The violin made by Pēteris Strazdiņš in Cēsis in 1931, and which now serves as an unusual testimony to its author, who was a versatile person. RTMM 784942

A photograph of Pēteris Strazdiņš, and his initials carved into the violin.

The collection of the Museum of Literature and Music holds 25 violins in total. Among them are instruments made by the woodcarver, patron of the arts and violin visionary Augusts Dombrovskis; a violin made by the writer Kārlis Ieviņš; as well as masterpieces by violin-makers such as Jānis Barabančiks, Nikolajs Dreika and the painter Aleksandrs Zviedris, among others.

Each instrument in the collection has its own unique story, and behind each of them stands a master, whose warmth of heart and desire to create a miracle of sound is embedded in the soul of the instrument.

A few years ago, the museum’s collection was complemented by this violin, and it has now been chosen as the Artefact of the Month for June. This will be the first time that the museum will exhibit the violin, displaying it for viewing by the public at large. When looking at this musical instrument, a question arises: what makes this violin, made in Cēsis in 1931, so unique?

First of all, the uniqueness of the instrument lies in its unusual shape and choice of materials – the black, opaque varnish and yellow imitation mother-of-pearl. However, the element that is most surprising of all is that the maker of the violin chose to immortalise himself by embedding an oval photograph of himself in the violin’s tailpiece. The photograph shows him wearing a showy bow-tie and at the flower of youth, creating the impression of an extravagant salon musician wanting to show off and surprise with his unusual violin.

As it turns out, the story of Pēteris Strazdiņš was much more complex than that. When Pēteris Strazdiņš moved to the Cīrulīši care home around the year 1980, he entrusted the instrument he had created during his youth to his Cēsis neighbour, Jānis Rande. Years later, it was Jānis Rande’s daughter who brought the violin to the museum, although she knew very little about its creator.

The name of Pēteris Strazdiņš, an artist and a teacher, lives on only in the memories of a very few people. These memories allow us to get a glimpse into his turbulent life, filled with various changes. He was taken seriously ill early in his youth and was hospitalised as a result. While recovering in hospital, he started carving this violin. Years later, he perfected the violin and put the finishing touches to it. He also made a customised case for it, ornamenting the lid of the case with the image of a sword. During the Second World War, he studied at the Art Academy of Latvia; in 1949, he graduated from the Department of Art Education at the Janis Rozentāls Riga Art School. He worked as a painter, designer and decorator at the Youth Theatre and the VEF factory, among other places; he also taught visual arts at Rāmuļi School and painted large-format artworks. He always had the violin he had made with him, and played it with enthusiasm during various events and gatherings.

We are pleased that we have been able to untie the knot of Pēteris Strazdiņš’s life, allowing us to see the violin in a different light: as an embodiment of his endeavours and hopes, and as the only testimony to the life of Pēteris Strazdiņš, artist and teacher, now preserved by the Museum of Literature and Music.