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 30
Scan 30
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
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 14. See the scan on archive.org.
1bad 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 Steiner violins have been brought to me which were ruined in this manner.
3It must excite feelings of the deepest regret in all who entertain a high regard for such perfect masterpieces of art, constructed strictly according to the rules of mathematics, to witness the irreparable loss arising from such mutilation.
5That the foregoing statement is not in the least exaggerated, many will have proved by their own experience; and it is further certain, that there are few towns without either a hautboy-player, fiddler, or town-musician, who
7* 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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