Library and Information Services, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

Friday 4 May 2012

The Fiddletree - story of a fiddle made from a Cape Breton sugar maple tree

Read Susan Zettell's blog.  Then borrow the book from the Whittaker Library!
"In a world where speed means everything -- drive-throughs, twitter and tweets, and highspeed everything, and time is money -- Otis Tomas, a friend and neighbour, violin maker, composer and musician, decided to embark on a project that ended up taking 16 years to complete. In his travels through the woods near his home on the Meadow Road, he found an ancient sugar maple and that's where Otis's story begins. He writes: "I am a violin maker, and so of course it wasn't long before my thoughts turned to possibilities held deep within this tree, and of the voices that might come forth were I to turn my hand to the transformation and domestication of this giant of the forest." And turn his hand he did.

On Saturday, Otis launched his book The Fiddletree ..." Read more ...
Postscript.  Talking to a colleague, I've just heard about a similar initiative in our own Scotland.  A string quartet of instruments has been built with the sycamore from Sherlock Holmes' author Sir Conan Doyle's childhood garden in Edinburgh.  There was a concert last year.  Will I blog about it?  You bet I will!  Watch this space...

Post-postscript.  I have just learned of an interesting BBC news item about choosing the best wood for a Stradivarius. Read on!  (BBC News 14 April 2013).

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