Books › Violins and violin makers. Biographical dictionary of the great Italian artistes, their followers and imitators, to the present time. With essays on important subjects connected with the violin, 1866 › scan 141
Scan 141
Violins and violin makers. Biographical dictionary of the great Italian artistes, their followers and imitators, to the present time. With essays on important subjects connected with the violin, 1866
4 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. Printed page 133. See the scan on archive.org.
1high and peculiar model were only calculated for the production of a thin though sparkling tone, while the Italians aimed, particularly in the flatter instruments, to obtain a full rich and round tone. This distinction is apparent even in the older Cremona makers, but if we compare those of Steiner with those of Nicholas Amati, of Stradiuarius, or Guarnerius, the thin tone of the former and the rich round tone of the latter become instantly most striking. The consequence is that the rich amateurs who form collections, and the great performers whose interest it is to please by the quality of tone as well as the grace and finish of their execution, no longer purchase the Steiner violins except as matters of curiosity in the case of a very fine example. We do not know any great player who uses a Steiner instrument, as we shall show in another article. We therefore only now class Steiner among the great masters, from his past reputation, and for certain special instruments.
3Jacob Steiner was a native of the Tyrol, and was born at Absom, near Inspruck, about 1620. It is said that an old instrument by
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