Derek Hoy wrote:
> David asked:
> > Jack - do you know if anyone uses laburnum wood? From the enthusiasm a
> > local turner showed for a cut-down laburnum of ours, and his comments
> > about the wood, it sounds as if it might be usable.
> Dick Rutter in Edinburgh? A few months ago, he showed me a fiddle he'd
> made from an incredibly hard, dark coloured wood. I'm embarrassed to
> say I've forgotten what it was- not one of the usual woods for
> fiddle-making...
Dick has let me play that fiddle too - sounds great. He was prowling in a
private estate down by the Water of Leith when he saw that a huge Laburnum
bush had been felled. The landowner came up, obviously annoyed at the
trespasser and asked him what he was doing. Dick explained that he was out
of work, and made fiddles, and thought that the wood might make a good
fiddle; the owner softened a bit and told Dick he could have two pieces of
wood, but to hide them, because someone was coming to collect the rest of
the wood later. Dick ran home to get his pram and happily pushed his loot
home.
He told me that Laburnum, being a shrub, is not often big enough - he had
to make a two-piece back - and that it's hard to season ("splits like
billy-oh") and terribly hard to work with. It's the only wood that he's
ever managed to break one of his wood-tools on, and it was like working
with metal. But acoustically it's excellent, it sounds very mellow.
> The fiddle played very well, as his fiddles do.
I agree. I think it's sad that noone's buying them though. I'm not much of
a fiddler, but I've had shots of Dick's and I thought they were great.
Trouble is, as Dick says, people don't want to buy new fiddles. In honour
of one of his creations I composed the following waltz:
X:006
T:The Five Stringed Fiddle
C:Nigel Gatherer
N:In honour of Dick Rutter, violin
N:maker, Edinburgh
Z:Nigel Gatherer
M:3/4
L:1/8
K:D
A,2|D4 FG|A4 D2|B2 c2 d2|F A3 D2|G3 ABG|F4 D2|B, E3 D2|C2 A2 A,2|
D4 FG|A4 D2|B2 c2 d2|F A3 D2|G3 ABG|F3 EDF|E3 DCE|D4:|]
AB/c/|d2 f3 d|c2 e3 c|B3 cdB|A F3 D2|G3 ABG|F4 D2|B,2 E3 d|C2 A3 G|
F2 d3 F|G2 e3 G|A3 ceg|f3 dAF|G3 Beg|f3 edc|e2 d3 d|d4:|]
--
Nigel Gatherer, Crieff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Scottish Music Pages:
http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/gatherer/scottish/index.html
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