Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1882-11-16
M1istellaueons &eading.
SOMETHING ABOUT YIOLINS.

| SOMETHING ABOUI tlULlNS.
Louis Blumenburg, The violoncello virtuoso,
has been spending his between seasons at his
home in Baltimore. When your correspon-
dent dropped in he was contemplating his in
strument with dissatisfied air. The amber
ed mellow lustre, its long neck was firmly
erect, it's carved head thrown back in true
Stradivarius pose, and the strings, as they
were fretted by the virtuoso's fingers, emitted
sonorOus notes.
'sWhat is the matter ?" was asked.
s'I can't tell exactly" was the reply. cit
is tired and needs a rest. If lay it aside for
a week or so, it will regain its perfection of
tone, without anything else being done to it..
1t is Il hard thing to explain, and it is fact
familiar to every artist. If you use an instru-
ment too much it loses it's tone-not enough,
perhaps, for the average auditor to perceive,
but the artist knows it,"
''Maybe the trouble is then with the artist
himself-losing the precision of his touch from
over-practice," said Tho caHer.
''That is the explanation which most natu-
rally occurs to one, but it is not good. The
trouble is with the instrument. Every artist
meets with it, and has to keep more than one
in use. Wilhelmj has to lay his Stradvarius
violin aside occasionally, and use his Gemun-
der until the Stradivarius is rested. Every
man who uses razor knows that it gets tired
from too much use, and regains its temper
from being laid aside for a while, and it is the
same with musical instruments. Tone is a
puzzle anyhow. A crack in the belly of vi
olin or cello you might think would be fatal
to tone from it's interception of sound vibra-
| tiOns, but sometimes cracks seem to cause an
Improvement. Instruments that are well
treated improve by age. 1t may be that the
rich tones of fine Stradivarius or Guanerius
are due largely to their age, and that the ex-
quisite mellow quality which we find in them
| is the acquisition of years. Guillaume who
was, in his time, a celebrated Paris maker, is
now in disrepute because the fine tone which
he impaired to his instruments was not last
ing. He had some process for medcating the
wood of his instruments that gave them
strength and softness of tone, but age, instead
of improving them, impaired their quality.
Then, again, the tone of instruments seems to
result from happy chance adjustments OF their
parts which cannot be repeated with any GER
tainty. The masterpieces of the Cremona
school now in existence may be strokes of good
fortune that the old makers themselves could
not always certainly effect. You see that the
bridge of my cello here is not a particularly
+ fine looking bit of wood. Sometime ago when
1 happened to drop into an instrument ma-
kerr shop he said Il have got splendid
piece of maple $50 years old, just the thing to
make you new bridge" Well, he made the
bridge and it looked right and seemed to fit
right, but when l tried it the strings didn't
sound right. worked with it for some time,
but finally had to give it up. Then the bow
has great deal to do with the tone. Its wood
must be strong anu at the same time slender
and light; it must be firm without being rig
| id, and must have perfect evenness of texture,
so as to give the same quality of percussion
| from whatever point it may be applied to the
strings. There are celebrated makers OF bows
as well as of instruments. The LupOt bow is
famous. The maker was Frenchman who
tlourished in the first quarter of this century.
| He got hold of fine lot of Penambuco wood,
and all his bows were made of selected pieces
A good Lupot bow is worth 800. An ordi-
nary bow, which would look as if it were just
as good, can be bought far S..
''It is a hard thing to get hold of fine old
instrument" the virtuoso went on, the cello
chords under his straying fingers. 81 believe
told you that Wilhelmj plays Stradivarius.
Remenyi has quite collection, but generally
plays an Amati. Ole Bull had a large violin
by one of the earliest makers of the CremOna
school, Gaspard da Salo. Some fine instru-
ments are in the hands of amateurs. Assis-
tant Secretary of State Hunter has violon-
cello of StradivariuS tone, if not OF that make.
EX-Mayor Havemeyer, of New York, al
though not himself cello player, / believe,
paid about 50, 800 for Il Guanerius. 1t is the
rich amateur who runs up the price of such
instruments until they are out of the reach of
the poor artist. There is manufacturer of
garden tools in Hartford, who has splendid
collection of violins, and yet, so far as his
own playing is concerned, an ordinary fiddle
yrou16 1o him iuct ,ral1 a StrodivarnS
In his collection is the famous King Joseph
Guanerius violin. 1t is wonderful instru-
ment. l can't describe to you the power,
softness and sweetness of it's tones. They are
exquisite. suppose he could get four or five
thousand dollars for that violin at any time.
1t is almost impossible to appreciate the value
of such an instrument lie has a collection
of fifteen bows that would bring from 81 500
to So 600. No instruments could be better
cared for than those of his collection but,
strange as it may seem, there are persons with
mania for collecting instruments who don't
know how to take care of them when they get
them. I knew a Baltimore collector who
had violns all over his house, often in places
where they were liable to be broken at any
time. was up stairs in his house once, and
was going to sit down on bed when he
shouted to me to look out-that a violin was
in there. Sure enough violin was struck un-
der the bedclothes because he was too care
less to get bag for it, once came across a
fine cello in town of central New York,
owned by a man who can't play it, doesn't
take proper care of it and yet won't sell it.
If it were not for such men artists would not
have to make great sacrifices to get instru-
ments with which they can realize their con-
ceptions. Of course they must have fine in
struments. Nothing less will content them,
even though audiences should be just as we'll
satisfied to hear any well-made instrument as
the divine voice of a Stradivarius.'