photographer PEN TAYLER
Spruce wood shavings lie scattered on the floor of the small studio. In one corner, violas and violins hang from a taut wire, while on the opposite wall a long line of woodworking hand tools hang along a beam. A low Tasmanian winter light streams in through the window, highlighting individual shapes of wood that with more work will combine to make a viola. It’s the perfect workshop for a luthier.
When Douglas Coghill was seven, he began learning to play the violin, although he knew even then that his love would be the viola; at seven he was simply too small to effectively hold a viola. It wasn’t until he was 12 that he was finally able to take it up. Now he plays the viola with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and considers himself, “Very, very lucky to have a job with the TSO. There aren’t many jobs and people tend to stay in them for a very long time.” He is also a luthier because, “I have a fascination with how instruments are built, how you can improve the sound with some of the adjustments that are easily done.”
Inside the case of one of Coghill’s violas (a beautiful one made by Swiss luthier Michael Stűrzenhofecker) is a photograph of his grandfather playing the viola in the lounge room of their home. Coghill’s grandparents were both very involved in the music scene in Broken Hill, particularly Musica Viva (founded in 1945, it is Australia’s oldest independent professional performing arts organisation). His grandmother was a singer and his grandfather played in a chamber trio, outside his working life.
“I grew up seeing Grandpa play the viola, so naturally I wanted to be like him. He was a major inspiration. I also owe a lot to my mum’s musical influence and the family in general.”
Not only did Coghill’s grandfather play the viola, once he retired from his job in Melbourne he decided he was going to make a violin. He bought everything he needed, including an instruction book and the necessary tools, many of which his grandson now uses. He ended up making 16 instruments – cellos, violins and violas.
“My parents never had to buy any instruments for us because he made them all,” said Douglas Coghill.
Coghill didn’t expect to end up playing the viola professionally; at every step of his journey he thought he might have to do something else to earn a living. After completing a degree at the Victoria College of Arts, he went on to study at the Australian National Academy of Music.
It was during this time that he and some other students were given the opportunity to come to Tasmania to play with the TSO for a week. It wasn’t his first trip to Tasmania. He came here in 2007 with his mother and brother. “I was fascinated by Tasmania. We travelled around the state ... and I fell in love with it,” he said.
Then he adds, “As a child, I had a dream that one day I’d live on the side of a mountain, next to the sea and next to the city at the same time. I didn’t think that existed until I came here.”
Music is obviously integral to Douglas Coghill’s life, and not just classical music. Although he grew up listening predominately to classical music, which he loves, “At home I listen exclusively to pop music – I’m catching up for my childhood,” he says laughing.
“I’m not exclusively a classical musician and I think terms like that can be a bit excluding of others. If a piece of music is good, I think everyone would want to listen to it no matter what their background.
“I want to feel moved by the music. I want to feel something; not necessarily a sad emotion or a happy one, but sometimes music will create a mood that you can’t put a word to, you can’t actually say what this means, and I think that’s what’s special about it.”
Making a viola takes months and violas, unlike violins, do not have a standard size. A standard full-sized violin is always 14” whereas a viola can be anything starting at 15” and bigger. “People have been experimenting with violas for over 500 years,” Coghill said.
Describing his desire to make violas, he said, “You have a sound in your mind that you want to achieve, and then you find your instrument is a bit limited so that also pushes me on to make more. I want to make a better one, and a better one and a better one. Also, you hear other people’s instruments and think, ‘I want to try one that sounds like that,’ so there are different ‘voices’ in the viola world.”
At the time of writing, he is making a copy of a Guadagnini viola made in Italy in 1773. He wants to copy it as accurately as he can, in terms of thicknesses and shape, but “even if you make the same design 10 times you are always going to be using different wood [a different piece]. You can’t replicate the thing exactly, as you can with a brass instrument.
“The main factor here is the timber and there are thousands of variables which can alter the sound, including the varnish, thicknesses and so on.”
Coghill is also making a copy of a Stradivari violin, and recently made a copy of a cello made by Benjamin Banks in England in 1775. It was for a colleague in the TSO who has the original. “Copying another maker’s work is very exciting. It gives me an insight into their ideas about making. It’s also a challenge to try and copy the varnish colour and lustre.”
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Douglas Coghill can be contacted via d.coghill@live.com.au.
Pen Tayler is a Tasmanian writer and photographer. She photographed 12 towns for Towns of Tasmania, written by Bert Spinks, and has written and provided images for Hop Kilns of Tasmania (both Forty South Publishing). She has also written a book about Prospect House and Belmont House in the Coal River Valley.
