Books › The heart of music; the story of the violin, 1921 › scan 175
Scan 175
The heart of music; the story of the violin, 1921
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1lation. Tests for the resonance of wood were instituted, and many wonderful things about sound-waves were learned laboriously by eager workmen in tiny old towns, bending for amazing lengths of time over the fashioning of imperfect instruments.
3Through their imperfections came their perfections, eventually, albeit dimly seen then. For these Saxon and Tyrolese workmen, who lived forever with their instruments, knew and loved them as children and friends. Most of them were hereditary instrument makers, carrying on their trade from generation to generation, and they must have learned from the very limitations of their beloved viols and lutes what their capacities might be.
5Strange that the first great violin maker should have come from a house noted for many years for its brilliant record in lute-making. The regular viol makers of the day seemed to have plodded on more slowly, but to Kaspar Tieffenbrücker is generally ascribed the honour of making the first genuine violin in 1511. This has been disputed by some learned men, but we find such authorities as Wasielewski and Emil Naumann accepting it; the former stating positively that there are still in existence three excellent violins by Tieffenbrücker, dated respectively 1511, 1517, and 1519.
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