Scan 302
Antonio Stradivari, his life and work (1644-1737), 1909
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 274. See the scan on archive.org.
1lately had a sort of fiddle mania upon me, brought on by trying and comparing different Stainers and Cremonas, etc. I believe I have got possession of a sweet Stradivari, which I play upon with much more pleasure than my Stainer, partly because the tone is sweeter, mellower, rounder, and partly because the stop is longer. My Stainer is undersized, and on that account less valuable, though the tone is as bright, piercing and full as that of any Stainer I have ever heard. Yet, when I take it up after the Stradivari, it sets my teeth on edge. The tone comes out plump all at once; there is a comfortable reserve of tone in the Stradivari, and it bears pressure, and you may draw upon it for almost as much tone as you please. I think I shall bring it to town with me, and then you shall hear it. It is a battered, shattered, cracky, resinous old blackguard, but if every bow that ever crossed its strings from its birth had been sugared instead of resined, more sweetness could not come out of its belly."
3At the opening of last century Stradivari's transcendent merit was being widely proclaimed. The Abbé Sibire, an intimate friend and admirer of Nicolas Lupot, from whom he is understood to have received the information incorporated in his charming little book entitled, "La Chélonomie, ou le Parfait Luthier," published at Paris in 1806, expresses the prevailing sentiment there when he writes: "Antoine Stradivarius! À ce nom auguste et vénérable je m'incline profondément devant le patriarche des luthiers." With but few exceptions, all the notable players of the day had acquired and were playing upon his instruments; amongst others, La Houssaie, Kreutzer, Rode, Baillot, Habeneck, Lafont and Bouchet; in England, Viotti, Mori, Kiesewetter, Loder, Salamon, Libon, Raimondi, Cotton Reeve and Alday. The violin-makers, equally impressed, threw over their lingering Stainer-Amati sympathies, some not with-
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