Scan 17
The heart of music; the story of the violin, 1906
11 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Prelude
3Of what avail to spend four thousand years in evolving an instrument that a grasshopper carries about with him, and can perform upon simply by "bending the shank of one hind leg?"
5"Le lutherie," says a good abbé of old, "n'est pas seulement un métier, c'est un art."
6But above all it is a "métier,"—a vocation, a gift.
8Violin-making has been taught ever since there were violin makers, but as a matter of fact it can never really be taught. It must come as naturally as it does to the grasshopper. It is one of the spontaneous talents of the world,—like poetry, or cooking, or making love.
10That is why so much of this work is concerned with stringed music, which has nothing to do with science, or calculation, or accuracy, as people estimate it, but has bubbled up, after the fashion of springs, folk-songs, and passion, among peoples of various races, since time began. In great numbers of old books you may find the Brain of Music, but that requires three-thirds of a lifetime of study. It is much easier and more satisfactory to find the Heart.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.