Scan 207
Antonio Stradivari, his life and work (1644-1737), 1909
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 183. See the scan on archive.org.
1treated with colourless varnish, the difficulty of producing fine tone would be very greatly diminished, as the addition of many and various injurious colouring substances, or the artificial staining of the wood (at times accomplished by the use of acids) in order to please the eye, in the one case mars what would be a varnish favourable for tone, and in the other adversely affects the material from which the instrument is made. In fact, tone is, and has been, though often unintentionally, sacrificed by many through seeking to gratify the taste for mere outward appearance. The great effect wrought by gradual exposure to subdued light, and by the influence of time, is not sufficiently taken into account when the ordinary observer compares the newly varnished work with the old. As well try to change quickly new wine into old as try to obtain in a short time the richly matured and soft-toned appearance which age alone can impart to perfectly varnished violins.
3Could we have seen the most brilliant works of Italian violin-makers fresh from their hands, we should have been not a little surprised by their bright and unsubdued aspect; nay, in many instances, notably with regard to some of the violins of Joseph Guarnerius, we should have been struck by their positively crude appearance. The conditions for ultimately ensuring a fine appearance were certainly there; but to the wonder-working effects of time and use, and to these alone, we unhesitatingly attribute all that charms us now. That the more ambitious of modern makers should have sought to rival the productions of the old masters in external appearance is readily conceivable—however injudicious at times their procedure—when we bear in mind the popular demand for a thing of beauty. An ugly or even plain instrument, though excellent in tone, is again and again rejected. Many
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