How does one copy a violin, a famous Stradivarius from 1715 currently in a modern condition, back into its original baroque shape? And how does one set it up in a way that favours to the repertoire that we know was performed on this excact instrument?

These pictures show violin maker Jacob von der Lippe process building my baroque violin over the winter 2010-2011. The idea was to reconstruct Tartini’s own violin in its original state, the so-called “Lipinski” Stradivarius from 1715. The original is being played by Frank Almond, who graciously submitted detailed photos and measurements. We knew how the neck most likely was built, and that it would have been nailed to the body of the instrument rather than glued on.

The challenge then was to figure out how the instrument was set up to accomodate Tartini’s particular style of playing. We had some crucial historical information about the string tension for this instrument: A source from 1734 claiming Tartini’s string setup to equal 30 kg, quite a bit heavier than for example Thomastik’s Dominant strings,  which provide a longitudal tension equalling less than 22 kg.

The newly built violin had its premiere in a recital at Latinskolen in Bergen, 9.4.2011.
All photos taken by Jacob von der Lippe, from this Facebook post