Books › Old violins, 1905 › scan 251
Scan 251
Old violins, 1905
18 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 229. See the scan on archive.org.
1All violinists will tell you that there is a reserve of force about a Strad; you can "pull out," and you will never be disappointed.
3All lovers of Amati will tell you that they find in Nicolo a trembling sighing sensitiveness, a tenderness, and a tone delicate to the point of vanishing, which endears Amati to the women, and still leaves his finest instruments unapproachable for cabinet-playing.
5And all players will tell you that for domination and downright big-battalion power, Joseph Guarnerius del Gesù has not his equal.
7And the reason for this real, not fancied, supremacy of the great makers and their best pupils?
9The reason is complex, no doubt—so complex that, when all precautions have been taken to imitate wood, proportions, varnish, workmanship, so as thoroughly to deceive the eye, the modern chef-d'œuvre is, in spite of puzzled auditors, still not identical in quality with the old Cremona gems.
11I was called the other day to judge a set of English bells, cast with the same proportions of tin and copper, of exactly the same size, weight, and model as a suite of Belgian bells cast by Severin Van Aerschodt; but the sound?
13Ye gods! No silver clang and tin-kettle parody could be further apart than were those English and Belgian bells.
15But to return to our fiddles. The reasons of Cremona supremacy remain to be tackled.
17I hazard the following points:—
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.