"Do not try to find the footprints of the ancestors, search for what they were searching for" - Kukai (774–835CE)
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About Me
Dmitry Badiarov
creative-artist-luthier,
musician-interpreter.
Full CV (PDF):
http://dmitrybadiarov.com/Badiarov-cv2009-Japanese-and-English.pdf
My sites:
http://violadabraccio.com,
http://dmitrybadiarov.com
Music does not come from a wooden box called "violin" - no matter how beautiful or perfect it is. About beauty and perfection - some time soon...
Knowing the technical data or the cultural background of the violin does not guarantee wonderful music yet, however, ignoring it does not result in better music either. For this reason I strongly recommend this website.
The 62nd one has its varnish dry enough to be mounted with strings. The 63rd got the purfling and the fingerboard glued to the neck today. Probably tomorrow it can be played. The day after tomorrow I give a practical workshop for baroque violinists at my studio. No vacancies left. The next workshop shall take place on the first Sunday of March at 16:00. The place and the date to be confirmed.
Ah, yesterday it was 1 year anniversary of this blog. Violadabraccio.com has been on-line 12 years as well as the Violin Iconography Database which I started collecting in 1994 and put it online in 1997. It has been used by many a major violin-scholars and musicians in the world. I am thrilled to see it was and is useful. 12 is a nice figure.
Singing loudly and joyfully, With a clear, accurate and polished voice, Never entitles a man to call himself A musician, whatever anyone may tell, him, Unless he knows all about the harmony Of music, which must be praised Through proper artistry and symphonious sounds Perfectly and without fail.... Words from a medieval song on this incredible CD.
The question - apparently I am destined to hear till the end of my life - which I answer with a proposition. "Let's imagine asking Johann Sebastian Bach, are you a violinist, a harpsichordist, an organ-player or a composer, and are you a "professional" in any of these?" What would he reply? He would not understand what you are talking about, because the situation in which we live now did not exist till the French Revolution, till the Romantics, and it still lasts today. It will probably last a century more but economic recession - if it will be a truly gigantic one - might help to shorten it and force even the conservatives to check what overlooked talents they still have in the backyards of their hearts. Parola mia, there is a lot.
It has been a busy day making four violins at once. As usual, in the evening I played my instruments to get ready for the forthcoming concerts in Tokyo and Mexico.
I had a few meetings regarding the promotion of baroque music in Tokyo since I participate in the production of at least 11 special monthly events till the mid-December. Apart from those 11 events outside our violin-making studio I plan workshops 'Baroque Secrets' for young baroque players at the studio. The first one shall take place on the 1st of February. Subscribe to our newsletter to get special updates in time.
A student visited my studio to setup her violin with baroque strings instead of "fake baroque". It's a great and welcomed move, still almost an unprecedented novelty in Japan.
The setup I chose was an easy one, something I recommend to baroque violin players who never tried the truly baroque strings before: High-Twist or Half-Rectified 73, HT or HR 85 or 88, HR 116+, and Galeazzi type G - silver wound). European musicians don't hesitate to ask when they don't know something. The Japanese usually don't. This time too I was curious to run an experiment: I took out a rare string, being sure she would not know what it was, and put it on the bench in front of her. When I saw she did not show any curiosity I asked:
- Do you know what is this? - No, I don't know.
I was busy with her violin; she did not ask about the string. I wanted to see if the student would finally ask but nothing happened. I was sure the interest was there but it was a truly deep interest... it was buried somewhere so deep that it was by no means easy to detect, so I decided to wait and see (thinking of myself, what a bad character I got!)
- So, - I said, - you don't know what it is and you won't ask? - E... - How do you learn if you never ask? - E-e-e... - Oh, it must be hard to learn without asking.
It took me more than an hour to set her violin up. When the instrument was ready and she was about to leave she finally asked:
- Actually, what is it?
Was it terribly cruel of me and downright non-pedagogical? Perhaps. But I really wanted her to ask instead of telling her something she maybe did not want to know anyway. Perhaps from that moment onward she will be asking herself more frequently.
It has been another bright, should I say a baroque day? I laid the second coat of varnish on the 62nd violin and joined the neck of the 63rd violin. Both violins are baroque. Additionally the CD of sublime beauty which Sigiswald sent me some time ago arrived. While working at my studio I listened to his rendition of the Violoncello Suites performed on what is most likely to be the true Bach's violoncello. In the afternoon I baroqiuzed another player, who came to my studio with a baroque violin setup in accordance with the ideas of some 70-15 years ago. In the evening, practiced the violin myself.
Today's newspaper published an amazing story of a 54-year old dad impersonating his young son. He dressed like the 20-year old, including makeup and perm hair style, and appeared in front of examination jury to do the exam on behalf of his son. Unfortunately, the trick did not work and even keeping the face unusually close to the desk did not help to hide the obvious.
This story reminded me my own high-school graduation exam in Russian literature. I must admit, I was thoroughly ready anyway, but there was an area in which I was deliberately negligent - the communist literature about Lenin.
The communist regime caused my family a great deal of suffering, and to me personally a psychological trauma in the childhood. No wonder, I did not feel particularly enthusiastic about Lenin. I heard the names of communist writers who wrote about him but I never read anything. Well, Murphy's law does not care, so at the exam I got the question about Lenin!
I did not like the idea of failing the exam because of Lenin. So I had to choose - fail with glory or win.
I had 45 minutes to prepare for my speech. I wrote a few poems and short novels about Lenin. I never did it before or after, however on that moment I felt carried away. I could hardly stop. It was, of course, pure fiction - including author's names. To spice my story up I made comparisons with existing works by Gorki or Isakovsky, though here I could not go too much in depth since I did not read their works.
There were three examiners. I respected a lot one of them, my own teacher of literature. I was afraid she would crack me. She understood it all immediately. She allowed me, secretly, to skip certain communist novels at the condition I don't fail at the exam. Covering her face with a notebook, she was nearly bursting in laughter... but she was on my side. The other two would never admit they did not know the authors or works I just created and I knew it. It was hard to keep centered as they nodded approvingly upon hearing the next non-existent name.
Oh! These two! Convinced communists, they had tears on their eyes as I spoke about Lenin's theme in the South-Russian literature! "Dmitry, we were deeply moved by your unexpected and profound knowledge of the communist literature and your emotional speech!" -- were their words as they announced the results. I got the highest points... and run away from the room to burst in laughter on the street.
Today I started varnishing the new baroque violin. For this instrument I used an incredibly simple wood selected in Italy 12 years ago. I never used such a simple wood even for my first violin made in 1992, yet it has a striking appearance due to baroque style of carving and extremely translucent varnish, revealing the natural beauty of the wood as well as many a tool-marks here and there which, combined, give the instrument its unique character. Most importantly, I am pleased with the kind of music it allows to make.
This was a very interesting exhibition of Andrew Wyeth paintings! Sketches and studies were exhibited along with the artist's finished works. In this respect this exhibition was extraordinary because it does not happen often to see artist's preparatory work. Thus his creative process, or rather the studio routine, was made discernible.
It has been my intention since a long time to show sketches and finished drawings of the violins and other instruments, because since over 12 years I do not make copies of other violins (or rather their photos as the majority of violin-makers today work) but work exclusively with my original models. This in turn appeals to musicians who do not copy other musicians' technique or ideas but follow their personal paths.
The body of the new baroque violin is closed, the purfling is cut in to the edges and trimmed and the fingerboard is ready to be glued onto the neck. The pictures shall be added asap.
Today NHK staff (national tv broadcasting service) came to my studio to collect some pictures of historical violoncellos da spalla for their program about the revival of the violoncello da spalla and Ryo Terakado pioneering the baroque cello revolution in Japan. The program can be watched on national TV a few times: January 24, 19:00-19:44 NHK BShi; January 27 8:00-8:44 NHK BShi, January 31 13:00-13:44 NHK BShi, February 1 23:00-23:44 NHK BS2.
This is one of the early baroque violins (a tenor violin) from my studio. Four of such instruments - violino primo, violino secondo, viola alto (terzo violino) and viola tenore (quarto violino) are played in this video recorded by an amateur fan in Mexico. It is for this kind of violins Monteverdi, Schutz and composers around that time wrote their music - rather than for the late baroque violins commonly used for the repertoire from J.S.Bach to W.A.Mozart. Why not to play all on the common baroque violins? There are many reasons indeed. Simply put, playing Monteverdi on Mozart's violins is not unlike talking French or Italian with a heavy British accent. We shall approach other reasons little by little.
I dedicated this afternoon to the singing of Josquin De Prez and learning the white mensural notation which is an entirely different world compared to the baroque music of the late 16th early 17th century. I will need this experience not only for performing the music of this period on stringed instrument but also for the reconstruction of the 16th century instruments, commonly known as viole da braccio.
The early baroque, pre-Cremonese 17th century style violins were reconstructed for La Petite Bande last year. It was a project which took me a long time, even though it was interrupted by making of the violoncello da spalla since 2004. The first proto-type of the early baroque violin was made in 1997, an the 2nd instrument of this type was built for Ryo Terakado soon after. My ex-professor Sigiswald Kuijken, whose artistic philosophy became my lyfe-and-work-style ever since got keenly interested in this project, however it took an enormously long time to find sponsors. The initial potential sponsors Ghent Conservartory and the Brussels Music Instruments Museum felt out from the game since in the end they would not come to an agreement regarding the authorshiup of the project, and Sigiswald found a private sponsor in Germany. Thus one of my dreams came true - a set of early baroque instruments was built and La Petite Bande recorded the music which was always a dream to perform on the right type of violins. Sigiswald talks about this project in the interview with La Petite Band's manager Geert Robberechts on YouTube. I did not hear the CD but the rumors hold it - it's wonderful.
Now I feel like going deeper in time, towards Josquin De Prez's epoch, although it does not mean I'd interrupt making baroque violins for the late baroque period or playing the late 17th - 18th century repertoire. The next two violins should be ready by the middle of next month.
Visit my studio's website and subscribe for our newsletter to stay updated.
This month Accent-records released a CD (still unavailable in Japan) where the instrument can be heard in what promises to be the finest rendition of the Suites.
The first violoncello da spalla from my studio was commissioned by Sigiswald Kuijken in 2004 thanks to whom the dramatic return of the instrument and the whole new way of interpreting the cello repertoire.
It should be remarked that the instrument would have never returned if the strings were not re-constructed from zero. Mimmo Peruffo made a few hundreds of experimental strings in order to bring these tricky strings to perfection. If I remember well, before I finished the first instrument I asked all of the gut-string makers working on this planet to make an attempt at making such strings. Some of them responded that the instrument is a pure fantasy. Others responded they had plenty of experience with such strings (however they gave up their trials after three unsuccessfull attempts). It is still fresh in my memory, I went to Vicenza three times together with instrument in order to experiment with the strings on the site together with the master string-maker and a leading string-scholar. Visit our YouTube channel to get an idea of what the instrument looks like and sounds like. However, we are looking forward to ordering the Kuijken CD from Amazon.com
Subscribe to our newsletter to download my research-paper on the history of the violoncello in the music of J.S.Bach and about how this instrument was re-constructed. Subsription link is in the right columng of this blog and on our websites 1 & 2.
Recorded at my violin-making Studio on the 2nd of January 2009. I dedicate this video to all creative people with many talents.
I bet you have many unique talents. If you believe you are not unique, take a break and have a look at yourself in the mirror. What you do you see? You see a person like no one else :) Well, your twin might be similar but only on the surface.
It might happen that your parents, or schoolmates, or teachers or whoever else told - you have no talents. They might have even succeeded in making you believe you are not worth much. Even if the things haven't been that tough on you, you might have heard them saying "you must make a choice". This is wise, of course. Make a choice: discover yourself and pursue your talents... or chop one down in favour of narrow specialization whatever that be: playing a piano, composing, painting, writing poetry or making music instruments.
I met fellows forced to abandon some of their callings. I doubt whether it helped them to become better specialists in what they chose as their sole activity or if this helped them to become a happier people.
We might recall examples of artists working in multiple media, not to mention musicians playing professionally a number of instruments even today - not just in the Baroque period.
The Mantuan Pietro Guarneri was a luthier who made instruments for the court orchestra. He was also the concertmaster of that orchestra. Anatoly Leman, a Russian luthier on the turn of the 20th century was also a writer and an editor. Many architects studied music and some even built instruments in order to become better architects. Painters Tiziano and Veronese were musicians. There are indeed many other examples. If those artists could reach a symbiosis of their creative callings - why you can't?
The good news are that you can. What you need are these few simple things. 1. Meditate. Feel and think what your callings are and what your unique abilities are.
2. You need is to exercise your art. I hear you saying, "but I am already working so hard!" I bet you are. However, I recall one of my great Teachers' most helpful words, "If you don't know why you play the violin - don't" (Mark Kommisarov, St.Petersburg Conservatoire). This means, artistic idea develops the right technique and saves your time.
What's the right technique? Obviously, everyone else's is the right one, but didn't we come to the conclusion in the beginning that you are unique? If so, how the standards set by someone could be or should be yours even if they might serve as a point of reference?
There is one extra little thing you need: luck. So, good luck! If you play the violin and the harpsichord or organ - play! If you make sculptures and write poetry - chapeau! If you dance and compose - let nothing stop you. If you take photographs and write stories - people are waiting for your unique work. Get going!
Music does not come from a wooden box called "violin" - no matter how beautiful or perfect it is. About beauty and perfection - some time soon... 
バロック・ヴァイオリンの秘密 
New Year in the temple nearby my
Today I started varnishing the new baroque violin. For this instrument I used an incredibly simple wood selected in Italy 12 years ago. I never used such a simple wood even for my first violin made in 1992, yet it has a striking appearance due to baroque style of carving and extremely translucent varnish, revealing the natural beauty of the wood as well as many a tool-marks here and there which, combined, give the instrument its unique character. Most importantly, I am pleased with the kind of music it allows to make.
This was a very interesting exhibition of Andrew Wyeth paintings! Sketches and studies were exhibited along with the artist's finished works. In this respect this exhibition was extraordinary because it does not happen often to see artist's preparatory work. Thus his creative process, or rather the studio routine, was made discernible.
The body of the new baroque violin is closed, the purfling is cut in to the edges and trimmed and the fingerboard is ready to be glued onto the neck. The pictures shall be added asap.
Today NHK staff (national tv broadcasting service) came to my studio to collect some pictures of historical violoncellos da spalla for their program about the revival of the violoncello da spalla and Ryo Terakado pioneering the baroque cello revolution in Japan. The program can be watched on national TV a few times: January 24, 19:00-19:44 NHK BShi; January 27 8:00-8:44 NHK BShi, January 31 13:00-13:44 NHK BShi, February 1 23:00-23:44 NHK BS2.
The first violoncello da spalla from my studio was commissioned by Sigiswald Kuijken in 2004 thanks to whom the dramatic return of the instrument and the whole new way of interpreting the cello repertoire.
