Biography

Robb Report January 2000

Birth of an Instrument

Double Purfling & Design

JonPaul Bows

Coda Bows

Contact

Play It Again, Strad

Some violins are like Porsches.  "The German school of violin-making is precise, exact," says master luthier Harold Golden as he moves through his studio in Chestnut Hill, Pa.  "Their tones are identical from instrument to instrument.  And they're excellent violins."

Others are more like Ferraris. 
"Their handcraftsmanship is more evident in the Italian school of design.  Each instrument is unique in subtle ways, and it's these minute flaws that produce a distinctive richness when played "

Three hundred years ago, their talent for endowing each violin with its own personality made legends of Italian violin makers Antonio Stradivari and the Guarneri family.  Today, the same philosophy is earning Golden a following among the cognoscenti of stringed instruments.jazz violinist John Blake,
Irish fiddler John Brennan, and jazz bassist Tyrone Brown
are just a few of  the performers and recording artists playing Golden violins, cellos, and bass.

Yet in recent years Golden has captured the imagination of collectors and musicians alike by creating what some had deemed an impossibility: violins that authentically replicate both the look and the sound of the masterpieces of the past.  In fact, they sound better than most of the originals, which have lost their tone and power to project from the concert stage as their wood has become weak with age.
"People ask me why I make violins," says Golden, "It's simple: I have to.  There's something about the feel of the wood, seeing annstrument taking shape beneath your hands, and then the way it sounds when you run a bow across the strings and you hear it come alive."

The 53-year-old Golden, a classically trained violinist and president of the Chestnut Hill Symphony, has been making violins since his teens.  He began his apprenticeship while a student at Philadelphia's Temple University School of Music, working first with Sofian Zapf, an exponent of the German school of violinmaking, and then with Clifford Roberts, known for his Italianesque instruments.

There is no formula involved in re-creating the most fabled stringed instruments of the past, says Golden.  "If there were, the factories would be reproducing them by the dozens.  It's really trial and error-time and patience, variations in the thicknesses and tpes of the wood, the lacquer and the glue"

Like wine-making, violinmaking is a process that can't be rushed.  It takes Golden about six weeks to produce a commissioned replica, which can sell for $8,000 to $10,000.

There were no compact discs in the Baroque age.  So how can Golden tell that his creations sound the way the masters of the past intended theirs to sound?

"There are a few Strads and Guarneris whose power and tone haven't deteriorated over time.  Typically, they cost between $1 million and $2 million-if you can find one.  I've played a $1 million Guarneri and a $1 million Stradivarius.  The music from each sends a chill up your spine."
Three centuries from now, music lovers may say the same about an antique Golden.

JACK SMITH