Musical Instruments

Contemporary Czech violin-makers VIII. Tomáš Honěk, Tomáš Honěk Junior, Jakub Honěk Rafael Brom

In spite of the global changes in all crafts and arts violin-making sure preserves its specifics. As a handcraft and art form that resembles wood-carving, it continues to bring us ever more fascinating and unrepeatable objects. If I would say that violin-making in contrast with the wood-carving craft has been solved long ago I probably wouldn`t be saying the truth. Although it brings us always the same result, an ingeniously designed instrument with a construction that perfectly suits its purpose – to give the best sound performance. Generations of past and contemporary violin-makers were constructing this instrument, but it was always the player who has completely fulfilled its destiny. It is not predetermined to be an art object of its own, but always was trying to be. After all, we may see it as one, in the Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk or total art sense. It is and always will be a challenge for a creative craftsman to reveal all the hidden patterns of its construction, and to tune up all the details to create a perfect final product. It was also the reason for Dr. Alois Vincenc Honěk, a remarkable member of the violin-making community, to continue for more than 70 years in his research and violin-making activities with endless passion and enthusiasm. His descendents now continue in this legacy. His son Dr. Tomáš Honěk (born in 1950) was abroad during this interview. With his two grandsons Tomáš (1981) and Jakub (1984) I was talking about violin-making in their family. Their answers sounded at times like an unisono and at other times like a canon, when one added details to what the other said.

Your father Dr. Tomáš Honěk is besides being a surgeon, which he was doing at hospital na Františku and then later as a chief cardiac surgeon in university hospital Motol, also a violin-maker – where has he learned the craft? It was in the workshop of our grandfather in Divadelní

Street No. 22, where he lived for many years. Our

grandfather dr. Alois Vincenc Honěk was from

Děhylov in Silesia, which is not far from Ostrava. He

was lead to become a violin-maker since

Alois Vincenc Honěk

he was 8 years. He was taught by his father, Alois

Honěk. He passed the exams at Josef Růžička in

Opava and he was awarded the certificate on his 18th

birthday on October 25th 1929. 3 years after

graduating from high school he left for studies in

Prague. Not that he wanted to stop making violins, but

he was attracted by the city. He graduated from

medical school, even though he wanted to study

architecture prior to that. As we know he was working

on his violins early in the morning even before he

went to work. He started as early as 4 o’clock. He was

a remarkable surgeon and soon became head of the

department at hospital Na Františku, but he was

known to be a hardworking and passionate craftsman

as well. He was used to sleep very little and when

older he didn’t need more sleep either. Our father told

us that when he became a chief surgeon in Carls Bad

after the war, they had few surgeons and he had to

stay awake for many nights. As we know he was

supposed to go there for a few months and stayed for

seven years. Then in the 1950s he was imprisoned for

Musical Instruments

2 years in a political trial led by the communist

government. In the jail he had plenty of time to think

about the mystery of violin’s origin. After he was

released he returned back to Prague and since then he

lived in Divadelní Street No. 22, where was also his

workshop. So our father began with the craft when he

was 6 years old. He learned violin-making there, but

without any certificate, because he as well chose to

study medicine and became a surgeon. He studied the

Faculty of Medicine in Prague between 1968 and 1974,

but throughout the years he was still making violins. It

is more of a hobby than a profession in our family and

we say that it is better to do the craft just because of the

passion and love for violin-making. If we make our

living with other professions we can take the time to do

the instrument in the highest quality we can.

You are making instruments as a hobby but on the other hand you must feel the long family tradition. When was this tradition founded? In our family the first certified violin-maker was our

great-grandfather Alois Honěk, but first he began as a

finish carpenter. Later he was learning the craft in Brno

at master Kliment and later in Wien at master Haudek.

After he came back home in 1907 he continued to build

instruments until 1920, when he bought some wood-

working machinery and expanded his business. Then he

was making violins only from time to time. Our

grandfather was also a certified violin-maker and later

he became a member of Kruh Umělců Houslařů (an

organization uniting top Czech violin-makers). He was

doing the craft practically until he died in the year

2002.

When did you start in his workshop in Divadelní Street No. 22? In our family we have always worked all together. Our

father was helping his father since he was a young boy

– they have worked together on many instruments

already in late 1960s. He stayed home for a long time

and right when he finished medical school he was

working together with our grandfather in the workshop.

I started going there as I was 6 years old and I started to

learn this beautiful craft right away. Later my younger

brother Jakub joined us. Our grandfather was always

very patient with us and often gave us material with a

defect so we could learn without damaging his

instruments, which we by the way have done many

times. But eventually we have learned how to make

violins after all. We both have finished our first

instruments at the age of fifteen.

Do you still keep the first violin your father made? No, we don’t have the violin any more, it’s already

being played somewhere. But we have his instrument

from 1979. Our father was always very handy and

made a big storage of wood that he brought with our

grandfather. Later he bought some machinery for

cutting and planing plates, so this work became easier.

Otherwise we of course use hand gouges, which we

sharpen only on a classical violin-makers sharpener.

The expert on sharpening in our family is Jakub. Our

father learned sharpening at a knife sharpener, Mr.

Hochman. We use a leg driven wheel grinding stone.

It is much better for the gouges then the electrical one.

Most of the gouges we are using for more than fifty

years.

Do you make also other string instruments besides violins? Do you repair instruments as well? We don’t make repairs, only occasionally on our own

instruments. We make violins, violas, cellos and even

double basses. Now we have two double basses at

home. Because Jakub is a bass player we made him a

tailored one. Otherwise we did about eight double

basses all together. Some of them are in the Prague

Symphonic Orchestra FOK or in the National Theatre

Orchestra.

How many instruments has your father completed? Well, our grandfather did more than ninety

instruments. But we should mention that he was

mainly interested in the construction of the back and

front plates, and he left us a large number of semi-

finished plates. Our father has finished more than

twenty instruments on his own. But on many

instruments worked the both of them and they were

usually signed as A. V. Honek. They have often

worked together. We have a cello here that was done

this way and also on the two double basses all of us

have done our share of work. It is really a family

business in our family. We also have a family archive,

where every instrument is listed. It is interesting that

now with the internet we get to know the faith of

some of our instruments in detail. For example lately

we found out about two instruments, that someone

bought in the US and about a cello that someone

bought in Italy. Usually we are also able to find out

the origin of the wood the instrument is made of, if the

original signature has been preserved. This well

developed system of archives was founded by the

grandfather. We have several books that he wrote and

now we are continuing to add new instruments.

What about the model? You sure base it on the family research. Our grandfather, who was a very curious almost a

renaissance man, devoted all his live to research in

Musical Instruments

history of violin construction. He published an article

about the Italian violin-maker Bagatella in the German

magazine Das Musikinstrument and another article

about objective measurement of tonal quality in the

Strad magazine. According to old Latin documents he

developed his own way of making the instruments. The

model is a Guarneri style model. His templates are

unique nowadays, although you can see similar ones in

the Stradivari museum in Cremona. His intention was

to get back to the original methods and proceedings of

the old masters. We begin with the geometrical model

and it is worth noting that in his calculations he found

out that the violin has proportions that exactly match

the old measure of the Czech elbow. He was always

emphasizing the fact that although the instruments of

Stradivari are perfect it doesn’t make sense to copy

them, because they have changed their original shape

and dispositions over the centuries.

It is obvious that with a new instrument you cannot match the appearance of the three hundred years old original. Do you have your own secrets for mixing the varnishes? We use an oil based varnish and we usually use the

modern yellow-red tone – it is again our family matter.

Our grandfather was once experimenting with varnishes

and in the end he concluded, that it hasn’t a strong

influence on the quality of the instrument, so he began

paying attention more to its esthetical appearance. We

think that the secret is in the construction of the plates,

in the resonation body of the instrument. If the wood is

properly aged and has proper density – and the wood

we are using is older than 25 years – then the

construction and shape are the key elements that

determine the quality of the instrument.

Did you have the desire to do violin-making as your only profession? We remember that our grandfather was advising us not

to. He was saying that the competition is big and we

can say now that it is possible to reach the

porfessionality in the retirement. Grandfather was a

doctor at first and later on he became a professional

violin-maker, our father still has a few years before he

can start making violins full time.

Tomáš Honěk Junior was the first one to break the family tradition in medicine and this year he finished his studies in Economics. The younger brother Jakub studies medicine. Tomáš Honěk Senior has participated in the International Louis Spohr Violin-making Competition, organized by German Violin-making Association in 1983. In the same competition have also placed two violas of Alois Vincenc Honěk. The

first one won 4th place for workmanship and the second 10th place for tonal quality and workmanship. Instruments from the Honěk workshop are owned by the Škampa Quartet. A violoncello is played by Martin Bzirský, currently the concertmaster of the cello section in Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra in Zlín. Another instrument is owned by the violoncellist and viola da gamba player Petr Hejný, member of the Martinů Quartet. A viola made by Tomáš Honěk is played in the United States (where another viola made by A. V. Honěk was shipped recently) and for so far his last instrument came a violinist from Polish Krakow, a famous violin-making center. His instruments are also played by a talented nine years old violinist Filip Zaykov, laureate of the 1st prize in Josef Muzika International Violin Competition and Pilsen National Violin Competition and 4th place in Kocian international violin competition in the category 9 – 11 years. He plays a ½ violin and a ¾ one is already prepared for him in the Honěk workshop.

Tomáš Honěk making a violin