Vanessa Mae: A Techno-Acoustic Violinist

Who is Vanessa Mae? I first saw Vanessa years ago in one of  MTV videos on TV playing a violin ruthlessly. I must say that I was impressed with her style. Nothing of  that slow, romantic 'orchestra' type that I used to see in a common string instrument concert.   Her style is what you see in her - young, vibrant and  full of life.

I got curious so I made a research about the girl.  I didn't know she's that famous.  Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson, born 27 October 1978, known as Vanessa-Mae is an internationally known British violinist. Her music style is self-described as "violin techno-acoustic fusion", as several of her albums prominently feature the techno style.

Vanessa-Mae was born in Singapore to a Thai father and a Chinese mother. Her mother married Briton Graham Nicholson, after her parents separated,  and the family moved to England when Vanessa-Mae was four years old. She grew up in London and is a British citizen. She was educated at the independent Francis Holland School in London.

Vanessa-Mae, born 27 October, coincidentally shares her birthday with famed violinist Niccolò Paganini, who was born in 1782.

Vanessa-Mae began playing piano at the age of three and violin at five. She was particularly famous in the United Kingdom throughout her childhood making regular appearances on television (for example on Blue Peter) mostly involving classical music and conservative style. According to Guinness World Records, she is the youngest soloist to record both the Beethoven and Tchaikovsky violin concertos, a feat she accomplished at the age of thirteen. During this time she attended the Francis Holland School in Central London.

Vanessa-Mae made her international professional debut at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany in 1988, and also during 1988 made her concerto debut on stage with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London.
On entering adolescence Vanessa-Mae broke away from her traditional classical influences and became known for her flashy, sexual style appearing in music videos in stylish outfits. Her first pop-style album, The Violin Player, was released in 1995. She appeared on the 1997 Janet Jackson album The Velvet Rope playing a violin solo on the song "Velvet Rope".

She performed in the interval of the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest in Birmingham.

In April 2006, Vanessa-Mae was ranked as the wealthiest young entertainer under 30 in the UK in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006 having an estimated fortune of about £32 million ($64 million) stemming from concerts and record sales of over an estimated 10 million copies world wide, which is an unprecedented achievement for a young female violinist.

Vanessa-Mae announced in 2006 that she would be releasing a new album sometime between 2007 and 2008. The album was said to draw inspiration from great ballets and opera themes. A new album was expected in 2009, but the year ended without the expected release.

On December 7th and 8th in London and December 15th, 16th, 17th in New York; Vanessa was the special guest violinist for Il Divo's Christmas Tour 2009.

I saw her once again in a cameo role in Arabian Nights movie, playing a Chinese princess.

She plans to compete in the 2014 Winter Olympics as a downhill skier, representing Thailand.

Vanessa Mae's Acoustic Violin and Electric Violin

Vanessa-Mae most often uses one of two types of violins, a Guadagnini acoustic violin or a Zeta Jazz model electric violin. The Guadagnini was made in 1761, and was bought by her parents at an auction for about £150,000. It was stolen in January 1995, but was recovered by the police two months later. She once dropped it and it broke, but it was repaired.

In addition, she uses one of two Zeta Jazz Model electric violins, one of which is white and the other one of which features decals of the U.S. flag. She has also been using a silver-grey Zeta Jazz Model electric violin since 2001. She also owns three Ted Brewer Violins two of which she uses on stage (a Crossbow and a Vivo2 Clear) and in publicity material. In addition to these violins, she sometimes buys violins and resells them later, giving the proceeds to charity.

What are the differences between these two violins?

Guadagnini Acoustic Violin


A Guadagnini Acoustic Violin is a violin made by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (or G. B. Guadagnini; Giambattista Guadagnini). Guadagnini was an emiliano luthier in Italy in the 18th century and was regarded as one of the finest craftsmen of string instruments in history. He practiced his craft from about 1729 until his death, and his work is divided into four main periods corresponding to and named after, Piacenza, Milan, Parma and Turin, the four cities in Italy where he lived and worked. The instruments of the latter period, Turin, are generally considered to be his best work, and tend toward higher valuations.
Guadagnini's father, Lorenzo, his son, Giuseppe, and some other members of the Guadagnini family continued in the line of violin making through several generations.

Therefore, any violin made by Guadagnini is considered precious and priceless.

Zeta Jazz Electric Violin


Electric violins have a magnetic or piezoelectric pickup that converts string vibration to an electric signal. A cable or transmitter sends the signal to an amplifier. Electric violins are usually constructed as such, but a pickup can be added to a conventional acoustic violin.

An electric violin with a resonating body that produces listening-level sound independently of the electric elements can be called an electro-acoustic violin. To be effective as an acoustic violin, electro-acoustic violins retain much of the resonating body of the violin, often looking very much like, sometimes even identical to, an acoustic violin or fiddle. They may be finished in bright colours and made from alternative materials to wood. The first specially built electric violins date back to 1928 and were made by Victor Pfeil, Oskar Vierling, George Eisenberg, Benjamin Miessner, George Beauchamp, Hugo Benioff and Fredray Kislingbury.

Since electric violins do not rely on string tension and resonance to amplify their sound they can have more strings. For example five stringed electric violins are available from several manufacturers, and a seven string electric violin (with three lower strings encompassing the cello's range) is available. The majority of the first electric violinists were musicians playing jazz and popular music.

Acoustic violins may be used with an add-on piezoelectric bridge or body pickup, or a magnetic pickup attached to the fingerboard end. Alternatively, a magnetic String pickup can be installed under an acoustic violin's fingerboard avoiding interference with any tone-producing parts of the violin, and so keeping its acoustic resonances and tone intact without feedback problems.
To avoid feedback from the resonances of the hollow body under high amplification on stage, many instruments have a solid body instead. The timbre of a standard unamplified violin is due in large part to these resonances, however, so depending on how the signal is picked up, an electric violin may have a "rawer" or "sharper" sound than an acoustic instrument. This raw sound is often preferred in rock, pop, and some avant-garde genres. Several "semi-hollow" designs exist, containing a sealed but hollow resonating chamber that provides some approximation of acoustic violin sound while reducing susceptibility to feedback.
Solid-body electric violins typically have a non-traditional, minimalistic design to keep weight down. Lately, materials such as kevlar, glass and carbon fibres, are used in the build process.

They are often seen as "experimental" instruments, being less established than electric guitar or bass. Hence, there are many variations on the standard design, such as frets, extra strings, machine heads, "baritone" strings that sound an octave lower than normal, and sympathetic strings.

Electric violin signals usually pass through electronic processing, in the same way as an electric guitar, to achieve a desired sound. This could include delay, reverb, chorus, distortion, or other effects.

The Jazz model is the original Zeta concept on how an electric violin should perform. With improved ergonomic shape and sleek styling, it is the alternative to the traditional violin. The Jazz is highly responsive to all playing styles. By removing the upper bout, thinning the body, and lowering the string action, this instrument facilitates reach to all positions and increased playing speed. Important positional cues such as the headstock heel and third position stop have been retained to ensure familiarity. This violin is made of lightweight basswood, with an ebony fingerboard and tuners. The hex wrench tuners allow the instrument to stay in tune longer than traditional instruments. Fine tuning is handled at the tailpiece. All members of the Quartet Series are MIDI compatible when used with the Zeta Synthony MIDI Controller and Synthesizer. Unleash your creativity with today's modern tools: sequencers, samplers, synthesizers and software programs. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

The Violin and its History

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello.

The violin is sometimes informally called a fiddle, regardless of the type of music played on it. The word violin comes from the Middle Latin word vitula, meaning stringed instrument; this word is also believed to be the source of the Germanic "fiddle". The violin, while it has ancient origins, acquired most of its modern characteristics in 16th-century Italy, with some further modifications occurring in the 18th century. Violinists and collectors particularly prize the instruments made by the Gasparo da Salò, Giovanni Paolo Maggini, Stradivari, Guarneri and Amati families from the 16th to the 18th century in Brescia and Cremona and by Jacob Stainer in Austria. Great numbers of instruments have come from the hands of "lesser" makers, as well as still greater numbers of mass-produced commercial "trade violins" coming from cottage industries in places such as Saxony, Bohemia, and Mirecourt. Many of these trade instruments were formerly sold by Sears, Roebuck and Co. and other mass merchandisers.

Someone who plays the violin is called a violinist or a fiddler. The violinist produces sound by drawing a bow across one or more strings (which may be stopped by the fingers of the other hand to produce a full range of pitches), by plucking the strings (with either hand), or by a variety of other techniques. The violin is played by musicians in a wide variety of musical genres, including Baroque music, classical, jazz, folk music, and rock and roll. The violin has come to be played in many non-western music cultures all over the world.

History


The earliest stringed instruments were mostly plucked (e.g. the Greek lyre). Bowed instruments may have originated in the equestrian cultures of Central Asia, an example being the Kobyz or kyl-kobyz is an ancient Turkic, Kazakh string instrument or Mongolian instrument Morin huur:

Turkic and Mongolian horsemen from Inner Asia were probably the world’s earliest fiddlers. Their two-stringed upright fiddles were strung with horsehair strings, played with horsehair bows, and often feature a carved horse’s head at the end of the neck. ... The violins, violas, and cellos we play today, and whose bows are still strung with horsehair, are a legacy of the nomads.

It is believed that these instruments eventually spread to China, India, the Byzantine Empire and the Middle East, where they developed into instruments such as the erhu in China, the rebab in the Middle East, the lyra in the Byzantine Empire and the esraj in India. The violin in its present form emerged in early 16th-Century Northern Italy, where the port towns of Venice and Genoa maintained extensive ties to central Asia through the trade routes of the silk road.

The modern European violin evolved from various bowed stringed instruments from the Middle East and the Byzantine Empire. Most likely the first makers of violins borrowed from three types of current instruments: the rebec, in use since the 10th century (itself derived from the Byzantine lyra and the Arabic rebab), the Renaissance fiddle, and the lira da braccio (derived from the Byzantine lira). One of the earliest explicit descriptions of the instrument, including its tuning, was in the Epitome musical by Jambe de Fer, published in Lyon in 1556. By this time, the violin had already begun to spread throughout Europe.

The oldest documented violin to have four strings, like the modern violin, is supposed to have been constructed in 1555 by Andrea Amati, but the date is very doubtful. (Other violins, documented significantly earlier, only had three strings and were called violetta.) The violin immediately became very popular, both among street musicians and the nobility, illustrated by the fact that the French king Charles IX ordered Amati to construct 24 violins for him in 1560. The oldest surviving violin, dated inside, is from this set, and is known as the Charles IX, made in Cremona c. 1560. The finest Renaissance carved and decorated violin in the world is the Gasparo da Salò (1574 c.) owned by Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria and later, from 1841, by the Norwegian virtuoso Ole Bull, who used it for forty years and thousands of concerts, for his very powerful and beautiful tone, similar to those of a Guarneri. It is now in the Vestlandske Kustindustrimuseum in Bergen (Norway). "The Messiah" or "Le Messie" (also known as the "Salabue") made by Antonio Stradivari in 1716 remains pristine. It is now located in the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford.

Significant changes occurred in the construction of the violin in the 18th century, particularly in the length and angle of the neck, as well as a heavier bass bar. The majority of old instruments have undergone these modifications, and hence are in a significantly different state than when they left the hands of their makers, doubtless with differences in sound and response. But these instruments in their present condition set the standard for perfection in violin craftsmanship and sound, and violin makers all over the world try to come as close to this ideal as possible.

To this day, instruments from the so-called Golden Age of violin making, especially those made by Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesù, are the most sought-after instruments by both collectors and performers. The current record amount paid for a Stradivari violin was $3,544,000.00 at an auction on May 16, 2006. All Stradivarius violins have unique names; the record setting one is known as The Hammer, referring to its first owner, Christian Hammer. It was made in 1707.