It's interesting that no one talks about Mad Fiddler but is truly a special VaPer!!
Hey, Anyone Heard of C&Ds "Mad Fiddler"
- Thread starter gord
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Shhhh. It'll become a unicorn.
All things equal, if given an echoless sound chamber (ie recording studio environment) compared to an amateur, quite a lot. Compared to pro to pro, not much. Some do produce a bigger sound (ie Isaac Stern) but it is also instrument dependent as well as bowing technique and certain interpretive factors.
If a lead violinist in a quartet is overbalancing the others to the extent that your comment indicates, I'd be raising my eyebrows. That doesn't serve the music. I've been concertmaster of 4 orchestras, and headed up about 30 professional auditions. There is a certain (usually 6 week or so) trial period before the winner is given a full contract. That kind of ego doesn't belong on a team. They don't last, at least in a violin section I was running. (I don't know the total inner circumstance, admittedly, so I'm possibly being unfair in this situation)
I realize I'm sounding opinionated here, but consider a hockey team and selfish players. An orchestra, a quartet, is a team. Dominance in a quartet must follow the ebb and flow of the musical substance. I guarantee that an individual like what I'm guessing he's like, wouldn't be invited to the post-concert tavern festivities. Nor be given a permanent contract.
A picture I took a few (or maybe more) years ago…
What a marvellous picture!
My wife has a collection of her family fiddles, some well over 150 years old. Her great grand father was Bascom Lamar Lunsford. If you’ve been to Western NC, you’ll see statues of him everywhere. The whole family is musical, and amazing folks.
Methinks that artistic bent could also run in your side of the family, too . . that picture of yours, with it's composition and control of the depth of field, is quite a cut above the norm usually seen in forums.
And the pipe bowl at the 1/3 point and the lighter in the same plane of focus? Nah. Not accidental.
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I was taught that superb artists also create some things without conciously being aware of the rule of thirds, etc., etc.
That's an excellent picture! I dig how the pipe stain matches the violin's.
I always enjoy fiddlers playing. They look happy and seem to love what they do. Violinists on the other hand, I would guess they are passing kidney stones.
It's seemingly a totally different world - concentration to play difficult music is not done in an instinctive manner. I do know, and have heard, of serious violinists going into fiddle competitions and winning, and have had the stuffing beat out of them by the "good old boys" after. Actually, serves them right lol. Then there's legitimate crossovers who do both - guys like Jean-Luc Ponty, who won, I believe it was, either the Belgian or Concours de France violin competition and became probably the most successful Jazz-Rock violinist of all time. I've done some fiddling myself (we all have). It's a good warmup for bowing drills and I've taught some to students.
A friend of mine in Toronto, whom I played with in the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, used to entertain bar patrons in the Big T, standing on tables, banging his foot, dead drunk, fiddling like you wouldn't believe. He won fiddle contests. And an ex-student of mine who played the Mozart Violin Concerto #3 with the Northern Orchestra of BC, the top amateur orchestra in the North, (which I conducted until I retired from both that post and the PGSO), and the following summer won a big fiddle contest in Toronto when she went to Jazz School there the following summer.