[Leica] My Cello

[Bernard Quinn]

Wouldn't it be great if the wood fibers in our instruments could tell us in words the story of what they have played, where they have been, and who has played them rather than in sounds?

Sometimes late on a winter night I will sit by the fireplace with my cello and a glass of Scotch and try to coax its story out of it. It remains mute except for the melodies it plays.

I totally agree with you. If there is any hope for keeping barbarism at bay it is music. 

Barney

Barney Quinn, WK3Z
C: (301) 775-1386
H: (301) 654-0938

> On Sep 25, 2017, at 2:38 AM, Peter Klein <boulanger.croissant at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Barney:  This is a beautiful picture, and a lovely tribute to both your instrument and your friend John. I also have a friend who is a string repairman, and I've seen several instruments he's brought back from near-death. His wife, who you may have seen in many of my musician pictures, plays a cello that we call "The English Patient" because it originated in 1700s England and needed a lot of TLC to be brought up to good playing condition.  It turned out to be a gem with a lower register that has to be heard to be believed.
> 
> We are indeed the custodians of our instruments. Ideally, we develop some sort of symbiosis with them. I suspect that wood fibers align according to the resonances we draw out of the instrument. So each player contributes in some way to how the instrument sounds.
> 
> Keep playing.  It's part of the good fight to keep beauty in the world and keep barbarism at bay.  I know that sounds a bit precious, but I truly believe it.
> 
> --Peter
> 
>> This is a picture of my friend John Lemoine. He is an extremely talented
>> violin maker who lives in Washington, DC. That is my cello he is 
> working on.
>> It is over three hundred years old. It was made in the Austrian Alps 
> and it
>> has a wonderful deep, dark, mellow tone.
>> 
>> When you acquire an instrument like this it is made clear to you in a
>> hundred different ways that you are not its owner, you are its 
> custodian.
>> Your job, along with playing it, is to make sure that it is preserved 
> and
>> maintained so that it can be handed off to the next generation to 
> play and
>> care for.
>> 
>> I am the care giver for a special needs cello. Many years ago John 
> found an
>> antique cello case in the garbage in New York. He fished it out, 
> opened it,
>> and found the abused and broken last mortal remains of my cello. He knew
>> exactly what he was looking at. He took the pieces home and spent the 
> next
>> two or three years restoring it. My wife?s health problems and my back
>> issues have kept me from playing recently. But now that I am retired and
>> doing better I am going to give going back to it a try.
>> 
>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Barney/John+Lemoine.jpg.html
>> <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Barney/John+Lemoine.jpg.html>
>> 
>> Comments and Criticisms Welcome!
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> Barney
> 
> 
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