Books › Violins, old & new, 1887 › scan 15
Scan 15
Violins, old & new, 1887
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1that "copies" are made so accurately as to deceive all but the very best judges, and sometimes even them.
3II. That modern makers have made violins which neither in tone nor appearance can be distinguished from the best violins of Cremona, thus proving that, either with or without the supposed "lost secret" of the varnish, the tones of the best violins can be reproduced.
5We have set out these statements categorically to secure clearness of reasoning. In these matters—as indeed in all matters which have to be proved—we must have cool precision. Let us cling tenaciously to established facts, and not be misled by wild but untenable statements; a fact will still be a fact though partisans may deny its existence. Of the magnificent tone of the best Cremonese instruments there is no question, and in advocating the claims of modern violins we have no desire to deprecate the beauties of older ones. Our point is, that this beauty of tone is due to natural causes, and was produced by means which are as well within the reach of modern makers as they were within the reach of Stradivarius, Guarnerius, Ruggerius, or Maggini. Those makers arrived at the highest excellence simply by intelligent experiment, and with no other models before them than those which they evidently regarded as their own failures. It would, indeed, be passing strange if, with the best models in their hands, intelligent makers found it impossible to do to-day
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