Books › Notice of Anthony Stradivari, the celebrated violin-maker, known by the name of Stradivarius:, 1864 › scan 110
Scan 110
Notice of Anthony Stradivari, the celebrated violin-maker, known by the name of Stradivarius:, 1864
6 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 88. See the scan on archive.org.
1of Stradivarius and Guarnerius for the height of the sides of violins, in order to put the sound of the mass of air in harmonic relation with that of the back and belly.
3The bar glued under the belly of the violin, on the left of the bridge, is now too weak in the old instruments, particularly in those of Stradivarius and Guarnerius: in all of them it has been found necessary to replace it by a stronger one. But we must not conclude that these masters were mistaken in this part of their work: they proportioned the bar to the pressure of the strings on the belly, conformably to the pitch of their day. Tartini found, by experiments made in 1734, that the pressure of the four strings on the instrument was equal to 63 pounds. It must be observed that the strings of Tartini were smaller than those with which violins are now mounted, and that his bridge was lower, so that the angle formed by the strings was considerably less. Twenty years ago,* the first string required a weight of 22 pounds in order to bring it up to pitch, and the other strings a little less; so that the total pressure was, then, about 80 pounds. After 1734, the pitch was raised a semitone, the instruments were mounted with thicker strings, and the angle which they formed on the bridge was more acute: hence the necessity of re-barring the violins. Since then, so excessive has been the rise in pitch, through the craving for a brilliant sonority, that there is nearly a difference of a semitone between the pitch of 1830 and that of 1856.
5* This was written by M. Fétis in 1855.—Tr.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.