STEVE BURNETT VIOLIN MAKER

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The Siegfried Sassoon violin has been newly completed in 2017 to join The Wilfred Owen

Violin (completed in August 2014), marking a historic literary meeting a century ago.

Both violins are created in honour of the WW1 poets and their lost generation. Together,

they are symbolic of Peace, Reconciliation and Harmony, through the power of music. 

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The two violins come from the same humble branch, pruned from a Sycamore tree that

still grows in the grounds of Craiglockhart, Edinburgh. The violins' back wood were both

cut from the branch in a fashion that represented opening the branch wood up like a

book, giving poignant artistic gesture, reflecting the poets. 

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The Siegfried Sassoon violin was purposefully designed and fashioned to have a broader, darker tone than Owen Violin. This was to represent the difference in characters of the two men. The roles of the two violins in duet are clear; the Sassoon is more gregarious and outspoken in tonal character but also offers support and direction in its accompanying duetting role opposite the Owen. The Sassoon's tone is fuller in the lower registers, to fill out the sound when the two play but it also possesses a powerful lyrical belcanto treble section. 

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In life Sassoon was a mentor to Owen, a kind of father figure. Their meeting was certainly a catalyst to Owen's flourishing poetic style, which really came together at Craiglockhart through that historical meeting a century ago this month (August 2017).