One hundred years ago this week the sensationalist Sydney weekly The World's News was still under-reporting the world's news of the unfolding Great War but delivering tidbits of news of other horrors. For example, what greater horror can there be, for owners/custodians of priceless antique string instruments, than an infestation of woodworm!
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''WORM IN PAGANINI'S VIOLIN
When Niccolo Paganini [1782-1840, the world's greatest violin virtuoso, sometimes suspected of having the Devil's help with his otherwise inexplicably incredible playing] died, he bequeathed his violin, a superb Guarnerius, to his native town of Genoa with instructions that it was to be ''preserved perpetually''.
"But in 1907 fears were entertained that a woodworm was wreaking damage to the instrument, and a special commission of experts was appointed by the Municipialty of Genoa to examine and report on its condition. The commission decided that the woodworm was non-existent.
"But now the presence of the worm is now fully established, and the Genoese are greatly excited lest this memento of one of Genoa's most illustrious sons should be ruined. However it is stated by experts that the worm will not make inroads in a violin which is regularly played, as it is expelled by the constant vibration."
We pass this good advice (that regular playing keeps woodworm at bay) on to the Australian Chamber Orchestra, recent purchasers, for $US1.35 million ($1.44 million), of a Guarnerius violin made in 1714 by a member of the great Cremona, Italy, family of luthers. If the ACO's Guarneri has any woodworm they must have been given a good shaking at the recent ACO concert in the Llewellyn Hall when the instrument was shown off in a worm-worrying sonata by Jean Sibelius.
