Books › Old violins and violin lore, 1900 › scan 71
Scan 71
Old violins and violin lore, 1900
6 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1OLD VIOLINS
3violin to my chin—not quite in the correct position, no doubt, but near enough. Thus from the very first, when at six or seven years of age I played the violin like the violoncello, I never had to unlearn my intervals in stopping the strings. The brain learns intervals. An habitual tenor player never plays the violin quite in tune, and vice versa; and so every time a larger violin is placed in the pupil's hands, the brain is bothered with the narrower stopping learned in the preceding period. Still, no one can regret the exquisite cabinet, almost toy specimens, made by the Amati and Guarnerii as well as by Strad. Artistically they are gems; musically, fallacies. I have never got anybody to agree with me about not using dwarf fiddles. Joachim, I believe, contended that for a child to use a large fiddle stiffens his muscles. I don't believe it; it certainly did not stiffen mine. I believe I am also in a minority in my partiality for old bridges. Neither theory is, in fact, "good for trade."
5In 1690 Stradivari executed a celebrated order for the Prince of Tuscany, through the Marquis Bartholomeo Aribati. Of these chefs-d'œuvre the Marquis writes: "I assure you the Prince has accepted your instruments with more pleasure than I could expect. The players in the orchestra are unanimous in expressing appreciation. They declare your instruments to be quite perfect; they all say they never heard a violoncello with such a tone as yours. My having brought to the knowledge of such a person as his Highness your great skill will doubtless procure you many orders from
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