Unit 6 - 6.3 - Exercise 2 Unidad 6 - 6.3 - Ejercicio 2 Unità 6 - 6.3 - Esercizio 2

Interviewer: Any string player will tell you that no instrument is identical to another. Thirty violins may look the same, but each has a characteristic, however subtle, all of its own. Middleton College runs a violin-making course for students of all ages. And l must say that to see a violin in its stages of development, and especially the intricately carved wood, really fascinated me. Et je dois dire que voir un violon dans ses étapes de développement, et surtout le bois finement sculpté, m'a vraiment fasciné. The head of the violin school is one of its ex-students, Sue Pearson. I met her in the violin workshop. Sue, before you start to make a violin into the instrument we all know and love, where do you go to find your wood?

Sue: Various places. The pine really needs to come from places where the weather is cold enough for the tree to have grown fairly slowly, so that it grows straight and has close, uniform grain lines.

Interviewer: Why is that — that you need such finely grained wood? Intervieweur : Pourquoi est-ce que vous avez besoin d'un bois au grain si fin ?

Sue: It's all relating to flexibility, and it needs to be incredibly strong too, of course. We make the front of the violin from pine and the back from maple. These two woods have the qualities we're looking for.

Interviewer: What we've got here are basically just blocks of wood, aren't they? Interviewer : Ce que nous avons ici, ce sont essentiellement des blocs de bois, n'est-ce pas ? As with any great piece of woodwork, you can never believe for a moment that you could just produce something out of a boring block of wood. Comme avec n'importe quel grand morceau de bois, vous ne pouvez jamais croire un instant que vous pourriez simplement produire quelque chose à partir d'un bloc de bois ennuyeux.

Sue: This piece here is basically for just one part of the violin. In any operation in violin-making, I think you're looking at 80-85% wastage. Dans toute opération de lutherie, je pense qu'il s'agit d'un gaspillage de 80 à 85 %.

Interviewer: And you've got some other bits as well. Very thin pieces.

Sue: These are what we call the ribs. Sue : C'est ce que nous appelons les côtes. These are about one and a half to one and three-quarter millimetres wide, and before they can go onto the instrument, they'll be reduced in thickness. Celles-ci mesurent environ un millimètre et demi à un millimètre et trois quarts de large, et avant de pouvoir être placées sur l'instrument, leur épaisseur sera réduite.

Interviewer: We've got the shape of the body here. What happens next?

Sue: Basically we shape the top and bottom and then we use glue to stick them together. We don't use a nail or machine for this. Nous n'utilisons pas de clou ou de machine pour cela. We've still got the neck to do and this is easily the most elaborate part of the instrument. Nous avons encore le manche à faire et c'est de loin la partie la plus élaborée de l'instrument. It's always quite difiicult for a novice student to undertake. Il est toujours assez difficile à entreprendre pour un étudiant novice. We're really dealing in three dimensions. Nous avons vraiment affaire à trois dimensions.

Interviewer: There's an instrument that looks finished over there, but it's an unusual colour. Why is that? Pourquoi donc?

Sue: Well, it's not finished yet. lt needs a good clean — it can get a bit grubby when it's being made. Il a besoin d'un bon nettoyage - il peut devenir un peu sale quand il est fait. It needs to have varnish applied and this can affect the sound - makes it more mellow in my opinion. Il doit avoir un vernis appliqué et cela peut affecter le son - le rend plus doux à mon avis.

Interviewer: Some of the greatest violins are fairly old. Are you expecting when you make these instruments that they might still be around a couple of hundred years hence?

Sue: That's one of the things that always interests us. We're all mortal and it would be nice to think one of your instruments was still being played in two to three hundred years and that it would even improve in tone. Obviously it will increase in value too, but that's not something that worries me too much.