The Mystery of Messiah

1 October 2014 – 8:32 pm Posted in Instrument & Playing, Western Classical Music

Antonio Stradivari (1644 – 18 December 1737) was an Italian luthier and is considered the most significant and greatest artisan in this field.

The Messiah-Salabue Stradivarius , was crafted in 1716 and is considered to be the only Stradivarius in existence in as new state [1].
The Messiah, sobriquet Le Messie, remained in the Stradivarius workshop until his death in 1737.Later in 1775 it was sold by his son, Paolo, to an Italian collector, Count Cozio di Salabue. and for a time, the violin bore the name Salabue. In 1827, it was purchased by a dealer, Luigi Tarsio.
Once when Tarisio was speaking about it to Vuillaume on the merits of this unknown and marvellous instrument, the violinist, Delphine Alard, said : “Your violin is like the Messiah: we wait for it constantly and it never appears!”. This is how Messiah was given the name by which it has been known ever since [2].
Upon Tarisio’s death, in 1854, Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume bought and restored it. He added the tunning pegs and the tailpiece(that shows the Nativity of Christ) [3] .
The instrument is in wonderful condition, otherwise. The top of the Messiah is made from the same tree as a P.G. Rogeri violin of 1710 [4].
In its long history ,Messiah, has been very rarely played . It has suffered none of the wear that is common to almost all old violins. That is why the varnish sustain its original orange-brown colour and peg-box and the black paint along the edge of the scroll has not worn away with handling.[3]
As many violinists really believe that the instrument sound better than newly made violins , researches have tried to figure out why.
Some pointed the finger to the dense wood which was harvested from Alpine spruces that grew during an Ice Age. Others suspected at the varnish , or even the chemicals that the master used to treat the wood [5].
It is known that the master made very precise calculations to work out the perfect shape for the instrument, the height of the bridge, the size of the sound holes and so on, each instrument uniquely sculpted by hand and ear [6].
The unusual narrowness of the rings in the spruce wood was noticed by US scientists who forward the idea the unique Stradivarius sound could be the result of these narrow rings. Certain violin-makers , however, were outraged by this hypothesis [6].
It is still a mystery why a Stradivari violin should sound so perfect, and why nobody has been able to reproduce it.

References:
The Nippon Music Foundation and the ‘Lady Blunt’.. Andrew Hill (tarisio.com). 16 June 2011.
The Hill Collection of Musical Instruments, David D. Boyden, Oxford University Press, London, 1969.
Ashmolean Object of the month Sep 2004
Messiah Dendrochronology , Arjan Versteeg, The Strad 03/2011
Violinists can’t tell the difference between Stradivarius and new ones By Ed Yong, 2012
Stradivarius instruments are rare, beautiful, and worth a fortune By Andy MsSmith , 2007

This entry was written by Reza Ziaei
Tagged: .

Jamshid Andalibi passed away!

Jamshid Andalibi, one of the most famous ney players in Iran, passed away on the fifteenth of Esfand, 1402, at the age of 66 due to a heart attack at his private residence. Andalibi was a member of a family that had a significant presence in the field of Iranian music in the sixties and…
Read More »

Homayoun Rahimian & Iran’s National Orchestra

The Roudaki Foundation presented the permanent conductor of the National Orchestra (Orchestr Melli), Homayoun Rahimian, in a ceremony, and finally, after four years, the national orchestra found a permanent conductor. Homayoun Rahimian is the fourth permanent conductor of this orchestra after Farhad Fakhreddini, Bardia Kiaras, and Fereidoun Shahbaziyan. He, who has previously had experience of conducting concerts besides being Meister’s concert of this orchestra, performed the concert “Autumns” on the 20th of Tir, performing works by Rouhollah Khaleqi, Javad Ma’roufi, and Hossein Dehlavi.

Latest posts

From Past Days…

Harmony in the Iranian Music (I)

Translated by Mahboube Khalvati The article you are about to read was written by Rouhollah Khaleqi (1906-1965), composer, and conductor of Golha Orchestra (established in 1956). Khaleqi was one of the most prominent promoters of polyphony for the Iranian music and is one of the best representatives of the school of Ali Naghi Vaziri. In…
Read More »

From the Last Instrumentalist to the First Composer (II)

Rouhollah Khaleghi was the master of composing beautiful melodies. He was the premier of the course of history which was first established by Ali Naghi Vaziri and which improved the Iranian music from simply a gathering music to the classical music of the country. First efforts to compose independent and instrumental music can be also traced in Khaleghi’s works.

Shaahin Mohajeri Wins UnTwelve Composition Competition

UnTwelve Non-profit Organization announced the results of its 2014/2015 composition competition on January 28, 2015. Shaahin Mohajeri, an Iranian Tonbak player, microtonalist, acoustician and composer, was awarded the second prize for his piece “Castle of Babak.”

Ennio Morricone’s music for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight

After watching Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, The Hateful Eight, everyone was excited by its novel music besides the beautiful scenes of blood and guts.
The Hateful Eight is the first collaboration between the world-famous film music composer, Ennio Morricone, and Quentin Tarantino as a famous director.

Interview with the Makers of the New Qeychak (I)

On occasion of the 8th anniversary of launching HarmonyTalk Online Journal on 6 April 2012, Reza Ziaei, master luthier and researcher on classical music instruments (violin family), announced that the first phase of the project to improve Qeychak has borne fruit. The new instrument would feature a bowl of ribs and the material used for the surface would be wooden. Carrying out the second phase of the project took more than 7 years engaging the new members of Reza Ziaei’s Workshop. In this phase, new researches were conducted from different aspects on the Qeychak and the modern versions of the instrument which were introduced previously by other instrument makers. The available versions of the instrument were studied in terms of their weak and strong technical features.

Interview with Farhad Poupel (II)

Fantasia on One Note was my first professional work for piano, which had its world premiere by the great pianist Peter Jablonski in Sweden, and it has been performed by various pianists in the UK, Germany, France, and the Czech Republic. The recording of this work has also been broadcast on the Dutch public radio, NPR Radio 4.

A Persian Nocturne for Piano

A Night in a Persian Garden is the name of a Nocturne composed by the Persian (Iranian) contemporary composer Behzad Ranjbaran. This Nocturne, published recently by the Theodore Presser Company in the US, was performed for the first time in 2002 in New York City by the young Persian pianist Soheil Nasseri and has enjoyed many performances by other pianists.

Kayvan Mirhadi and O.R.P Qaurtet

Establishing O.R.P. Quartet is Kayvan Mirhadi’s latest activity as a guitarist, composer and conductor of Kamerata Orchestra. Besides working with this Quartet, Mirhadi is busy these days recording and mixing some of his own works as well as some pieces by 20th century composers. O.R.P Quartet performed a concert in Rasht, Gilan Province in late May 2016 and offered a master class.

Prominent Iranian Musicologist Passes Away in Vienna

Khosrow Djafarzadeh, musicologist and architect, who was also one of the main authors of HarmonyTalk journal passed away on 15 July 2019.

From the Last Instrumentalist to the First Composer (I)

Music as an art has its own special history; emergence of a singer, of an instrumentalist and then the emergence of the strong character of a composer covers three significant phases of the art of music. With the emergence of composer which was simultaneous with the emergence of the language of music, this art managed to offer a domain for criticism for its composer; a procedure which led to a magnificent variety and evolution in musical production. Even though the conflicts between singers and instrumentalists have not met their end in the Iranian society and while singers can achieve high, instrumentalists have yet to play behind curtains . In a special era, with the efforts of musicians such as Ali Naghi Vaziri (1887-1979) and Rouhollah Khaleghi (1906-1965), glimmers of a composing era started to glow bearing fruit in Khaleghi’s achievement as Iran’s first professional composer. Khaleghi made his reputation as a composer while Vaziri deserved to pioneer this path. By then Vaziri was well-known as a Tar player.