Books › Modern violin-playing, 1920 › scan 116
Scan 116
Modern violin-playing, 1920
14 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 56. See the scan on archive.org.
1prevent rattling near the stopping-place. Changes in climate often cause it to warp, and so to straighten. And the finger-board, thus straightened, has to be planed back to its proper curve. To test this point, stop the string near the nut with the nail, while the right-hand does the same at the end of the finger-board. The string should ring clear, when plucked.
3Cheap repairs, like cheap strings, are an abomination. Yet the honest fiddle-doctor—who, of course, charges his price—is in a way a benefactor to the race of musicians. For, unlike the ordinary doctor of human bodies, he can keep the vital spark glowing for centuries in his patients. The number of such wizards in the whole world can probably be counted on the fingers of two hands. And if we were further to restrict the list to those whose honesty would compel them to pronounce the verdict "dead" on a violin that is dead, we fear that the fingers of one hand would be more than enough.
5However, these honest wizards do exist. And, as we have testified to their existence, we may be forgiven for adding a few words of caution to the young violinist. Never buy an old instrument that is patched under the sound-post. No matter what you are told, you will be laying up trouble for yourself. The patch may indicate only weakness. On the other hand, it may be concealing an actual crack. Every change in the weather affects a violin thus patched. And from day to day you will never know whether it will be in playing-condition or hoarse, shrill, and scratchy.
7If you can pay for Cremona or Brescia in good preservation, by all means pay for it, and live happily ever afterwards. But, whether you can or can not pay, it is far better for your temper and your musical health to play on a good modern violin that is intact, than to be at the mercy of a decrepit old bi-centenarian that is cracked and lined, toneless from age, and (for your purposes) a musical paralytic.
9When you choose a bow, do not demand too much elasticity. It is generally found only at the cost of strength. Reject any bow that gives sideways.
11The idea that a bow is of vast importance is nonsense. Any one that is strong and reasonably elastic is good enough to play with. The player is responsible for what comes out of the violin—not the bow.
13Yet it is a common sight, at a violin dealer's, to see players trying dozens of bows before making up their minds to purchase one. Sometimes they swish them through the air, as if they were jockeys, and meant to use them for horse-racing. At other times they bounce them
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