Books › The Violin: A concise exposition of the general principles of construction.., 1871 › scan 73
Scan 73
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.
1determine the sound of the air in the body of a violoncello, it is only necessary to produce a succession of low notes near one of the \( f \) holes. Among these sounds one will be found to be reinforced to a greater extent than any of the others, and this will be the note required, or we may make use of the brass tube previously described in speaking of the violin. We frequently observe the \( fa \), \( fa \# \) or \( fab \) on the fourth string of a violoncello to have a hollow rumbling sound, and can scarcely be obtained with purity. This remarkable peculiarity has never been properly explained. It is evident from what we have just said, that the sound of the mass of air is in most cases somewhere in the neighbourhood of this \( fa \), and this effect is produced from the mass of air not being exactly in unison with the \( fa \) of the fourth string, and beats are the result; or if the \( fa \) itself is exactly in unison with the air, the neighbouring sounds \( fab \) or \( fa \# \) will suffer instead.
3The Tenor.—The mass of air in a tenor should render a sound a fifth below that of the violin, and consequently an octave above that of the violoncello, say \( fa = 341.33 \). Instead, however, of producing this note, most of the tenors made now give the sound \( do = 512 \) vibrations like the violins. The result of this is, that the low sounds are feeble, hollow, and difficult of production, and the instrument has not the quality it ought to have. Formerly tenors were made of large pattern, and approached more nearly to the veritable conditions of the theory. It is much to be desired that the makers should give their attention to the matter, so as to place the construction of
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.