Books › The Hawley Collection of violins, 1904 › scan 172
Scan 172
The Hawley Collection of violins, 1904
21 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 98. See the scan on archive.org.
1Chapter XII
3François Tourte, Bow-maker, 1747-1835
5"One science only will one genius fit:
6So vast is art, so narrow human wit."
8UST as the greatest poems of Robert Browning would have been lost to the world but for his union with a kindred spirit, a spirit as great in its way as his own, so the violin would never have reached perfection but for the loving genius of François Tourte.
10There are three factors which have in this long lapse of years served to bring the violin to its present commanding position in the world of music:
12First, the impetus and development of the world's music, which needed a perfected means of expression, and which in turn, having found it, was enabled to attain its destined development;
14Second, the genius of the men who valued and perfected the violin;
16Third, the man, François Tourte, who, as Mr. Theodore Thomas truly says, "invented a bow which made the modern orchestra,—with all its shading and nuances,—and a Beethoven, possible."
18Tourte found the violin perfected; not only so, but ripe with years. The bow he found in a chaotic, primeval condition, totally unfitted to bring out the beauties of the instrument or fulfill the requirements of the player, except to a very limited degree, a degree in which light and shade, and gradations of tone were unknown, because impossible to obtain. He found the bow almost as unwieldy as a modern double-bass bow. And can any one imagine such a thing as a modern concerto performed on a Stradivari violin with a double-bass bow? Scarcely less meaningless and devoid of beauty would be the lines of an epic recited without modulation of voice.
20François Tourte, the man who was destined to do so much for music, was born in Paris in 1747, two years after the death of Joseph Guarneri del Gesù, and ten years after that of Stradivari. His father was a bow-maker of the old school, and so far as beautifully finished, pains-taking work is concerned, he was worthy to be the father of the son. He first employed the inward curve, afterwards perfected by his son. His elder son, Xavier, was also a bow-maker, and is known as "Tourte l'aine." Xavier was a conscientious workman, and his bows have much merit. It is said that François was intended for a clock-maker by his father, and that he spent several years serving an apprenticeship in that trade. His inclination, however, was in another direction, and as soon as possible, despite all obstacles, he left his uncongenial trade. Thus a man who might have been only an indifferent clock-maker, found his work, and put himself right with his destiny. François was born to be a bow-maker, and no other pursuit would satisfy his soul. His natural inclination is shown from the fact
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