Books › The varnishes of the Italian violin-makers of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and their influence on tone;, 1904 › scan 30
Scan 30
The varnishes of the Italian violin-makers of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and their influence on tone;, 1904
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1"réunit à la richesse des nuances toutes les conditions de sonorité. Les beaux tons chauds du vernis de Stradivarius datent de cette époque : la pâte en est fine et d'une grande souplesse.* From 1725 to 1730 the varnish is more brown."
3Another writer who is deservedly much esteemed as an authority on the Violin is M. Antoine Vidal. He was a friend of the late M. J. B. Vuillaume, the well-known instrument maker of Paris, who, together with M. Georges Chanot, saw most of the instruments which Louis Tarisio brought annually from Italy, from about the year 1827 onwards. When Tarisio died, in 1854, M. Vuillaume bought of his heirs the (about) 250 violins, &c. which he had accumulated. Among these were some of the finest instruments in existence. The dealers and connoisseurs of Paris, at that time, must have enjoyed unusual opportunities for studying many fine instruments, in their original condition.
5Much of what M. Vidal writes about the varnish will be translated and abbreviated; when his remarks are of considerable importance they will be quoted in his own words. He is of opinion that the varnish has certainly an influence on the tone. If, on the one hand, it ought to have sufficient solidity and durability for the purposes of preservation, it must, on the other hand, possess such elasticity as to allow the parts of the instrument which it covers perfect liberty of movement; without that, it would act as a mute.
7He repeats the old story of the necessity for making
9* The wood, chosen with the finest discrimination, unites to richness of shades all the conditions of sonorousness. The beautiful warm tones of the varnish of Stradivarius date from this period. Its body is fine and of great elasticity.
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