Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1880-07-21
Violin Making.

The question whether violin making is a
lost art is answered in the negative by G.
L. Chaplin, who has been an enthusiastic
student of the subject for thirty years.
Nothing relating to music, he says, las
been more fruitful of silly legends, romance
and superstition than the violin. Not that
the Old masters did not produce some grand
instruments. But it is a mistake to sup
pose that they worked by rule, system or
secret, which invariably gave good results;
that violin is excellent simply because it
bears the name of Da Salo, Maggini, Amati,
Stradivarius, or Guarnerius, or that the
best productions of these masters can never
again be equalled. Stradivarius, for in
stance, made more poor than good violins,
and made more bad ones than any other
maker of the great period. He is said to
have turned out 2000 instruments, but only
twelve really fine cres Of his make are now
known to be in existence. Da Salo and
1Iaggini each made less than 500 instru-
ments, but only about a dozen of each
maker are extant. In recent work on the
subject, Charles Goffrie, after an examina-
ton of the Cremonas in the collections of
PIowden, elliott, Villaume, Bojour, and
others, says that he 'found that they were
decidedly hard in tone, resembling new in
strtiments." And Prof. lie Brun, who
played in the same concerts with Paganlni,
and had in his hands nearly all the noted
Cremonas fifty and sixty years ago says
that the Guarnerius from which that great
violinist drew such wonderful tones would
have attracted little attention in the hands
of an ordinary professional. MIR. Chaplin's
conclusion is that ''the old makers made
some instruments as good as can be
made, but emphatically no better. Also,
they made some instruments as good as can
be made now, but the larger number made
by them are not up to the present standard
of power, and the few that are up TO this
standard are IN the hands of artists or in
collections, and entirely out of the market.
A large number of good violins have been
made since the great period, and 1t is safe
to say that large number of instruments
bearing the marks OF the old makers and
accredited to them were never near Gre
mona" The old inst uments do not ap-
pear to have been made according to any
fixed rule or principle, but on the ''cut and
try" plan. Nor is there any uniformity in
their make or published directions concern
ing their construction. Mr.. Chaplin tells
us that he has owned two of the masters
instruments Of the great period and fifty
instruments of the best reputed imitators,
has examined more than 2000 other vIolins
of various grades and patterns, and has read
what has been published on the subject,
but that he has failed to find ''even how
long to make the rs in given sized ins,ru-
ment, to say nothing of where they should
be placed He gives certain ratios, meas
urements, and directions for constructing
violin in accordance with the laws of sound,
and remarks that instruments made to
demonstrate this theory can be SEEN"
Niolins, he claims, can and should be made
on scientific principles, as other musical in
struments are. As good vlolins can be
produced here as have been made il Gre
mona, and the chief reason why this is not
done, he says Is that the people will not
nav for them