Our of stock

Wille Toors - Från logar, skogar, zigenarläger och cirkustält

There is perhaps no-one today who personifies the romantic image of a Fiddler as highly as he does: and no-one who more than he deserves the title of 'Master Fiddler'.

"I started to play the violin when I was around nine. Seemed natural, lots of the people around me played and sang. You heard music on gramophones and the radio then too.

"I was playing for dances by the time I was 12, and the fiddler's shilling jingled in my pockets as I wandered home in the small hours.

"I went to the chap who conducted the Malung orchestra to get those oh-so-valuable basics of classical violin playing. I started in the orchestra when I was 15 and played there for a good many years.

"At the same time I was out almost every weekend with dances, in the local villages, and even in Norway. One period I was playing circus variety shows everywhere from Skåne in the south to Lappland in the north. Another time with gypsies and with a fairground. I started up a magic act, which I still do, along with composing, oil-painting and writing.

"My musical taste is broad, if I say it myself. Even if Paganini, Sarasate, Kreisler and Hubay, along with the great violin concertos are up there at the top, I'm still very interested in oriental music, gypsy music and folk music, as well as lots of different styles in popular music and dance music."

Wille has played 'electric' since the beginning of the 50's and is thus one of the pioneers in that field. After experimenting a while he found that the violins sounds best with a contact mike fastened on the belly, partly with blu-tack, partly with strings of material wrapped round the whole instrument. He damps the bridge with a mute he makes himself from the rubber of a car tyre.

Wille Toors, violin.

list of tunes