Scan 52
Georg Gemünder's Progress In Violin Making 1881, 1881
12 lines. Read by computer on 19 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1and violoncellos, these being constructed and put together in the same way as violins. Tenors are often made out of the so called Viole d'Amore; but these instruments, from their construction, are peculiar for a soft and weak tone. Tenors which are made out of Viole di Gamba have a nasal tone, like a violoncello, and are therefore, at the most, only useful for quartetts.*
3Should any alteration or repair be required when no experienced workman is at hand, the professor or amateur will at least have the satisfaction of knowing that, by scrupulously attending to the previous remarks, his instrument cannot be spoiled.
5It is much to be regretted that all violin-makers are not likewise good players, and able properly to try their instruments, instead of being obliged to appeal to musicians for their opinion of their workmanship: for how different are the tastes of musical men, and by what prejudices are they biassed! One considers an instrument particularly good when it has been worked out very thin, and feels light in the
7into the small end of the peg, presses a little plate of metal firmly against the outside of the peg-box; the peg itself being first cut just below the level of the outside of the box before the screw is inserted.—Tr.
9* The Viola d'Amore was somewhat larger than a tenor, and originally mounted with twelve or fourteen strings, the half of which were of metal, and passed under the bridge and finger-board to the pegs. These were so placed merely to augment the tone by their sympathetic sound, being tuned in unison with the gut and covered strings, which rested on the bridge, and were played by the bow. Subsequently these metal strings were discarded, and, in the first quarter of the last century, Mattheson states that the instrument had only five strings, of which the four lower were covered.
11The Viola di Gamba was nearly as large as a violoncello. It was mounted with six, and sometimes even with seven strings, and had a peculiarly nasal tone.—Tr.
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