Scan 62
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.
1sense of duty to my children, and shall merely notice the progressive changes in the tone.
3When a new violin is first strung, the tone is clear, harmonious, and easily produced; but, after exercising it for eight days, in the manner described above, it becomes harsh, and offensive to the ear, so that the instrument seems as if it would never be fit to be heard again; (in this second stage, perhaps the greatest number of instruments are spoiled, from the want of patience in the possessor, by scraping out the wood, changing the bass-bar, and other fancies; those, also, which are too weak in the wood, now become bad, and do not improve afterwards—they never reach the third stage:)
5bow applied, with both hands, on the D and G strings, which are to be sounded together for a quarter of an hour; and then proceed in like manner with the other open strings. In this way all the other fifths are to be brought out; in order to do which, the silk cord must be used as an artificial nut, by passing it between the strings and the finger-board, and first binding it precisely over the stroke answering to B flat. The fifths A flat and E flat, E flat and B flat, B flat and F, being thus prepared, each of them must be sounded for a quarter of an hour, as before."
7"The cord is then to be bound a semitone higher, and the sounding proceeded with until the fifths C sharp and G sharp, G sharp and D sharp, D sharp and A sharp are arrived at, when all the semitones occurring in the different major and minor keys will have been brought out."
9"By this method, a new violin can be so improved, in two or three months' time, as to produce a fine, sweet, and powerful tone—fit for concert use; and it will then be worth twice as much as it was before."
11In order to ensure the most complete success in this matter, it is obviously requisite to exercise the utmost care in selecting the strings, and in applying them to the instrument: for, as nearly all strings are somewhat thinner at one end than at the other, unless the thinner ends of the two adjacent strings are mounted on the instrument in the same direction, perfectly true fifths are unobtainable in all parallel positions on the finger-board. To assist the performer in the choice of perfectly equal strings throughout their length, an instrument called a Phonoscope was made some years ago, by König, of Paris, and which is said to have been very successful.—Tr.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.