Scan 101
The violin & its story : or the history & construction of the violin, 1905
8 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 85. See the scan on archive.org.
1lower note; those in the second row the waves of the higher note; and those in the third row the waves of the combination tone, which are formed whenever the waves of the first and second rows coincide, as at the places marked *. According to the same law, combination tones are engendered by certain other intervals.
3The strength of a tone depends on the width of the swing or vibration. The greater is the force which causes the string to vibrate, and takes it out of its position a, f, b (see former diagram, page 79), the greater of course will be the width of the swing or vibration and the louder the string will sound. Every increase or decrease in this width of swing will cause a corresponding increase or decrease in the volume of tone, without in the smallest degree altering the number of vibrations; in other words, the quantity of tone may change without any change of pitch.
5The greater is the innate elasticity of a string, the more readily is it capable of a wide swing. The gut strings used for the violin family are peculiarly adapted, by reason of their great elasticity, to the purpose for which they are used. While a metal thread, or wire, will break before it can be stretched one-half per cent. of its length, a good gut string will stretch from five to twelve per cent. of its length, and return to its original length as soon as the stretching force ceases to act.
7A violin may be fitted with strings which are either too weak or too strong for it, and in either case there is corresponding disadvantage. Strings too weak will require too little stretching, and strings too strong will want too much. The former offer too little resistance to the stroke of the bow; the latter offer too much. The practised player can at once judge, by the mere pressure of his finger on the string so as to make it touch the fingerboard, and without touching the string with the bow, whether it possesses just that amount of elasticity —no more and no less—which his instrument needs in order to bring out every possible shade and gradation of tone.
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