David Beard: 'Cremona Revival' – Instrument Maker & Researcher –

David Beard

'Cremona Revival'

 – Instrument Maker & Researcher –

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I grew up knowing that the wonderful string players who inspired me on stage and in their recordings most all played beautiful historic instruments from the Old Italian traditions of making.   As I learned to play, here and there I would get moments to see and hear such instruments up close, and once in a rare while to try them. In a very direct way, I could feel a powerful difference in the beauty and impact of these instruments compared to others. And, I knew that to eventually own or enjoy playing such an instrument would mean spending hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

I also grew up believing that the methods to make more such instruments were simply lost and gone forever.  

As a kid, I loved the violin, music, and playing, but I also took an interest in the instruments themselves, and in their making.  I even made a little workshop in the basement as a young teen.  But, I grew up convinced that the only making methods I could learn about were modern methods that led to the kind of harder feeling modern style instruments that just didn't excite me.  Indeed, on some level I found this later style and sound to be somehow oppressive and frustrating.  I put the idea of making new exciting classical character instruments aside.  It simply seemed impossible in the existing world.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

But the world changes.   We share and have access to much more information now.  About ten years ago, in the summer of 2009, I began wondering again about classical making and the sad lack of any new such instruments coming into the world for musicians and music lovers to enjoy.   I wondered if it really was impossible to make in the old ways, or if perhaps it might be possible to revive those methods.   

This was the beginning of what turned into ten years of research.   And indeed, from 1979 to 2009 a handful of brave people had significantly opened the way toward a full enough understanding of Old Italian and Cremona that it did seem possible to consider trying to fully restore or ability to make as they did.

My research is done now.  For obvious reasons, I'm calling the effort to use these recovered old methods to make new 'classical' instruments 'Cremona Revival' making. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some Brochures about my research and Cremona Revival making:
    PDF Brochure:
Cremona Revival Making

  PDF Brochure:
The Design DNA of Old Cremona Violins

  PDF Brochure:
Violin vs. Violin

PDF Brochure:
How Instruments Make Sound

PDF Brochure:
How Violins Work

PDF Brochure:
How Violins are Made




Leaflet:
2019 David of Santa Barbara Outreach










..