The San Francisco call., 1905-02-26

on the violin, and while it will fascin-
ate players, it will doubtless have
much of interest even for those whose
profane hands have never known the
JOY of a personal knowledge of the
instrument.
The author begins at the very be-
ginning and where the real historical
thread is broken he enlists tradition.
In searching for the beginning of the
violin family, he says: 1T is like
standing on high mount trying to
distinguish objects in the valleys and
plains below over which evening has
already rolled the thick white feather
beds for the night. Here and there
a glimpse through the fog-a lighted
window far, far away. where Tradition
sits spinning her eternal threads, and
that is ALL
The volume is redolent of the musty
past. The bas reliefs of the Assyri-
ans are gone to for first illustrations.
Thence "to the lowly grandsire of the
King of Instruments usthe ravanastron
of India, the first bowed instrument.
From there the story runs to the
Arabian and European rebabs, the
Welsh crwth down to the wonders of
Cremona that burst upon the world
in a perfection which human wit has
never since been able to improve up
on" He says: Theirs was the
robins song in March, ushering in the
new spring; the lovely first-fruit of
a new age, new dispensation, a new
spirit on the earth-not only the esprit
of modern musical art, but the spirit
of a more enlightened, spiritualized
humanity. of greater charity and gen.
eral brotherhood"
And so on with all the romanticism
worthy of the subject, until even the
cynical layman who may come to scoff
must remain to pray. The writer tells
how the violin in its mission has pene-
trated to the quarters of the earth, car
rying its sweet influence into the pal
ace and the hut, inspiring great minds
to composition and thereby being the
origin of much that is beautiful in the
world rather than merely being the
means of interpreting the beautiful
1T has the voice of an angel, yet ring
ing with the dear. familiar sounds Of
earth, with earthly passions, joys and
woes and ecstacies. Intensely human
and yet so superhuman that the soul
is seized with hopeless longing to fol-
low it. Yes, indescribably sweet voice,
where thou endest, the music of the
spheres begins. Or Is it that, perhaps,
which rises from the petals of flowers
in wondrous exhalations, half perfume
and half-melody, and, trembling in the
sunlight, draws the bee the way to the
honey?" And again: When the heart
is so full that it cannot contain its full
ness any longer it flows over in tears
or in melodies; this is the beginning of
all true music"
He takes us wandering over Europe
with the early minstrels and trouba-
dours and says: Had music been left
entirely to the learned who labored be-
hind gloomy cloister walls perhaps It
would have come down to us like Chi
nese music, dried UP, mummy instead
of a thing of life and beauty"
The intense love and reverence of
the artist writer for his instrument is
apparent in his description of q Stradi-
varius: Behold the fine fiber of the
wood shining through the varnish like
the delicate roses through my lady's
finger nails. No wonder people love a.
violin like that, and yearn and starve
themselves for it, and many q fair
maiden, pretending only to inspect the
wood. has ere long Ono one seeingl