Scan 88
The violin & its story : or the history & construction of the violin, 1905
8 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 72. See the scan on archive.org.
1even been made of tortoise-shell! All these experiments were of course much more costly than the ordinary violin, but as musical instruments they were of little value; and worse still were those "fiddles" made of silver, copper, or brass.
3These attempts, together with the experiments made by Savart to discover the arrangement and purpose of the constituent parts of the violin, as well as the prior efforts of Chanot and others to give new features to the instrument, have, however, firmly established one fact, viz., that the violin model handed down to us from the classic Italian period is the best yet discovered, whether as regards convenience in playing or quality or power of tone. Savart has thus done a greater service, even though it be an indirect one, to the art of violin making than by all his precise rules, for he has helped to show that only in one way can that art be practised so as to give the best results. That one way consists in working as closely as possible on the lines laid down in the examples left by the great Cremonese makers.
5Had the makers who succeeded these great artists been endowed with more stability and self-control, and been content to follow in the steps of their forerunners instead of seeking after originality and trying to improve on their pattern, the art of violin making would be in a better state than it now is. In that case a much less number of those noble instruments would have been so barbarously and unpardonably broken up and destroyed, and artists and dilettante who long for fine violins would not be put to such straits to find them. Nor would there have been the lapse of an entire century during which so very few really good instruments were produced for the enjoyment of contemporaries and the delight of posterity. In the meantime, the good instruments have been tried and proved, and perhaps a few later makers may achieve as great renown as some of the great Cremonese.
7The decline in the art of violin making may be traced to two causes, which are in direct contrast one with the other.
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