Stradivari

“ And inward sense that works along with both,
Have hunger that can never feed on coin.
Who draws a line and satisfies his soul,
Making it crooked where it should be straight?
An idiot with an oyster-shell may draw
His lines along the sand, all wavering,
Fixing no point or pathway to a point;
An idiot one remove may choose his line,
Straggle and be content; but God be praised,
Antonio Stradivari has an eye
That winces at false work, and loves the true,
With hand and arm that play upon the tool
As willingly as any singing bird
Sets him to sing his morning roundelay. ”

“ Much has been said of the wonderful accuracy of Stradivari's purfling and that as a purfler he stands unrivalled. This must not be taken in the widest sense, as there have been, and are living, scores and scores of makers who have cut a rut round the border of a fiddle as sharply, and inserted the three conventional lines of dark and light wood as deftly as it could be by the hand of any man, be he named Amati, Stradivari, Ruggieri, Tononi, or Montagnana. There is a degree of evenness and keenness of cutting and clean insertion beyond which it is not possible to go. ”

“ Undoubtedly, it was this progressive condition of the music of the period that induced Stradivari, early in his career, if not at the time he was with Nicolo Amati, to take up the study of tone calibre as a matter of essential importance, in order not only to keep pace with the times, but if possible, anticipate further advances in musical development.
It was daily becoming more evident that the qualities of refinement and sympathy would not in themselves be sufficient in an instrument with such a future as the violin seemed to have. ”

“ The foregoing is perhaps enough to indicate whether or not the secret of Stradivari, or indeed any of the other Italian masters, great or small, had been discovered by caliper measurement. It is strange that the impression has held sway so strongly that the genius of the great [54] master lay in his manner of distribution of the thick and thin parts of the upper and lower table. ”

“ But if there ever was an instance in which this motto could with strictest appropriateness be applied, it was the work of Stradivari. Most if not all of the known masters have at times shown by some little accident or other, their method of working, thus, notwithstanding the [11] extremely careful and finished work of the Amati family, there is occasionally to be seen some unobliterated signs—truly very slight—of their having traced their pattern on the wood for either the sound holes or the turns of the scroll. ”

“ The gouging is deep from the commencement. The aim of the artist in the whole design appears to have been towards perfection of gracefulness.
Fig. b. Antonio Stradivari, 1683, the openness and bold swing of the first turn at once on leaving the "eye" is very striking, it also commences higher up, there is almost an absence of flow or downward tendency. The throat underneath the volute is very massive, although all the edges are finished off with the utmost delicacy and sharp tooling. All the details of scroll carving by Stradivari at this period are marvels of mechanical dexterity of handling. ”

“ We are therefore thrown upon our own resources in estimating any connection of Carlo Bergonzi with the late work of Antonio Stradivari. The instruments themselves will be the only guide and, without doubt, in the face of other evidence, had it been present, the best. Stradivari's work during the last ten or more years of his life was showing exactly what we should expect of the man when working at a patriarchal age. ”

“ The very beautiful subdivisions and subtleties of the curves in pattern and modelling began to disappear and the purfling became bolder. Young Stradivari, when working on some of his master's violins, seems to have been allowed to do some of this, probably with the material given out by old Nicolas. The work of the young man may be known by its greater decision, such as would be reasonably expected; but after leaving the Amati household the natural bent towards exceeding refinement soon asserted itself. ”

“ There is a difference, scarcely to be measured mathematically, that in one will be suggestive of masculine strength, while in another it will be exquisite feminine grace.
In none of the imitations of the master are there seen these qualities expressed in the same degree and kind. It has often been said, and there is more than a substratum of truth in the remark, that, "to copy a Stradivari successfully"—of course, in the fullest sense of the word—"the copyist must be a Stradivari himself." ”

“ People sometimes speak of these instruments as being "Amatisé," which is great nonsense; had Stradivari died somewhere between 1680 and 1690, they would have been rapturous in their admiration of his originality and widely separated ideas from those of the Amati, but as he lived many years on and gave forth many more manifestations of his own individuality, the likeness of these 1680 and 1690 to old Nicolas is eagerly searched for and often supposed to be evident. It was at this time that Stradivari probably made more new moulds or blocks on which to construct, than at any other. ”

“ We may now retrace our steps for awhile and take up another thread of the fabric of Stradivari's individuality, that which is in fact by dealers ignored and by players adored. There can be no question that during his minority under the great Amati, young Antonio must have been much interested in his master's fame for imparting a fine quality of tone to his instruments. It must soon have been apparent to him that success in his career would not be achieved by progress in the artistic part of his work alone. ”

“ Among the Venetian makers there does not seem to be one that can—from his style and workmanship—be picked out as showing all necessary evidence of his having qualified under the great Cremonese as a personal pupil. Nevertheless there is much indication, and such as cannot be passed over, of the influence of Stradivari among the aristocracy of the business there. ”

“ There is frequently among musicians a disposition to set down as inferior any tone that may seem to differ in degree or kind with that of Stradivari; that is the ideal type, it must be Stradivari and no other; some have even gone so far as to say, "there is only one quality," that of Stradivari, and when other masters did not produce it, they were unable to do so; this is more than a hint at condemnation of the head of the Cremona school as having been very lax in the proper and thoughtful training of his number of pupils ”

“ In those of Stradivari is to be seen the same firmness of purpose and strict curbing of the fancy from proceeding too far, or allowing stability to be over balanced by love of gracefulness, as seen in the designs of his eminent master. To allow no weak part to be perceptible; strength of line with sufficient grace, admirable proportion and balance, and yet withal sufficient expression of mobility and freedom from heaviness were each, seemingly in turn, given the best attention by the great genius of Cremona. ”

“ These little differences in accuracy of unimportant detail or accidents of work may be taken as evidence that Stradivari was labouring day by day to meet the requirements of patrons different in disposition and perhaps patience. When at the same period he has been allowed to put his full time and attention to his work, then we find the four corners of equal unsurpassable finish, and other minute details over the whole structure so intently studied that nothing could possibly go beyond. ”

“ And here attention may perhaps be appropriately drawn in these pages to what has been asserted by a few, very few, dealers and others, whose general intelligence should have been a guarantee against the dissemination of utter nonsense and which has even been in print! that—just think of this—Antonio Stradivari, the acknowledged master liutaro of Cremona in his own day, and of whose growing fame no one can foretell the limits—actually imitated wear and tear of varnish on his violins. ”

“ It is true that in brilliancy and clearness, even in liquidity, Guarneri is not surpassed by him; but what appears to me peculiar to the tone of Stradivari is a more unlimited capacity for expressing the most varied accents of feeling. The tone seems to well forth like a spring and to be capable of infinite modification under the bow. Stradivari’s violins affording a strong resistance to the bow, when resistance is desired, yet responding to its [37] lightest breath, emphatically require that the player’s ear shall patiently listen until it catches the secret of drawing out their tone. ”

“ The instruments of Lorenzo are exceedingly bold in design, and differ in this respect from those of Giovanni Battista, which retain much of the delicate form of Stradivari. Lorenzo frequently changed the form of his sound-hole, giving it the pointed character of Giuseppe Guarneri in some instances, and in others retaining the type of sound-hole perfected by his master. The model is inclined to flatness, the declivity being of the gentlest kind: the breadth of the design commands admiration. The scroll is certainly not an imitation of that of Stradivari ”

“ Stradivari from the first made his sound holes more perpendicular than those of his master; after leaving him, they also became more slender and the upper and lower wings wider and closer to the opposing curve. The precision and sharpness of the cutting of these parts has become the standard of excellence to which hundreds of Stradivari's imitators of different countries and times have striven to attain. ”

“ A Signor Caroli has two very fine Stradivari’s; Rolla has one also of great beauty; a Count Gozio de Solence has in his numerous collection of fine violins among several others by Amati, Guarneri and Guardagnini, four Stradivari’s also, which have never been played upon, and which although very old look as though they had only just been made. Two of these violins are the production of the last year of that artist, 1773, when he was an old man of ninety three years of age. But it is immediately perceptible on the violin that it was cut by the tremulous hands of an infirm old man ”

“ Here is evidence of there being something in a name. Had these instruments been carefully and properly analysed, with a strict regard to the habit of the master in respect of intention in design and execution at early and later periods, the mistake would not have occurred. The conclusions rushed at seem to have been that there was the proper age of the instrument, the varnish was of fine Cremonese type, the pattern and sound holes thought to be "Straddy," therefore it must be a Stradivari. ”

“ Many good makers have failed in it: next to Stradivari, Vuillaume succeeded best. In the instruments of his latest years Stradivari sometimes reverted to the brown tint which was fashionable in his youth. These may have been varnished by his son, whose instruments generally exhibit this brown colour. Stradivari occasionally gave his finest instruments several coats of fine pure oil varnish, polishing each coat as soon as dry. Sometimes, however, the coats are fewer and thinner, and the writer has seen an instrument sent forth into the world by the great maker with the size barely covered. ”

“ It may be fairly taken as certain that if there was any master having at command all the necessaries for turning out musical instruments of matchless superiority, both as to acoustical and artistic qualities, it was Stradivari, and many connoisseurs would expect to find nothing but maple used of the richest curl, and that would throw up with delightful effect the lustrous varnish so carefully laid upon it ”

“ The impossibility hitherto of imparting the requisite identical expression, notwithstanding the most careful examination and tracing, constantly adds force to an old saying among dealers that "to make a perfectly successful imitation of Stradivari he must be a Stradivari himself." In this view it is obvious that a maker having the sure consciousness of possessing the power of the master would no longer make tracings of him, but bring out his own originals. ”

“ Stradivari, who had now acquired—at the period 1680-90—a standing as an acknowledged master of his craft, showed in his handiwork a decided leaning in consonance with this, as—excepting these "inlaid Strads"—he carefully refrained from introducing any of the little tricks, or fanciful alteration of details, that so many, even of his own countrymen, seem to have been led to affix to their productions. After all, the "inlaid Strads" were probably so made, not at their maker's suggestion, but by desire of the patrons holding a high social position. ”

“ On comparing it with the different patterns of bridges that had been issued by the previous masters of Cremona, it will be seen at once that the master mind of Stradivari had effected improvements that have their counterpart in the designs of his violin patterns. We may notice the successful efforts at stability with simplicity, just enough of detail that would lend itself in completing the harmony of the whole design, while dispensing with every unnecessary angle or curve. ”

“ We have within a mile of Charing Cross no lack of workmen capable of gauging and copying with sufficient exactness the thicknesses of any Stradivari brought to them, if that were all, or the principal means necessary for reproducing the famous qualities of the great Cremonese. It seems to be forgotten that hundreds of clever workmen have lived since his time, in his own as well as other countries, who have given the most assiduous application to the making of exact copies and with a like result—that of total failure. ”