A recently discovered violin possibly related to the 1716 Stradivarius "Messiah" violin.
Original label: Ignatio Beeirette fecit
Dendrochronologist Dr. Henri Grissino-Mayer of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville has tentatively determined that the spruce wood rings on this 'Beeirette' violin are a mathematically significant match (99.9491 % confidence level, Pearson correlation r = 0.50, 40 years lagged 10 years) to the rings on the 1716 Messiah violin by Antonio Stradivari (Antonius Stradivarius). The findings are to be published sometime in 2009. The wood coincides with the early part of the Maunder Minimum, associated with the phenomenal tonal qualities of 17th and 18th Cremona violin masters.
What this means is that the wood was likely harvested in the "Forest of Violins", a secret spruce forest used by the master violin makers in Cremona to harvest the prized wood for the spruce violin top. From the Messiah cross-dating, it has been determined that the wood in the Beeirette labelled violin was growing 1509 - 1653. The Beeirette has one of the highest numbers of rings in a violin of this time, since the rings are very narrow. This would make this violin initially resonant in the higher frequencies, but tempered to include the lower frequencies as well, due to its age. Its measurements are: 14 1/16" body height, 6.5" upper width, 4 5/16" middle width, 8 1/8" lower width. The wide range of years extended by the Beeirette violin may assist future researchers in cross-dating other 17th century instruments. In addition, the oldest rings seem to be narrow, This may mean that the oldest first growing rings which are typically wide, were removed when the wood was harvested and sawn. As such, the Beeirette's oldest rings may not exhibit complacency of growth, and be a reliable reference throughout the whole 144 years of its series.
The Pearson correlation coefficient is related to a P value of observed statistical significance for comparing 40 year segments overlapping by 10 years. The hypothetical interpretations are mine alone.
For r around 0.68 and above, P << .000001, confidence level 99.9999++ % , such as comparing wood taken from the same position in a tree. Eg. 2 halves of the Messiah spruce top, r = 0.80+
For r around 0.475 to 0.66, P < .001, confidence level 99.9+ %, such as comparing wood taken from the same forest of trees. Eg. Beeirette to Messiah, r = 0.50. Also Kux to Archinto, r = 0.56. Also Archinto to Alpine, r = 0.48
For r around 0.367 to 0.47, P < .01, confidence level 99+ %, such as comparing wood taken from nearby forests, spread about 600 km. Eg. Messiah to Kux, r = 0.46. Also Beeirette to both Archinto and Kux, r = 0.37
For r around 0.264 to 0.36, P < .05, confidence level 95+ %, such as comparing wood taken from even wider regional areas. Eg. Messiah to Archinto, r = 0.35 or Kux to Alpine, r = 0.34
For r less than 0.31, P > .05, confidence level < 95 %, which is not a significant statistical match for dating purposes.
Kate Carrick, who played 1st violin with the Spokane Symphony, has graciously allowed me to share her impromptu tests on the Beeirette violin. Please note that these are test snippets, and at times she performed sight reading of music she had not seen before, to satisfy my whims. I count myself very fortunate that Kate has allowed me to hear the Beeirette for the first time, and to share her trials on the web.
She found the violin to have a rich, deep, clear tone, evenly sounding on each string, and each string not diminishing down the fingerboard. She was impressed with its sound and liked it very much. She played with my $5 bridge and $20 bow. I set the bridge and soundpost as best as I could, having no experience doing it at all, just reading on the web. She suggested that a more open ringing tone would come from a bridge with less hump arch, narrower string spacing, and standing taller, and soundpost setting. She believes its volume would would carry in a concert hall, even more after professional adjustment.
Click here to listen to The Red Violin Theme played on the Beeirette (mp3 file 622 KB)
Click here to listen to Adagio for Strings by Albinoni on the Beeirette (mp3 file 2.6 MB)
Click here to listen to Bach A Minor Violin Concerto excerpts to test chords on the Beeirette with discussion on superior chord voice (mp3 file 4.6 MB)
Click here to hear a sight reading of the difficult Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) by Sarasate on the Beeirette (mp3 file 2 MB)
Click here to hear Bach #1 (mp3 file 3280 KB)
Click here to hear Bach #2 (mp3 file 778 KB)
Here is a quote that Kate Carrick wrote up as a synopsis of the Beeirette violin:
"I can say that this violin has a sweet, clear, and distinct sound that I believe could be brought out fully with the proper adjustments and repairs. The balance of sound across four strings is incredible and the strength the sound maintains seems almost to increase as I work my way up the neck. The powerful G string on this violin knocks my socks off! I would suggest remaining on the G string as much as possible in concertos just to showcase the beautiful, dark, rich sound that this instrument is capable of producing. The middle strings are also fairly strong and the E string is very sweet and speaks well. Chords are another talent of this fiddle. I found that the even strength of the sound between strings allowed chords to speak easily without muddiness in the lower registers. Measures (105-117) in the third movement of Bach's Violin Concerto in a minor, often tricky and overpowered by the dominant open E string, came out strong and crystal clear with minimal effort. I am very excited about this fiddle and would like to see it worked on by an artist who appreciates its potential."
Another great violinist came over... Here is a snippet from Larry: Click here to hear Larry (mp3 file 1.14 MB)
The date on the label is very dim, and may read 1620 instead of 1670. If it is 1620, the label is fake and Ignatio Beeirette may be ficticious. If it is 1670, the label may be authentic as to the date of manufacture, and Beeirette might be some hitherto unknown maker or ficticious. I am interested in knowing if the violin resembles any makers in the Cremona area ca 1653 - 1750. In any case it appears that the label is original to the violin. Stadivarius violin's wood dates to typically 6 to 31 years before the authenticated label date. With a youngest wood date of 1653 in the Beeirette, that would be a theoretical manufacture date range of 1660 - 1684, consistent with a 1670 label date on the Beeirette. In favor of the 1620 date in the Beeirette is the report of another example of a Beeirette violin from Romania with a 1620 date on the label which would lend credence that it reads 1620 here. In fact, there is pencil overwriting of the 1620 date in my Beeirette saying 1620. There are remnants of a repair label that was carefully removed, inside the Beeirette.
I contacted Mr. Wright of ViolinID service, and he ran an analysis of the outline of the Beeirette violin. It's top match to 4.68% was the 1716 ex-Fran Von Vecsey violin by Antonio Stradivarius. A very curious result for a violin that may have been made around 1670, and the Grand Pattern Stradivarius form was not invented until about 1700. The 1716 Messiah is not in his database for matching purposes.
Please notify me for corrections to make, or things to clear up, thank you.
Email me at wdjensen123@hotmail.com
Above is a picture of the label. The date is centered below this text, and too dim to photograph. This violin was previously purchased about 30 years ago by Roy Kirchner from the Minneapolis area. I have owned it since about 2004.
In 2004 there was another ancient violin advertized in Romania with the following label: Beeirette facit Cremonac / 1620. This appears to be yet another violin similarly labelled. From the transcription errors, we can assume this label was also very hard to read. I was unable to contact the seller, or find further information. It probably said: Beeirette fecit Cremonae / 1620.
This example has seen much use throughout the approximately 330 years of existence. It has been repaired by numerous hands. There are traces of a repair label that had been removed, just above the maker’s label.
The violin shows the hallmarks of great age. The interior wood has an even, very dark oxidation throughout. The blocks are oxidized, and the linings are feathered in with matching oxidation. The lower part of the violin has characteristic wear from where the chin and shoulder has rested. This wear is present on the right side denoting use throughout the 1700’s, and wear on the left side denoting use after that.
The
scroll appears to be original and grafted in the typical manner, with a newer
neck with long fingerboard. The back of the scroll has a wear mark that could only have been formed with a straight neck baroque configuration. The violin
was probably renecked about 1800 in
The scroll is delicate with pronounced ears. The scroll throws well forward but not beyond the line of the fingerboard. The pegbox is long and delicate, with a well rounded scallop where the pegbox meets the neck in the rear. The throat of the scroll behind the ears is narrow, with a sensitive sway to its outline. The pegbox has a crack in it, which runs through the peg hole of the A string.
The button has been separated from the back and repaired. Since it does not have a seam, it is a replacement. The jagged outline is still apparent, but that wood matches. The button is well proportioned and rounded. The edges are not nicked in. It is true and level with the back.
The sound holes are characteristically wide (although the right hole has been widened through inept reseating of the post), and upright. The holes appear to be rounded very slightly on the inner surfaces. There is a slight asymmetry with the top of the right sound hole. The left hole more nearly exhibits the original design, although even it has been worn so that the f-hole two nicks are hard to spot.
The body shape has a moderate arch somewhere between an Amati and a Stradivari. The plates are well finished inside and out. The ribs are shallow and give a graceful attractive appearance to the body. The front plate is made of harder wood, extremely fine-grained. The linings are feathered in, and triangular in cross section. Their presence is so subtle that only a change in grain direction from the ribs gives it away at first glance.
The purfling is exceptionally well done. The white center strip is much more narrower than most, and finely done. The purfling has very sharp bee-sting points that extend directly to the very edge, indication masterful work. The purfling is embedded, nearly 1/2 to 2/3rds the thickness of the plate, as seen due to the chip missing from the lower left front plate.
Dendrochronology is like finding a fingerprint of ring patterns, generated over specific years of varying weather patterns, slightly different for each forest locality. The tree in one forest or location would have different set of mathematical ring patterns from other locations. Tree ring patterns of different forests would be different in the same years as a result of different micro-climates, like fingerprints.
Henri Grissino-Mayer discovered (A Dendroarchaeological re-examination of the "Messiah" violin and other instruments attributed to Antonio Stradivari, Journal of Archaeological Science 31 (2004) p.167-174), that the Messiah would not date directly with established high altitude alpine chronologies. But he was able to measure 2 other known Stradivarius instruments that apparently came from a forest in a mid altitude area, close enough in micro-climate to the known and dated high altitude alpine chronology area, to make a positive dating. The instruments in question were the Archinto (label date 1696, wood date 1526 - 1686), and the Kux / Castelbarco (label date 1720, wood date 1558 - 1684), both made by Stradivari. Then using the tree ring data from these 2 instruments, he was able to date the Messiah against the two, to come up with a definite dating for the Messiah wood (ring dates 1577 - 1687, consistent with a manufacture label date of 1716). He proposed that the Messiah came from an alpine forest of an even lower altitude than the Archinto and Kux.
Below is an extract of the COFECHA dendrochronology output file that dates the wood of the 'Beeirette' violin to the Messiah Stradivarius. It took about 4 years of intermittent work to discover this relationship. Note that all years of overlap in the Messiah (1577 - 1687 wood dates) and the Beeirette (1509 - 1653 wood dates, year 71-144) have a consecutive correlation and always the highest match, Pearson correlation = r = 0.50 on average, with the Messiah. This correlation (r = 0.50, p = 0.000509, confidence = 99.9491% ) of the Beeirette and Messiah is much stronger than the critical correlations of the Messiah to the Archinto (r = 0.34) and Kux (r = 0.46) Stradivarius violins, as well as the known dated alpine chronologies to the Archinto (r = 0.48) and Kux (r = 0.34), all necessary to significantly date the wood of the Messiah in Dr. Henri Grissino-Mayer's published research paper cited above. Further, the Beeirette relates to the Archinto (r = 0.37) and Kux (r = 0.37) favorably. The closer the correlation value 'r' (Pearson's coefficient) is to 1.0, the closer the match. For instance, the two halves of a single violin's belly will have ring patterns that match to about r = 0.80 even though it came from the same position in the tree, at the same time, and same forest of harvest.
[] Dendrochronology Program Library Run 4010M Program COF 20:12 Thu 24 Jul 2008 Page 1
[]
[] P R O G R A M C O F E C H A Version 6.06P 26870
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QUALITY CONTROL AND DATING CHECK OF TREE-RING MEASUREMENTS
Title of run: M4010
File of DATED series: messiah.rwl
File of UNDATED series: ignatio.std
CONTENTS:
Part 1: Title page, options selected, summary, absent rings by series
Part 2: Histogram of time spans
Part 3: Master series with sample depth and absent rings by year
Part 4: Bar plot of Master Dating Series
Part 5: Correlation by segment of each series with Master
Part 6: Potential problems: low correlation, divergent year-to-year changes, absent rings, outliers
Part 7: Descriptive statistics
Part 8: Undated series - adjustments for highest correlations
RUN CONTROL OPTIONS SELECTED VALUE
1 Cubic smoothing spline 50% wavelength cutoff for filtering
32 years
2 Segments examined are 40 years lagged successively by 10 years
3 Autoregressive model applied A Residuals are used in master dating series and testing
4 Series transformed to logarithms Y Each series log-transformed for master dating series and testing
5 CORRELATION is Pearson (parametric, quantitative)
Critical correlation, 99% confidence level .3665
6 Master dating series saved N
7 Ring measurements listed N
8 Parts printed 12345678
9 Absent rings are omitted from master series and segment correlations (Y)
Text in file: ignatio2.rwl Std R Chron [29Jun07-1243]
Time span of Master dating series is 1578 to 1686 109 years
Continuous time span is 1578 to 1686 109 years
Portion with two or more series is 1578 to 1685 108 years
****************************************
*C* Number of dated series 4 *C*
*O* Master series 1578 1686 109 yrs *O*
*F* Total rings in all series 391 *F*
*E* Total dated rings checked 390 *E*
*C* Series intercorrelation .807 *C*
*H* Average mean sensitivity .131 *H*
*A* Segments, possible problems 0 *A*
*** Mean length of series 97.8 ***
****************************************
ABSENT RINGS listed by SERIES: (See Master Dating Series for absent rings listed by year)
No ring measurements of zero value
PART 8: ADJUSTMENTS FOR UNDATED SERIES: M4010 20:12 Thu 24 Jul 2008 Page 7
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Time span 1578 1686 109 years, best matches for 40-year segments lagged 10 years
Listed in order from highest correlation
Counted Corr Corr Corr Corr Corr Corr Corr Corr Corr Corr Corr
Series Segment Add # 1 Add # 2 Add # 3 Add # 4 Add # 5 Add # 6 Add # 7 Add # 8 Add # 9 Add #10 Add #11
-------- --------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- --------
IGN S 1 40 1605 .48 1615 .38 1635 .36 1637 .33 1607 .29 1628 .28 1627 .24 1629 .23 1598 .23 1603 .17 1639 .16
IGN S 11 50 1605 .40 1571 .33 1593 .32 1629 .30 1607 .29 1581 .29 1567 .28 1592 .27 1568 .23 1579 .21 1625 .20
IGN S 21 60 1607 .29 1593 .29 1573 .28 1626 .26 1594 .25 1571 .23 1566 .23 1624 .23 1592 .20 1579 .19 1581 .17
IGN S 31 70 1554 .39 1612 .33 1601 .26 1573 .25 1594 .24 1571 .23 1566 .22 1615 .19 1592 .19 1560 .18 1596 .18
IGN S 41 80 1573 .31 1601 .28 1554 .27 1580 .27 1592 .26 1560 .25 1566 .24 1571 .24 1539 .22 1562 .22 1543 .20
IGN S 51 90 1566 .36 1580 .31 1596 .30 1594 .27 1573 .23 1555 .23 1554 .21 1543 .18 1562 .17 1535 .16 1534 .16
IGN S 61 100 1532 .31 1555 .28 1535 .27 1534 .26 1546 .25 1578 .25 1526 .24 1562 .24 1573 .23 1582 .22 1569 .20
IGN S 71 110 1509 .40 1532 .40 1555 .39 1546 .34 1534 .30 1526 .29 1573 .27 1508 .27 1521 .19 1556 .18 1566 .17
IGN S 81 120 1509 .60 1555 .45 1554 .31 1508 .29 1497 .26 1520 .19 1535 .18 1532 .18 1566 .18 1507 .16 1521 .15
IGN S 91 130 1509 .59 1497 .43 1520 .36 1508 .27 1507 .23 1541 .23 1555 .23 1554 .20 1552 .20 1543 .18 1529 .17
IGN S 101 140 1509 .42 1497 .41 1520 .36 1531 .34 1507 .30 1543 .30 1529 .30 1508 .23 1518 .22 1521 .21 1478 .17
IGN S 105 144 Lag from prior segment 4 years; insufficient
11 segments - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Number of segments
Add No R_av Add No R_av Add No R_av Add No R_av Add No R_av Add No R_av Add No R_av Add No R_av
+1566 6 .23 +1573 6 .26 +1554 5 .27 +1555 5 .32 +1543 4 .22 +1508 4 .26 +1509 4 .50 +1571 4 .26
+1592 4 .23 +1520 3 .30 +1521 3 .19 +1532 3 .29 +1562 3 .21 +1497 3 .37 +1534 3 .24 +1507 3 .23
+1535 3 .20 +1594 3 .25 +1607 3 .29
Chronological order
Add No Add No Add No Add No Add No Add No Add No Add No Add No Add No Add No Add No Add No Add No
+1497 3 +1507 3 +1508 4 +1509 4 +1520 3 +1521 3 +1532 3 +1534 3 +1535 3 +1543 4 +1554 5 +1555 5 +1562 3 +1566 6
+1571 4 +1573 6 +1592 4 +1594 3 +1607 3
=================== ======== ======== ======== ======== ======== ======== ======== ======== ======== ======== ========
1 undated series
- = [ COFECHA 4010MCOF ] = -
This article (c)2008 was written by myself, William Dexter Jensen, who is the owner of this Beeirette violin. I am solely responsible for its content. If you wish to contact me about this violin, I can be reached at: wdjensen123@hotmail.com
Welcome page click: http://www.wdjensen123.com
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