Roy Courtnall Summerfield

Roy Courtnall Summerfield is a luthier, author, teacher and lecturer in musical instrument technology, and has worked mainly in the research and construction of the Spanish classical guitar.[1] He is the author of two books: Making Master Guitars (1993)[2] and The Art of Violin Making (1999),[3] both of which are widely used by luthiers[4][5] and cited.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]

Roy Courtnall Summerfield
Roy Courtnall Summerfield, Leicester MusicFest, February 2018.
Born (1953-12-31) 31 December 1953
Cape Town, South Africa
Pen nameRoy Courtnall
OccupationLuthier; Teacher; Author.
LanguageEnglish, French, Chinese, Japanese
ResidenceUnited Kingdom
NationalityBritish
EducationWoodmead School, Johannesburg; Abbotsholme School, Staffordshire
Alma materGoldsmiths College, University of London.
GenresLutherie
SubjectClassical Guitar; Violin
Website
www.guitarmakingcourse.com

Education

Born in Cape Town, South Africa on 31 December 1953, Courtnall is the third of four children. He was educated at St. Stithians College in Johannesburg (1959–68) and South Africa's first multi-racial high school, Woodmead School in Rivonia (1969–71). At the age of 18 he relocated to the United Kingdom, studying for A levels at Abbotsholme School in Derbyshire (1972–73), before attending the University of London Goldsmiths College for a BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art Sculpture. It was during this period that his interest in building stringed musical instruments arose and he adopted Courtnall as a professional name, being a reference to his grandfather who had taught him woodwork as a child.[17] A family background in education was responsible for his interest in teaching guitar making as well as making instruments himself; his mother, Sonia Machanick, was an educational psychologist who founded Japari School, a special school in Johannesburg and his father, Hillel Abbe Shapiro was Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of South Africa.

Career

In 1994, Courtnall was asked by the Newark School of Violin Making[18] in the United Kingdom to write the syllabus and set up a new course in Classical Guitar Making. After an initial intake of twelve students, the course rapidly expanded to become the leading vocational course in guitar making in the United Kingdom, now awarding a BA (Hons) Musical Instrument Craft qualification through the University of Hull. In 2008 he retired from Newark College in order to teach privately.

Courtnall's work was initially focused on understanding and building instruments in the Spanish classical guitar tradition begun by Antonio de Torres during the 19th century and later perfected by Hermann Hauser, Daniel Friederich and Jose Romanillos. More recently however, he has worked closely with the guitarist Rob Johns, to develop a lattice-braced concert guitar, influenced by, but not quite in the same vein as the Australian luthier Greg Smallman.[19]

Publications

Courtnall's first book; Making Master Guitars, is a practical guide and historical summary of leading luthiers of the 19th and 20th centuries, enabling readers to make reasonably close replicas of their instruments. It includes detailed working drawings and plans of guitars by Antonio de Torres, Hermann Hauser, Robert Bouchet, Ignacio Fleta, Santos Hernandez, Hernandez and Aguado, Daniel Friederich and Jose Romanillos. In a review for Classical Guitar magazine, luthiers, Lipkin and Algranati, concluded that Courtnall had "combined the detailed work of the scholar with the practical insights of the craftsman."[20] The book has since been translated into French[21] and Japanese.[22]

His second book, The Art of Violin Making, was co-written with the violin maker Chris Johnson[23] and regarded by The Strad magazine as a "major contribution" to the violin-making bookshelf.[24] It includes a foreword by Lord Yehudi Menuhin, who refers to the book as "Exhaustive in its detailed exposition of the process of construction, conceived as it is, by two disciples of a distinguished English achievement - the Newark School of Violin Making". The book follows a similar format to Making Master Guitars and is closely based on the violin making method taught at the Newark School. It has been translated into Chinese.[25]

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References
  1. "Guitar Making Courses". Guitar Making Courses. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  2. "Making Master Guitars by Roy Courtnall, 9780709048091". www.crowood.com. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  3. "The Art of Violin Making by Chris Johnson and Roy Courtnall, 9780709058762". www.crowood.com. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  4. Bills, Tom. "Making Master Guitars: An Awesome Book Every Luthier Needs!". The Art of Lutherie. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  5. Koehn, Christian. "Luthier Christian Koehn 2017 classical guitar cedar- Germany". Concert Classical Guitar. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  6. Poulopoulos, Panagiotis (2011). "The Guittar in the British Isles, 1750-1810". Martin, Darryl, Myers, Arnold. hdl:1842/5776. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. Zopf, Simone Regina (1 October 2017). "Critical study of the use of a length unit in the design of 16th to 18th century Italian violins". Journal of Cultural Heritage. 27: S26–S33. doi:10.1016/j.culher.2016.04.012. ISSN 1296-2074.
  8. Martin, Darryl (1998). "Innovation and the Development of the Modern Six-String Guitar". The Galpin Society Journal. 51: 86–109. doi:10.2307/842762. JSTOR 842762.
  9. Bower, Rudi (2010). "Between Scylla and Charybdis: a South African perspective on guitar building". Journal of Musical Arts in Africa. 6 (1): 1–33. doi:10.2989/JMAA.2009.6.1.1.1053.
  10. Romanillos, Jose L. (1997). Antonio de Torres, Guitar Maker: His Life and Work. Bold Strummer. ISBN 9780933224933.
  11. Zaczéski, Monicky E.; Beckert, Carlos H.; Barros, Thales G.; Ferreira, Ana L.; Freitas, Thiago C.; Zaczéski, Monicky E.; Beckert, Carlos H.; Barros, Thales G.; Ferreira, Ana L. (2018). "Guitar: acoustic, structural and historical aspects". Revista Brasileira de Ensino de Física. 40 (1). doi:10.1590/1806-9126-rbef-2017-0192. ISSN 1806-1117.
  12. Stroeker, Roel J. (2017). "On the Shape of a Violin" (PDF). Mathematics Magazine. 88, 4 (4): 247–259. doi:10.4169/math.mag.88.4.247. S2CID 59067846.
  13. French, Richard Mark (16 May 2012). Technology of the Guitar. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9781461419211.
  14. Katz, Mark (9 February 2006). The Violin: A Research and Information Guide. Routledge. ISBN 9781135576950.
  15. Cattani, Gino; Dunbar, Roger L. M.; Shapira, Zur (30 July 2012). "Value Creation and Knowledge Loss: The Case of Cremonese Stringed Instruments" (PDF). Organization Science. 24 (3): 813–830. doi:10.1287/orsc.1120.0768. S2CID 18024862.
  16. Bucur, Voichita (29 August 2016). Handbook of Materials for String Musical Instruments. Springer. ISBN 9783319320809.
  17. Interview with Courtnall Summerfield, 12 December 2017.
  18. "Musical Instrument Craft | Lincoln College". www.lincolncollege.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  19. Lecture given by Courtnall Summerfield at Leicester MusicFest, 12 February 2018.
  20. Lipkin and Algranati (August 1994). "Review: Making Master Guitars by Roy Courtnall". Classical Guitar.
  21. Roy., Courtnall (2000). La fabrication des guitares classiques : méthode espagnole. Dourdan: Vial. ISBN 978-2851010339. OCLC 407424925.
  22. Meikingu masuta gita : Gita no meiki to sono seisakuho shosetsu. Courtnall, Roy., Takigawa, Katsuo., 滝川, 勝雄. 現代ギター社. November 2003. ISBN 978-4874713587. OCLC 959782255.CS1 maint: others (link)
  23. Johnson, Chris. "Chris Johnson - Violin maker". Chris Johnson - Violin maker. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
  24. Milnes, John (July 1999). "The Art of Violin Making, Chris Johnson and Roy Courtnall ISBN 0-7090-5876-4, 254PP £80, ROBERT HALE LTD, LONDON". The Strad. 110, 1311: 775.
  25. Xiao ti qin zhi zuo yi shu. Yue han xun., Kao te nuo er., Jiang he fan., Jiang yun., 约翰逊., 考特诺尔. Bei jing: Ren min yin le chu ban she. 2003. ISBN 9787103025925. OCLC 301895868.CS1 maint: others (link)
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