Books › The violin, how to make it, 1880 › scan 34
Scan 34
The violin, how to make it, 1880
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 28. See the scan on archive.org.
1a judicious difference in wood and tone, we attain to just that tinge of variation and blending of reciprocation as would be more agreeable to the ear—not overfresh, but ripe and quickening. We know that perfect octaves are imperfectly satisfying, just as we know that the moment fruit is fully ripe it begins to part with its flavor—perfection palls on humanity,—it is the "little LESS than perfect" that pleases us, that makes us content, yet with eagerness for more; and I may herein remark, that perfect octaves in unison, always swallow one another up. In organs, if we make two pipes precisely similar, and place them together, one could not tell whether one or both were sounding, except that, if anything, two would not sound so powerful, and carry so far as one; consequently, the scale of every rank of pipes is varied, and as the quality varies, so the combining sounds become a more perceptible amalgamation, and reinforce the waves of vibration. It is all in vain for us to be mere copyists, for were we to guage every thickness of a reputed perfect instrument with the exactitude of a micrometer, and make one of precisely the same measurements, the result would be but very mediocre in quality, and in no way to be compared with the original instrument; for as no two faces are fully alike, or two trees exact counterparts of one another, so neither are two pieces of wood innately the same, nor two Violins by the same artist precisely alike. We would therefore learn that the artist worked freely and according to the disposition of the material he had to fashion; thus we must modify the thickness according to the quality of the wood, its resonant properties, etc.
3We again may ask ourselves, why is the wood of the back and belly cut so as to have the grain parallel, and perpendicular to its position on the instrument? If we take a small cube of pine, place it upon a table, and try its conducting power by placing on it a vibrating tuning-fork, we find its resonant powers vary with the three different positions in which we may place it, proving to us the three different velocities of sound through it—1st, the quickest along the fibres; 2nd, slower across the fibres, and across the layers which mark the growth of the tree; and, 3d, slowest of all across the fibres and along the layers; and in acoustics we have a law of the transmission of vibrations
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