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, 1875 › scan 29
Scan 29
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, 1875
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1name; which, as he followed his father's system, but was better acquainted with the quality of wood, are far preferable to those made by him. In their exterior arrangement (Aptirung), however, they all require the hand of a skilful workman; for, in the state in which he left them, they are unfit for use.
3But even if these makers had worked with the same care, and possessed the same skill as we find displayed in the construction of the genuine Cremonese and Steiner's violins, still their instruments would not be equal, for the first year or two, to a Cremonese or Steiner which had been used for upwards of a century.* This 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
5* The use, and not the mere age of the instrument is the point here insisted on by Otto, as may be seen from a subsequent remark at p. 47; and in reference to the skill of the workman, Mackintosh, before-mentioned, declares that, by following out his theory, respecting the pores of the wood, "it is not only possible to manufacture a good violin with certainty," but by minutely attending to the instructions, as given by him, "a peculiar quality of tone can be effected," which, he says, he states from experience. Savart. too, is equally certain that excellent violins may be made by attending to the results of his experiments, as given in No. III. of the Appendix. If all this be true, it may serve in some measure to account for the following statement, translated from the Leipzig Allgem. Mus. Zeitung, XLIV., p. 380—1842:—"The instrument-maker, Darche, of Aachen, has attracted the attention of violin 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.
7† According to Abele (see Die Violine, p. 158), it requires from thirty to forty years' playing on a violin to bring it to perfection.—Tr.
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