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Alp Altiner and his wife Suzan Altiner are
both professional cello players: they are
members of the Istanbul State Symphony
Orchestra. They rehearse with the
Orchestra 5 days a week and have concert
performances every Friday evenings and
Saturday mornings. Their only free day is
Sunday.
However busy he may be, Alp Altiner
still developed a hobby which later on
became a second profession. He started
manufacturing string instruments (violin,
viola, cello) since 1987.
On 16 December 2000 I visited his
workshop (which is a dedicated room of his
flat) right after their Saturday morning
concert (where they had played
Shostakovich 10th and Beethoven 5th
symphonies).
Before tackling the depth of his
passion let me give you below the summary
of his biography:
Alp
Altiner was born in Istanbul in 1955.
He graduated from the Music department
of Istanbul Ataturk Education
Institute, continued his musical
studies in Vienna State Music and
Performing Arts College with Prof.
Senta Benesh and completed his
education in Germany in a city called
Detmold with Prof. Stephan Haack. Later
on he also participated to Arezzo
International Summer Courses in
Italy.
He played with Vienna Music College
Concert Orchestra, Salzburg Mozarteum
Opera Orchestra and Arena di Verona
Opera Festival Orchestra. In 1984 he
returned back to Turkey and since then
he is the member of the cello group of
the Istanbul State Symphony
Orchestra.
Between 1985-89 he instructed the cello
in Istanbul Ataturk Education
Institute. During the same period he
became the board member, Asst. Manager
and Program Coordinator of Istanbul
Symphony Orchestra.
He had a program in Acik Radyo called
"Cello Gezgini" ("The Cello Wanderer")
which lasted 26 weeks.
He gave many conferences and wrote
articles about the "History and the
Making of String Instruments". Alp
Altiner has been an active luthier
since 1987.
Alp Altiner is married and has one
daughter (14). He speaks fluent German
and English.
Since the day he started to play the
cello he had a big curiosity for learning
the physics of its sound production. One
day his father-in-law-to-be (he and his
wife were just engaged at the time) gave
him a book (Manuel Pratique de Lutherie
par: Roger et Max Millant). It was about
how to build a string instrument. The book
was unfortunately in French and he did not
understand a single word of it, and as he
was so excited with the subject his
father-in-law-to-be had to make the
reading and the translation.
His very first application (that he
today calls a most wicked one) was to
scrape the varnish of his own cello with a
piece of broken glass (this was the only
practical tool available to him at the
time) and re-varnish it himself. He says
that the varnish application was very
successful but he should never have done
it, because the cello was not the same
anymore, it was transformed to a different
one and had lost all its originality.
More books followed, he kept reading
about the art of string instrument making.
By the time he came back to Turkey he had
an important library on the subject. When
he was back in Istanbul, he met students
from the Instrument Makers' (Luthiers)
School. During the chat the luthier
candidates were amazed to hear about the
degree of his passion and the amount of
books he had read on the subject. They
told him that he was much better informed
than they themselves were and insisted
that it was time for him to start putting
his knowledge into action, that he starts
to produce. Until then Alp Altiner had
never had the courage to put his dream
into action, in a way the students gave
him the needed push. The year was 1987. "I
never had formal Luthier training", says
Alp Altiner.
He finished his first violin in 1989.
First he had to build his own tools. It is
customary for every Luthier to build his
own tools as they are not the kind
available from shops. This is why it took
him so long (two years) to finish his
first project. Since 1989 he has built 17
instruments (1 cello, 9 violin and 7
viola).
It takes in average three month to
complete a violin, but can build six in a
year (as there are things he can do in
parallel in the case of multiple
production). He can't be more productive
than he presently is as he can only spare
a limited amount of time due to heavy
rehearsal schedule with the orchestra.
Alp Altiner went twice to Cremona (in
Italy) where he visited the workshop of
Stradivarius. He thinks that Cremona is
the pilgrimage place of any devoted
Luthier.
He is also a keen listener with an
important CD collection. He mostly listens
to classical but recently he also started
to listen to some jazz.
It was about time to bombard him with
my questions.
- "Is this a hobby or a second
profession?"
- "No, I don't do it for it's income.
It is a great passion of mine, it is like
meditating, I completely immerse myself
and forget about everything else like
worries, time... I also believe that such
an occupation has healing power. Of
course, at the same time it inevitably
became a second profession. There are
people bringing me their violins for
maintenance or repair and I can't refuse
them."
- "Where do you buy your raw
material, are they locally
available?"
- "Nearly most of the raw material is
imported. Although some woods are locally
available, they are not properly treated
to be of any use. The woods should be
naturally dried for at least 5 to 6 years
without the aid of any sort of oven (or an
accelerated process). The different
natural extracts to make the varnish are
also mostly imported. You mix different
these natural extracts (see the picture on
the left) according to a formula of yours
to make the varnish. You can try different
formulas on different instruments."
- "Do you 'voice' your instruments
in a specific way? Or do you have the
means to do it?"
- "Yes, during the process, I can more
or less guess how the general character of
the finished instrument will be. Of course
it is a rough guess, but I can predict if
it is going to be a bright sounding
instrument, or dark toned or will have big
volume capability. I can tell this looking
at the nature of the wood, at the curves,
etc. Knowing such parameters also gives
you the ability to play with them and in a
way "voice" the instrument. But you can't
100% tell unless you put the strings and
play."
- "How do you define a "good"
instrument or a "great" one? Are there
universally accepted criterias or is it
purely a matter of taste?"
- "There is always a certain amount of
personal preferences. Some players like
brighter sounding violins. So there is
certainly taste involved. But there are
also universally accepted standards by
which you can distinguish a good violin
from a bad one. The simplest is of course
the tone. I don't think anybody will call
a thin or metallic toned violin a good
one. If you apply the correct standards
and put a correct amount of workmanship,
you can't go wrong, your violin will be a
good one. But to make a "great" one is
something else. Of course I'm always after
it.
To me a good string instrument should have
the following characteristics:
- Should have volume and the ability
to carry its sound to distance. The
best instruments don't have a big
volume nearby (as this can be tiring or
misleading for the player) but have
much more at a distance.
- It should have a beautiful tone
with rich harmonics.
- The balance between the four
strings should be correct and the
strings should have a common
tonality.
- It should be easy to play, the
instrument should not resist the
player.
- "Do you build to order? If yes, is
it possible to order a dark toned
violin?"
- "No, I never build to order. It would
be too stressful: there will be deadlines
to meet, you won't know if he (or she)
will like the finished product. Instead I
build the instruments at my own pace, the
players come and choose the one they
like."
- "Could you mention few of your
important references?"
- "Cihat Askin (the famous Turkish
violin virtuoso), a violin player from the
Presidential Symphony Orchestra, the chief
of viola group of Hellenic Radio
Television Orchestra (Athens), the cello
of his wife, a violin and viola player of
Istanbul Symphony Orchestra and the famous
conductor Alexander Rahbari."
The Index of the Pictures
(please click them to enlarge):
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1
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Alp Altiner is checking the
tone of a violin
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2
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He is checking the looks and
the finish
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3
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Few of the finished
violins
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4
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Alp Altiner on action
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5
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More action: working on a new
cello
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6
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Tuning a violin
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7
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Suzan and Alp Altiner gave me
a delightful mini concert at the
end of the interview.
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8
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Various natural extracts to
prepare the varnish
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9
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Raw material stock: the
imported special woods.
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Alp Altiner's label:
e-mail
to: Alp
Altiner
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