Violin maker

“ A knowledge of acoustics, which is most indispensable to the violin maker, cannot always be acquired, since it emanates from an innate genius, which makes itself manifest in the very choice of the wood.
When by the aid of these sciences I had arrived by a natural proceeding at what I aspired, I made violins in imitation of the old Italian instruments and presented them to great artists and connoisseurs, and the highest authorities of Europe and America. They pronounced them to be genuine old Italian violins, not only on account of tone, but also in regard [96] to form and appearance. ”

“ There is no doubt that a certain class of violin players pay very little attention to the care of their instruments, as they use them daily, and few have time to bestow the necessary attention upon them. If a violin is out of order, a musician or amateur who knows nothing about it continues to play upon it. At length he perceives that the tone is not the same as it was before. Many, therefore, often lay the blame on the repairer, or on the violin maker, if it is a new instrument. ”

“ A dilettante violin maker can never be a thorough workman, and is entitled to be considered [70] only as a "jack-of-all-trades;" he has a great many kinds of tools which the regular violin maker never uses. ”

“ Speaking on the subject of repairing old instruments, he says, "There is no violin maker now, who does not put, whether in the instruments he has to repair, or in those which he makes, a much stronger bar than those which were employed by the great makers themselves. ”

“ A rather popular belief is that all old violins by a certain celebrated maker, or new ones by a modern maker, are alike in tonal worth. This is not the case, and the fact should be carefully remembered. The variation is not due so much to the vicissitudes of a long and strenuous existence on the part of the instrument as to those human limitations which render it impossible for a master in any art to copy himself with unfailing regularity and success. ”

“ Lastly, the belly, on which the bass bar has already been fitted, is glued on, and the resonant box is complete.
The design and cutting of the head, the carving of the volute, and the double grooving of its back, are among the most difficult branches of the violin-maker's art. When the handle is ready it is accurately fitted and glued to the top block and to the semicircular button at the top of the back, which hold it firmly in the angle they form. The fiddle is now ready for varnishing. After being sized, three or more coats of varnish are successively applied. ”

“ No, they are not, nor has this been the case in any period of violin making.{50} Yet—and this may well be worthy of attention—there is scarcely a maker of to-day, even to the copyist, who has not his tonal counterpart among the builders of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His violins are as good as those produced by his more ancient prototype. They may, indeed, be more worthy of the attention of players, as our modern is apt to follow a model superior to those adopted by many of the older copyists. ”

“ Times without number I have been asked by friends of the violin, during my 40 years’ work as a violin maker, to recommend books giving more exact information on the construction of that instrument, but the only answer that I have been able to give has been that German technical literature on the subject is very meagre, and that information from foreign works is mostly impoverished by feeble translations.
Very few authors understand the general build of the violin thoroughly, they pay most attention to individual points, those most calculated to attract the attention of amateurs ”

“ Ability to judge properly the merits of a violin,—whether new or old,—comes only with experience; beginners should therefore before purchasing consult a player or teacher possessing the necessary knowledge. Violins by the same maker, to all appearance exactly alike, yet frequently differ [Pg 4] greatly in tone quality, and an instrument of bad tone is a stumbling block in the path of progress, disheartening the learner. ”

“ The most remarkable attempted alteration of latter days proceeds from the piano maker Hagspiel in Dresden, and consists in bending or arching the upper table of the violin instead of working it out, the sound-holes appearing as round openings in the ribs instead of in the upper surface. The tone of these violins is of surprising power and volume, but they demand a peculiar, and somewhat firm bowing; a heavier bow is also needed. The maker proceeds on the assumption that there exists, in modern orchestras a tonal gap between the string and the brass instrument. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Further, if the fit is at all tight, do not use pressure but get another case, your violin would be a very bad one indeed for your sympathies to fall in with a horrible suggestion once made by the maker of a too closely fitting case for his friend's instrument, that he should be allowed to take a shaving or two off the violin, it would then go in nicely. ”

“ That these new violins are becoming a factor seriously to be reckoned with is not lost upon those whose interest it is to foster the trade in old instruments of less tonal value. After all, it is tone{41} value that will decide the question between the old and the new, and it is possible the day is not far distant when old violins (outside those by the famous creators of grand tone) will have to stand or fall upon their tone-merit, rather than upon the claim of having been made by some obscure or unknown maker in an equally uncertain but ancient day. ”

“ If the lover and seeker of tone has some experience of the matter; if he is so fortunate as to number among his friends a candid and impartial dealer; he is aware that the bulk of{11} old fiddles possess but small tone value; that it is age, repute, or appearance that sells them. Many players have purchased old violins which are genuine enough, but practically worthless in tone; such tonal glories as they possibly once possessed having long since departed. But the maker’s name remains; the instrument is still the veritable production of an old maker. ”

“ It is freely admitted by all makers and{73} connoisseurs of the instrument that certain of the ancient makers developed the body of the violin to a standard of excellence beyond which no improvement is possible, as a base upon which may be built, regulated, and developed a grand tone. Now observe. If the modern maker employs any of these models he is an “imitator.” This term carries with it an air of reproach, indicating that the modern fiddle-maker is content to pose as a mere copyist and let tone take care of itself ”

“ Many violins of little tonal worth, but by a more or less famous ancient maker, are advertised in a manner calculated to fire the imagination of the reader and effect a sale through an appeal to romantic sentiment. ”

“ The arching of the instruments is high, the sound-holes, of Brescian type, are rather wide open, the wood and workmanship good, the backs of the violins generally in one piece cut slab wise. The labels seem to be dated in Roman numerals. It was this maker’s sons, Antonius and Hieronymus, more especially the latter, who produced the type of violin which will ever be associated with the name of Amati. They worked in partnership during their joint lives, but their individual workmanship is distinct ”

“ Many violins dating from about 1670, and bearing genuine Niccolò Amati labels exist, which exhibit a very high degree of finish, great neatness of workman{139}ship, and other characteristics which do not appear in examples by other workmen employed by Niccolò, but which, when compared with instruments admittedly made by Hieronymus II. after his father’s death, are sufficient to proclaim their authorship. In these the cutting of the scrolls and sound-holes is clearly the work of a maker in the full maturity of his powers. ”

“ The moderns, for obvious reasons, have paid much attention to them. I remember coming across an Italian violin that had changed hands frequently for the asserted reason of insufficient tone. The maker having a renown for considerable power, it appeared to me that the tone was possibly there, but that from some undiscovered cause it was not properly emitted. On examination I found that the maker had joined the ribs, not at the central part as usual, but too much to the left, perhaps a pupil or assistant had bored the hole at the junction. ”

“ The quality of a violin depends upon the fineness and thinness of the wood, the curvings and arches, the strings, the varnish, the shape of the sound-holes or openings etc. The best violins were made at Brescia, Cremona, Mantua, Milan and Venice, where, on the southern slopes of the Alps, could be found the fine elastic pine best adapted to the purpose. Salo, Maggini, the Amati family, Joseph Guarnerius, called Gesu, and Stradivarius are among the most celebrated violin makers of Italy ”

“ The secret of the tone of these instruments is said to be in the varnish which the Cremona makers used, the recipe of which has been lost, but we met a 215violin maker recently in Paris who had discovered it in an old Italian book, and he has spent years in trying to reproduce it. The old Italian varnish and the mellowing of the wood with time are two reasons why age makes the old violins better. ”

“ It would be too much to ask that they should themselves be such connoisseurs, for the violin is still considered as a fiddle in this country, and it may still take a long time before the people here reach the standard of knowledge and appreciation which Europe occupies. Therefore, only very few real violin makers are found here, for most of them are only amateurs doing business in this branch. In the Centennial exhibition in Philadelphia, in the United States Department, were found mostly such amateur violins. I have heard that all those who called themselves violin makers received a premium. ”

“ It would pain many a one, if they could realize the manner in which valuable violins are treated by such violin makers and repairers. Repairing violins, therefore, is as little understood as violins themselves, in consequence of which not only the interior of many an Italian instrument is ruined, but also the exterior is often deprived of its classical appearance by an alcoholic varnish, which is smeared over it and which impairs its value; and yet many owners of such instruments, who do not know any better, rejoice to see their violins with such a glossy surface. ”

“ The celebrated old makers are known to have succeeded, and so have a select few of the living makers. Mr. Towry Piper, writing in the Strad, says of a modern builder: “He can build a fiddle with a certain quality and{117} volume of tone, and within human limits, repeat the process ad lib.” It need hardly be pointed out that the old masters also laboured “within human limits.” Apart from the specially good examples, the old violin makers of the second class produced in their instruments a quality of tone in every respect worthy of being termed Excellent. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Many violin makers can get the best wood, but where there is no talent applied in the construction, nothing very good can come forth.
Of all productions of art, the violin is the most difficult to judge, and I have nearer illustrated the different characters of tone which violins produce, and tried to make these things more comprehensible, in order that this medley of opinions and judgments which have been given may be put in a clearer light. ”

“ This is due to the fact that during that century there arose in northern Italy families of violin makers who, selecting generally the least clumsy of the types of bowed instruments, and particularly the violin, with marvellous workmanship and natural endowment of instinctive skill, developed them into instruments of a sweetness, flexibility, and power of expression which can be rivalled only by the human voice. ”

“ They have their own particular patrons, who in the knowledge of violins are on the same level with themselves; but it cannot be denied that in the productions of some of these violin makers there is talent discernable; if these persons could have had proper instruction, more good violin makers would be found than are now in existence. But as long as dilettanti violin makers remain as such, only dilettanti violins will be produced; for without proper instruction it is impossible to obtain either a correct knowledge of the exterior formation or a correct knowledge of the production of tone. ”

“ Since 1847 I have made violins in America, therefore my instruments do not require to be subjected to a "proof of time," for it is without such a one that I have solved the problem and secured at once the fine tone which all the preceding violin makers strove in vain to find. I obtained my purpose in quite a natural way. This knowledge, however, does not lie in an object whose secret is only to be secured by a patent; it lies purely in the gifts of man. Another century may pass by before this problem will be solved again. ”