“Music has charms to soothe a savage breast.” - Little Richard
Nah, just fooling; that's a line from the William Congreve play "The Mourning Bride," and it dates back to 1697.
But no matter what kind of music you like, from the baroque offerings of Congreve's day to the big band sounds to the Dixie Peach, Little Richard, to whatever is popular today, music affects us, heart and soul.
Carlos Tome, the director of Tarisio, says this violin “has a luscious, deep and powerful sound and is something that really carries you.”
This fiddle is also known as an “ex-Seidel,” referring to the musician who used to own it: Russian American virtuoso Toscha Seidel. When he bought it in 1924, the pricetag was $25,000. Seidel told the New York TIMES that "...we precisely suit each other, and I am convinced it is one of the finest examples of the famous violin maker.”
Seidel played with many top orchestras, made records, and had a radio show on the CBS Network. He also played "ghost violin" for movie actors who could not play.
And, says Adam Baer in "The American Scholar", "That we largely associate love scenes or depictions of the less fortunate in films—or any scene evoking tears or strong emotions—with the sound of the violin is largely due to Seidel... he laid the groundwork for mainstream America to deepen its love affair with the violin.”
If you've ever seen the movie The Wizard of Oz, you've heard that plaintive melody “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” you know how sad that wailing fiddle sounds on that tune.
And there's a chance that the movie music was played on a violin that was made in 1714!
No one can be sure if the one pictured below is the instrument that was in the movie, but this fiddle was made in Italy by Antonio Stradivari. It's up for auction on June 9 at the Tarisio auction house.
If you plan to go and buy it, better plan to shell out 20. 20 million. 20 million US dollars.
In 2011, another Stradivarius violin was sold for $16 million to benefit victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
Carlos Tome, the director of Tarisio, says this violin “has a luscious, deep and powerful sound and is something that really carries you.”
This fiddle is also known as an “ex-Seidel,” referring to the musician who used to own it: Russian American virtuoso Toscha Seidel. When he bought it in 1924, the pricetag was $25,000. Seidel told the New York TIMES that "...we precisely suit each other, and I am convinced it is one of the finest examples of the famous violin maker.”
When someone says "we precisely suit each other," you wonder if he is talking about an instrument or another human, but this is how great artists speak.
Seidel played with many top orchestras, made records, and had a radio show on the CBS Network. He also played "ghost violin" for movie actors who could not play.
And, says Adam Baer in "The American Scholar", "That we largely associate love scenes or depictions of the less fortunate in films—or any scene evoking tears or strong emotions—with the sound of the violin is largely due to Seidel... he laid the groundwork for mainstream America to deepen its love affair with the violin.”
And it was at about the time he was sawing the strings for MGM Studios that the Wizard of Oz was filmed, so it is possible that his haunting music was in the background when Dorothy was hoping to get back to Kansas.
We don't know, and the chances are, we never will. But whoever buys the violin next month should take it to Nashville and let one of the Grand Ole Opry's finest take a run at "Down Yonder" some night soon!
We don't know, and the chances are, we never will. But whoever buys the violin next month should take it to Nashville and let one of the Grand Ole Opry's finest take a run at "Down Yonder" some night soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment