Scan 101
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1884
4 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 49. See the scan on archive.org.
1Violoncello upon which he played was by Forster, and would bear much heavier stringing than an Italian instrument; and, again, he was a most forcible player, and his power of finger quite exceptional. Dragonetti, the famous Double-Bass player, and coadjutor of Lindley, possessed similar powers, and used similar strings as regards size. Their system of stringing was adopted indiscriminately. Instruments whether weakly or strongly built received uniform treatment, the result being in many cases an entire collapse and the most disappointing effects in the tone. It was vainly supposed that the ponderous strings of Dragonetti and Lindley were the talisman by use of which their tone would follow as a matter of course, whereas in point of fact it was scarcely possible to make the instruments utter a sound when deprived of the singular muscular power possessed by those famous players. After Lindley's death his system passed away gradually, and attention was directed to the better adaptation of strings to the instrument, and also to the production of perfect fifths.
3We have now only to speak of covered strings, in which it is more difficult to obtain perfection than in the case of those of gut. There are several kinds of covered strings. There are those of silver wire, which are very durable, and have a soft quality of sound very suitable to old instruments, and are therefore much used by artists; there are those of copper plated with silver, and also of copper
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