Books › Violin tone and violin makers, 1916 › scan 42
Scan 42
Violin tone and violin makers, 1916
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 22. See the scan on archive.org.
1VIOLIN TONE
3intimate acquaintance with the many theories and experiments advanced and tried during the past hundred and fifty years to account for and unravel the mysteries of tone. While the reason for tone which I advance in this work is not only obvious, but actually in use at the present day, achieving consecutive results identical with those named in this chapter, it may not be amiss to set forth here, for the benefit of those who may be interested, some arguments in favour of the fact that tone in the violins of the great masters was due to their ideals of tone, and to no other reason. The process employed in developing these ideals was in no sense a secret with these masters. Great results in all art are due to the talents of the artist. Method and process, being but means to an end, may be imparted to another by precept and example, but the ability to express a high ideal was never the outcome of any "secret" in constructing a violin, or the preparation of canvas and pigment, or due to any special virtue contained in mere wood, paint, or marble.
5If, therefore, those responsible for the grand tone in the old violins did no more than make the instrument, or supervise its manufacture by the workmen and pupils by whom they were, in most cases, surrounded; if the creation, regulation, and control of tone were due to any
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