Scan 66
Chats to violin students on how to study the violin, 1895
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 52. See the scan on archive.org.
1the varnish, in all of which (especially with regard to the latter), the superiority of the old Italian maker is unmistakably apparent.
3The violin is composed of some sixty parts, and each has its position, shape, and size in relation to all the others in order to produce harmonious vibrations throughout the whole instrument. The wood must be well seasoned and of a certain thickness. Patient trials and untiring perseverance till the right piece has been obtained are absolutely necessary. The wood chiefly used is pine and maple, and the grain of the wood is followed in different directions in different parts of the instrument. Some competent judges suggest that the sweet and mellow tones of the early specimens of some of the Amati, Maggini, and Stradivari instruments, as compared to the greater power and intensity, combined with the above qualities of the later violins by the same makers, may be due to the backs of the earlier specimens having been cut with the grain of the wood running from side to side, whereas the later ones have the backs cut from wood with a vertical grain. The sound post has been called the soul of the violin, as it increases and intensifies all vibration, and seems almost to confer that effect of spiritual beatitude so characteristic of the violin. There is much individuality and character in the scroll and f holes of the violin, those of the Joseph Guarnerius being specially remarkable and, in some cases, eccentric.
5Gaspard da Salo, who worked in Brescia about 1520, is, as far as we can judge, the earliest maker, and to
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