Hidalgo Moya

“ Many celebrated players have expressed the opinion to me that age alone gives to a violin its mellowness, or richness, of tone; some, indeed, adding that the instrument must also be much played upon. As to this last, it would appear disproved when we consider the few magnificent examples of the old masters’ work which have come down to our times almost untouched, and with the tone of which we have heard no complaint. Manifestly, then, the theory refers to the age of the violin, that is to say, the age of the wood of which it is constructed. ”

“ Fortunately the green-eyed monster is rampant among them; each is impatient of the claims of the other. Their amateurs are tarred with the same brush, while theorists indulge their bitterness and sarcasm in letters to the fiddle Press. Thus, like the famous cats, are they likely to destroy each other, and bring to naught their cupidity and ability to trade upon prevailing ignorance.
It is the fashion to consider that the mere maker of a violin cannot, with much authority, tell the player anything about tone. ”

“ It does not require a deal of technical ability to play a simple aria on the violin. Many amateurs are capable of giving a marvellously good rendition without doing anything which the hearer considers at all remarkable; but a great violinist will play the same thing, without embellishment, and in quite the same simple manner, and then the aria becomes remarkable!
Here is seen that gulf which always exists between player and fiddle; that obstacle which only the few appreciate, many ignore, while others are unaware of its existence. It is the gulf dividing the artist from the player. ”

“ We view the paint upon a pictured canvas without special interest. We know it is paint and leave it at that. Aside from the ideals of the artist we know it possesses no virtues leading towards the creation of a work of art. We have no illusions regarding a combination such as this. If we desired to produce a similar picture we are quite aware that similar paints placed upon canvas of equal size would not be enough. We fully appreciate the fact that colour and canvas are but the means through which ideals are rendered visible, yet, when we turn to the violin, we find this truth abandoned. ”

“ Yet we have makers taught by the greatest masters, heirs to their models and, in the case of the sons of Stradivari and Bergonzi, to patterns, tools, wood, and even partly finished instruments, but who still failed to produce the tone of their teachers and fathers. Surely no clearer evidence than this is needed to indicate that it was high ideals alone that placed the masters above others—even their own sons—as poets in tone. Let me repeat that this is no mere theory. Violins are developed to ideals to-day, and I believe it has been done since the days of da Salò by one maker or another. ”

“ Our progress with fiddles is not dissimilar, only we sell our idol. And thus many of us spend our lives—and money—seeking fiddles when, in reality, it is tone we are after. That we so seldom find it is due to the fact that we make up our minds beforehand where it will abide. Never, I believe, has imagination played me such scurvy tricks as when it caused me, during the years of my novitiate in tone, to invest some ancient and tubby “gourd” with the dulcet voice of a “real Cremona.” ”

“ Yet the fine modern instruments still survive, and are growing rapidly in tone repute. In spite of everything they still find players whose only consideration is TONE, just as TONE was the only consideration in the days when the old makers flourished. If the new violin can, in the face of all that is against its popularity, still find this favour, it must, indeed, have tone merit so exceptional as to be far in advance of many of those old violins whose praises are so persistently advertised. Everything considered, this strikes us as a happy augury for the immediate future of the new fiddle. ”

“ It is not given to all to appreciate art in its higher forms, and the purely technical side of violin playing may be cultivated to such an extent as to appeal, finally, only to the few; whilst tone, no matter to what extent it is cultivated, appeals invariably to the many. It is that quality in violin playing which holds the attention of the major portion of the audience, and, whilst a sound technical training is a necessary part of every player’s equipment, it is the fault of some amateurs that they rely too much upon it. ”

“ In fact, a loud-toned violin, although lacking the finer elements, is more suited to such players than a purer-toned instrument. It is better that they possess a fiddle with the tone with which they can be satisfied than another which is belaboured with the bow in the vain effort to create what is considered an effective, or “big,” tone. In justice to the player it must be said he is not wholly to blame. Wrong ideals of tone and carrying power are easily formed through the use of an unsuitable instrument. And it must be remembered a player can never “hear himself as others hear him.” ”

“ It has always seemed to me remarkable that dealers in old violins, especially instruments ranging in price from fifty to two hundred pounds, do not give some sort of tone guarantee; especially when the purchaser intends to use the violin for the production of musical sounds. Why should the player be asked to accept a document which does not guarantee the thing for which he is making the purchase, but something entirely different? As a curio the fiddle may be genuine enough, and as most of its value lies in the fact that it is a curio, it is only right that this part should be fully guaranteed. ”

“ Carrying Power.—Here we have that phase of tone which is most elusive. A violin seemingly loud, full and even brilliant, to the player, may, at a little distance, be thin and wailing. Such a violin is lacking in carrying power, and when played with a small orchestra, is rarely heard in the lower register by any save the player. The voice of a true-toned violin is rarely loud to the player, and, in the hands of many, such an instrument never has a chance to display its ability to lead the accompanying instruments. ”

“ This ‘manner’ of expression becomes in time, and in its turn, second nature, and only when this final point is reached is the artist entirely unconscious of possessing either a violin or method, and the expression of tone becomes untrammelled as the expression of thought—to which, indeed, it may be likened. This is the only ‘secret of tone,’ and, until it is accomplished, no player can truthfully say he understands, or is able to express, the true tone of the violin—or even such ideals as he may possess. ”

“ The effect of age on tone is, therefore, practically nil. It does not and never has created it. The instrument may, indeed, be consumed by the rotting of its wood, or fall to dust through the corroding influence of time, or be totally splintered by an accident, or even injured by fire when, without any doubt, its tone will disappear. I have indicated wherein and why time may be of some aid to tone, but the idea that it takes a lengthy period to “bring out the tone” in a finely constructed and properly tone-developed violin, in whatever age its maker lived, I characterise as sheer nonsense. ”

“ The new violin has but one asset—Tone. Its value depends upon the quality of its tone and nothing else, while the old, even the very cheap old, is lifted above tone because it is a curio as well as a fiddle, although it may be downright flattery to say its tone is third rate.
This dealer has but one serious trouble, namely, to keep his patrons satisfied with the species of “tone” which, when the glamour of owning a “fine old violin” has worn off, begins to whine for attention. His ability to meet this issue really justifies his claim to the title of “expert.” ”

“ IMITATION OLD MASTERS When certain of the more famous old violin makers were still living, when they had achieved through the splendour of their tone and the perfection of their model a wide-spread fame, there came into being a class of fiddle builders who devoted their energies towards copying, as closely as possible, the work of the great luthiers of their time. It is only fair to state that the majority of them were honest, and without desire or intention to create what might be considered a forgery. ”

“ It takes much experience, and judgment of a high order, to weave a coarse fabric of tone which, at a distance, develops the infinite possibilities of the graceful and beautiful in music. The player of the violin is always handicapped by inability to get away from his tone. ”

“ He was an admirable workman with great knowledge of wood, and a fine eye for form. Much of his material is very handsome, particularly in the violoncellos, in the making of which instruments he was second to no maker, except Stradivari. A few double-basses are known. Violas are very rarely seen, but the few recognised as genuine are admirable instruments and possess a very fine tone. His varnish has long excited the admiration of connoisseurs. It is very lustrous, and of varying shades of red, the texture being much clearer than that usually seen on work of the Venetian school. ”

“ In either case it is not tone which counts with the expert, but fiddle.
So far as tone is concerned, the player is left to his own devices. He has plenty of guides to the instrument, but none to tone. He may seek the advice of some fiddling friend who, being also without any guide or standard, expresses merely his own opinion. Should he fall back upon his own resources he cannot but hesitate. The new violin he views with suspicion. It is an “imitation,” so the experts have said, and who would have an imitation when the “genuine” is available! ”

“ The living makers might well have been forced to compete among themselves for such trade in low-priced violins as they could get. With them it was probably not so much a matter of tonal art as of bread and butter—or macaroni. We are aware that, in all ages of violin making, a demand has existed for the low-priced instrument, numerically in excess of the demand for those of higher price and better tone. Overshadowed, therefore, by the great masters this may well have been about the only demand upon the builders of that time. ”

“ The very reason why the violin possesses a tone has not yet been satisfactorily explained, present opinion on the subject being near to chaos, some holding that it is due to the wood, others that it lies in some secret of construction, a few that it results from varnish, and many that it is created by age—but none, so far as I am aware, thinking it is due to an Ideal; material and construction being merely the means through which it finds expression. ”

“ It not only gives tone, but takes it away also—it all depends upon whether the maker is dead or not! But the seeker of tone need not be alarmed when such double-barrelled wisdom is solemnly imparted. The tone of the great new violins is absolutely permanent. It does not owe its origin to age, or to anything that time can alter any further than it can alter the tone of any other great violin. Its continued existence is subject to the same conditions as govern the existence, or tone-life, of the finest old Italian{52} instruments. If time influences it at all it is only to make it better. ”

“ It might have been more accurate to state that violins are not sold for their tone, but for their age or appearance. It is only the dealer who buys an old fiddle simply because it is old.
This kind of dealer prospers because few people realise that fine tone is not to be acquired cheaply in an old violin; that age and tone are not synonymous terms. They are misled through the spell cast over all old fiddles by the masterpieces of Cremona. Tone of superfine quality seldom comes their way. ”

“ This knowledge he has gained through a unique experience, covering a wide range of instruments by many old masters, and because he is often a player of the violin himself. But all experts are not great, nor are all of them players of the violin. There is, indeed, under such a system, no need for them to possess a knowledge of tone, or any ability to produce it from the instrument. If, therefore, the old violin is not judged and valued from the standpoint of its tone it is not the fault of the expert, but the fault of the system under which he exercises his calling. ”

“ In considering this subject it is extremely difficult to cite anything in the nature of a clear illustration, but we may be allowed to liken the tone of a good violin to the inanimate clay from which the sculptor models a figure. One may suppose the perfection of this figure to depend on the sculptor’s idea of perfection in form. If his clay be of good, even colour, and of fine, plastic quality; if his ideals be high and his ability as an executant well seasoned by experience, one can hardly expect anything save a satisfactory result. ”

“ Many a promising career is jeopardised through the lack of it, and progress in a difficult study retarded for the same reason. A poor toned violin will bind the soloist to a commonplace voice, and may even set up for the beginner a false standard as an ideal of tone. It is this great body of players who are obliged, under existing circumstances, to place their tonal wants at the mercy of a system not intended to cater for their needs, but to the needs of the curio-hunter. ”

“ Mellowness, softness, richness, or whatever it may be termed, appears to me as merely one of those elements which, like purity, adds one to the total of desirable features which we look for and expect in a violin of Quality. ”

“ A potent factor in retarding a general recognition and revival of tone is that modern violin makers are all too frequently looked upon—and look upon themselves—as mere carvers of wood, and are judged almost entirely from that standpoint. Perfection of workmanship and such artistry as each maker may achieve, rather than the tone-merit his instruments may possess, seems the only existing method of indicating his status as a violin maker. ”

“ There are few matters connected with the violin approached more lightly and with less understanding than this question of ideals of tone, whether in the violin or the player. As we have seen in previous chapters, some violin makers ignore it entirely, being content simply to make the fiddle, just as some players ignore it, and are content merely to play the fiddle. These are continually seeking the instrument which, through the perfection of its tone, will turn them into virtuosi—a thing it never will do. ”

“ The modern is becoming impatient of the perpetual insinuation that he is inferior, as a creator of tone, to the worst old fiddle-maker that ever died, and as he forms no inconsiderable section of the fiddle community, with an influence and patronage not to be despised, his interest would naturally trend in the direction where he found that justice which is his due. ”

“ There are players so accustomed to the tone of one violin that they are utterly incapable of correctly judging the tonal qualities of another. I once met a player of no mean ability who owned and played upon a factory-made instrument which emitted a miserably flat and thin tone. Yet this fiddle had been treasured and used for twelve years! No other violin “suited” so well! although many excellent instruments had been tried. ”

“ With some makers the desire for favourable opinions upon tone amounts almost to a passion, leading them to all manner of mistakes. There is little objection in making public the opinions which may be expressed upon the tone of a violin, particularly if made in the Press, or some authority other than the player, but it is well to remember that the value of such opinions is thoroughly nullified by exploiting on their strength violins less worthy. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Like the Wandering Jew, they are never at rest. Countless amateurs have owned them, treasured them, found them out, and sent them forth again. Some bear the scars of fruitless operations, for it is the fashion among the inexperienced to attribute the lack of tone in all violins to faults of adjustment. In one way or another the attempt is made to accomplish what the maker of the fiddle failed to do. As to this, there is a difference between adjusting a fine-toned violin, and trying by the same means, or by any means whatsoever, to create tone in a fiddle that never possessed any. ”