貝克：小提琴工藝家族
（1997, Sunday雜誌）
Nov 13. 1977
Violin maker Carl Becker tries out one of his creations in his Chicago shop.
製琴師卡爾・貝克 (Carl Becker) 在他位於芝加哥的商店裡試奏他的一把琴。
Builder of masterpiece 'fiddles'
小提琴大師之作的建造者
Modesty and discretion begin at the doorstep crowdingthe sidewalk of the grimy South Chicago street.
The house is old, two-story, brick-sided, in perfect harmony with the faceless anonymity of the neighborhood. If the street people - those of the blank but all-seeing Chicago eyes – are aware that the name under the doorbell is spoken by many in tones of reverence, there is no clamor.
Carl F. Becker prefers it that way. “You noticed there is no advertisement on the door,” he says, politely requesting that the anonymity be preserved.
It is partly for the sake of discretion – persons of renown sometimes press that doorbell button above Becker’s name, sometimes casually cradling fortunes in antiquity in their arms.
It also is for the sake of avoiding interruption: The work of Carl Becker is extremely delicate, sensitive, committed unerringly to absolute perfection.
But there is another element, one of modesty in the air of privacy.
In the realm of music, there are many who equate the name of Carl Becker with the likes of Stradivari, Guarneri, Magginni. There are more than a few who consider Becker “on of the world’s greatest violin makers," a credit that brings a flattered but embarrassed smile to the pleasantly hawkish face.
"Time is the only element that can decide," he says, unwilling to take upon himself the mantle of equality with the original masters.
"We like to think that our violins are as good,' he admits." but we hesitate to put it that way. Time will have to say if we are to be remembered."
His face is a blush of embarrassment at being pressed to compare – and it is unfair to ask of him. Becker is known to the music world for his unassuming modesty. He prefers that his work speak for itself. And so it does.
Explore the string sections of virtually any major symphony orchestra today – from Chicago to Boston to Omaha to Cleveland, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Rockford – and you will discover a strong representation of Becker violins, viola and cellos.
There are eight “ Beckers” in the Milwaukee Symphony.
There are nine “Beckers” in the Rockford Symphony, including the violin of concertmaster Frank Beezhold, who concluded his recent concerto performance with the symphony by asking the audience to direct its applause to an honored guest in their midst – Becker, the creator, 10 years ago, of Beezhold’s personal violin.
Also playing Beckers in the Rockford Symphony are violinists Dorothy Shultz, Carmen Pursley. Bardell Bowman, Floyd Olson and William Siebers; violists Drusilla Tech and Harold A. Johnson; and cellist Martha Dunton.
Often as not, Becker violin is a personal creation, by the man, for the artist, a hand-made work of are possessing that exquisite but inexpressible quality that can only be heard.
A new Becker creation commands a price that, for publication, he prefers only to specify as “in the thousands.” As with that creations of the old masters, a Becker can grow in value simply by acquiring the character aging lends to a fine violin.
Becker, 56, has been creating violins since his early teens, introduced to the art by his father, Carl G., whose talent first made the Becker label a mark of quality in the world of music. For many years, Becker and his father were associated with the violin firm of William LEWIS AND Son of Chicago. They formed their won firm, Carl Becker and Son, when Lewis closed its Chicago Loop store in the 1960s. The senior Mr. Becker died in 1975 at the age of 87, only shortly retired.
Today, Becker is teaching the art to his daughter Jennifer and son Paul, who work with him both in their Chicago home and in the workshop of a secluded lake cottage in north eastern Wisconsin.
Jennifer, a concert cellist, has finished creation of her eighth violin. Paul, who confesses no music ability, is in the finishing stages of his first.
Music is a family trait. however. "Our grandparents both played cello,” said Jennifer. And Becker notes with some pride that his wife Geraldine gave up a promising career as a soprano to become the mother of his children.
But, interestingly enough, he said, being an accomplished musician isn’t an absolute necessity in the art of violin making.
“I studied violin when I was young in school, but I didn’t do very well with,” he said, nothing that he never felt competent as a player until taking more lessons later in life.
謙虛、謹慎始於這個位南芝加哥街巷擁擠髒亂人行道的門口。這所舊的房子兩層樓，磚面，與匿名的居鄰完美和諧。如果街上的人—那些茫然但無所不知的芝加哥人——意識到門鈴下的名字被許多人以崇敬的語氣道出，那就沒有什麼可爭議的。
卡爾・F・貝克（Carl F. Becker） 喜歡這種方式：「注意到門上沒有廣告」，他禮貌地說。
這在一定程度上是出於謹慎考慮——名人有時會按下貝克名字上方的那個門鈴，有時在他們的懷中會攜有古代值錢的物件。
這也是為了避免打擾：卡爾・貝克（Carl Becker ）的作品極其精緻、敏感，無誤地致力於絕對完美。
但還有另一個因素，在空氣中隱含著謙遜。
在音樂領域，有很多人將卡爾·貝克的名字視為等同於史特拉迪瓦里（Stradivarius）、瓜奈里（Guarneri）、馬吉尼（Magginni）等人。有不少人認為貝克是「世界上最偉大的小提琴製作家之一」，這一榮譽讓他那張愉快神似老鷹的臉上露出了受寵若驚，但尷尬的微笑。
「時間是唯一可以決定的因素，」他說，他不覺得自己可以跟那些大師相提並論。
「我們喜歡認為我們的小提琴一樣好，」他承認道。但我們不願這樣說。「時間會證明我們是否會被記住。」
他因被迫比較而尷尬地臉紅了——要他回答是不公平的。貝克是以謙遜名聞於音樂界，他更喜歡他的作品不言自明，確實如此。
探索當今幾乎所有主要交響樂團的弦樂部分——從芝加哥到波士頓、奧馬哈、克利夫蘭、密爾沃基、辛辛那提、聖路易斯和羅克福德——你會發現《貝克》的小提琴、中提琴和大提琴在其中有強勢的代表。
在密爾沃基交響樂團中，有8把《貝克》。
羅克福德交響樂團中有9把《貝克》，其中包括首席小提琴手Frank Beezhold，他在最近的交響樂協奏曲表演的最後，要求觀眾將掌聲送給他們中間的一位貴賓——製琴家「貝克」，是10多年前 Beezhold 的私人收藏的小提琴。
在羅克福德交響樂團，演奏《貝克》琴的還有小提琴家 Dorothy Shultz、Carmen Pursley、 Bardell Bowman、Floyd Olson 和 William Siebers；中提琴家 Drusilla Tech 和 Harold A. Johnson；和大提琴Martha Dunton。
通常情況下《貝克》琴是一個人的創作，對於藝術家而言，一件手工製作的作品都具有那種只能被聽到的精緻卻難以言喻的品質。
《貝克》新作品要價，他偏好指定為「以千計」。與古典大師的作品一樣，《貝克》可以經由時間老化賦予優質小提琴的特性來增值。
現年 56 歲的貝克，從十幾歲開始就開始製作小提琴，他的父親卡爾・G. 引領他進入了這門藝術，卡爾・G的才華首先使貝克品牌成為音樂界品質的標誌。多年來，貝克和他的父親一直與威廉・路易斯（William LEWIS AND Son），一家在芝加哥的小提琴公司有合作往來。當 Lewis 在 1960 年代關閉其芝加哥商店時，他們成立了自己的公司貝克父子（ Carl Becker and Son）。年長的貝克先生於 1975 年去世，享年 87 歲，當時才退休不久。
今天，小貝克正在向他的女兒詹妮弗（Jennifer）和兒子保羅（Paul）傳授這門藝術，他們在他們的工作室中與他一起工作，在芝加哥家中或是在 威斯康星州東北部一座僻靜的湖畔小屋。
演奏大提琴的詹妮弗已經完成了她的第八把小提琴的創作。保羅承認自己沒有音樂才能，他的第一把琴正處於收尾階段。
音樂是家裡的一種特質。然而。詹妮弗說：「我們的祖父母都拉過大提琴。」貝克自豪地指出，他的妻子杰拉爾丁（Geraldine ）放棄了前途無量的女高音音樂事業，成為了他孩子的母親。
但是，有趣的是，他說，成為一名有成就的音樂家並不是小提琴製作藝術的絕對必要條件。
「我小時候在學校學過小提琴，但學得不是很好，」他說，直到後來他上了更多課，他才覺得自己能勝任演奏。
“it helps to know how to play, but the necessity is that you are capable workman and have an understanding of what the instrument should be.”
The early maters, he added, are revered for their work because that had that infinitie “ understanding” and because they developed that are to a perfection that has yet to be surpassed.
“we are not innovators,” said Becker, lending perspective to his own highly-valued creations.
“The best that can be done in the making of a violin has been known since that 16th Century. We study that old, make use of what we learn, applying it to making our instruments.”
There is a popular misconception about violins, he confesses, that “old” means “mellow” or good.
“Aging can give a violin what I prefer to call a ‘settled’ tone, but it has to be a fine instrument from the start,” Becker said.
“A fine new fiddle will sound better than a mediocre old one.”
The sound of a fine instrument, he continued, derives from “a combination of many things working together”—the quality and resonance of the wood, the “graduation” or thickness of the face, the arching of the top and back, precision placement of the bridge and the positioning of a seldom-seen object called the sound post.
The sound post is a small piece of wood (about the diameter of a pencil) positioned upright between the top and bottom of the violin. It controls the vibration of the wood.
“ We spend hours sometimes locating that sound post, moving it abound and testing the sound,” Becker said.
Except for the rough outlines of the violin, no power tools are used in the creation of a Becker violin. His tools, many of them hand-mand, include razor-edged carving knives and planers smaller than half the size of a fingernail.
The work is painstaking, deliberately unhurried, and great pains are taken by Becker and his daughter and son to bring out the best in the beautifully-grained wood, “curly” maple for the backs and soft spruce for the tops. The wood is imported form Germany, from suppliers who cater to the makers of musical instruments, and comes in pie-shaped (“quarter-cut) wedges from which the inner “ribbing” as well as the surfaces of a violin are cut.
The entire process, from start to finish, often spans several months’ time.
“ You could finish a violin in perhaps three weeks of steady work, but only with no other work and no interruptions,” said Becker, nothing that after more than 40 years devotion to his art, he only recently completed “Becker No.760.”
While he would love to do so, it is impossible for Becker to concentrate all his attention toward the creation of new violins—his skill is much in demand among violinists distraught over those inexpressible “tight” or “soggy” tones.
Along with repairing the instruments of professional musicians, Becker also is sought out by the owners of those rare and valuable creations of the likes of Stradivari, Guarneri and Magginni. In addition to being a recognized appraiser and authenticator of such instruments, he is one of an extremely few trusted to repair or restore them to playing condition.
“There are maybe tow or three others—maybe we should say five or six – who would be trusted to do such work and do it right,” Becker, ever the proud craftsman yet uncomfortable hero, admitted after some urging.
On Becker’s workbench as he talked were a 16th Century Magginni, valued at $40,000, and the aged face panel of a dismantled $80,000 Stradivarius. The Magginni’s owner, a friend—as most violinists who know Becker seem to be – had asked him to make a bridge adjustment for the sake of tone.
The Stradivarius had suffered from “ a very unusual accident,” he said somewhat reluctantly – he is sensitive to the confidences of clients. Its owner, he explained in pardoning wonder, “dropped a mirror on it.”
The blow had crunched a small portion of one edge of the violin, and it had been Becker’s task to restore it to perfection. The repairs he had made were incredibly indiscernible, the hair-fine grain of the piece of wood he had merged into the work of Stradivarius in perfect alignment, the “perfling” (the inlaid scrollwork around the outer edge) true to the original.
Becker could make no guess at the hours he had spent merely searching for the tiny piece of wood that would perfectly match the finish of the Stradivarius.
“It did take a lot of looking,”
It also clearly was a work of love, no doubt one of the reasons musicians of high renown seek the counsel and the skills of the tall, soft-spoken man with the rounded shoulders and large, certain hands of the workbench craftsman.
If he is unchallenged as today’s master of the art, Becker also goes unchallenged when he calls any violin, a Stradivarius included, “fiddle,” a word that sometimes makes supersensitive artists cringe.
“I look upon ‘fiddle’ as just another name for violin,” he said to daughter Jennifer’s teasing laughter.
“Dad calls everything a ‘fiddle,’ whether it’s a violin, a viola or cello,” she said. “No one has ever dared to correct him, but I doubt that I or anyone else could get away with saying ‘fiddle’.”
「知道如何演奏會有所幫助，但前提是你是有能力的技師並且了解樂器應該是什麼。」
他補充說，早期的大師們因其工作而受到尊敬，因為他們擁有無限的“知識”，並且因為他們的發展到了尚未被超越的完美程度。
「我們不是創新者，」貝克說，為他自己的高價值創作提供了視角。 「自 16 世紀以來，製作小提琴的最佳工藝就已廣為人知。我們研究那個古老的樂器，利用我們當今學到的技能，把它應用到製造樂器上。」
他承認，人們對小提琴有一種普遍的誤解，認為「老」意味著「醇厚」或「好」。
「老化可以賦予小提琴一種我更偏好稱之為『穩定』的音色，但它必須從一開始就是一把好樂器，」貝克說。
「一把精美的新小提琴聽起來要比一把平庸的舊小提琴好。」
他繼續說，一件好樂器的聲音源於「許多因素結合共同作用的組合」——木材的質量和共鳴、面板的「漸變」或厚度、面版和背面的拱形、琴橋精確的放置，以及那不易查見的物體「音柱」的位置。
音柱是一小塊木柱（大約鉛筆的直徑），豎直放置在小提琴的頂部和底部之間。用它控制木材的振動。
「我們有時會花費數小時來定位那個音柱，將它到處移動並測試聲音，」貝克說。
除了小提琴木頭的粗略輪廓外，貝克小提琴的製作過程中沒有使用任何電動工具。他的工具，其中許多是手工製作的，包括鋒利的雕刻刀和小於指甲一半大小的小刨子。
這項工作是艱苦的，刻意從容不迫，貝克和他的女兒和兒子付出了巨大的努力，以在紋理優美的木材中發揮出最好的效果，「捲紋」楓木用於背板和柔軟的雲杉用於面板。木材從德國進口，來自為樂器製造家服務的供應商，木材呈切派形（“四分之一切”）楔形，內部「邊條」以及小提琴的表面都是從中切割出來的。
整個過程，從開始到結束，往往花費好幾個月的時間。
「你可以在大約三個星期的穩定工作中完成一把小提琴，但前提是沒有其他工作，也沒有中斷，」貝克說，經過 40 多年對他的藝術的奉獻，他最近才完成了「貝克No.760。」
雖然他很樂意這樣做，但貝克不可能將所有注意力都集中在創作新小提琴上—他的技術在那些因無法表現出「乾硬」或「濕軟」音質，而心煩意亂的小提琴家中非常被需要。
除了維修專業音樂家的樂器外，貝克還受到史特拉迪瓦里、瓜奈里和馬吉尼等稀有珍貴作品的擁有者的青睞。除了是此類樂器的公認評估師和鑑定師之外，他還是極少數值得信賴的維修樂器，或將其復原到演奏狀態的人之一。
「可能還有其他兩三個人——也許我們應該說五六個人——會被信任來做這樣的工作，並且能把事情做好，」貝克，曾經是一位驕傲的工匠，但卻是一位不安的英雄，在一番催促之後承認道。
貝克說話時，他的工作台上放著一把價值 40,000 美元的 16 世紀馬吉尼，以及一把價值 80,000 美元的史特拉底瓦里琴的舊面板。 馬吉尼的主人，一位朋友——大多數認識貝克的小提琴家似乎都是這樣的朋友——曾要求他為音色調整琴橋。
史特拉底瓦里遭受了「一次非常不尋常的事故」，他有些不情願地說——他對客戶的信任很敏感。它的主人，他寬恕地解釋說，「一面鏡子掉落在琴上。」
這一擊使小提琴的一個邊緣的一小部分碎裂，貝克的任務是將它恢復到完美狀態。他所做的修復令人難以置信地難以察覺，他將那塊木頭的細紋完美地融入史特拉迪瓦里的作品中，「鑲邊」（外緣周圍鑲嵌的捲軸）與原作保持一致。
貝克無法預測，他僅僅為了尋找與史特拉迪瓦里琴的飾面完美匹配的小木頭，花費了多少的時間。
「確實花了很多時間。」
這也顯然是一個充滿愛的作品，毫無疑問，這也是著名音樂家尋求這位高大、說話溫和、圓肩和大手的維修師的建議和技巧的原因之一。
如果說他作為當今的藝術大師是無可爭議的，那麼當他稱任何一把小提琴（包括史特拉底瓦里）為「fiddle」時，貝克也沒有受到挑戰，這個詞有時會讓超級敏感的音樂家感到畏縮。
「我認為『fiddle』只是小提琴的另一個名字，」他對著女兒詹妮弗調侃的笑聲說道。
「爸爸把所有東西都叫做『fiddle』，不管是小提琴、中提琴還是大提琴，」她說。 「從來沒有人敢糾正他，但我懷疑我或其他任何人都無法因為稱其『fiddle』而免於被責難。」
Jennifer Becker、Carl Becker Jr.（中）和 Frank Beezhold 一同欣賞小提琴首席的《貝克》小提琴（照片由 Joe Lamb、Jerry McCullough拍攝）
