Books › The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871 › scan 47
Scan 47
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.
1one is aware, a neck, at the end of which are placed the pegs, upon which the strings are wound. The form and dimensions of the neck are of great importance in the construction of violins. Lastly, between the two tables, and near the piece which supports the strings, and which is called the bridge, is found a small cylinder of wood, which puts the two tables in communication, and is called the sound-post. This small moveable piece plays a very remarkable part in a violin, for without this piece it gives only feeble and poor sounds. It is to its influence upon the intensity of the sounds that this piece owes its name—l’âme or soul. We can hardly admit that it serves only to propagate the movements of vibration from one table to the other, since they are in communication by the sides and corner-blocks. The sound-post has functions far more important, which we shall examine with care.
3Maupertuis has given a theory of the violin, which is nothing more than a grave error, and which at present we must reject. He assumed that all stringed musical instruments ought to be composed of fibres of different lengths, in order that the number of vibrations given by the strings might be reproduced by some one of these fibres vibrating in unison with the string, and would thus reinforce the sound. Arguing thus, he maintained the idea (which has become a prejudice still existing), that by breaking a violin and mending it again, the instrument was improved, for in doing this the number of fibres of different lengths was greatly increased. But it is easy to see that this
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