Books › The Story of the Violin, 1914 › scan 164
Scan 164
The Story of the Violin, 1914
8 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Stradivari
3associated with the history of some of the most famous violin-artists,¹ and would, no doubt, make interesting reading. How many triumphs some of them (the violins, I mean) witnessed, how many thrills and raptures of pride and enthusiasm,—yes, and how many failures, too; how many heavy sighs of disappointment, disenchantment, tremors of wounded vanity and pride, or regrets at parting with them echoed through their delicate, sympathetic frames, and tear-dimmed eyes rested inconsolably on their luminous varnish.
5Of the great master's home life we know very little. He was married twice, and had three sons and two daughters by the first wife, and several by the second. One can hardly imagine him otherwise than a kind husband and father, and a good, upright man in all his dealings with the world. His work is almost a guarantee for those qualities. As the gardener who spends his days in Nature's company unconsciously imbibes from her some of her gentleness, purity, and patience, so this man in the constant society of his wooden friends, I could fancy, had a conscience as transparent as the varnish of his violins, and a humour as fresh, serene, and healthy as the smell of fresh pine and maple. At least some of that happy symmetry, ease, and perfection which characterised his work must also have
7¹ Already Corelli, it is reported, used a Stradivari violin; likewise Viotti, Paganini, Ernst, Alard, and many others; and among modern artists, Joachim, Sarasate, Ysaye, Lady Hallé.
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