What would Stradivari say about a fiddle player performing on one of his relic violins? Perhaps he'd break into a jig--but as far as playing fiddle on a Stradivarius goes, we now have proof. Sadie Dingfelder at the Washington Post dropped into the Smithsonian and played a little tune on the violin and her own awe at its masterful tone.
For those unfamiliar with this high class echelon of strings, the Stradivarius is a coveted piece of musical ingenuity. Perhaps some of the oldest playable instruments in the world, the Stradivarius is a staple of classical music and the classical community as a whole. Where you hear about someone owning a Stradivarius (or, in the last few years, someone stealing a Stradivarius) it almost directly correlates with a classical musician or figurehead.
But if you're in the arena of anti-institutionalism, then you will get quite a kick out of Ms. Dingfelder performing a fiddle diddy on the iconic piece from the luthier.
But, as she states, the extremely delicate piece of history is better left to the pros. As an unlearned player, Ms. Dingfelder gravitated toward a more grassroots kind of history, Tommy Jarrell's rattlesnake fiddle.
Jarrell was a famous Appalachian fiddler and placed two rattlenake rattles inside the instrument, perhaps to play into a sort of folklore or provide a unique and colloquial color.
Dingfelder remarked:
"If I could borrow any instrument from the Smithsonian's collection, I'd leave the beautiful Greffuhle Stradivarius for real violinists to play, and I'd take Jarrell's rattlesnake fiddle instead. I think the Greffuhle would be fine with that: It seemed almost frustrated with me when I wasn't able to make it sing. Like a mirror of truth, it immediately laid bare all of my musical and technical shortcomings. The fiddle, on the other hand, didn't mind my less-than-precise playing. It just wanted to start a party. And together, we very nearly did"
Don't take our word for it, watch Dingfelder try the Strad below.
