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Scan 68
The Hawley Collection of violins, 1904
9 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE HAWLEY COLLECTION OF VIOLINS
3before us the problem Guarneri had to solve in adjusting his thickness so as to produce the tone results he wished to achieve. It would not do to cut a back of soft maple on the slab and thus reduce the strength and not compensate therefor by increased thickness. With the spruce in hand, it would not give the requisite result if left as thick in the center as if it had been a piece of soft material. Therefore, Guarneri, combining their qualities, regulating the one to suit the other, made the back very thick, and graduated the top accordingly, and thus successfully achieved the end he had in view. We have here the reason why violins cannot be made by rule, and why copies of the great masterpieces have never the tone quality in any degree of the originals. The texture of every piece of wood being different from that of all other pieces, it is impossible to apply the same rule to all. If this were not so, as fine violins would be made in the shops of Saxony and Bavaria to-day as were ever wrought in Cremona. The genius of the maker is everything. The artist must blend his colors to obtain the rich effects he seeks. All painters use the same colors, yet how different the canvas of an artist from the studied daub of a novice. Of the makers of the great trio, the violins of Guarneri are to-day the rarest. His active life did not extend over nearly so many years as that of either Amati or Stradivari. Moreover, he does not appear to have worked with the constancy of either of these makers. The violins that left his hands, in all probability, were not more than three or four hundred. He made many splendid violins, and some grand violas, but a 'cello by him has never been attested by a competent judge. There are numerous 'cellos bearing his name, just as there are legions of violins not one of which ever saw the blue sky of Italy, much less the shop of any Cremonese maker. The magic name of Guarneri and the mystery surrounding the man have been taken advantage of to the full by a horde of violin forgers. The legend of the prison wherein Joseph is supposed to have languished for many years resulted in a multitude of "prison Josephs." Every likely looking old box that by the greatest stretch of imagination could be said to resemble a Guarneri, received that fetching appellation. As a matter of fact, during the years the story places Joseph in prison, now and then by the aid of the jailer's daughter turning out a violin, he was standing at his bench at Cremona, cutting tops from his cherished log, building his fame better than he knew, and placing posterity forever in his debt.
5So we are constrained to close our chapter upon the great tone poet of the liutaros. His genius enabled him to enshrine the sorrow of his life in his masterpieces, but it was the sorrow Shakespeare had in mind when he said,
7"This sorrow's heavenly;
8It strikes where it doth love."
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