Books › Old violins and violin lore, 1900 › scan 87
Scan 87
Old violins and violin lore, 1900
10 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1OLD VIOLINS
3He finished many of his master's late violins, and issued some others after his death collected from the débris of the great man's workshop; and Stradivari left him all his tools and plant.
5He worked at Cremona between 1720–47 or 50, and followed at first Stradivari's example; for as Antonio made his early fiddles on the pattern of Nicolo Amati, so did Bergonzi closely copy the grand Strad pattern. But later on, and before the death of the old man, Bergonzi conceived the ambition of attempting to weld the power of Giuseppe Guarnerius with the round, bright, bell-like sweetness of the Stradivari. To what extent he succeeded must be left to the judgment and decision of connoisseurs, but the grand quality for which his violins are increasingly appreciated is, no doubt, their powerful sonority; that he clearly saw must be the indispensable quality for all violins of the future.
7The old tinkling days were over; the feeble, scraping, and muffled viol tone was a thing of the past. The instrument had finally emerged from the cloister, was no longer to be a mere adjunct to the voice in dim sacristies and cathedral choirs; its sphere henceforth was to be out in the wide wide world, its triumphs were to be won in the concert room, the opera house, and the grand musical arenas of solo virtuosity.
9And so undoubtedly what Bergonzi aimed at was body of tone and carrying power, and he won it. This dominant idea has modified even his pattern. He looks bold and loud. Yet is the pattern not Guarneri,
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