Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-09-11
OLD VIOLINS.
Why They Are Better Than New and
Why Old Italfana.Are Hest.

Why They Are Better Than New and
Why Old Italfans.Are Best.
From the Cornhil Magazine.
There are very good reasons why an
old violin-of course, presuming 1t to be
a good instrument to begin with-is bet
ter than a new one, and still better reasons
why the Italian violins of the classical
period should remain the masterpieces Of
their kind. First of all, there is the wood;
that requires to be mellowed by age, and
there is no artificial process that can take
the place of time in this matter. Vuil-
laume, the celebrated Partisan maker and
dealer, experimental in trying to "age"
the wood, both by chemicals and by bak-
ing, but the idea proved worthless. Again,
there is the kind of wood to be used and
that is not such simple affair as some
people suppose. A violin is made of about
hfty-eight separate pieces of wood and
the kind and quality are of the first i'm
portance. Let us look at this point a little
in detail for it is not generally understood
The front Of violin is usually made
OF DEAL the back of maple. Now. a piece
Of wood can be set in vibration just like a
string in tension. and a certain musical
note will be the result, the pitch depending,
of course, upon the length. thickness and
density of the wood. Well, the curious fact
has been established by experiment that
in all the best Stradivarius vioins-the
violins that are now the rage-the note
produced by the front of the instrument is
the same; and, again, that in no case is
the note of the front the same as the note
of the back. We now know that there are
acoustic reasons for this, and these rea-
sons determine the kind and quality of the
wood. You want the front of the instru-
ment to be light, soft and porous, and
you take deal as answering best these
qualities. When the wood is dry the mi
croscope will reveal multitude of little
hollow cells. once filled with sap The
Of fhnCa lie thara fha
quickly will the wood vibrate to the sound.
and here it is that the fine skill in selecting
the wood comes in.
You might cut up dozen pieces Of deal.
and perhaps only one piece would be alb
solutely perfect for its purpose Similarly
with the maple of which the back of the
instrument is made. This is harder
wood, containing less sap, and. consequent
ly, fewer cells when dry. 1t is used be-
cause it vibrates more slowly than deal.
and the effect on the violin is. as Mr.:
Haweis puts it. ito detain the waves OF
sound radiating from the deal, and to mix
them with slower vibrations of the back
in the hollow of the instrument" The
ribs and sides of the violin are also of
quickly vibrating front with the slowly
vibrating back. and hold them until both
throb together with full pulsation and body
of sound.
Now, there is abundant evidence to show
that the cid Italian makers paid particu-
lar attention to all these details-or at
least, ii they did not of set purpose. they
did unconsciously by an intuition, which
amounted to actual genius. Stradivarius
and most of the Cremonese makers Of the
classical period selected their wood from
the Tyrol, and 1t is more than likely that
they found some special quality in the tim
Der there which recommended 1t to their
attention.
And the varnish-the Cremona varnish.
That is a romance and mystery in itself
Ever since the traces of it finally disap-
rad hnr inI roE how
been trying to discover the secret, and
many chemists have given days and nights
in futile attempts to find out its constit-
uents. Charles Reade, who was an en-
thusiast in the matter of old fiddles, says:
More than once, even in my time, hopes
have run high, but only to fall again. Some
have cried Eureka! to the public. but the
moment others looked at their discovery
and compared it with the real thing in
extinguishable laughter shook the skies
At last despair has succeeded to all that
energetic study. and the varnish of Gre
mona is sulle1ly given up as lost art"
There was a Strad in the collection of
elliott, the penmaker. which had lost all
its original varnish without suffering in
any way. But the wood had absorbed
&ll the varnish that was necessary a hun
died years before elliott set eyes ON it,
arh the absence of surface varnish in this
case, or in the case of any other old Ital-
ian violin, proves nothing whatever. The
varnish is certainly an important factor;
and. moreover. 1t makes a very great diff
ference whether it is dried slowly in the
sun. as 1t most likely was at Cremona, or
In the oven-whether it is coated by time
or by trickery. And in the end, when all
Is said and done, We come back to what
Charles Reade said more than twenty
years ago: The masterpieces of Cremona
eclipse every new violin in sweetness, oili-
ness. crispness and volume of tone as dis
tinct from loudness. Age has dried their
vegetable juices. making the carcass much
lighter than that of new VIOLIN and those
light, dry frames vibrate at touch