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Posted

 

This new year marks a turning point in my life. Because of Parkinson’s disease my workshop is now closed. My tools and materials are long gone, but with luck, the publications on my website will be hosted by the Violin Society of America, where it is intended that anyone will still be able to download them free of charge. This is being made possible by the VSA and the support of my Canadian friend and fellow violin maker, Chris Ruffo (Urban Luthier). Chris has already contributed to the violin community by editing and rearranging many of my articles and talks. As well as several new titles, this site will include the mammoth Making a Double Bass project, containing more than 370 photographs and 24000 words. It also incorporates never and before published information about violin making and varnishing.

Sometime soon, my beautiful library of books, along with my archive’s drawings and collection of photographs, will eventually be sold to help fund the next stage in my career as a poverty-stricken novelist.

My first book, Angel Eyes, is now available, both as a paper back and as an e-book. Covering the period from the 1920s to the present day, Angel Eyes is the first of five hard-hitting fact-based fictional accounts of abuse, corruption and greed in the violin business. Angel Eyes chronicles the life of a young American woman, Grace Scott, as she attempts to become a violin connoisseur in a world entirely dominated by men. Grace's worldwide adventures continue in volumes II III IV & V, which are already complete and awaiting publication.

I make no apologies for the fact that, especially towards the end of this series, each volume becomes progressively darker and more erotic. You have been warned. Nevertheless, in spite of ­­­­­­their intensity, these works are also sensitive and occasionally amusing. Moreover, because they were initially conceived as a set of reference works to help musicians and violin makers identify classical Italian instruments, each novel still encompasses a profusion of information about violin identification, making, restoration and even varnishing. The framework within which this information is set may be fictional, but the technical ­­­­­­­­­­­­­data itself, is as accurate as I could make it.

Because of my illness I am having difficulty publicising these works. Please help by passing this information to anyone who might be interested. Thank you, Roger Graham Hargrave.

 

 

Posted

So sorry to hear that your illness is impacting on your retirement. :(

However, I do hope you still find enjoyment in your new career as an impoverished author! :wub:

I am just getting into Angel Eyes.  I am enjoying the 'fact-based fiction' approach.  So, like, as I read... I'm saying (mostly to myself) "Ha!  I knew that!  Ha!  I heard about that too!" :D

Posted
On 2/1/2024 at 4:27 PM, Rue said:

So sorry to hear that your illness is impacting on your retirement. :(

However, I do hope you still find enjoyment in your new career as an impoverished author! :wub:

I am just getting into Angel Eyes.  I am enjoying the 'fact-based fiction' approach.  So, like, as I read... I'm saying (mostly to myself) "Ha!  I knew that!  Ha!  I heard about that too!" :D

Hi Rue, I hope that you continue to enjoy Engel Eyes and the ones that follow. :D

Posted

Looking forward to reading them all! :D

And I'm learning more as I read too!

*possible, but unlikely, spoiler alert*

...

...

...

I had to look up the Hungarian ******* Song. Really interesting history.

Posted

It’s always sad to hear if a colleague puts down his tools and stops working. If this is under the shadow of a serious illness so much more. And if this comes from THE violin maker who spent his entire life to unravel the details of forgotten techniques by trying to copy them like no one else I feel that a whole era of violin making came to an end. :(

 

There used to be one title of an article written by you which became in my life as a violin maker most inspiring: Tried and tested. I have to confess that when I first read that 3 part article I didn’t understand one word but I knew that I had to understand what it is about and what is the whole logic behind it. (And helped me to brush up my insufficient English in a very practical way) It was an eye opener which later extended to try and test many things and my own (weird) ideas (though almost never related to classical making techniques) 

Though our paths crossed a few times long ago I am sure you can’t remember my face. So I am sending my best wishes in a kind of incognito mode. Thanks for the inspiration you have given me and I will look out for your book(s) and recommend them to anyone who might have interest in non-fiction fiction violin tales. (Or maybe it is better to think about the violin world as pure fiction because it makes more sense. (?);))

 

Good luck to you, Roger Graham Hargrave! As a poverty stricken novelist you are in good company with some of the most famous writers on this planet. :D

 

Andreas Preuß 

 

PS: If you are interested in some hilarious stories from the titanic world of DM I can PM a few to you.

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

I'm saddened to hear this, Roger. 

The excitement I felt when I saw your Andrea Amati copy when you brought it to Newark is something I'll never forget.

I've just ordered your book. I'm looking forward to reading it.      

  • 1 month later...
Posted

Dear Roger,

I only just saw this posting, and it made me want to share something with you. When I was 9 years old, after having started learning the violin from my brother from a very young age, I began lessons with my first teacher outside the home, a legendary figure that some chamber music aficonados here might recognize, Wolfe Wolfinsohn.

Wolfinsohn was a fascinating person, born in South Africa, and after having studied in London, he arrived in the US around 1920 and became the leader of several top string quartets, including his final position as leader of the original Stradivari Quartet, the first such group to create a residency program within a higher education institution, in their case at Harvard University.

It was at the height of their success that Wolfinsohn was diagnosed with Parkinsons, and he left the quartet to consecrate himself to teaching. So it was that I began taking the hour long bus ride into Cambridge, Massachusetts, every Saturday to take lessons from this remarkable man who spoke with the poshest of accents, no doubt a necessary strategem for a poor jewish fiddle player from Cape Town to make his way in London music circles, was at times barely be able to draw his bow across the string, but held me in total awe and wonder as he would pose the most unsettling questions whether a certain bowing or fingering might be suitable for Mozart, but not for Haydn, Vivaldi but not Bach, and made me conscious that there was so much to learn, such a vast universe of music to explore.

I went on to study with other violinists in the ensuing years, but we kept in touch and I had the great pleasure of keeping him up to date on my progress and hearing his many anecdotes as the decades passed. He managed to continue to teach and coach chamber music through his later years, and I was thrilled to see him come to a recital of mine when he was in his mid-eighties, still relatively hale and hearty despite the ravages of Parkinsons.

The disease did take its toll, but as his widow, Sally pointed out during an uplifting eulogy, he continued to have moments of bright lucidity right to the end. She told of how she would read him the latest concert news, and how one day, she read from the paper that their old friend Sir Yehudi Menhuin was about to play with the New Jersey Symphony. Wolfie's last words were, "Serves him right..." 

You must be aware that you've given so much to so many people with all that you've been doing, from your making to your research to the volumes you've written and the enormous amount of information you've shared through the years. I look forward to reading your novels, and I hope you are able to get all of them published!

 

  • 5 months later...
Posted
On 2/1/2024 at 1:41 PM, Roger Hargrave said:

I make no apologies for the fact that, especially towards the end of this series, each volume becomes progressively darker and more erotic.

this caught my attention

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