Scan 336
The American history and encyclopedia of music .., 1908
8 lines. Read by computer on 11 September 2026. Printed page 292. See the scan on archive.org.
1player and he blows into them, he does not coax the sounds out of them with a loving, tender touch.
3The voice of the violin is the richest of all instrumental voices, its tones are clear and penetrating, and for concert solo work a violin whose range is from middle C to the C in the treble three above it is most general in use. The compass of a violin is increased by the use of harmonics. These are the overtones, or partial upper tones, and add color to the simple tone of the note itself. Whenever a string gives forth a musical note it vibrates, not only from the place at which it was touched, but also in fractional parts of the strings, producing thus overtones or partial tones. Violinists know that by touching the strings very lightly with the fingers of the left hand the overtones can be produced without sounding the fundamental tone, and thus an ethereal tone, mysterious and intangible, is added to the heavier body tones. Such effects are called by the Germans flageolet notes. These fairy-like tones most fittingly form the concluding measures of the prelude to Lohengrin.
5The tone of a violin should always be sonorous, it must have life and body no matter how tender or delicate. By listening carefully you will observe that some violins have a large tone, others a small one. This is due to the difference in the instruments and in the players. A new instrument whose parts have not yet learned to blend with each other will produce a larger but rougher tone than an old violin. But by skilful bowing a good violinist can make an old violin produce a large tone and he gains in addition the much desired mellowness of tone that an old violin gives.
7It is a well-known fact that violins grow better with age. Oliver Wendell Holmes tells us that a violin is made of fifty-eight different pieces, each a stranger to the other, and it takes a century more or less to make them thoroughly acquainted. "Moreover, the wood is still green, and only after a long drying process does it become tolerably resonant. A violin is handed down from one generation to another or from master to pupil, and in its progress down the centuries
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