File: macdougallherb06-oh-firstfiddleandbow_M.mp3
Speakers:
HM - Herb MacDougall
HM: My Dad [George MacDougall] used to play for dances, before I was born. I found the violin up in the attic; my parents would say I was an inquisitive type and tinkering all the time at something. I saw this case in the attic, opened it up and it here's the violin. It was broken and it was in pieces, so I took it down opened it up, looked at the pieces, and then I'd ask questions to Dad or my brother Harry who was 10 years older than myself. I asked some questions, I got some glue and I glued all the parts together, and when I got all the pieces together that was there, there was one piece missing, which would be on the right, the f-hole on the violin, from there back, that piece was missing. So I got a piece of reasonably thin wood, shaped it, glued it in place. So I had the violin all together, there were strings there, but there was no hair on the bow. I was not a person to ask for help, I would only ask questions. They would give me the answers and I would act on those. I said "What goes in this [the bow]?" They said "It's usually hair from a white stallion," like a Siberian stallion because of cold weather the hair is more coarse. If you're to put a horse hair under the microscope it's like sawteeth– that's howcome it will cause the strings to vibrate.. So I was thinkin' to myself "We have a black stallion, and the color probably wouldn't matter." And of course instead of askin' them to go out and perhaps take some hair from his tail, and he had a long tail [3-4 feet long] B It'd be about a 1200 lb. horse – what they called a blood horse back then. He was standing and his tail was close to the edge of the stall. I reached in and grabbed a bunch of hair from his tail. And of course he kicked and that. It was a dangerous thing when I think back cause I was only nine or ten then. I just ripped it out of his tail (laughs). I had to do it quick! So anyway I didn't have enough. It took me about a week or two before that horse would be in that position again. And of course, none of my family knew I was doin' this. So I did it again. And barely got enough, at least to partially fill [the bow]. I got it into the blocking; I didn't know anything about combing it B You're supposed to wet it and comb it so it's not twisted. Anyhow, I got it on B Not one sound when I tried it, not one sound on the fiddle. So I mentioned that to Harry or Dad and they said you have to have rosin on bow, rosin on the hair. So I got lookin' and I saw resin glue or rosin glue. So I rubbed it on and the sound came. As soon as it sounded, Harry says, "Give me that!" So that was my first experience. So it was a little while before I got a chance to pick at it myself, because they were playing it.
