Books › Modern violin-playing, 1920 › scan 65
Scan 65
Modern violin-playing, 1920
18 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 31. See the scan on archive.org.
1CHAPTER IV
3THE RIGHT-HAND: THEORY
5Our theoretical chapter on the left-hand was divided into two parts—a first, which dealt with the wrong ways of doing things; and a second, which put forward the right way. We propose to follow the same arrangement in this theoretical chapter on the right-hand.
7The student is, no doubt, aware that inside his violin there is a sound-post; and that that sound-post is carefully fitted to resist the downward pressure on the belly of the violin caused by the tension of the strings.
9The amount of this pressure, again, is determined by the height of the bridge, which is cut to give the greatest possible resonance to the back and belly. With too low a bridge there is too little pressure, and consequently too much resonance of the upper and lower plates. The result is a big hollow tone. With too high a bridge there is too much pressure, and consequently a lack of free vibration on the part of the plates. The result is a small hard tone.
11The function of the bow is to set the strings in vibration by means of friction. And this vibration is conveyed through the bridge and sound-post, and so communicated to the air in the body of the instrument. The violin is, in fact, a hollow resonating box; and the sound waves that come direct to the ear from its four strings are only a small part of its total effect.1 The sound-waves, however, owe their length, and therefore their carrying-power, to the speed of the bow.
13The student's attention must here be drawn to two words which are, so to speak, the two opposing factions, the Montagues and the Capulets, in the art of tone-production, the words "pressure" and "contact." For the main business of this chapter is to show him: (1) that a good tone is impossible when pressure is improperly exerted with the bow; and (2) that it is only possible when the contact between hair and strings is properly adjusted.
15Let us look into this difference a little more closely.
171 For greater detail on this point, see page 304 of Orchestration by Cecil Forsyth (Macmillan).
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.