French violinist plays arpegina
French violinist plays arpegina
A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
French violinist Jean-Paul Minali-Bella plays even the most
complex classical music on his arpegina, the only one of its kind
in the world.
"I can perform classical compositions from F. Schubert and
J.S. Bach, as well as contemporary compositions," said Minalli-
Bella in an interview with The Jakarta Post recently.
He said Japanese composer Megumi Tanabe, French Jazz Musician
Jean-Remi Guedon and Indonesian composer Slamet Abdul Syukur had
written music for the arpegina.
The latest member of the string family, the arpegina is rather
like a large viola but with a distinctive, asymmetrically shaped
body.
Minali-Bella said the five-string arpegina had a pitch and
timbre between that of the cello, viola and viola de gamba.
"The arpegina's sound is different from the viola or cello. It
has more tension due to its lower string," the 35-year-old
musician said.
Minalli-Bella, who married an Indonesian woman, Sumaryanti,
three years ago, performed compositions from Schubert, Bach,
Marin Marais and Syukur during a concert at S. Widjojo auditorium
on Jl. Sudirman in South Jakarta on Thursday.
"This is my first performance with the arpegina in Indonesia.
I have performed here twice and played a violin," he said.
Born in the countryside near Paris, Minalli-Bella, whose
mother is French and father from Cameroon, said that the arpegina
was made for him by violin maker Bernard Sabatier in 1997.
Since then, he has played the arpegina in several concerts in
Tokyo, Japan, in Austin, Texas, in France and in Germany.
"This arpegina is the only one in the world. Sabatier made it
specially for me and decided not to make another," Minalli-Bella
said at the office of the Indonesian Music Foundation in South
Jakarta.
He said that he paid US$5,000 for the materials, mainly wood,
to make the arpegina."Maybe it's not expensive for other people,
but for me it's expensive. It's worth a lot now since it's the
only one."
He said the name arpegina was taken from an 18-century musical
instrument called the apergone (a traditional guitar shaped like
a cello) and the name of Italian actress Gina Lolobrigida.
"The sound and strings of the arpegina are like those of the
apergone but it has a good shape like the actress. When an
official in a concert in Germany asked me about its name, I said
it was arpegina," he said.
During Thursday's concert, part of a chamber music series
organized by YMI, Minalli-Bella played alongside Indonesian
pianist Ade Simbolon.
Minalli-Bella, who was a top-ranking student of the viola at
Serge Collot music school at age 20, obtained a one-year
scholarship to study at Yale University in the United States.
In 1993, he was appointed solo violist in the French National
Orchestra. From 1995-1999, he was a member of the Arpegione
Quatuor and helped create the "European Camerata", a chamber
orchestra with which he appeared as a soloist.
In 1999, he was named music professor at the Bordeaux and
taught viola at the Corbeil-Essona music school.
Minalli-Bella's made his first visit to Indonesia in 2000 when
he played a viola solo in a concert with the Surabaya Symphonic
Orchestra in Surabaya, East Java.
Two years ago, he performed in a concert at Erasmus Huis in
South Jakarta and lectured at a music camp for an international
school in South Jakarta.