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By ANDREW TAYLOR
SMH | 23 October 2011
THE Baroque era does not sound as if it would have been kind to vegetarians.
The strings of Skye McIntosh’s 250-year-old violin are made from sheep’s gut, and provide flexibility to create what McIntosh said was ”this beautiful drawn sort of sound”.
The artistic director of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Paul Dyer, is also an expert in the sonorous qualities of a sheep’s digestive system.
”They stretch the gut, the actual gut of the animal and then they dry it,” Dyer said. ”When the finger touches the string, it gives a really different sensation.”
The other main difference with contemporary violins is the bow, which McIntosh said was lighter and shorter: ”It looks a little bit like a bow
and arrow.” Not surprisingly, McIntosh’s instrument, like all the period instruments played by the Brandenburg’s musicians, requires gentle handling.
Another gut-stringed instrument is the exceedingly rare lirone, which resembles a cello and makes ”a really ethereal, weird sound”, Dyer said.
Surprisingly, vegetarians may be better suited to playing gut strings, Dyer said. A baroque violin teacher he once encountered advised students: ”Please be vegetarian because often people who eat meat sweat. ”When you sweat on gut strings, and water gets close to the strings, it can easily snap.” Sydney’s humidity can also play havoc with a
gut-stringed instrument’s tuning.
Dyer said there was often a lot of adrenaline pumping among violinists backstage before a Brandenburg performance. ”They’re all madly going for it,” he said. ”There is this incredible sound and everyone’s in their own zone. And then all of a sudden we’ll have a green light to go on and then there’s this panic moment when everyone checks their tuning.”
McIntosh and Dyer will be joined by guest violinist Riccardo Minasi for the Brandenburg’s Glorious Baroqueconcerts, which open on October 28 at the City Recital Hall in Angel Place.
Besides unusual instruments, a hallmark of Brandenburg’s performances are compositions by conductors rarely heard in Australia. Glorious Baroque features the Australian premiere of works by Zelenka and Sardelli as well as concertos by Vivaldi.
