Scan 334
The American history and encyclopedia of music, 1910
6 lines. Read by computer on 11 September 2026. Printed page 290. See the scan on archive.org.
1press down upon it, sounds one distinct tone, and it sounds this same tone every time it is struck, whether the key is responding to the touch of a master or a novice; of course, the key may be struck sharply or gently, producing then a bright or a softened tone, but the pitch of the note does not vary; the white key just below the two black keys is always C, no matter who is playing. Now look at the violin: four strings of different pitch stretched across a little bridge form the whole instrument; not a key or a fret on the neck of the violin to indicate a single tone! So the entire keyboard lies within the imagination of the player, and on his ear, and skill in fingering, depends the accuracy of the pitch of all the notes.
3The musical scale, as we know it, ascends and descends by steps and half steps only. The pianist sounds the interval of a step from C to D on the white keys, and a half step from the white key C to the black key just above it. But the violinist may by unskilled fingering or an untrained ear produce quarter steps or eighth steps if he does not touch the string exactly; and since our ears are accustomed to hearing no intervals less than the semitone, it can easily be imagined that any interval smaller than this must produce an awful discord. Thus the violinist has a far greater range for tone production than has the pianist, but his liability to produce discord is proportionately greater. On the other hand, the music of the violinist is almost as much a part of himself as is the song of the singer. Every note his violin utters is as accurately an expression of his idea of that tone as are the notes of the vocalist. Every tone should be finely and distinctly produced, there should be no blurring of the rapid passages if the music is to please the ear.
5But the quality of the tone depends upon the bowing; the art of handling the bow is always spoken of as the touch. The bow, a very simple little contrivance, becomes in the hands of a true violinist such an implement of music that the notes of the violin as they seem to come out from under it, call tears of joy or pathos to the eyes as easily as do
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