Books › The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871 › scan 33
Scan 33
The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871
4 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1instrument throughout Britain about this period, and a few years afterwards, mention is made of it as being used in the Highlands of Scotland at the lyke-wakes, where a melancholy ball, attended with dancing and greeting, preceded the wails and ejaculations of the mourning women in attendance. About the commencement of the following century, the supreme merits of the Cremona violin were appreciated in our northern metropolis, for in 1708 mention is made of "two Cremona violins, along with a parcel of fine music books," to be sold; and a few years later, several other Cremonas were advertised for sale in the same city. Numerous have been the various so-called improvements in the violin by some of our modern makers and repairers, but in reality few of them are of any essential importance, as assuredly no artist, by means of any different proportions or combination of parts dissimilar to those used by the chief Cremona makers, has reached anything like the same perfection. Doubtless violins have been made closely approximating in character to our Cremonas, but those have been formed upon a similar system, without any extra additions or peculiar changes of construction. A few of those fantastic and diversified changes may be herein enumerated.
3The first, and perhaps the most ridiculous of all, is the following, as related of J. J. Hawkins, the inventor of the Claviol, or Keyed Violin. In 1800 this gentleman patented an invention applicable to pianofortes and other stringed instruments, including the violin, whereby the belly of the violin was exposed on both
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