JAVS Fall 2011

The next piece of the puzzle was a summer course in basic bow-mak ing techniques with Arnold Bone, the great bow-maker from Massachusetts. Then, at a career crossroads, Melanson was offered the last available spot in the class at the Violinmaking School of America in Salt Lake City. he seized the brass ring and never looked back. Melanson made the most of this golden opportunity by taking meticulous notes at every lesson, embellishing them in great detail with wonderful drawings and sec ondary references, using tech niques from his art training to maximize his learning. Suddenly, these notes became pirated book editions, becoming chapters dis tributed through an underground network to violin shops all over the country. Although it took some time, he was ultimately given credit for his work, which helped garner him a berth as an instructor at the North Bennet Street School (of violinmaking) in Boston. The individuality that has marked Ray Melanson’s career has perhaps cost him a few competition medals, as he does not pander to arcane nitpicking of judges. he has not tried to fit his fine work into any particular or expected mold. he has been signally successful in spite of this, winning thirteen medals anyhow and satisfying a loyal following of instrumentalists. his violas are currently priced at $17,000 and are to be found in the hands of a wide range of play ers, from quartet to symphony to soloist and beyond.

Ray Melanson at work

demands on your hand and elbow. The lower bout offers similar crea ture comforts. With a lower bout width of only 238 mm, there is no need to worry about getting the bow around the lower bout. The instrument possessed a distinct clar ity of tone and had enough power and projection for any soloist. The stars seemed to have aligned over Ray Melanson to provide him an influential career as a violin maker. As a young man, his father’s field as a builder and designer modeled artistic chal lenges that easily transferred from one realm to another. In addition to his father’s inspiration and con stant challenges of creativity, string instruments naturally beckoned. As a violin performance major with a minor in art, pieces of the career puzzle began to fit together. One important piece was learning bass-violin repair under former Wurlitzer restorer hans Nebel.

After reviewing the one hundred violas in my head, very few were as sharp in my memory as Kreisler was to Shumsky. Melanson had won thirteen VSA medals over the years, but there would be no awards forthcoming in Cleveland. Why then did his instrument keep reap pearing in my head? I picked up the viola with no knowledge of its origin. Maker and country of origin didn’t matter. I wasn’t interested in putting it down. I only wanted to study it further and find a bow for a trial run. Being a believer in searching for the smallest possible instrument with the largest and broadest possible sound, I found that this viola was exactly 16 inches and had narrow bouts, particularly the upper, which was only 189 mm. Any viola with that outline offers user-friendly player accessibil ity to the upper ranges. A good example of a piece to challenge an instrument is hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher , with its technical

J OuRNAL OF ThE AMERICAN VIOLA SOCIETy 62