貝克父子與名琴史特拉底瓦里(1971, 芝加哥太陽報)

Photo: In a setting that has a touch of an old Dutch painting, Carl F. Becker lovingly repairs a fine violin. (Sun-Times Photo by Jack Lenahan)
照片：卡爾．F.貝克 (Carl F. Becker) 處身一個帶有古老荷蘭繪畫風格的環境中，親切地修理著一把精緻的小提琴。 （Jack Lenahan 拍攝的《太陽時報》）

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CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, Thurs., Aug. 5, 1971
By Richard Foster
芝加哥太陽時報，星期四，1971 年 8 月 5 日
Richard Foster報導

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In February, 1970, a jet touched down at O'Hare Airport from the West Coast. One of the passengers was Sam Bloomfield, a retired aeronautical engineer and music lover.
Beside him on a seat (not in the baggage compartment) was a 250-year-old Stradivarius violin that almost 1½ years later, on June 3. 1971, was sold by Bloomfield at an auction in Sotheby’s in London for a record $201.600.

 

1970年2月，一架從美國西岸飛來的噴射客機降落在奧黑爾機場。機上其中一位乘客 Sam Bloomfield，一位退休的航空工程師兼音樂愛好者。

他座位旁邊放著一把擁有250年歷史的史特拉迪瓦里小提琴（而不是放在行李艙裡），就在一年半後，也就是 1971 年 6 月 3 日，這把小提琴在倫敦蘇富比的拍賣會上，被Bloomfield以創紀錄的 201.600 美元賣出。

 

CITYSCAPE
城市景觀

Waiting at the terminal for the plane that day in February were Carl F. Becker and his father, Carl G. Becker, the father-son team regarded as among the finest violin makers and repairmen in the world.
The two have made repairs for such string players as Jascha Heifetz, Mischa Elman, Nathan Milstein, Isaac Stern and Gregor Piatigorsky.
 

那年二月的某天，在機場航廈等候飛機的是卡爾·F·貝克與他的父親卡爾·G·貝克，這對父子檔被公認為世界上最優秀的小提琴製作與維修大師之一。

他們曾為海飛茲(Heifetz)、艾爾曼(Mischa Elman)、米爾斯坦(Nathan Milstein,)、史坦(Isaac Stern)、皮亞第高斯基(Gregor Piatigorsky) 等知名絃樂獨奏家維修樂器。

 

 

A little loose glue
輕微脫膠

 

We talked for about an hour at the airport about the violin," the younger Becker recalled recently. "There wasn't anything major wrong with the instrument. The arching had altered and some of the glue bad come loose.
"Well, as I said. we discussed it and then he got up and got on another plane and went. right back to Palm Springs and left his violin with us."
Back home on the North Side, father and son began the first phase of their repair work, Scrutiny.
“We examined that fiddle for several weeks,” recalled Carl F. Becker. 51. "We just thought about it and talked things over, dis cussed what we had to do.

「我們在機場聊了大約一個小時，談的是那把小提琴的情況，」年輕的貝克最近回憶說道。「這把琴並沒有什麼嚴重的問題，只是琴身的拱形有些變形，還有一些膠水鬆了。」

「總之，就像我說的那樣，我們聊完之後，他就起身搭上另一班飛機，直接飛回了棕櫚泉，把他的小提琴留給了我們。」

回到芝加哥北區的家中，父子倆開始了他們修復工作的第一階段：「檢查」。

「我們研究那把琴整整幾個星期，」51歲的卡爾·F·貝克回憶說，「我們只是反覆思考、討論，一起商量應該怎麼做。」

Good shape, but 100 hours
狀況不錯，仍花上100小時

“I suppose we put 100 hours of work into that Instrument. But when you say that, people are likely to think it was in bad shape und needed a lot of work. That wasn't the case at all.”
"It's just that working with that violin is a very delicate business. It's one of the best-preserved Strads in existence. A really remarkable instrument. And so what you do with it is very critical, and you can't hurry it."
The work done (Becker won't say how much the bill was), Becker got on a plane and returned the Violin to Bloomfield. Then It was sold. Becker says he doesn't know why "I can only speculate," he said. "Maybe he Just felt that he wanted to know what would happen to it. Sometimes a man will die, you know, and not know what his wife will do with an Instrument like that, whether she'll be careful of disposing of it properly. But whether that happened in this case, I don't know."
 

「我想我們在那把琴上花了大約一百個小時的工時。但這麼一說，人們可能會以為那把琴狀況很糟、需要大量維修，其實完全不是那麼回事。」

「只是，處理這樣的小提琴是一件非常精細的工作。這是現存保存得最好的史特拉迪瓦里之一，真的非常出色。所以你對它做的每一件事都至關重要，絕對不能急。」

工作完成之後（貝克沒有透露維修費是多少），他搭飛機把小提琴親自送回給Bloomfield。不久之後，這把琴被賣出。貝克說他不知道為什麼要賣：「我只能猜測，」他說。「也許他只是想知道這把琴最後會落到誰手上。有時候人去世了，你懂的，可能不知道自己的妻子會怎麼處理這樣的樂器，是不是會妥善處理。但這件事是不是這樣的情況，我就不清楚了。」
 

Found in a Spanish attic
發現於西班牙閣樓

The instrument was made by the famed Violin maker Antonio Stradivari in 1721. In 1860, the instrument was discovered in an attic in Spain by one J. B. Vuillaume, who restored it.
In spite of the fact that it had been lying, forgotten, in that attic for about 100 years, Vulllaume reported in a letter, the violin was in remarkably good condition.
By 1864, it had found its way to England, where it was bought for 260 pounds by Lady Anne Blunt. She kept it for 31 years, and thereafter the instrument has been called the Lady Blunt Stradivarius.
During his career, Stradivari mad about 1,100 violin, violas, cellos, guitars and basses. About 600 of these instruments survive, most of them violins. They have the reputation of being the finest, and Becker was asked about it.
“Well, that’s what everyone asks. It’s a hard question to answer. His instruments are composites of a little more of everything that's good.

這把樂器由著名的製琴師安東尼・ 史特拉底瓦里 (Antonio Stradivari)於 1721 年製作。1860 年，一位名叫 J. B. Vuillaume 的人在西班牙的一間閣樓裡發現了這把琴，並將它修復。

儘管這把琴被遺忘在那個閣樓中大約有一百年之久，Vuillaume 在一封信中報告說，這把小提琴的狀況依然異常良好。

到了1864年，這把琴輾轉來到英國，並被安妮·布朗特夫人（Lady Anne Blunt）以260英鎊購得。她收藏了這把琴長達31年，從那以後，這把琴就被稱為「布朗特夫人史特拉迪瓦里琴」（Lady Blunt Stradivarius）。

史特拉迪瓦里在其職業生涯中，共製作了約1100把樂器，包括小提琴、中提琴、大提琴、吉他與低音提琴。如今約有600把存世，其中大多是小提琴。這些樂器被認為是世界上最頂尖的，而貝克也被問及這一點。

「嗯，這是大家都會問的問題，」他說。「這問題其實不好回答，他的樂器是個『比好再多些』的合成體。」
 

Searching for the combination
尋找組合

“Stradivari was an intelligent man and a practical man, too. He experimented with instruments of different sizes and made other changes in them, trying to get that perfect combination.
"He had such a superb conception of the Instrument, too. Fine work. fine ideas, fine varnish. He had good ideas without being fussy about it.
"Someone -I think perhaps it was Mischa Elman-said a Guarneri violin is like a beautiful blond--a little on the coarse side, perhaps, but still very beautiful. And a Stradivarius is like a lovely, refined brunet.
"I don't know. A Guarneri is said to have a dark sound and a Strad has a sweeter sound, more robust, broader. And yet its tone is brilliant. It's that combination. I suppose, that makes it so rare and lovely."

「史特拉迪瓦里是一位聰明而且務實的人。他曾嘗試製作不同尺寸的樂器，並對它們做出各種改良，試圖獲得完美的數據組合。」

「他對樂器有著極為出色的理解。他的工藝精湛，構思高明，漆料也極為優秀。他的想法非常好，但又不會過於講究細節。」

「有人——我想可能是米夏·艾爾曼( Mischa Elman)——曾說，瓜奈里的小提琴就像一位美麗的金髮女子，可能有點粗俗，但依然非常迷人；而史特拉迪瓦里則像是一位優雅細緻的黑髮女子。」

「我也不太確定。據說，瓜奈里的琴聲比較深沉，而史特拉迪瓦里的聲音則更加甜美、更加有力、音域更廣。不過它的音色同時也非常明亮。我想，正是這樣的結合，讓它變得如此稀有又動人。」
 

It's in the varnish
秘密在塗漆中

Musicologists have debated the source of that rare and lovely sound of the Stradivarius, and Becker said he and his father believe the crucial ingredient is the varnish.
"It's hard to prove, of course," he acknowledged, "and not everyone agrees. Even if you had the original recipe for the varnish and put it on a violin, it wouldn't sound like the genuine article because it wouldn't have aged.'
Becker and his 83-yearold father take about two years to make one of their own violins, and each costs $1,750, but 1 think we'll have to raise it to $2,000."
They make the instruments in their workshop in Wisconsin, although the repair work is done here. Becker instruments are used by members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Milwaukee Symphony

音樂學家們一直在爭論史特拉迪瓦里琴那罕見而動人的音色來源，而貝克表示，他和他的父親認為關鍵的成分是清漆。

「當然，這很難證明，」他承認道，「而且也不是每個人都同意。即使你有原始的清漆配方，把它塗在小提琴上，它也不會聽起來像正品，因為它還沒有經過歲月的洗禮。」

「小貝克和他 83 歲的父親花了大約兩年的時間來製作一把他們自己的小提琴，每把價格為 1,750 美元，但我認為我們必須將其提高到 2,000 美元。」

他們在威斯康辛州的工作室作琴，另外許多維修工作也在這裡完成。貝克提琴被大多的芝加哥交響樂團和密爾沃基交響樂團的成員使用。

Pioneer violin-making family
製琴世家先鋒

The family has been in the violin business a long time. The elder Backer's father was a violinist, and his father was one of the pioneer violin makers in America. The younger Becker is married to a singer.
And the Beckers figure to be in the violin business for some time to come. Mr. and Mrs. Carl F. Becker have four children, one of whom, Jennifer, 15, is planning to continue her father’s profession.
“She means it, too,” Becker added. “She’s said it since before she was 11 years old, when she started a form for a fiddle.

這個家族從事小提琴生意已有很長時間。老貝克的父親是一位小提琴家，他的父親是美國最早的小提琴製造商之一。小貝克迎娶了一位女聲樂歌手。

預計貝克家族在未來也將從事提琴業務。卡爾．貝克有四個孩子，其中已經15 歲的珍妮弗（Jennifer Becker），她打算繼續她父親的職業。

「她也有這個意思，」貝克補充道。 「她在 11 歲之前就有這個意願，當時她開始學習小提琴。那可是比 1935 年我開始著手製作大提琴側板時年輕多了。」