Scan 91
The violin & its story : or, the history & construction of the violin, 1905
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 75. See the scan on archive.org.
1these imitations without his own label or some other token by which his works may be recognised. He must give up entirely all hope of fame, either contemporary or posthumous, and his descendants, or whoever carries on his business after his death, can inherit no good name to serve them as a recommendation in the eyes of the musical world.
3This style of imitation or copying is beyond all question utterly reprehensible, if an attempt is made to impart to instruments right from the start those qualities of purity, sweetness, and ready response to the touch which characterise Italian violins already more than a century old, and which can only be the result of long, industrious, and careful use. Efforts are made to impart these qualities by cunning preparation of the wood, and by reducing the thickness of the bellies. At first the defects of the instrument do not reveal themselves to any great extent, and the object of the fabricator is accomplished when he has found a buyer for his bungled work. But the instrument fails altogether to last; it has no enduring qualities—no staying power, because the wood, on account of the artificial drying or baking to which it is subjected, or because of the thinness to which back and belly have been worked, cannot possibly retain that power of intense vibration which is so vitally necessary.
5The soundness of this opinion is proved by the following indisputable facts.
7(1) It is admitted on all hands that a violin made from wood which has been artificially prepared or "doctored," or in which the belly is worked too thin, not only cannot produce a really good tone, but that such tone as it does produce will rapidly fall away and vanish.
9(2) It is established beyond all question that of two violins made from precisely similar wood, and in all other respects as much alike as possible, the one which has been for a long time played on will give a clearer and purer tone, and will respond more readily to the touch, than one which has just come fresh from the hands of the maker. It has been proved that it is not to the drying
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