Books › The heart of music; the story of the violin, 1906 › scan 180
Scan 180
The heart of music; the story of the violin, 1906
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1The Heart of Music
3was fond, too, of reproducing upon his violins copies of celebrated paintings, landscapes, and occasionally imaginary pictures, allegorical or symbolic in significance. Usually he contrived to have the decorations upon the back and belly of his instrument different, yet of some character that harmonised in idea. Whatever fugitive poet-soul or artistic heart the man possessed went into these imperfect violins of his, which he loved as some men love their verses and others their children.
5One day he fashioned a wonderfully lovely instrument from wood which he had chosen himself, away in an Italian forest, and upon it he inscribed this rather unusual sentence: "Viva fui in sylvis; dum vixi tacui; mortua dulce cano," which interpreted means: "My life I spent in the woods; while I lived I was voiceless; now in death I sing sweetly."
7He was not without a spice of wholesome egotism, was Tieffenbrücker, for he ornamented many of his instruments with pictures of himself. Thanks to them we have a fairly accurate idea of his personal appearance, for it is difficult to believe, having seen them, that any of them can have been much flattered. His most predominant characteristic, physically speaking, seems to
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