Books › A treatise on the structure and preservation of the violin and all other bow-instruments; together with an account of the most celebrated makers, and of the genuine characteristics of their instruments;, 1860 › scan 36
Scan 36
A treatise on the structure and preservation of the violin and all other bow-instruments; together with an account of the most celebrated makers, and of the genuine characteristics of their instruments;, 1860
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 14. See the scan on archive.org.
1This would be impossible, from the very nature of the case. Many musicians and amateurs who possess good (though, certainly, not very old) instruments, have not the patience to wait until they gradually improve by use and careful treatment, but intrust them to bad instrument-makers or itinerant workmen. In this occupation, one Kirschschlag and others of the same class, who could no longer prosper as musicians, travelled through most of the towns of Germany, about thirty years ago. They wished to bring in the true "Zirkelschlag"* which the great Italian and German makers had neglected. But these men, whatever may have been their merit as instrumental performers, were totally unacquainted with mathematics, acoustics, or physics, and altogether inexperienced in the art of making instruments. Still, however, many people were defrauded of their money by these corrupt musical quacks or fault-finders, whose skill consisted in scraping out the wood, putting in much stronger bass-bars, and the like refinements, which threw the instruments completely out of their mathematical proportions, and entirely spoiled them. More than a hundred instances of this kind have fallen under my own observation. Even genuine Cremonese and
3violin judges and others in Frankfort-on-the-Maine, by a collection of old violins and some of his own manufacture. He is said to be able to imitate the old Italian violins in the most illusive manner, and in an incommunicable way to inoculate his instruments, as it were, with the very character of the tone of each master he professes to follow."—Tr.
5* By the term Zirkelschlag I understand the cutting away the wood in the back and belly according to circles described on them; for further particulars of which, see Appendix, No. I, and illustrative figures. It may also include the circular arc drawn and cut out as a pattern for the convexity. See Fig. 2 of the illustrations.—Tr.
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