Scan 45
Musical Courier 1891-05-13: Vol 22 Iss 586, 1891
48 lines. Read by computer on 19 September 2026. Printed page 512. See the scan on archive.org.
1Extraordinary Fiddles.
2[From the London "Telegraph."]
4It would be curious to ascertain the opinions of collectors of musical instruments as to what is considered to be, or to have been, the most extraordinary fiddle in the world. Some experts might give their votes in favor of the lute with which Orpheus charmed the brutes and won back Eurydice from Tartarus; but there is an uncertainty among the cognoscenti as to whether the instrument from which the classic minstrel evoked his ravishing music was a violin, lyre or harp. Paganini's fiddle was undeniably a most wonderful instrument, or, at least, the accomplished artist was able to do some very marvelous things with it; but the superstitious Southern Italians always declared that there was a fiend imprisoned in its interior, and that to his wailing supplications for freedom were due the now pathetic and now furious chords conjured up by the master's bow.
6These were either fabulous or legendary fiddles; but, from the point of view of eccentricity of structure, the jury of experts might perhaps decide that the most extraordinary instrument of the viol kind as yet submitted to public notice was a double bass which formed the subject matter of a lawsuit just decided at the Leigh County Court. The plaintiff's claim was for tuition in manufacturing violins and in playing upon them when made, and according to the plaintiff's showing the defendant had profited to a remarkable extent by the lessons which he had received. It is stated that he succeeded, after three weeks' sedulous labor, in fabricating a double bass which had a glue pot in its interior and a cart shaft for a neck, affixed, by the way, at the wrong end of the instrument—a drawback which might, perhaps, have been diminished had the performer stood on his head while he played. The strings to this singular double bass were the discarded catgut ropes of an eight day clock, and the size of the portentous instrument, when completed, was so vast that the doorway of the room proved too narrow to allow this wonder of the world to be taken from its seclusion and exhibited in the open.
8Why, however, it may be asked, was not the doorway enlarged to a sufficient extent to permit this almost incredibly corpulent double bass to pass? When the steamship Great Britain was ready for launching at Bristol it was found that she was too big for the dock in which she had been built, and a considerable quantity of brick wall had to be pulled down before the unwieldy craft could take to the water. We are not even informed whether the County Court judge at Leigh visited the monster fiddle in the studio where it had been erected; but in justice to the defendant it must be stated that he altogether denied having derived any benefit whatsoever from the plaintiff's instruction in the art either of making or playing the double bass. He conceived that he had an inborn genius as a fiddle maker, and had practiced that art, the knowledge of which he seems to have evolved—as the German draughtsman did the camel—from his internal consciousness some five or six years before he knew the plaintiff.
10Now, it seems to be universally admitted that such a quality as an inherent gift for playing on musical instruments does really exist. The almost infant fingers of Mozart struck spontaneous chords on the spinet, and the young Irish gentleman, when he was asked whether he could play the violin, replied that he did not know, but that he dared say he could if he tried. Who shall gainsay the young Irish gentleman? The members of the Salvation Army, it is well known, need no instruction in instrumental music. They find it as easy to play as to sing a hymn, and, given a state of grace, the big drum, the accordion, the tambourine, and even the loud bassoon come quite natural to them. If fiddle playing may be a gift, why not fiddle making? History tells of a certain maker and performer on spinets, organs, viols and violins who flourished at Warbeck, in Flanders, toward the end of the sixteenth century, who was called Martin Chastelan, and was born blind. It must be admitted that the circumstance of there being a glue pot in the stomach of the extraordinary double bass is somewhat perplexing.
12Was the glue pot—fertile cause of conflagration in cathedrals and in theatres—accidentally left in the abdomen of the extraordinary fiddle or placed there by design? In Australia it is said to be occasionally necessary to pour a pailful of boiling water into the interior of a piano before it is played upon, the object of the hot bath being to kill the snakes and the white ants which may be lying "perdus" in the instrument. It may be that the inside of the wonderful fiddle was troubled with black beetles or Canadian bugs, or some other insects habitually incident to timber, and that the idea of the heaven born "luthier" was to attract the noxious creatures to the glue and fix them there; but then glue has a habit of drying up. Would not a pot of treacle have served the artist better? In deciding on the merits of the case the learned judge observed that the balance of evidence was in favor of the hypothesis that the plaintiff had not "instructed" the defendant in the art of making violins; but as regards the question of the tuition given in playing on the fiddle his honor took a different view, and he gave judgment for the plaintiff for £3 16s., allowing 3s. 6d. on a counter claim for work done.
14If it be permissible to read between the lines of a judicial decision, it might be thought that the learned judge at Leigh was speaking somewhat ironically when he absolved the defendant from the responsibility of paying for instruction in the art of manufacturing violins, and that his own private opinion was that a double bass would be all the better for not having a glue pot in its inside, and for having its neck, whether made from a cart shaft or otherwise, at the right instead of the wrong end of the instrument. Still, had the defendant been learned in the history of the fiddle he might have read in Jean Jacques Rousseau a statement that the ancient Egyptians had a violin with two horsehair strings, played upon by a bow strung with the same material, and supported on the ground by a tall iron peg or rest. What was this but a neck fixed the wrong way? Unluckily, however, it happens that Jean Jacques was somewhat too enthusiastic in his admiration of the violin to be accepted as a perfectly trustworthy authority on the question. For example, he thought that Adam might have played upon the violin, and that from the father of mankind the instrument descended to Noah, from whom it came down to the Egyptians. There are others who hold that the "crwth" of the ancient Britons was in reality a fiddle played upon with a bow, and that the harp was a much later invention, the Cambrian harpers having surrendered the fiddle in compliment to the Scotch.
16The plain fact would seem to be that there are fiddles and fiddles, and that stringed and bowed instruments have existed among nearly all nations, civilized or barbarous, from the very remotest antiquity. Bowditch, in his "Mission to Ashantee," tells of a native African fiddle made from a calabash, over which was strained a piece of deer skin, having two large sound holes, one string of cow hair, and a bow similarly strung. Sir Austin Layard describes the Bedouins who attended him chanting verses to the monotonous tones of a one stringed fiddle made of a gourd covered with sheep skin; while Prince Youssoupov, in his "Luthomographie," relates having met with wandering orchestras of Persians, Turks and Armenians playing on instruments of the violin class, but without its tone or regular form, being commonly made of half gourds or of pieces of wood hollowed out, covered with pieces of bladder, and having three or four strings. In the "Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses," mention is made of a Chinese violin with three silken strings; and Sir Joseph Banks saw a fiddle in Iceland with four copper strings and frets.
18Possibly, could the heaven born "luthier" of Leigh only get his double bass out of the too exiguous studio in which he built it, and go on tour with the product of his genius, he might achieve very brilliant success. The meaning of the glue pot in the centre of the instrument might be explained, and the position of the cart shaft neck at the bottom instead of the top of the machine amply vindicated. Although the fiddle is in the enjoyment at the present moment of universal popularity, and lady violinists are almost as numerous and as accomplished as male executants, a new sort of double bass, played upon by a self taught Dragonetti might create a furor among the connoisseurs. If this extraordinary fiddle had only been produced in the days of the Sultan Mahmoud, and taken to Constantinople, its triumph would have been assured.
20The Padishah in question engaged an orchestra of Italian instrumentalists, conducted by Mr. Donizetti, the brother of the famous composer of the "Puritani." When the Sultan's new band played for the first time before His Majesty, they tried for full two hours to soothe the Caliph's ears with selections from the works of all the great Italian and German composers. But their labor was in vain. The Sultan Mahmoud only yawned and scowled; and in the time of the formidable destroyer of the Janissaries a fiddler whose feats with his bow failed to please was in danger of having his neck encircled by a bowstring of a different kind. Their instruments being exhausted by long exertion, the fiddlers took to tuning their violins again, with the usual horribly discordant results. "Mashallah!" exclaimed the Commander of the Faithful; "that is indeed a tune! Let the Giaours play it again," which they did. Probably the adagio to Mozart's quartet in C, or Händel's "Spara si mio caro," would fetch the musical world, satiated with Wagner and yearning for new sensations, were the melodies developed from a gigantic double bass with an inverted neck and a glue pot in its inside.
22New Publications.
24RECEIPT is herewith acknowledged of the following new musical publications:
26NOVELLO, EWER & CO., LONDON AND NEW YORK.
27Six easy voluntaries for the organ………..Kate Loder.
28Five songs with piano accompaniment from Sullivan's "Ivanhoe." (Chappell & Co., London, publishers.)
29CLAYTON F. SUMMY, CHICAGO.
30"At Last My Queen," song………………F. Siebmann.
31"To Woo," song………………………..Mary Willard
32"Like Breath of Spring," song………….Horace Ellis.
33Songs………………………………….Vittorio Carpi.
34"The Clang of the Forge," English song……………………………P. Rodney.
35Summy's octavo editions:
36(Part songs for mixed voices)………….Horace Ellis and W. F. Heath.
37(Sacred series—anthem)…………………Horace Ellis.
39They Don't.
41WE have been requested to reply to the following postal note inquiry:
43GLOVERSVILLE, April 27, 1891.
44Please let me know at once who makes the Marchall & Smith piano and oblige
45Yours truly,
46ED. TIETZ.
47They don't make it. They buy their pianos and organs and call them Marchall & Smith. That is stenciling. The pianos are stencils in consequence. This paper believes that such a practice is wrong and misleading. The other music trade papers think it is correct. The trade appears to agree with this paper.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.