Books › Old violins, 1905 › scan 190
Scan 190
Old violins, 1905
8 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 170. See the scan on archive.org.
1hair touching the string with a continuous pressure, so that it receives in reality a succession of tiny shocks. This is what renders the succession of vibrations so rapid as to sound continuous.
3Without rosin, the violin, in spite of strings and bow, and the art of all Cremona, would be mute.
5To average rosiners let me give a word of advice, early given me by my old master, Ouri, pupil of Frank Mori: "Don't rub the horsehair down smooth with long sweeps, but powder the rosin off into the hair with quick rubs and a light hand; in this way you avoid rubbing the oleaginous particles of the gum into stickiness."
7I notice that the best players use plenty of rosin and never let the bow get thirsty. I remember the matchless violinist Remenye taking up my violin and bow and calling aloud for rosin. "Why, you have no rosin on; you cannot expect the violin to speak without." Yet I thought my bow had plenty of rosin on, but it was not enough for Remenye, who powdered it away in clouds. But please to remember that, however thirsty the bow may be, the violin does not require to drink, and the habit of smothering and smearing its beautiful smooth belly with thin glutinous dust is a most vile one, and worthy only of third-rate second violins at fourth-rate music halls. These musical galley-slaves may not have time to clean up; you of the Stradivari and the Amati violins and the Tourte and the Dodd bows ought to have, or you are no fit guardian of such treasures.
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