PHILHARMONIE

The Italian sound

Second part of the series dedicated to the discovery of a luthier’s work. In this blogpost, Daniel Hoffman takes you step by step through the whole instrument-creating process. If you missed Part 1, have a look HERE.

The steps or method used to construct an instrument depend entirely on the “school” of the model being made. Since my personal interest is in the Italian sound of 1550-1750 I use the methods employed by the three leading schools of that era – Brescia, Cremona and Venice. The Cremonese method almost always involved the use of an inside form or mold as introduced by Andrea Amati. The Brescians, on the other hand, rarely used More

“It sounds like bitter-sweet dark chocolate”

picture by Daniel Hoffmann

Daniel Hoffman is luthier. A passion he follows for more than 30 years now. Asked to describe this fascination, Daniel explains: “I love this thing called lutherie, it’s such a huge world of wonder, history, creativity, science, alchemy,and woodworking on its way to becoming Music. “

Lucky and happy to know such an enthusiastic man as Daniel, I  availed myself of this opportunity to ask him some more questions about his work.
Daniel gave me so much information, such detailed answers, that I decided to split them up in three blogpost. Feel free to visit his facebook page www.facebook.com/danielhoffmanluthier !

So, in this blogpost (Part I), Daniel explains you why he likes the collaboration with the musicians and describes what sort of woods he uses to build his instruments. More

The violin is not only a friend!

Leonidas Kavakos playing his Stradivarius at the Philharmonie Luxembourg - photo (c) Sébastien Grébille

Wie erlebt ein Musiker den Verkauf seines Instrumentes, vor allem wenn dieses über 200 Jahre alt ist?  Dieser Frage ist der amerikanische Journalist Daniel J. Wakin nachgegangen und gibt erstaunliche Einblicke in die Beziehung die ein Musiker mit seiner Geige oder seinem Cello verbindet. Den gesamten, sehr spannenden Artikel könnt ihr auf nytimes.com nachlesen.

“The violin is not only a friend. It’s something More

Stadivari, Guarneri, Guadagnini & Co. Why are they still that special?

photo (c) Daniel Hoffman

What makes a good violin, cello or viola? What makes a Stradivari or a Guadagnini that special? Who better than a luthier could answer these questions? We asked the American luthier Daniel Hoffman * ! More