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 44
Scan 44
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
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 22. See the scan on archive.org.
1indeed, it is an acknowledged truth, that an instrument which is thick in the wood possesses a much finer tone than one which has been scooped out.
3But there is no doubt that many of these instruments have been greatly damaged; for as they are constructed very flat and thick in the wood, on acoustic principles, and have a weak and rather short bass-bar, it has happened with many of them that the belly, on the side of the G string, has sunk in a little; or, when they have been tuned too high, it has risen on the opposite side, under the E string. Really great artists regard this slight defect as the natural consequence of age, and in no respect detrimental to the tone; but amateurs, desirous of making improvements where none at all are required, have had their violins taken to pieces on account of the above-mentioned circumstance, and by the insertion of long and heavy bass-bars checked the accurately calculated vibration*. Yet, even in this
5* It is certain that the bass-bars were as accurately proportioned, by the great makers Straduarius and Guarnerius, as all the other parts of their instruments; but the excessive rise in the musical pitch which has taken place since the commencement of the eighteenth century, and especially since Otto first published his book, appears to leave us only the alternative either of suffering the ultimate destruction of valuable violins, or of giving them somewhat stronger bass-bars, so as to resist, in an efficient manner, the greatly increased pressure of the strings.
7The celebrated Tartini found by experiment, in 1734, that the pressure of the four strings on the belly of the violin was equal to a weight of 63 pounds, and the strings were then thinner and the bridge less elevated than at present; so that the angle formed by the strings was considerably less than it is now. Five-and-twenty years ago, the first string required a weight equal to 22 pounds, in order to bring it up to pitch; the second string required rather more than 20 pounds, and the other two a little less. The total pressure was then about 80 pounds; the pitch having risen a semitone since 1734, the strings being also thicker, and the angle formed by them upon the bridge being more
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