Lutherie/ violins: India
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ED Murali and son
As in 2023
AnanthaNarayanan K, April 15, 2023: The Times of India
Stradivari and Guarneri, the master makers of violins, perfected their art and set defining benchmarks centuries back in Italy. The instruments they produced are still the holy grail of violins. Pursuing their legendary standards of dexterity and precision in lutherie, or the craft of making stringed instruments, a father-son duo in Kochi has earned the tag of being among the few luthiers in India certified to handcraft replicas of high-end European violins.
The story has a simple beginning. ED Murali was then a guitar student at Cochin Arts and Communication (CAC). He hailed from a family of carpenters and his knowledge of carpentry came in handy when a friend, KN Rajendran, asked him to repair his violin. By 1985, he had become a full-time repairer and handcrafted his first violin using jackfruit wood. It sold for Rs 150. He now uses seasoned wood that has to be imported to craft high-end violins that sell for lakhs.
“A handmade violin has a distinct personality and tone that no factory-made violin will ever be able to mimic. Behind every handmade violin is a committed luthier. Lutherie is an art difficult to learn, but we have mastered it and can now craft perfect replicas of any European violin, including all the models made by the 17thcentury Italian luthiers Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe ‘del Gesu’ Guarneri, who are the pioneers of violin-making,” says Murali.
Murali is aided in his endeavours by his sons Vijay and Vinay, the older of the two, and they make violins at their tiny workshop, named ‘Fiddle Crafters Luthiers’, adjacent to their house in Chendamangalam village in Kerala’s North Paravur.
“A luthier has to spend hours breathing life into the violin they craft. It takes around 300 hours to handcraft a Stradivarius violin. The process involves a lot of fine detailing and is not as simple as it sounds. A mistake of even a millimetre can drastically change the tonal quality of the instrument,” says Vinay, who made his first violin in 2012. He was 14 years old then. Passionate about the instrument, he learnt the techniques from his father andstarted assisting him by the mid-2000s. Like his father, he also enrolled at CAC, where he started learning the violin.
The Big Break
The violin has been an integral part of Indian music, especially Carnatic music, for centuries, but there were no luthiers who could flawlessly handcraft a European violin. Violinists have had to settle for costly imported ones. Until recently. The real game-changer for Murali came in 2013, when he joined a workshop in Chennai, Violin-Wise, organised by the Lalgudi Trust of renowned violinist Lalgudi Jayaraman. Led by legendary US-based luthier James Wimmer, the workshop helped Murali become “moreprofessional”, get access to advanced tools, and learn the techniques for perfecting the art of European lutherie. He attended all five workshops of Wimmer, and Vinay also attended the last one in 2019. They followed that up by successfully making handcrafted copies of the 1702 Stradivarius violin.
“Wimmer handpicked the trainees. The course improved our knowledge about violinmaking and Wimmer even visited our workshop in Chendamangalam and gifted us a set of tools – many of which are not available in India,” Murali said. Striking The Right Note Though Murali and Vinay repair all sorts of violins, they make only the high-end ones now. Despite being pricey, their violins find ready takers — clients include leading violinists like Kumaresh of Ganesh-Kumaresh duo and Edappally Ajith Kumar — as no serious musician ever buys a factorymade instrument, they say. Further, the lack of luthiers who can handle high-end violins means the workshop stays busy. The workshop also makes highend violas and electric violins while Vinay has plans to export handmade violins.
“Once it’s decided whether the buyer wants a Stradivari or Guarneri violin, we can customise it for Western or Carnatic musicians, for example, by extending the neck for the latter as they need to rest the violin on their leg while sitting on the ground to play it. The violin I made for Kumaresh has its neck extended more than usual. But customisations do not affect the tones,” Vinay said. The attention to detail and painstaking devotion to the craft ensure that the violins made at the Chendamangalam workshop can boast a superior tonal quality on a par with instruments made in Europe.
“No two violins are exactly alike, even if they’re built from the same mould. Each violin has a voice of its own and its master owns it fully. A handcrafted violin is a timeless treasure and has a life of up to three generations. Its value increases over time, just like fine wine. Lutherie is a creative art and you will never be ‘perfect’ in it. The more you search for perfection, your craft will find room for improvement,” Vinay said.
LABOUR OF LOVE
➤ A luthier’s work starts from choosing the wood, the quality of which makes all the difference in the instrument that’s finally readied. Maple and spruce wood planks, seasoned for at least 15 years, are imported from France and Germany to make the body of the violin. As they grow in the Alps in colder climates, the wood is denser, making it strong, firm and free from defects. Moreover it boosts the acoustics and sound quality. Wood seasoned for up to 50 years is used to make more premium violins.
➤ While spruce is used to make the sound posts and front plate, maple is used to make the other parts, including the back, neck and rib of the violin. Ebony, which is a hardwood, sourced locally from Northeast India and Sri Lanka, is used to make the pegs, tail pins and end pins. The strings, bows and cases are imported from Germany, Singapore.
➤ “Usually the total wood for making a violin weighs around 2.5 kg. Once the design is ready, we carve the parts out using hand tools to make a violin weighing 450-470 gm,” says Vinay.
➤ The wood pieces are glued together using animal or bone glues instead of synthetic ones, which could damage the wood or make it difficult to dismantle for repairs. The family makes the varnish at home using tree sap cooked in vegetable oil. Handvarnishing is like a painter’s art, resulting in violins of great sonority and classical visual beauty.
