Books › The violin : how to choose one, 1893 › scan 65
Scan 65
The violin : how to choose one, 1893
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 61. See the scan on archive.org.
1CHAPTER XI.
3The Acoustics of Violin Making—Revelations of a Skilled Violin Maker—A sure method by which the tone of a Violin may be copied.
5The plan of testing wood intended for violin making, by cutting slips to a certain size, and setting them in vibration with a heavy-haired bow, and so ascertaining the density and resonance by the notes given out by the different specimens of wood, has long been in use with thoughtful and scientific violin makers; but I am not aware that any attempt has yet been made to classify the notes given out by the plates of a well-made violin when set in vibration in the same way at different stages of dissection, and so laying the basis of a system by which the tone of a violin might be imitated with certainty. It is well known that the density and resonance of wood vary so much, even with pieces taken from the same log, that the tone of a violin copy, even when the model and thicknesses of the original have been followed with mathematical accuracy, often is as different from that of the violin copied as night is from day. If, however, a system such as that which follows were adopted, and the exact notes given out by the plates of the violin copied were studiously and patiently got at the different stages of the making of the copy, it seems to me reasonable to suppose that something very near the character and body of the tone given by the violin copied would be got—allowing, of course, as the writer of the following treatise wisely explains, a slight margin for difference likely to be caused by the drying and withering process of the years to come.
7One of the most experienced violin experts in England, himself a skilful violin maker, to whom I have written of this treatise, sends me the following reply:—"The treatise to which you refer will no doubt be interesting, especially if having a really practical bearing on the subject. It has always seemed strange to me that after so many experiments and positive assertions by both Savart and Vuillaume, the
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