The sycamore tree that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used to sit in as a school boy  has been cut down.  Doyle, the creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes was born one hundred and fifty years ago.  When the roots of the tree in an Edinburgh suburb were determined to be too rotten it had to be cut down.  The teachers and students of the schoolhouse in which Conan Doyle was brought up decided to have a violin crafted from the tree.
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The violin is an instrument capable of a seemingly inexhaustible depth of expression in the hands of capable musicians. Jacob Augustus Otto says it holds pre-eminent rank amongst all instruments and “it may indeed be the perfect instrument, as by the peculiarity of its construction, the minutest gradation of tone can be produced upon it.” Its range and tonal quality bear resemblance to the human voice and when well played it most certainly sings.

Defiance a new film directed by Edward Zwick (Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai) and starring Daniel Craig also features renowned violinist Joshua Bell as a soloist for the film’s score composed by the Oscar nominated James Newton Howard (The Dark Knight, Michael Clayton, The Fugitive, The Prince of Tides, etc.)