史特拉底瓦里和阿瑪蒂請讓位
（1971 報紙）

照片：貝克家族——老貝克、小貝克和珍妮佛

 

CHICAGO, ILL. - There is but one way to learn the art of making fine violins – It Is to tear them apart.

For the last 50 years Chicago's Becker family has torn apart some of and the world's finest violins, and what they have learned has made their name a legend in the world of stringed instruments.

The three generations of Beckers – Carl, 86, Carl. jr.54. and Jennifer, 18 - have crafted nearly 800 violins. violas, and cellos since the turn of the century, making nearly all of them in their tiny Chicago workshop or at their summer cabin on Pickerel Lake, Wis.

The instruments are of such sweetness and tonal beauty that musical experts have ranked them alongside the rare, famous violins of Stradivari, Guarneri, and Amati.

"It's entirely possible that some day Becker violins will be prized almost as highly as Strads,” said Dr. Samuel Thaviu, an accomplished violinist and professor of violin at Northwestern University. “I’ve known that Beckers for a long time and I know their violins, I don’t know of anybody who makes consistently better violins than they do. They’re wonderful, wonderful instruments.”

Thaviu said the Beckers’ art in making new violins rests in their ability to restore old ones.

“Repairing them and making them are two sides of the same coin,” he said.

The Beckers, father, son, and granddaughter, could not agree more. Plagiarism, they say, is a virtue among violinmakers.

“We absorbed techniques from other makers, from observing old instruments,” said the older Becker, who still wields his tiny planes and delicate knives with consummate skill. “When we make a violin., we already know what the limits and tolerances should be, and if we stay inside those tolerances, well, it’ll have to be good.”

 

 

 

 

芝加哥，伊利諾伊州。 —— 只有一種方法可以學習製作精美小提琴的藝術 —— 將它們拆開。

在過去50年裏，芝加哥的貝克（Becker）家族拆開了許多世界上最精美的小提琴，他們學習到的東西使他們的名字成爲絃樂器領域的傳奇。

貝克家族的三代人——卡爾（Carl）86歲、小卡爾（Carl jr）54歲、珍妮佛（Jennifer）18歲大約製作了800把小提琴、中提琴和大提琴，幾乎全部都是在他們位於芝加哥的小工作室和威斯康星州Pickerel湖的避暑小屋中製作的。

這些樂器音色非常美妙，音樂專家把它們與稀有著名的史特拉底瓦里（Stradivari）、瓜奈里（Guarneri）和阿瑪蒂（Amati）小提琴排在同一行列。

「很可能某一天貝克小提琴會與史特拉底瓦里（Strads）獲得同樣的估價 。」出色的小提琴演奏家、西北大學小提琴教授Samul Thaviu博士說。「我認識貝克家族很長時間了。據我所知沒有人能夠持續製作出更好的小提琴。貝克家族製作的小提琴真是非常優異。」

Thaviu說貝克家族製作新小提琴的技巧在於他們修復舊提琴的能力。

「修理小提琴和製作小提琴是一體兩面的技術。」Thaviu說。

貝克家族，父親、兒子和孫女完全同意這種觀點。

「通過觀察老樂器，我們吸收歷史上其他製作者的技術。」老貝克一邊說著說一邊還在以完美的技巧運用微小的鉋子和精致的刀子。「在我們製作小提琴時，我們已經知道應該允許什麽樣的限制和公差，如果我們能夠維持在公差範圍之內，那麽製作出來的小提琴一定會非常出色。」

 

 

 

 

 

So it must, nearly 800 Beckers have been crafted since the senior Becker put together his first violin in 1901, at the age of 14. A new Becker violin today fetches a price of $3,000, and it can only go up.

Becker said he did his violin making in his spare time, at first. and spent all his working hours doing repairs and restorations. When he was only 19, he said, his employer entrusted him with the repair of a fine Amati cello that had been smashed in a streetcar accident. Becker painstakingly disassembled it. attended to the scrapes and cracks, and put it back together.

Then, using what he had observed and learned, he made another exactly like it, an inspired replica in every detail.

Becker's twentieth - century copy was so much like the seventeenth - century original in appearance and sound, that experieced cellists had trouble telling the difference.

From that time, Becker's reputation and importance grew steadily, and he joined he Chicago firm of William Lewis and Son as a master repairman under a contract that gave him his summers free to fish and make new violins. His son joined him there, and soon the Beckers became a famed and able team.

The elder Becker continues. to this day to be regarded as great American master. But he himself said it is not so.

"This man." he said, gesturing toward his son, "this man is the greatest repairman and maker of violins who ever lived. I may have been all right in my day, but I never had the patience to spend the time that he does. I did my work well, but I did it fast. Alongside him, I'm a butcher.”

Carl Becker, jr, has indeed, achieved such a reputation for care and craftsmanship that he has been entrusted with the task of taking apart a violin that is thought by many musicians to be the world's finest - the "'Lady Blunt," a Stradivarius that was made in 1721.

"That was the greatest moment in our lives." Becker recalled, although it took considerably more than a moment to savor it. He said that each time he lifted the Lady Blunt to carry it across his shop he paused and plotted in his mind every step he would take.

"I spent one entire day taking the top off," he said.“Normally that would take about 15 or 20 minutes, but with this instrument there just couldn't be any question of anything going wrong, anything at all.?

Everything, of course, went well. So well that the Lady Blunt shortly afterward was taken to London and was sold at auction for $200,000, one of the highest prices ever brought by a violin.

The Beckers said they do most of the actual carving and assembling of their violins at Pickerel Lake.

My son and I used to go up there and fish and make violins." the elder Becker said. "How many violins we made depended on how the fish were biting."

He has given up fishing, he said, but the family still prefers the peace of Wisconsin for making the dozen Becker or more Becker violins they turn out every year.

"We only finish them in the white up there," Becker said, referring to the smooth whiteness of the wood of un varnished violins. They do their varnishing back in Chicago. and the Beckers said that is the most important part.

"The varnish is the chief thing that makes the difference in the quality of a violin,' the cider Becker explained. "When it's finished. it's a combination of wood and varnish, and if the varnish isn't right, then the violin won't be right."

A good varnish is what the Beckers call "tender" neither too hard nor too soft and it must be allowed to dry thoroughly between coats.

所以必須做到這一點。老貝克1901年在14歲時製成第一把小提琴，從那以來貝克家族已經生産了近800把小提琴。今天一把新的貝克小提琴的價格爲3000美元，而且將來價格只能上升。
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*（2008年新的卡爾・F・貝克（Carl F. Becker）小提琴為40000美元，需等5年交貨，以交貨時價為準；舊琴價從45000到75000美元，舊大提琴價從120000到165000美元。）

貝克說最初他利用業餘時間製作小提琴，而全部工作時間都被用來進行修理和修復工作。在他只有19歲時，他的老闆讓他修理一把在交通事故中撞碎的阿瑪蒂大提琴。貝克把它艱難地拆開，對擦痕和裂縫進行了修補然後重新組裝好。

隨後，通過他所觀察和學習到的東西，他製作了一把與原作品在每個細節上都非常相似的大提琴。

貝克的20世紀複製品與17世紀的原作在外觀和音色上非常相似，即使經驗豐富的大提琴家也很難找出二者的差別。

從那時起，貝克的知名度和重要性穩步提高，他加入芝加哥的William Lewis and Son擔任首席修理師。雇傭合同規定他每年夏天可以離開公司去釣魚和製作新小提琴。後來他的兒子也加入了這家公司，很快貝克父子成爲知名的有實力團隊。

老貝克至今仍一直被認爲最偉大的美國小提琴大師。但他自己說事實並非如此。

「這個人...」他指著自己的兒子說：「他才是最偉大的提琴修理師和製琴師。在我工作期間，可能還算過得去。但我的耐心不如他，我投入的時間沒法和他相比。我能很好地完成工作，但是我幹活很快。和他在一起，我只是個屠夫。」

小卡爾・貝克（Carl Becker, jr.）的細心和手藝非常出名，正因如此，他被委託拆開一把史特拉底瓦里在1721年之作的《Lady Blunt》小提琴。該小提琴被許多音樂家視爲世界上最精美的小提琴。

「那是我一生中最美好的時刻」貝克回憶道，儘管欣賞這把小提琴需要花很長的時間。他說每次拿起Lady Blunt把它帶到工作室其他地方的時候，都會停下來並在腦海中策劃將要進行的每個步驟。

「我花了一整天的時間才把琴頭取下，」他說，「通常這項工作只需15或20分鐘，但是對於這件樂器，不能有任何一點閃失。」

當然一切進展順利。修復進行得如此順利，以至於不久之後Lady Blunt就被帶到倫敦在拍賣會上以20萬美元的價格出售，比同時最高的小提琴拍賣價高了4倍以上，創下了有史以來小提琴售價的最高紀錄。

貝克家族說他們生産的小提琴涉及的大部分雕刻和組裝工作是在威斯康辛洲Pickerel湖畔進行的。

「我的兒子和我經常去那裏釣魚和製作小提琴，」老貝克說，「我們製作的小提琴的數量取決於魚咬鈎情況如何。」

他說自己已經放棄了釣魚，但是家庭成員依然喜歡非威斯康星州住地的寧靜，在那裏他們每年製作一打甚至更多小提琴。

「我們在Pickerel湖工作室並不給小提琴上漆，」在提及未上光的小提琴白色木頭的時候貝克說道。上漆工作在芝加哥進行。貝克家族認爲上漆是最重要的部分。

「清漆是導致小提琴質量存在差別的最主要因素，」老貝克解釋，「當小提琴完成時，它是木料與光漆的組合，如果光漆不合適，但麽小提琴就無令人滿意。」

好的光漆是貝克家族稱爲「柔和」的光漆，既不太硬也不太軟，而且必須讓光漆在各塗層之間完全風乾。

 

 

 

 

 

 

AFTER WE FINISH a fiddle in the white, we have a year or more of varnishing and buffing before It's ready," Becker said.

"We never string them up and play them until they're completely finished." he said. "We've made enough of them so that we always fed pretty certain they'll be right."

Which is not to say that a mistake has never been made in a Becker instrument.

“When I was younger. I noticed that cello ribs were always getting cracked where the cellists held them with their knees,'" said the elder Becker. "So I made some of my early cellos with ribs that were just one millimeter thicker than the old masters made them.

It didn't work.

“It had an effect on the tone." he said. "Now, whenever I get one of those old cellos of mine in here for repair, I take it apart and shave off that extra millimeter, and it makes a great deal of difference.”

Carl Becker, sr., has not stopped making violins even though age has caused him to slow down. He is keenly aware that the twentieth-century Beckers of Chicago share a legacy with the seventeenth-century Stradivaris and Guarneris of Cremona.

I have an ambition." he said. “It is to live as long as Antonio Stradivari. He kept working until he died at 93.”

Becker could well achieve his ambition. He also can rest with the certainty that the fame of his house will live long.

His granddaughter, Jennie, a tall, pretty, patient girl, began making her first violin at age 11 and today, at the age of 18, she shares fully in the work of the shop.

A few weeks ago, the Beckers showed Jennie’s first violin to a visitor, who listened while Carl Becker, jr., tucked it beneath his chin, tuned it, and began playing.

The delicate, finely varnished instrument filled the room with a rich full-throated song. It proclaimed that there will be yet another generation of Becker violins.

「在我們完成未上漆的提琴之後，在提琴可以最終交付使用之前我們需要進行一年或更長時間的上漆和抛光工作。」貝克說。

「在最終完成之前我們從來不給它安裝上琴弦或演奏，」他說，「我們製作了非常多提琴，所以我們總能夠肯定它們是令人滿意的。」

這並不是說在貝克家族製作的樂器中從來未出現過錯誤。

「在我小的時候，我注意到在大提琴演奏者用膝蓋夾住大提琴時，琴身側板總是裂開，」 老貝克說，「所以我製作了幾把早期的大提琴，它們使用的側板比古典大師們製作的側板只厚1毫米。」

這種方法沒有奏效

「這對音調産生了影響，」他說，「現在只要我遇到早期製作的大提琴回到店裏修理，我就會把它拆開，然後刨掉多餘的1毫米，這會産生很大的差別。」

儘管小卡爾年事已高，行動開始緩慢，但他一直沒有停止製作小提琴。他深知芝加哥20世紀的貝克家族與17世紀克里蒙娜的史特拉底瓦里和瓜奈里繼承了共同的遺産。

「我有一個希望，」他說，「和安東尼奧・史特拉底瓦里（Antonio Stradivari）活得一樣長。安東尼奧・史特拉底瓦里在93歲時去世，直到去世前一直在工作。」

貝克很有可能實現這個願望。這個家族的名聲可以長期維持，這是能夠讓他寬慰的事情。

他的孫女珍妮（Jennie），是個高個子、漂亮而且有耐心的女孩，她從11歲開始製作第一把小提琴。如今她已經18歲了，她充分地參與店裏的工作。

幾個星期以前，貝克家族向參觀者展示了珍妮製作的第一把小提琴，小卡爾把提琴夾在脖子下面，開始爲參觀者演奏。

這把精致的、經過精細上光的小提琴發出豐富甜美的聲音，縈繞在整個房間裏。它宣告將會誕生新一代貝克小提琴。