Scan 177
Joseph Guarnerius, his work and his master [Andreas Gisalberti], 1906
12 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 109. See the scan on archive.org.
1gaze of what we will now suppose to be his fairly numerous patrons.
3The direction in which this was located, however, seemed quite plain to him, and the road straight enough. There was no turning aside or retracing his steps in order to find fresh paths or commence the exploration of fresh regions in the hope of possibly higher attainments in respect of beautiful form; he had chosen one course, which he confidently expected would eventually bring to view the long-sought-for realization of his hopes.
5This was on the line of simplicity. Doubtless he had seen going on all around sufficiently numerous and similar efforts made by contemporaries and deceased masters in his line, but without being disheartened.
7We have no records of any peculiar system or the manner in which the many masters of the art of Cremona and other violin centres were trained; it seems scarcely possible that the highest standard of excellence among the liutaros there was reached by the casual admission into their ranks of youths who happened eventually to exhibit great talent or genius for the branch of the fine arts to which they had been introduced by their parents or guardians.
9Two stories come to my mind of liutaros of assumed sufficient natural talent to dispense with any tuition—self-taught men in fact, but their works give sufficiently strong hints that they were trained in the usual way, and displayed in their early works, one of them certainly, the characteristics of their master and the school to which he belonged. One of these instances is that of the first of the Gaglianos, Alessandro, of whom it had been related that having acted contrary to the laws of the place wherein he resided, he fled to a forest, where he amused himself with making violins.
11Now the violin, simple as it is in structure and mechanism, is not to be made off-hand in a forest with any rough knife to hand; it poses as a work of art as well as a musical instrument, and must be carefully built in convenient premises with suitable appliances
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