Books › The Story of the Violin, 1914 › scan 119
Scan 119
The Story of the Violin, 1914
15 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Story of the Violin
3be it a very clever, wideawake youth; and there is no proof that he ever went beyond the precincts of his little kingdom, his workshop in Brescia. Of course, as Goethe says, "Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille." But this is not exactly a way to broaden and strengthen the mind for grappling with difficulties such as the realisation of a new acoustic ideal in a new form presented.
5Was Gasparo da Salo a man who could afford to squander his time on perhaps futile, at any rate unprofitable attempts, while his viols fetched him a good income?¹ Or is it more likely that he made violins because they were already invented, and he found a ready market for them?
7Are there any Traces of Development in his Work?
9Furthermore, are there any traces of a development in his work from a first feeling his way to the goal of attainment, or do we get at once the realised ideal?
11Perhaps others are prepared to answer these questions satisfactorily. I only add yet one more point in favour of the elder Gasparo, and that is a documentary remark which also Fétis mentions.² In a list of instruments used by Monteverde for the performance of his opera Orfeo, at Mantua in 1607, the composer names—besides ten viole da brazzo (arm viols), three bassi da gamba (leg basses), and two contra—
13¹ According to Fétis, he was particularly renowned for his viols (bass viols and double-bass viols).
14² Stradivari.
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