October 2004 | S T R I N G S

WWWHEN JURGEN WOLF RETIRED as principal cellist of the DusseldorfSymphony in 2000, he reluctantly gave the orchestra back its prizedcello—an original 1713 Gagliano—which had been his to use for ten years.Luckily, shortly before his retirement, during a visit to the United States,he had allowed violin maker Anne Cole to make a drawing and detailedmeasurements of the instrument. She had been enamored with the cello’stone and unusual pattern, and was inspired to make a copy. True to hertrademark style, she subtly decorated the copy in homage to the cellistwho inspired it. Nicknamed the “Wolf” cello, it has a bas relief wolf’s pawimprint carved on the back of the scroll, and a delicate watercolor of wolffootprints in snow inside the body, visible through the f-holes.

Upon seeing and hearing Cole’scopy, Wolf bought it immediately,and has declared himself so pleasedwith it that he claims not to missthe original.

“I have the best cello in theworld!” he has stated on more thanone occasion.

Wolf is one of many musiciansworldwide who treasure Cole’scraftsmanship for both its uniqueaesthetic and tonal qualities.Instead of a standard luthier’slabel, Cole adorns the insides ofher instruments with her own artwork, much of which reflectsthe nature surrounding herAlbuquerque, New Mexico, home.She often bridges imaginativethemes, from the scenes paintedinside to intricate carvings on thescrolls. For example, the “Thrush”cello has delicate tendrils ofVirginia creeper on the back of thescroll, and a small painted song-bird amid lifelike vines in fall coloron the inside.

To audiences, the instrumentslook traditional. To the musicians,the artwork is an inner landscape

The Art of Violin MakingA modern luthier

crafts her own tradition

BY L A U R A S C H I L L E R

LABOR OF LOVE: Anne Cole at work on the

heart-shaped Cupid viola.

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that only they know exists—and sometimesthey don’t even know the full extent of it.

Cellist Tony Stogner, who for years hadplayed a Cole instrument with an elegant sprucetree carved on the scroll, tripped unfortunatelyin a cluttered, dark backstage area and crackedhis cello’s rib. To repair the damage, the top ofthe cello had to come off, revealing a lush for-est scene he had never known was there.

While many of Cole’s themes are con-templative, some are whimsical and othersinspirational. On the “Tiger” viola, for exam-ple, a musician specially requested a cat’s headin place of a traditional scroll. Cole agreed,and then added a full-color tiger inside,painted ingeniously to match the contours ofthe instrument, as if to say, “Within everycreature is an ideal, untamed self.”

Inside one of her latest cellos is a largered dragon meant to inspire the cellist whocommissioned the instrument to play withmore fire.“You know how guys, when theyget a hot rod, all of a sudden they’re studs?It’s psychological,” explains the violinmaker. “Tone is for sure the main considera-tion. But I want the person to feel likethey’re not just using a device to put acrosstheir music. It’s an inherent artistic thing inand of itself.”

H O M E S C H O O L E DAside from the vast watercolor palette in herstudio, another major factor distinguishingthis luthier is her complete self-training,which began in the seventh grade when shetook apart her school cello. Others with herinclination might have eventually appren-ticed in a shop or attended violin-makingschool, but in the 1950s no violin maker livedwithin miles of Albuquerque. Her mainsources were the book Violin Making As It Was& Is by Edward Heron-Allen (AlgrovePublishing, reprinted in 2000), and her tenac-ity over the years to make and redesign instru-ments using blueprints of her own. But that’snot to say that she remains totally uninflu-enced by the traditional makers.

“Seen from a certain perspective, AnneCole is very much like one of the old mastermakers,” says Joel Becktell, concert cellist andvice president of Eastman Strings. “She usestechniques she dreams up on her own, andkinds of wood other makers tend not to usebecause they’re not standard, and integratestradition and creativity in her making. That’s

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S T R I N G S | October 2004

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another way of looking at tradition. “Like thegreat master makers of the past, she’s triednew and different things.”

Perhaps if Cole had apprenticed in a shopor subscribed to one of the famous violin-making schools, her instruments would bemore standardized, but standard is the oppo-site of what she strives for. In fact, Cole’squest is to reach new realms of form, slightlyaltering instruments to make them ergonom-ically easy to play and beautiful sounding atthe same time. Her alibi for violists whoseconductors often beseech them for more vol-

ume is simple: It’s an issue of physics. Theviola cavity is actually too small to fully sup-port the instrument’s low pitch, she insists,because the body must be small enough toplay horizontally. Only a seven-foot–tall vio-list could play a 20-inch–long instrument,which is the appropriate viola size, acousti-cally, she says.

Her feasible solution?A larger-size vertical viola that sits on the

musician’s knees and is played like a cello,inspired by both historic precedent (many16th- and 17th-century violas were nearly thislarge) and modern science (several years ago, Carleen Hutchins, founder of the Catgut

Acoustical Society, published plans for justsuch a large viola). But such innovation doesn’t come without its predicaments.

“A conductor would freak out if a violistauditioned for an orchestra with a verticalviola,” she admits. “In the quest for tone, yougo to the larger size and then run up againstthis brick wall of nonacceptance. I’m trying toremain practical and useful, and at the sametime probe all the avenues to give performersmore options. That’s what draws me to thiswhole thing, that there is room for growth inthe design of instruments.”

M Y F U N N Y V A L E N T I N EPractical and useful is how one could describeCole’s heart-shaped viola aptly named Cupid,based on a 1561 Gasparo da Salò template.The heart shape is not just an aesthetic designbut a practical solution—a wider, fatter instru-ment provides more internal airspace to sup-port the viola’s low notes. And the crook ofthe heart offers a chin rest, so the arm canreach another inch down to the scroll.Needless to say, an arrow-bearing Cupidinhabits the inside of the violin and, in fulltheme spirit, the tuning pegs are valentine-shaped themselves.

Paul Goh, principal violist of the Phil-harmonic Chamber Orchestra in Singapore,plays one of Cole’s heart-shaped violas, whichhe named Solomon after the Biblical kingbecause of its rich tone and regal feel. “Thebottom range is dark and mellow but he singslike a violin at the top registers,” Gohexplains. “I’ve never had to struggle to pro-ject.” In reaction to both the instrument’sphysical form and projection, Goh’s conduc-tor once exclaimed, “This instrument is . . . is. . . from God!”

Jorge Mendoza, leader of the chamber-jazzgroup Celloquium in Mexico (also profiled inthis issue on page 64), plays a Cole cello madein 1980 from an original pattern developed byCole. He says the instrument has two charac-teristics so hard to find in one: warmth andpower. Cole accomplishes this by shaping herexceptional old tonewoods to traditional grad-uations, and also tap-tuning the tops andbacks based on proven methods and her ownexperimental research. On Mendoza’s cello,

called “the Crane,” the center line of the scrollbecomes the beak of a stylized carved crane.Inside the instrument is a serene watercolorpond, complete with leaves and one gold fish.Mendoza bought his cello in 1999 fromBecktell, one of Cole’s former cello studentsfor whom she had made the instrument whenhe was 16 years old.

“I think the scroll on that Crane cello isone of the most beautiful scrolls I’ve everseen in my life,” says Becktell. “Anne Colelooks at each instrument as having uniqueexpressive potential and gives each its ownpersonality.”

Becktell eventually sold the Crane toMendoza, who had long coveted it, after heborrowed one of Cole’s more recent cellos—a Carlo Testore copy—and decided that buyingit would be the only way he could relinquishthe Crane. Instead of another fish, Cole embel-lished the inside of this cello with a haiku that Becktell wrote himself: Wind through outstretched wings / There is nothing but music /When I am flying.

And for many, it seems there is nothingbut flying when playing music with an AnneCole instrument. “It is truly an exhilaratingfeeling to know the Crane will respond when Ineed to whisper, shout, cry, or laugh with mymusic,” says Mendoza. “Thank you, Anne.” ■■

BIRD SONG: Cole’s “Thrush” cello.

From Strings, October 2004, No. 122, © 2004 String Letter Publishing, David A. Lusterman, Publisher. All rights reserved. For more information on Strings, contact String

Letter Publishing, Inc., 255 West End Ave., San Rafael, CA 94901; (415) 485-6946; fax (415) 485-0831; www.stringsmagazine.com

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