Scan 214
Antonio Stradivari, his life and work (1644-1737), 1909
9 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 190. See the scan on archive.org.
1practical experience had tested various methods of work and thus, in our opinion, were the main problems of construction slowly, but surely, solved. Each generation added its link to the chain, and Stradivari finally welded the whole together.
3Nothing is more likely than that Stradivari often came into contact with, and heard the opinions of, the different musicians of his day, who then, as now, frequently visited the violin-makers' shops: for instance, J. B. Volumier* visited Cremona in 1715, and remained there for three months, until the instruments ordered from Stradivari by the King of Poland† were finished. That a large part of this time was passed in the violin-maker's shop, we may be sure. Again, Hart mentions that Visconti, a distinguished violinist, follower of Corelli, is said to have offered his advice to the master upon the construction of his instruments. These players were, we must bear in mind, at that time in possession of instruments varying in age from a hundred to a hundred and fifty years, and criticism must of course have been freely expressed with regard to the differences of tone of the various instruments—those of Gasparo, of Maggini, of the Amatis, and of others of the Brescian and Cremonese schools.
5These simple but practical views will not, we fear, carry much weight with those who in the present, as in the past, have sought to represent Stradivari as an almost superhuman worker, taking every fresh step—be it change of form, of model, of proportions or material—only after mature reflection and calculation. Much has been written, and various more or less ingenious theories, based on
7* Jean Baptiste Volumier was Musical Director to Augustus, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. He resided at Dresden, and directed the Court Music in that city from the year 1706 until 1728, the year of his death.
8† Arisi MS., "The Violin" (G. Hart).
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