Books › Old violins, 1905 › scan 186
Scan 186
Old violins, 1905
8 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 166. See the scan on archive.org.
1indeed, have given him his fine sense of delicate and exact proportions, but it is still remarkable that examinations of the diameter of Tourte bows in different places give uniform results. The bows swell or taper in the same place, and as the air columns in the violins of Strad give the same note, so do the bows of Tourte yield the same proportions, which it has not been found safe or expedient to depart from.
3Violin bows may be smaller or larger, i.e. shorter or longer, as far as I can see, without any detriment to Tourte's principle; children, women, and exceptionally long armed men may have to use them, but the proportions, the wood, the balance, even the mechanique, must be left as Tourte left them—perfect.
5The one point in mechanique in which the invention of F. B. Vuillaume may be thought to have improved upon Tourte is in his fixed nut for viola, tenor, or violoncello bows. This consists of a metal nut, which alone is moved by the screw up and down inside the main nut, which remains rigid; thus the length of the hair exposed for playing always remains the same.
7The only other original maker of the first rank and excellence, who has been nicknamed the English Tourte, was John Dodd. He was born in 1752, and lived chiefly at Kew, and there he was buried. He was always out at elbows, even when his reputation was at its height. Poor Dodd had his friends and admirers. He was his own worst enemy; he was undersized in stature, and walked with a shuffling gait. He wore his clothes until
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