Books › Notice of Anthony Stradivari, the celebrated violin-maker, known by the name of Stradivarius:, 1864 › scan 54
Scan 54
Notice of Anthony Stradivari, the celebrated violin-maker, known by the name of Stradivarius:, 1864
7 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 32. See the scan on archive.org.
1was frequently superseded by the monochord, or by the trumpet marine, the body of which was a pentagonal cone greatly elongated, on which was set a deal belly or sound-board. The single string of this instrument was tightened by a spring screw (tourniquet à ressort) and rested on a bridge, the feet of which were of unequal length. The sounds [which were harmonics] were formed [by lightly pressing the string] with the thumb of the left hand. The bow was greatly curved, and had a large nut which the musician held in his right hand reversed*.
3The other class of bow-instruments, which consisted of a sonorous chest formed of a back and belly united by slender ribs, called sides, which were contracted about the middle of their length, like the body of a guitar; this class, I say, the type of which lies in the crouth tri-thant of the sixth century, and which has been designated by the names of vielle and viole (viol), belongs to a more advanced art ("ein ander Art," says Agricola)†. It is thus that, in India, the sarungies, the saroh and the chikara, with four or five gut strings, constructed with much elegance and finish by Gun Pat and Mahamdou, who are the Stradivarius and Guarnerius of Benares, differ essentially from the ravanastron and the omerti, and belong to a more refined art. It is thus, also, that the kemângeh roumy with four or six strings, in use in Persia,
5* The bow was placed on the string between the performer and his hand, instead of between his left hand and the bridge.—Tr.
6† The necessity for this quotation from Agricola is by no means obvious, as the German word Art never signifies that which is understood by this combination of letters in French or English; to express which the word Kunst would be used.—Tr.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.