Jacobus Stainer Violin     |   home
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STAINER VIOLIN
The body of Stainers works includes primarily Violins , also   alto ,  tenor,and
double basses. Gambas or small double basses were latter rebuilt into violoncello. His creative impulse
gives no evidence of any period of experimentation or a hiatus followed by a change of style.Stainers exceptional talent evidently led him immediately to his own characteristic form after the briefest period of searching ,the products of which survive either unsigned or not at all. The form of his violin , in which the corners of the middle bouts extend very little , is broader . especially in the lower part , and gives the impression of being more compact than that of the products of the Cremona school , which  in general
tend towards a slim form.
The full high belly and back arching diminishes rapidly from the central axis and passes over a deep scoop
to a somewhat raised , beautifully rounded rim. From 1660 on he also built violins with a flatter arch. The perfectly cut  , somewhat steep F-holes with circular ends are small and occasionally not entirely symmetric. The right F-hole is sometimes located somewhat higher. The scroll is chiseled quite shallow , with an
almost geometric precision ; the curves are full and the correction broad , the wood usually pear. Occasionally Stainer replaced the scroll with a lions head . A 1655 document  makes reference to a violin made of cypress , decorated with ivory and ebony. His delicate soft varnish - in quality fully the equal of that of the masters of Cremona.- occurs in varying shades from transparent , almost colorless through yellow, brown , orange to chestnut. On occasion ,Stainer finished the belly  light yellow and the rest of the body dark brown.    

              Yehudi Menuhin makes reference to Stainer in his book entitled "Music Guides Violin and Viola"
On page 224 The Sources of Bach`s Sonatas and Partitas he says of Bach "he owned an ordinary violin
which was valued at 2 thalers , and a fine Jacobus Stainer valued at 8 thalers. He played the Stainer when
he led the orchestra, and meditated musically upon it when, in 1720, he wrote down the Sonatas and Partitas in their final form,He succeeded in fusing together the basically Italianate forms of chamber music or church
sonata with the grandiloquent polyphony of the German violin school.