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FingerMaps are easily applied fingering reminders.
Wild Horses Looking for that extra something to charge up your look? Rehairing with new, brightly colored Wild Horse bow hair will certainly draw attention. After more than two years of experimentation with dye processes, hair sources, and rehair cycles, bow maker Donald M. Cohen has come up with a premium-quality bow hair dyed in a variety of wild colors that are permanent, fade-proof, and bleed-proof. The hair is available nationally at $18 per hank, in purple, teal, red, fuschia, neon green, turquoise, deep blue, hot pink, scarlet, and yellow. While not for everyone, the dyed bow hair is likely to be popular with contemporary fiddlers looking to cut a swath, and with children. In fact, the U.S. Marine Band at the White House has already used Wild Horse bow hair in red, white, and blue striped rehairs for its violinist members. For more information or to purchase a package, contact the maker at Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 North Union St., Alexandria, VA 22314, or by phone at (703) 548-2440. Teachers’ Aids If your students are having trouble mastering the alto clef, it may be time to turn to the Alto Clef Floor Mat from Pure Gold Teaching Tools. The mat is 21 inches deep and three feet long and offers a fun way to teach stem placement, key signatures, sharp and flat placement, and numbers 1–9 for interval training. The mat is preprinted with an alto staff and comes with large, colorful notes, stems, letters, and numbers so that kids can get down on the floor and place anywhere on the staff. Designed for ages three and up, the mat costs $19.95 plus shipping. Write to PO Box 16622, Tucson, AZ 85732; call (520) 747-5600; or go to www.puregoldteachingtools.com. For students whose trouble is understanding finger placement, and whose teachers are getting tired of drawing fingering charts for them, FingerMaps from Vincent Studios come to the rescue. FingerMaps are printed on ¾-by-1½-inch labels that can easily be placed in the margins of student studies, scales, and pieces. Each map is clearly headed with the name of a major or minor key; packets are available for violin and viola in first, second, and third positions, for cello in first through fourth positions, and for bass (with several positions in one packet). FingerMaps are available in some music stores and can be found in the Southwest Strings and Shar catalogs; to find out more, visit the Web site at home.earthlink.net/~vincentstudios. Grove Goes On-Line The long-awaited new edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is slated for release in November 2000—and this time, it will be available on-line as well as in the more traditional print edition. The on-line version not only includes the complete text of the printed version but adds notated music examples, unique search functions, and links to images, sound, and related sites. Twenty years after the publication of the previous edition, the New Grove has grown from 20 to 29 volumes and has added a much-needed index volume. Its articles draw on the expertise of 4,500 international contributors, including previously inaccessible Central and Eastern European scholars. The print version lists for $4,850 but can be purchased for $3,950 until December 31. An on-line subscription for individual use of the New Grove will be $650 per year; for libraries it begins at $1,200 per year, and special pricing is available for schools. To order, call (800) 221-2123, e-mail grove@grovereference.com, or go to www.grovereference.com. Software Essentials Alfred Publishing has put its popular theory course, Essentials of Music Theory, on CD-ROM. The course’s concise lesson sequences, exercises, ear training, and unit reviews are designed for use in schools; the work is sold in three separate volumes and comes in a Student version ($29.95 per volume) and an Educator version ($99.95 per volume, with record- and score-keeping functions and licensing for use with up to 200 students). For ordering information, call (800) 292-6122 or go to www.alfredpub.com. Voyetra Turtle Beach recently released Music Write 2000 Professional Edition, a software tool that integrates music notation with a full-featured MIDI sequencer. It allows composers to arrange, notate, and print music using up to 48 parts and 96 staves per score. Different "editor views," such as Track Sheet, Score Editor, and Mixer, organize editing features that include auto-matic transposition, time stretching, and automatic harmony generation. The package also provides advanced MIDI editing capabilites such as a 16-channel MIDI mixer, syncing to MIDI time code, and unlimited re-cording of digital audio tracks. The software lists at $179 and is avail-able from music dealers, computer stores, and directly from the manu-facturer at 5 Odell Plaza, Yonkers, NY 10701; telephone (800) 233-9377; Web site www.voyetra.com. Super Birthday The Super-Sensitive Musical String Company is celebrating its 70th birthday this year. Launched in the Depression era by Chicago violinist Ed Wackerle and violin maker Frank Sidelar, the company began with one product, the Super-Sensitive Violin String. It was a metal string whose development was prompted by the frustration of keeping gut strings in tune. Production started in Wackerle’s basement. Today, the company is housed in a two-story facility built in 1997 in Sarasota, Florida, and is one of the few major string companies that focuses only on bowed instruments. Super-Sensitive now produces seven string lines—from the student line, Red Label, to the Old Fiddler line, through a range of classical strings—as well as a multitude of accessories. For more information, visit www.supersensitive.com. Comings and Goings OrchestraWerks opened in Houston, Texas, in March. The shop is owned by Julie Mills and managed by James Scoggan, former owner of the Violin Gallery. It is open by appointment only so call (713) 529-4349; many of the fine instruments and bows for sale can be seen on-line at stringnet.com. Friedericke Sophie Dangel, a violin, viola, and cello maker in Cremona, Italy, has moved to via degli Oscasali 3, 26100 Cremona, Italy; telephone remains (39) 372-458583. Violin maker and restorer Maurizio Tadioli of Sesto Ed Uniti has moved to via dei Tigli 12, Cortetano, 26028 Sesto Ed Uniti, Italy; telephone (39) 335-623553. And instrument maker Nicola Lazzari has moved from a street named Leonardo Da Vinci to Piazza Liberta 24, 26011 Casalbuttano, Italy; telephone and fax (39) 374-361439. Swiss company Schertler Audio Transducers has become Schertler & Koley, Ltd., and has moved from Ligornetto to Via Beroldingen 18, Mendrisio 6850, Switzerland; telephone (41) 91-630 07 10; fax (41) 91-630 07 11. It’s also now on the Web at www.schertler.com. As of this printing, Franziska Moergeli planned to open her own shop in Zurich, Switzerland, in May. She specializes in restoration and handles violins, violas, cellos, and their bows. She can be reached by phone or fax at (41) 1724 01 05. Swedish bow maker and restorer Ulf Johansson has left Veberöd for Parkv. 1, S-24035 Harlosa, Sweden; telephone and fax (46) 43-61620; e-mail ulf.johansson@wineasy.se. Polish maker Marek Pielaszek, who builds and repairs violins, violas, cellos, viols, and bows, has moved his shop to ul. Montwilla 71/22, 05-825 Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Poland; telephone remains (48) 55-64-23. Finally, Japanese violin, viola, cello, and bass maker Hashimoto Taketoshi has moved from Hon-cho to Matsudo 2216-2-101, 271 0092 Matsudo, Japan; telephone and fax (81) 47 365 1649. Lawsuit Looms According to a February article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, a group of top violin dealers has been named in a lawsuit that claims that they colluded to skim millions of dollars off the sales of a major instrument collection. The suit was filed by the executor of the estate of collector Gerald Segelman is claiming that the sales of his 52 violins and violas were, to say the least, mishandled. Segelman was a London movie-theater magnate who died in 1992 at age 93, leaving a collection of at least 52 violins and violas worth $15–$34 million. It included three Stradivaris, two Guarneris, and three Guadagninis. Unsure of the worth and best method of selling the instruments, executor Timothy White put their valuation and sale in the hands of dealer Peter Biddulph. Biddulph allegedly explained that the estate would get better prices by selling the instruments individually rather than through an auction house, and arranged to receive a five percent commission on the sales. By January 1993 the instruments were reportedly sold, although a full accounting was delayed—due, at least in part, to infighting among Segelman’s family members. By 1997, White now claims, he was forced to use a court proceeding to gain access to Biddulph’s books. What White says he found there was evidence that Biddulph "sold instruments at below-market rates for the benefit of dealers with whom he had longstanding relationships; sold instruments at prices higher than reported to the executors and kept the difference; received secret commissions from buyers; and secretly purchased instruments from the estate." Arts patron Howard Gottlieb and dealerships Kenneth Warren & Son and Bein & Fushi are named as those dealers and buyers. Lawyers for Bein & Fushi say that there is "no factual basis whatsoever" for the suit, declaring that it is merely a "broad-brushed assault" on the company’s reputation. Robert Bein declared in a sworn statement that the company’s reputation for honesty and integrity is "a vital and irreplaceable business asset, earned over many years and in many hundreds of transactions." Phillips Changes Hands London-based auction house Phillips has been sold to L.V. Capital, a development division of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (a luxury-goods conglomerate). It is interesting that LVMH is owned by a French businessman, Bernard Arnault, and that Christie’s was bought out in 1998 by another French businessman, François Pinault—there is a reported rivalry between the two men. In a further development, LVMH acquired l’Etude Tajan, the leading French auction house, in February; this move will allow Phillips to enter the notoriously closed French market, and give l’Etude Tajan an entrée into Phillips’ international markets. Phillips’ next auction of fine musical instruments will be June 2, 2000, in London. Market-related news items and information on new products, from the U.S. or abroad, are always welcome. Please mail to Jessamyn Reeves-Brown, Market Report, Strings, PO Box 767, San Anselmo, CA 94979; fax to (415) 485-0831; or e-mail to jessamyn@stringletter.com.
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