Violin without (A) string

Just yesterday I posted a new entry about my come-back to the University orchestra. And today already I ‘lost’ one of my violin strings – the A string – and this is a little bit frustrating (no, I’m not exaggerating) since these last few weeks here in Jakarta we can’t find the kind of strings we’re fanatic of – the Dominant from Thomastic-Infeld. My stand-mate Tika also had the same problem and she told me about this last Saturday. Maybe I worried too much that now even my violin doesn’t behave.

And meet my violin, my wonderful companion since 1988, when finally my teacher succeeded to convince my father that I was ‘serious’ and needed a much better violin than the one I had at that time (a factory-made Chinese violin).


My violin, without the A-string

We got it, in a very bad condition, from somebody my teacher knew, so soon after it went to a major restoration (and my father had to pay a fortune for that...but he never regretted it, I swear!). Why my teacher fell for that violin though it was completely out of shape when he found it, was the wood, and some ‘traces’ of the original hand works details that were still visible, he just felt that it was ‘a good violin’. Somehow, despite the fortune my father had spent, the condition just couldn’t be 100% restored. It seemed like the previous owner had done something with the body of the violin, probably bad vernissage or something, that the voice doesn’t really ‘kicks’. I only realized it ten years after when I enrolled for the music school in 1998, and my teacher wasn’t happy with my violin at all. So it went to another major restoration, this time is more expensive than the first one, and the luthier told me everything he found out about my violin – some very painful truths and even my teacher recommended me to get a new violin, but after all what we had spent for the restorations I just can’t afford to get a new violin, yet. Maybe someday. But with the fact that I’m not studying in the music school anymore, nor playing with a professional orchestra right now, I don’t know if I still want to buy a new violin. There are lots of things I have in mind, such as traveling, or even to have a state-of-the-art computer ;-) And here’s the hardest part: for better or worse, this violin has been with me for 18 years now, has been my wonderful best friend in my ups-and-downs, the one I carried everywhere like a baby, one of the important things through which my life is enriched with (especially) friends, joy, laughter, wisdom, and lessons. I just can’t give it up.

Some facts about my violin:
• Its faded label reads ‘Franz Steinberg’ Leipzig 1876• It’s been through several restorations, you can see some restored cracks in the body
• I bought most of its accessories in Stockholm when I visited Sweden in 2002
• From all the accessories, I am most proud of the Flesch-style chin-rest that I finally found in a music store in Stockholm – after years of desperately looking for one
• My violin ‘gets along’ very well with its French bow, acquired in Stockholm with the help of my great friend and violinist Joakim. My very good friend Betty, who was at that time visiting her fiancé (now husband)’s family in Sweden that end of year 2000, went to Stockholm and got the bow from Joakim, carried it with her with extra care to Jakarta, and, like a fairy god-mother, showed-up at my place handing the bow exactly on New Year’s Eve!