Books › The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871 › scan 43
Scan 43
The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871
6 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1ments of the Cremonese makers, the contained mass of air equal to C of 512 vibrations, the back and breast being formed to correspond, so as to produce the tone of difference. According as the wood is thick or thin, so must the mass of air be ordered for reaction in simultaneous vibration. If we have got too much air, it will be slow in resonance, weakening the notes on the bass side of the instrument, whilst the treble notes will be thin; if too little air, the quickness will be detrimental, and mingle dissonantly successive sounds, causing a coarseness in the lower notes of the instrument, whilst the sounds of the first string lose all brilliancy.
3The air should be absolutely and implicitly obedient—it has merely to carry out commands, not to join in executing a given task; but the wood is active, and both portions are engaged in completing one act.
5Yet there is a vast difference in violins, and this difference we call quality; pitch may be unerring, but one will give harsh quality, another dull, another mellow, another bright. Evidently the quality is referable to the construction, and to that nicety of regulation, which is analogous to the voicing of wind instruments. What is that ethereal quality that makes us prize the violins of the great makers, a quality that seems to us as if each tone was tinted with other colours, rich in blended beauty as a sea-shell with its rainbow hues; lovely as summer eves with their soft and balmy breezes? Merely from the exact relationship of all the parts of construction, whilst the finest woods were employed in the formation of those cher-
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