Basque Country)

Torre Medieval Ariz

20 March- 26 April. 2009.

Very interesting exhibition indeed.

We have to thank José Vazquez for letting us measure and take pictures of the instruments.

Crack, crack, crack

Latelly I got repair work to do, and I have a viol and a doublebass with the same crack on the same place...
Now that´s the only thing they have on common. Next time some pictures of the viol.

Azkenaldi honetan konponketa lanak, kontrabaxu bat eta zango biola bat arrakala batekin toki berean.
Baina horrek dira antzekotasun bakarrak. Hurrengoan zango biolaren argazkiak

ültimamente trabajo de reparación. Un cotrabajo y una viola de gamba/de arco con una raja en el mismo punto. Hasta ahí las similitudes. La próxima vez imágenes de la viola.

Proper pictures of the Lirone

Along with a doublebass to repair I got these pictures of the Lirone, taken by Belén, someone who knows how to use a camera (unlike me). Thank you !

Lironearen ganorazko argazkiak, Belen ek ataratakuak. Eskerrikasko!

Algunas fotos del Lirone, sacadas/tomadas por una buena fotógrafa. Gracias Belén.

Zer da Lirone bat ???

Baaale, Lira haundi bat, baina horretaz aparte ¿¿¿
Lironea XVI eta XVII. mendeetan erabilitako harizko musika instrumentu bat da (zangoen artean edo altzoan jarrita arkuaz jotzen dena).
Ez du melodiak egiteko balio baizik eta ahotsa laguntzeko gehienetan (Mikel Laboak gitarrarekin egiten zuen bezela).

















Lira da Braccio aren familiko baxua izango litzateke.
Lira hau Italian asko erabilia izan zen XVI. gizaldian berriro ere ahotsarekin batera. Instrumentu hau ostera sorbaldan jarrita jotzen zan, bibolina bezala (baita akordeak egiteko melodia beharrean).
Kuadroan arroxas jantzitako dagoen Apolo bezala...

Berpizkunde garaian Italian, Apolo edo Orfeoren eskutan jartzen zuten instrumentu hau (nahiz eta grezia klasikoan arkuz jotzen ziren instrumentuak guztiz ezezagunak ziren).

























Dena dela ez zegoen oso argi zein zen Apolo edo Orfeoren instrumentua, Lira, Citara, biguela, kitara...

Ikusi bestela zer dioen Covarrubiasek bere 1674 ko hiztegian, Citara Lirone bat bezela definitzen du...

Bai, 'lioso' xamarra...
Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española Sebastián de Covarrubias Orozco
fol. 194v
















Lirone jotzaileak badira gaur egun ere, historian izan diren bezala , Apolo, Orfeo, Homero...Hori bai, ez dute inor bizirik larrutzeko ohiturarik, Apolo maitagarriak bezala...
Bai, bi kuadrotan horretan ari da greziar musikaria.
Hemen lurrean ikus daitekeena Lirone bat da (9 soka eta 2 bordoi ?¿?)
Xirula bat ere bada, bai baina hori Marsias ena da eta momentuz ez dirudi horren behar haundirik izango duenik...


Lirone musika entzuteko lotura batzuk besterik ez dira falta, baina ez dakidanez nola egiten dan, youtuben bilatzeko esango detzuet, bertan oso musika polita bait dago (Lironea beste instrumentu batzuekin batera agertzen da...)

Lirone

Now, the lirone is finished.

The owner took it away and is very happy with the instrument. Anyway it neeeds still some fine adjustment on the bridge.

The sound is uuum..., how to define it...., ample, wide, for such a 'small' instrument with so many strings. There are still some sound quality diferences between strings, but one will have to see how does it evolve.

Due to some health and personal matters it took as longer than expected finishing the instrument, so, the owner was willing to take it home.

With all that rushing we forgot to take pictures of the finished instrument, but you´ll have some when it comes back for the final adjustments.

Lirone

There are a few instruments surviving in museums and it seems that none of them was originally a lirone (except perhaps the XIX c instruments that were built as lironi)


The lack of original instruments made us to base our work on a painting.

Lirone

This is a thirteen string lirone, yet to be finished.


We used the painting as a guide to get the size and general proportions of the instrument.
The painting is Ferdinand Bol´s Dame mit lira da gamba at the kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna

Doublebass Violone bow and a tenor viol bow, based on Praetorius. Arco de violone contrabajo y un arco de viola tenor, basados en Praetorius.

This is the bow we made when turning into baroque a modern doublebass. It is looselly based on Praetorius Gross Contra Bas Geig. For this bow length is 870 mm (hair length 670 mm) while the one depicted on Praetorius book is around 940mm

Arku hau kontrabaxua barrrokizatzean egin genuen. Praetoriusen Gross Contra Bas Geig ean oinarrituta dago. Arku honek 870 mm luzeera du, (zurden luzeera 670 mm) eta Praetorius ek bere liburuan agertzen duena 940 mm dituen.

Este es el arco está basado (diriamos inspirado) en el Gross Contra Bas Geig de Praetorius. La longitud total es de 870mms y la longitud de cerdas es de 670 mms.














This is a bow for tenor viol. It looks closer to the Praetorius engravings.
Total length is 690 mm and hair length: 580 mm.

Biola tenore batendako arkua. Arku honek Praetoriousen grabatuetan oinarriturik dago.
Luzeera: 690 mm. Zurden luzeera: 580 mm.

Arco para viola tenor. Easte sí basado en los grabados de Praetorius. Longitud totla: 690 mm. Longitud de cerdas:580 mm.

Turning a modern Doublebass into a 'Baroque' one. Convirtiendo un contrabajo moderno a 'Barroco'. Kontrabaxu moderno bat 'barrokizatzen'

This is a 3/4 size double bass the customer wanted it converted to a Baroque double bass, but without any irreversible change. That is, without changing the neck length nor projection and leaving the bass bar as it is now, a modern bass bar. Even though this is a common practice, at the end of the day, one has an instrument which is not a modern double bass nor a baroque one. Again, this "plastic surgery" is cheaper than resizing the neck and taking the sound board apart.

3/4 tamañako kontrabaxu modernoa. Bezeroaren eskaera izan da instrumentu hau "barroko" bihurtzea, hau da XVIII. mende erdialdean erabiltzen zirenak bezalakoa. Gauza da ez dizkiola bueltarik gabeko aldaketarik egin nahi, eta horrela ezinezkoa da instrumentua behar bezala "barrokizatzea".

Contrabajo tamaño 3/4, de origen "tiroles(?)" (al menos algunas partes), que el cliente quiere convertido a instrumento "barroco", pero sin ningún cambio irreversible. Esto es, sin cambiar la barra armónica ni cambiar la longitud y proyección del mango. "Operación estética" en definitiva que nos dejará con un contrabajo moderno, con trastes, cuerdas de tripa y con otro modelo de puente. Práctica esta bastante habitual, por otra parte...



Not a very well kept instrument, with many cracks, not too well repaired. You can see in the picture how well the soundpost was set...

Instrumentua ez dago ongiegi zaindua, arrakala asko hala nola konponduak eta argazki honetan ikusten da arima ahal den bezala jarrita...

Un instrumento cuidado con poco cariño por anteriores propietarios, con bastantes rajas, algunas de ellas no muy bien reparadas. En la foto podemos observar cómo está ajustado el alma...



This is the finished instrument, yet to fiddle a bit with the soundpost to get the right sound. Even that, it responds quite well to the new setting, but we wonder how would have it sound if it was set in the baroque manner...

Este es el instrument finalizado. Todabía faltan los ajustes de sonido, pero es así como queda. Es un instrumento que responde bien al nuevo montaje, pero nos queda la curiosidad de saber cómo hubiera sonado con un montaje barroco.La próxima vez quizá...

Eta hau da bukatutako instrumentua. Oraindik soinua piskat doitu behar da, hala ere ongi erantzuten du instrumentuak.Baina, galdetzen diogu gure buruari, nola erantzugo luke era "barrokoan" jarri izan bagenu? agian hurrengo batean...


Now the instrument is finished. It´s been a bit of a pain to set the sound properly. The customer wanted the bottom string tuned a tone lower, DD, so it is pretty difficult to make it speak. The rest of the strings have a very 'sweet' sound. We also made a bow, based on the Gross Contra Bas Geig from Praetorius Sintagma Musicum, but slightly shorter and with a lower nut than the one depicted.

Bukatu dugu instrumentoa. Nahiko lan eman digu laugarren sokari soinua ateratzea, jotzaileak soka tono bat beherago afinatua nahi zuelako, Re-n. Gainontzekoak oso soinu'goxoa' daukate. Arku bat ere egin dugu, Praetorius-en Sintagma Musicum liburuan agertzen den Gross Contra Bas Geig-arena. Guk egin duguna, piskat motzagoa da eta 'igela' baxuagoa da.

El instrumento está acabado. Ha sido bastante tedioso el ajustar el sonido ya que el cliente quería la cuarta cuerda afinada un tono por debajo, en Re, y no es fácil hacerla sonar con dignidad. El resto de las cuerdas tienen un sonido muy cálido. También hemos construido un arco basado en el de Gross Contra Bas Geig del libro Sintagma Musicum de Praetorius. El arco es algo más corto y tiene la nuez un poco más baja que en el del libro.