Dmitry Badiarov is a violin maker and violinist.  He Lectures part time at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and teaches violin making at Daikanyama School of Music, Tokyo.  He is a fascinating convergence of violin making, teaching and professional playing.   It must be quite exhilarating to play music for people on an instrument that you took from a log to a work of art.    Dmitry says, “On one hand, I am devoted to the highest level of craftsmanship, on the other, I do not consider it the purpose: …

Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn  (1809-1847)  was called the “Mozart of the 19th century” by Robert Schumann.   Shortly after his death however, Wagner wrote “Jewishness in Music”  an antisemitic essay which calls Mendelssohn’s music “sweet and tinkling without depth”  As a result Mendelssohn’s popularity diminished greatly after his death.  Later under the Nazis performance of Mendelssohn’s music was banned.  Many of Mendelssohn’s works had to be smuggled out of Germany just prior to World War II.
In recent years Mendelssohn’s music has enjoyed somewhat a revival and his importance as a Romantic …

I believe that in any process at learning a difficult skill there are cycles of progress followed by plateaus.  Plateaus can be some of the most discouraging and difficult times for the learner.  One of the challenges while navigating the wasteland of a plateau is to keep an eye upon small perhaps barely perceptable improvements as significant, and constantly remind oneself that noticable, even rapid improvments will happen again.   The science of plateaus and understanding their importance in the learning process can be very helpful in keeping consistant and pushing …

The Lady Tennant Stradivarius made headlines in 2005 by selling for a record 2.03 million dollars.  The violin was made by Stradivari in 1699 just before his golden period and is considered one of the great Stradivari violins.  Of course there are a number of old famous violin makers who made instruments that are treasured by their owners, but Stradivarius violins bear a mystique and fame that had transcended the sometimes exclusive communities of musicians and classical music connoisseurs to an almost mystical position in our popular culture.

How Stradivari created his amazing sounding violins is the subject of much research, speculation and discovery.  Now a retired Texas University professor believes he has discovered one of the keys, with proof.  For years, Joseph Nagyvary a biochemist has believed that the stradivarius violins’ sound was largely due to the  chemically treated wood which he used.  Minute wood samples were burned and the resulting smoke was analyzed by an electron microprobe.  The analysis revealed the wood was treated with borax, fluorides, chromium and iron salts.
news article
read the research paper here