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The Violin Maker: A Search for the Secrets of Craftsmanship, Sound and Stradivari
John Marchese
#UC0852
Paperback, 222 pages; 2008 (2007)
$13.95
Members' Price: $11.86
Hearing a young violinist play a sweetly simple tune at a funeral launched journalist and musician John Marchese on a quest to learn what produces the unique and sometimes otherworldly sound of a violin. He found renowned contemporary violin maker Sam Zygmuntowicz and learned that the luthier (as a violin craftsman is called) was about to begin working on a very special violin for Eugene Drucker of the world-famous Emerson Quartet. Drucker owned a Stradivarius that didn't travel well; he was looking for a slightly sturdier instrument. Marchese shadowed Zygmuntowicz throughout the painstaking and delicate process of making a new violin that rivals an instrument fashioned centuries ago by arguably the greatest violin maker of all time. The luthier's craft requires carpentry, music, and mathematics, as well as heart and soul. Marchese chronicles the process with grace and style
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