A Dictionary of Music and Musicians by Edward John Payne is a comprehensive reference work exploring the history, construction, and development of musical instruments, with a particular focus on the violin. Published in the 19th century, it examines the craftsmanship of renowned makers like Stradivari and the technical details of instrument design, including soundholes, ribs, and strings.
Payne critically addresses romanticized ideas about antique violins, emphasizing their practical function over artistic mystique, while highlighting the violin’s role as both a foundational orchestral tool and an instrument that is technically accessible. The text synthesizes historical context with analytical depth, offering insights into the interplay between instrument design, performance, and musical tradition.
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ The longer it is the greater is the tension, and the more shrill the tone: the closer its fibres, and the greater its thickness, the thicker the speech of the instrument: the nearer it stands to the bridge-foot, the more powerful becomes the vibration, and the harder the pull of the bow on the strings. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ In connexion with this, a good deal of enthusiasm has been lavished by connoisseurs on the beauty of design and varnish of the old Cremona Violins, and even in some useful and reputable works on this subject this enthusiasm has been carried to a point where it can only be described as silly and grotesque. A fiddle, after all, even a Stradivari, is not a work of pure art, like a piece of painting or sculpture: it is as merely a machine as a watch, a gun, or a plough. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ Most people are aware that 'an old fiddle is better than a new one.' This, as will appear further on, is not absolutely true; although probably the majority of the fiddles in use are not new, very many being one, two, and even three hundred years old. A violin, if it be only well-made to begin with, can by timely and judicious rehabilitation, be made to last practically for ever, or at least to outlast the lifetime of any particular possessor: and few things are more fascinating than putting an old disused Violin through this process, and reawakening its musical capacities. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ If all Tenor-players were of the herculean proportions of Mr. Ritter, the great Tenor might perhaps be revived: but human beings of ordinary stature are quite incapable of wrestling with such an instrument: to which it may be added that the singular and beautiful tenor tone, resulting from the necessary disproportion between the pitch and the dimensions of the instrument, is now too strongly identified with it to admit of any change. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ Nothing but continuous use in professional hands in the orchestra will keep a musical instrument from going out of fashion: and it invariably happens that the disuse of instruments in the orchestra only shortly precedes their disuse in chamber music. The practical extinction of these instruments is to be regretted. Originally invented as a means of augmenting the tone of the Viol, they acquired a character entirely unique, and are undoubtedly capable of further development. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ The Violin is the most popular and useful of all portable instruments, and indeed of all instruments except the pianoforte, and it has considerable importance as being the principal instrument in the orchestra, the main body of which is composed of violins, in their three sizes of trebles, altos or tenors, and basses. It is nearer to the human voice in quality, compass, and facility of execution than any other instrument; few are simpler in construction, and none is so cheap or so easily mastered, provided the learner sets rightly about it. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ It is often supposed that early violinists were not sufficiently masters of their instrument to command the higher positions. Nothing can be more absurd. In addition to what has been stated under the head Shift, it may be observed that many existing compositions for the Viola da Gamba prove that very complicated music was played on that instrument across the strings in the higher positions, and the transfer of this method of execution to the violin obviously rested with individual players and composers. Bach's Violin Solos represent it in the hands of one of transcendant genius ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ It may be observed that the development of musical instruments has always been from small to large and from high to low: the ear, it would seem, seeks ever more and more resonance, and musical requirements demand a larger compass: but the development of the Song in the hands of the Troubadours affords an adequate explanation of the fact that the fiddle-maker about this time strove to make his resonant box larger. But there is an obvious limit: if the belly is greatly widened the bow cannot be made to touch the strings without making the bridge of inordinate height. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ In the works of the best makers the purfling is bold, even, solid, perfectly finished, and accurately joined in the angles. The prince of purflers was Stradivarius. Many old instruments have a painted border instead of structural purfling, and modern fiddles of the commonest class have often only a double line in ink or paint round the edges. Only a single strip of purfling is usually employed; but double purfling, which in general injures the tone without improving the looks of an instrument, is often found; and instruments may be seen with a second row of purfling by a different hand. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ Its main excellences are purely mechanical, and though most good fiddles are also well-designed and handsome, not a few are decidedly ugly. Leopold Mozart, in his Violin-School, has some pertinent remarks on this fallacy. To choose a fiddle for its outward symmetry and varnish, he says, is like choosing a singing bird for its fine feathers. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ The degree of originality with which Stainer is to be credited cannot be precisely determined. Some trace his model to the early Tyrolese viol-makers, but in the opinion of other authorities the peculiarities of the Stainer violins are strictly original. As a mere workman Stainer is entitled to the highest rank, and if he had but chosen a better model, his best instruments would have equalled those of Stradivarius himself. Like that celebrated maker he was famous for the great number as well as the excellence of his productions. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ The five-stringed Treble Viol survived longest in France, where it was called 'Quinton' or 'Pardessus de Viole': and from the very numerous specimens which were sent forth in the last century from the workshops of Guersan and other Parisian makers, there can be no doubt that it was a fashionable instrument, in fact probably a musical toy for ladies of quality. The stop being an inch shorter than that of the Violin, and the tuning by fourths and a third entirely obviating the necessity of employing the fourth finger, it is easily played by small and comparatively unpractised hands. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ Competent musicians, who are masters of the piano, attracted by the simplicity of the tenor part in most quartets, often take up the Tenor with but little knowledge of the violin. This is a mistake: it is usually found that the Tenor can only be properly played by a practised violinist. The Violin and Tenor make an effective duet; witness the charming works of Haydn, Mozart, and Spohr, and the less known but very artistic and numerous ones of Rolla, by the aid of which any competent violinist will soon become master of the Tenor. Mozart wrote a concerto for Violin, Tenor, and Orchestra. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ The f-shaped soundhole has long been used for instruments of all sizes, from the kit to the double-bass, its size being proportionally altered with the scale of the instrument. It is found to produce the maximum of musical vibration, and it is therefore improbable that it will ever be altered in its main features. Uniform as soundholes may appear, they are in fact susceptible of infinite variety in detail, and in their setting in the instrument: and one glance at them is often enough to discover the maker. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ An old violin has generally to undergo many alterations before it is fit for use. If any part is worm-eaten, it must be renewed. If the blocks and linings are out of repair, or badly fitted, they must be properly arranged. Cracks must be united; if the belly or ribs have been pressed out of shape, they must be restored to shape by pressure on the mould: the damage to the belly, above the soundpost, which is sure to have occurred, must be repaired; if the old bass-bar remains, a larger and stiffer one must be provided, to enable the belly to bear the increased tension of a higher bridge. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ A modern violin has two projecting points on each of its sides, one at either extremity of the bouts or bow-holes which form the waist of the instrument. In the classical pattern, which has prominent corner-blocks, these projections form a sharp angle: in the older ones, including the viols, the angle is less acute, and the corner therefore less prominent. These corners mark the position of triangular 'blocks' inside, to which the ribs of the instrument are glued, and which are themselves glued to the back and belly, forming, so to speak, the corner-stones of the construction. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ Mozart's Trio for piano, clarinet, and viola, one of the most beautiful and effective works in the whole range of chamber music, affords admirable illustrations of its general capacities when used without a violoncello. Brahms's Quintet in B♭, and one of his string quartets, will afford good examples of the prominent use of the viola, and the special effect produced by it. It is interesting to observe that the modern chamber string quartet, of which the Tenor is so important a member, is based, not on the early chamber music, but on the stringed orchestra of the theatre. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ The Geige, Crowd, and Rebec were constructed on the principle of the Lute, which still survives in the Mandolin: they consisted of a flat belly and a convex back, joined oyster-fashion by the edges. No improvement as regards resonance was possible in these oyster-shaped instruments: the fiddle of the future required a certain depth in all its parts, which can only be given by sides or ribs. No other instrument was capable of a waist: and as the reader is aware, the body of such an instrument was ready to hand in the small organistrum or hurdy-gurdy. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ But even the violin is already big enough: though instruments have from time to time been made somewhat larger than usual, and that by eminent makers [see Stradivari] , players have never adopted them; and it is practically found that one-seventh longer than the ordinary violin is the outside measurement for the Tenor if the muscles of the arms and hands are to control the instrument comfortably, and to execute ordinary passages upon it. The Tenor is therefore by necessity a dwarf: it is too small for its pitch, and its tone is muffled in consequence. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ The Violin thus enjoys a sort of mysterious immortality, the effect of which is often enhanced by the groundless idea that no good fiddles have been made since the golden age of the Cremona makers, which terminated 120 years ago, and that the secrets of violin-making are lost. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ Old stringed instruments have generally died hard: and very primitive ones have maintained their place side by side with the improved ones founded upon them. Thus the Marine Trumpet, which is the oldest bowed instrument, and represents the earliest development of the Monochord, long continued in use concurrently with instruments of a more advanced kind, and is not yet quite obsolete. [See Tromba Marina.] A Guitar-shaped Violin, which is directly descended from the Fidel of the Troubadours, has been made and used in all ages. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ The peg-holes, enlarged by use, must be plugged and repierced: a new bridge and sound-post must be adjusted with all the accuracy which these important details demand. Great labour and attention are demanded by an old violin, and it will be thrown away unless every detail of it is considered with strict reference to the particular type of instrument which is in hand. Hence the restoration of old instruments demands a knowledge of the fiddle which is wider and deeper than that required for the mere fiddlemaker. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ The violin thus consists of seventy different parts, all of which, except the strings and loop, are of wood. The wood employed is of three sorts—maple for the back, handle, ribs and bridge; ebony for the fingerboard, nuts, screws, tailpiece and button; the purfling is partly of ebony, partly of maple; the belly, bar, blocks, linings, and soundpost are of pine. All metal is a profane substance in fiddle-making: no fragment of it should be employed, whether constructively or ornamentally. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ The 'Violin' model, which differs from the Viol in having shallower sides, with an arched instead of a flat back, and square shoulders, and in being composed in all its parts of curved or arched pieces of wood, glued together in a state of tension on the blocks, first appears in Italy towards the middle of the 16th century. It completely revolutionised the fiddle-maker's art, driving out of use first the Discant Viol, then the Tenor, and last of all the Bass Viol. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ If the body of the instrument is lengthened at the expense of the fingerboard, the player's left hand is cramped; if the whole length is increased the instrument becomes too large to be conveniently handled. Probably every structural alteration that could be suggested has been at some time tried and dismissed. The whole design of the fiddle has been settled gradually in strict accordance with the requirements of tone and execution. The total normal length of the violin has been determined by the length of the average human arm bent at a convenient angle. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ Nothing is more likely; for only an accomplished violinist could have formulated the demands which the Tourte bow was constructed to satisfy. Viotti no doubt contributed to bring the Tourte bow into general use, and it is certain that it quickly drove the old barbarous bows completely from the field, and that in Paris there at once arose a school of bow-makers which has never been excelled. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ Different classes of makers generally leaned to a particular form of soundhole. The Germans have made the ugliest. Up to the end of the 17th century there was considerable variety in cutting it: but most makers since Stradivari have copied his soundhole, which is purely geometrical. Those of the Amatis, of Joseph Guarnerius, and of Stainer, are equally familiar. The soundhole is a conspicuous feature in the physiognomy of the instrument. Many old fiddles have been spoiled by having their soundholes recut by unscrupulous vendors, so as to pass for other than they are. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ Being the only instruments with strings in common orchestral use, they are usually called 'stringed instruments,' and collectively 'the strings': but the German name 'bowed instruments' is more accurate. [1] They have been developed by the application of the bow to the Greek lyre and monochord; and their common name (Viol, Violin, Fiddle) is derived from the Latin name by which a small sort of lyre appears to have been known throughout the Roman empire. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ London, Paris, Vienna, and Munich, have had a constant succession of violin-makers for the past two centuries. The English violin manufacture suffered a severe blow by the abolition of duties on foreign instruments, and it can hardly be said that the musical stimulus of the last few years has caused it to revive. Those makers who carry on their trade in England are chiefly employed in rehabilitating and selling old instruments, and their own productions, too few in number, are usually bespoken long beforehand. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ The making of the mould requires the greatest care and nicety: and fiddlemakers will keep and use a good one all their lives. In addition to the pattern and the mould the fiddlemaker requires four templates of varying size, cut to curves which are the reverse of the principal curves of the surface. The largest is the curve lengthwise in the middle of the fiddle (1) , the other three are transverse, being (2) the curve of the surface at the greatest width in the upper part, (3) that at the narrowest part of the waist, (4) at the greatest width at the lower part. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ In construction, the violin, tenor, and violoncello may be said to be identical, the only difference being in the size and in the circumstance that the ribs, bridge, and soundpost of the violoncello are relatively higher than those of the other instruments. The tenor is one seventh larger than the violin, the violoncello twice as large: the double-bass is about double the size of the violoncello. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ The corners have but little prominence. The soundholes are 'set straight,' and terminate boldly in circles, the inner members being so far carried on and introverted that the straight cut in each is parallel to the axis of the fiddle. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ Oil varnish is long in drying; hence in this country, except in hot weather, the process is tedious, and the old English makers usually preferred spirit varnish, which dries very quickly. The best makers in all countries have used oil varnish, the soft texture of which penetrates and solidifies the wood without hardening the tone. When the varnishing and polishing are completed the fingerboard is glued on, and the violin is then ready for its moveable fittings. ”
Edward John Payne, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)
“ The tone of the Tenor however, owing to the disproportion between the size and pitch of its strings on the one hand, and the comparatively small size of its body on the other, is of a different quality from that of the violin. It is less powerful and brilliant, having a muffled character, but is nevertheless sympathetic and penetrating. Bad Tenors are worse than bad violins ”
