Scan 110
The violin & its story : or the history & construction of the violin, 1905
12 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 94. See the scan on archive.org.
1the particles of which the sounding body is composed—fix the tone quality, or "tone colour," of any particular instrument, and, speaking generally, it is thus that we obtain the "woody" tone of a wooden instrument, and the metallic tone of a brass or other instrument made of metal.
3We have already learnt that the goodness and usefulness of a string depends upon its elasticity, its weight, and on the necessary uniformity of its shape. These requirements have to be kept in mind in the fashioning of the resonance body. While we have noted that, for instance, the elasticity and the weight of the string must not go beyond a certain limit, we cannot say precisely the same of the resonance body; but it is to be particularly noted that the degree or ratio of each special quality in each of the sounding bodies must stand in the highest possible harmonious relations to each other; for, even with the best stringing attainable, no good violin tone will be possible if the resonance body is handicapped by too much or too little density or thickness.
5Thus it follows that the greatest possible care in the selection and working of the materials of the body of the violin becomes of the first and highest importance.
7That part of the body which is the most important and most difficult to produce in perfection is the belly. The material most suitable for the required purpose is pine wood.
9Steel, glass, and pine possess the first essential, elasticity, in the highest, and in proportion to their weight in an almost equal, degree; and yet the two first-named materials can scarcely be considered in the matter of violin making, if we remember that steel, for example, is fourteen times heavier than pine, and also, further, that if made so thin as not to be too heavy, it would yield a clanking, rattling tone instead of the sweet but powerful tone given out by wood.
11A further peculiarity shown by pine wood over all other materials, is its fibrous constitution, by which means it transmits vibrations in a given direction to an extraordinary extent.
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