Tag Archives: Hill¸ Keith

Keith Hill

Keith Hill offers this insight: “I am an aesthetic scientist. Aesthetic science is the ‘scienta’ in the motto Ars nihil sine scienta est. My work is a reflection of my aesthetic science, in other words, it reflects the attention I pay to how I hear, what I hear, how I see, what I see, how I sense, what I sense, and how and what intuitions arise from such attention. I use harpsichord, fortepiano, violin, and guitar making as well as my music, painting, and decoration to express the principles of aesthetics as I understand them from my experience paying attention. Even the fifty chickens, twenty geese, thirty-six ducks, and eight cats I keep are subjects for my aesthetic study.”

▪ bio current as of 2001

Opinion

2000
AL#63 p.64               read this article
Keith Hill                                                                                           

▪ Hill suspects that many luthiers pursue their craft to please the eye more than the ear because that is what they know how to do, and also that the road of pure science cannot lead them back to the straight path.

A Walk in the Suburban Woods

1995
AL#42 p.22   BRB4 p.184            
Keith Hill                                                                                           

▪ A maker of classical guitars harvests some strange local trees to try out as instruments.

This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.

Ash Varnish: A modern Alchemist’s Recipe

1994
AL#37 p.44   BRB4 p.23            
Keith Hill                                                                                           

▪ Hill cooks up a varnish that resembles the fiddles in the early paintings, not those same fiddles 300 years later. A hundred years from now he expects his violins to be prettier than anyone’s.

It Worked for Me: Waterproof Hide Glue

1994
AL#37 p.59   BRB4 p.483            
Keith Hill                                                                                           

▪ A violin gluing method using waterproof hide glue to battle humidity and which renders the dried glue less susceptible to attack from mold and bacteria.

Hints for Area Tuning the Violin

1985
AL#1 p.21   BRB1 p.30            read this article
Keith Hill                                                                                           

▪ Hill theorizes that the violinmakers of the classical period tuned tap tones of certain areas of their instruments to desired pitch relationships. He finds these to be consistent within the work the individual makers, and suggests that the natural resonances of the human body may be a model for this idea. Specific techniques and tools are described.

This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.

Area Tuning the Violin

1984
DS#283   BRB1 p.20            read this article
Keith Hill                                                                                           

▪ Hill advocates tuning different portions of the plates to segments of the overtone system, using various tonic notes to suit the particular wood before you. No measuring tools are necessary during tuning since the actual thickness of the plate portions is of no consequence. He maintains that this is the tuning system used by the Italian masters.

This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.