The Covid Year. A transitional year. People were lost, but also gained.
Fifteen years after our first Cristofori piano’s delivery, a second one was finally finished. Commissioned by offstage supporter of musical ventures Tom MacCracken, it allowed us to better understand and document the many unique construction processes observed while making our first replica. Completion just as the pandemic shutdown arrived meant that unfortunately it didn’t get the usual “new instrument” public attention.
The several reproductions we had made of Rick Barber’s GP Maggini (c. 1620) bass all had modern setups. Tom always wondered how it would sound in its original configuration. In 1619 Michael Preatorius published his Syntagma Musicum, where a “Gross Bass Geig” resembling instruments made in nearby Brescia was illustrated. That drawing informed the fittings on our first big violone, along with a baroque setup and gut strings, made for Nate Chase. It was fun to see him and Heather Miller Lardin with her 2019 bass together in Boston’s Symphony Hall.
Jacob Stone was in grad school at the Univ. of Iowa, where everything was moved online due to the pandemic. His summer gigs and festivals were cancelled, so he asked if he could spend the summer in the shop full time. “You don’t have to pay me, I’ll do anything you want, fix your fencing, etc…” While leading a jazz group playing outdoor concerts, he took on a wider variety of work in the shop and started his own first bass. It was the “Little Dutchy” model made of spalted maple from a tree in our yard. He came back for six weeks during winter break, got his bass playing “in the white”, and took it back to Iowa.
Longtime friend and client, pianist Lambert Orkis, ending a tour of the US with colleague Anne-Sophie Mutter at the Kennedy Center, came to the shop for a visit. In February, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall was closed immediately after their concert due to covid.
But there was one good loss: the non-original fire escapes on the sides of the schoolhouse came down at last!
