Books › The violinist, 1900 › scan 92
Scan 92
The violinist, 1900
22 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1worked by electricity, draws the bow across the strings over and over again. Of course it does increase the responsiveness of the instrument, but it is not the same thing as the human touch, with its almost infinite variety, from the mere brushing of a feather's weight to the bowing which makes a man work with all his might.
3There is nothing so sensitive as the violin. People sometimes stain the wood to give it some certain color, using ammonia, acids—a variety of things. And so sensitive is the wonderful instrument that just that little thing—as you would call it—will alter the tone. The chemical changes, perhaps to be detected only with a microscope, taking place in the wood, impair its tone-producing quality.
5And the varnish? Every violin maker who is worthy the name is sure he has the supremely good varnish. And every man guards his own secret. The different colors of violins are obtained by coloring the varnish, except, of course, where it is due to age.
7There are as good fiddles made today as there ever were, but most of them need the seasoning, the tempering, which comes only with years. One of the great French violin makers tried to take that work away from nature. He tried to season his violins by baking the wood in ovens and in that way he made his fiddles until he learned that nature would not be defrauded.
9Baking the wood drew out the rosin too quickly and left it dry, brittle. It was a hard lesson for the maker and it took him ten years to learn it, but it had to be learned.
11That is not saying that it isn't possible to have a violin made today which will rival the very best of the old ones. A fine instrument is worth repairing, and the repairing is sometimes more beautiful than the original making of a violin. See! a maker picked up the top of a 'cello and turned it over. On the wrong side of the wood were several score of little square pieces of wood about half an inch square and so perfectly incorporated into the top itself that but for the difference in the grain they might almost have been taken for a part of it. They were the "blocks" holding the wood together where it had cracked.
13Many jobs of repairing cost more than the original price of some instruments, said the maker. You see, the top of a violin is under a pressure of fifty pounds from the strings. And the pressure on a 'cello is 250 pounds. So that any cracks or breaks must be mended with extraordinary precautions if the instrument is to be strong enough to stand up under that strain.
15A man with a fine violin should guard it as carefully as—oh, much more carefully than a woman does her jewels. It is worth as much in money, let alone the affection he has for it, and the need, too.
17Music and the Emotions
19There are many instances of the power of music over the emotions. Philip of Spain, it is said, was cured of an attack of melancholia by the beautiful singing of Farinelli. In London a guild known as the Cecilia is experimenting upon hospital patients with music. An insomnia patient was twice sent to sleep. In the short space of twenty minutes, four patients out of fourteen were put to sleep, and the music, so the report adds, "rendered drowsy all the others." Even outside of hospitals music has this curious somnolent effect at times.
21It has been suggested that when, in these hospital experiments with music, the patient dies, it is due to his disease; when he recovers, it is due to the music.
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