Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1879-01-30

| NO one can say just Wnen vtOilns were
| invented, but il is certain that. though the
| principle of this MISUNDERSTANDING set In
vibration upon sounding -board-was
known In the earliest times, the world still
| went on harping and drumming, playing
| on pipes, tabors. lutes. dulcimers and 9TH
| er instruments, OF which we have no pat
| terms, for more than five thousand years.
| The first violin Is said to have come from
| the work shop Of a studious old instrument
maker. Gasparo dl Salo. who lived In the
village of Brescis, In northern Italy toward
the last OF the sixteenth century. He gave
| the violin its present shape and size and its
name, which signifies "little VOL" After
him. in the same town, came many other
makers whom we need not recall, till we
come to the famous name of Amati.
Andreas Amati lived In the neghboring
town of Creuona. and spent his time max
ing viols after the fashion OF the day But
II was a poor fashion, he thought; aud
| when he heard that Gasparo di Salo had
made great improvements and changes in
the instrument, he journed TO Brescia, en-
tered Gasparo's workshop, learned all that
was taught there, and then, burning with
new ideas. he went home and established
in his native village the celebrated school
of Cremona violns. His sons were brought
up to their fathers trade, and they handed
the secrets of il to their sons, who, 10 turn,
altered and shaped and invented, seeking
perfection.
About 4 hundred years after Gasparo di
Sslo had sent his violin into the world. a
young man named Antonius Stradivarius
was among the pupils at the Amau school.
He was a slow. silent youth, not remarka-
BILE for anything except his close attention
to his work and his careful study of his
masters instruments. Even after his ap-
prenticesbp was over. and he had started
his own workshop, he clung TO the old
patterns, copying them in every detail
both fault and merits. and often signing
them with the name of his master, Nleho-
las Amati. Bat one day he seems to have
walked suddenly to clear sight, and he said
to himself:
There's more music In wood and strings
and horse-hair than has ever yet been
brought out. Antonius, that Is your work
10 do
SO he set about this newly revealed task
with that quiet zeal and infinite patience
which we describe by the single word
genius" For twenty years he shut him
self up In lonely Workshop. All the long
time between early manhood and middle
age he spent before a workbench, with
compass or tool In hand, experimenting
with his materials. testing, studying, and
applying their properties and resources
He was fny-six years old before he was
satisfied that he had reached the best re-
suits Of his studies and then, full of hnowl-
edge and power, he began, In 1890, to make
vlollns with wonderful rapIdlty, sending
them throughout the musical world. where
their surprising merits made them and the
name OF Stradivarius famous forever.
When We think OF the slow growth of the
violin, Advancing only by centuries. we
can scarcely understand why a thing
slight. 50 apparently simple, should have
required six thousand years tor it, periec-
tIon. But what was the problem which the
makers Of the violin had set themselves:
simply tnis 10 Grease "a iIutuat4 ,vivc. Thv
air was filed with music; sweetest of all
were the voices OF women. No instru-
mcnt expressed the shrill, clear vibrant
quality OF a soprano voice. Beside It, the
tones of harps, lutes guitars and spinets
were hollow and yexng. Each violin
maker then sought. with his bits OF wood
and strings. to put the air in motion. TO
gather the souud-wayes and coulinc them
in the wooden shell, and to send them back
10 us in tones which should be brilliant
flexible, true and mellow AZ the lovelest
singing-voice, voice without 4 human
body. and yet one which should thrill us as
ii 1t started from human soul.
his was an Immense problem. only TO
be solved by countless practical expert
ments. The theory of acoustics, which our
latter-day philosophers have made so plain.
had not then been formulated, and these
old workmen CROPPED in the dark, sure OF
nothing TIL they tested il. The least alter
alton in the curve of the lines. or thickness
of the wood, or In the proportions of one
part to another, cost years OF study, with
daily comparisons and failures. The ma
terials were few but a thousand variations
OF sound, volume and quality OF tone could
be produced from them.
1t would be foolish TO say that Stradiv-
arius and his fellows worked without meth.
cd in hsp-hazard way but they certainly
made laws for themselves, and these laws
are based upon scientific principles so ex-
act that Professor Tyndall himself can use
nothing which proves and illustrates his
lectures on sound SO thoroughly as Gre
mona violin. As to creating a human
voice, that is done so exactly with every
shade and turn of expression that singing
masters say no voice can be perfectly true
| which has not been trained By the violin.
| instead of the jangling piano-forte.-M d.
Ruff, So. Nicholas for February.