THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES MUSIC linn«p> NOTICE OP ANTHONY STRADIVARI, THE CELEBRATED VIOLIN-MAKER, KNOWN BY THE NAME OF STRADIVARIUS. notice 2Cf Juaa* OF ANTHONY STRADIVARI, THE CELEBRATED VIOLIN-MAKER, KNOWN BY THE NAME OF STRADIVARIUS: PRECEDED BY HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL RESEARCHES ON THE ORIGIN AND TRANSFORMATIONS OF BOW INSTRUMENTS; AND FOLLOWED BY A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF THE BOW, AND REMARKS ON FRANCIS TOURTE, THE AUTHOR OF ITS FINAL IMPROVEMENTS. BY F. J. FETIS. (II A PEL MASTER TO THE KING OF THE BELGIANS AND DIRECTOR OF THE CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC AT BRUSSELS. TRANSLATED (WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR) BY JOHN BISHOP OP CHELTENHAM. unboir: R B E i: T COC K S AND CO. music PUBLISHERS TO her ma.iu.stv the QUEEN, ll. a. II. Till, PEINOE 01 u | ii . and His r.M II I! I A I. M A.l i :. -i v NAPOLEOH ill. L864. miNTED BY J. MALLETT, 59, WARDOUR STREET, LONDON. Music library. ML, TO CHARLES II. C. PLOWDEN, ESQ. F.S.A. F.R.G.S. AN ARDENT ADMIRER AND COLLECTOR OP OLD CREMONESE INSTRUMENTS, THIS TRANSLATION IS DEDICATED BY THE EDITOR 1 U t-~* \J \J — EDITOR'S PREFACE. In presenting this interesting work to the English public, an acknowledgment is due both to the learned Author, for his kindness in allowing the translation to be made, and also to M. Vuillaume for his courteous replies to certain enquiries which it was deemed neces- sary to submit to him. Respect for the labours of M. Fetis in the various departments of musical literature, and the special im- portance attaching to the history of bow-instruments, as illustrated in the following sheets, have created a desire on the pari of the Editor to render the sense of the original in as scrupulously faithful a manner as possible. Where any uncertainty prevailed, the trans- lation here offered will be found to include, in paren- theses, the terms or phrases employed by the Author Vlll himself] and any additions which appeared desirable for the elucidation of the text have been introduced either within brackets, or as foot notes. It is therefore hoped that this edition will be acceptable both to violinists and performers on kindred instruments, and also to musicians generally. J. B. Cheltenham, July 20, 1864. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. Passionately fond of his art, like every man of sterling worth, M. Vuillaume has conceived a degree of admiration, amounting almost to devotion, for Anthony Stradivarius, the celebrated violin-maker of Cremona, ■whose long career was wholly dedicated to seeking and realising perfection in the construction of bow-instru- ments. After having spent a part of his life in studying the principles which guided this great artist in his labours, M. Vuillaume wished to raise a monument to his memory, and took several journeys into Italy, for the sole object of collecting the requisite materials. On becoming possessed of these, he entrusted them to me, and requested my co-operation for his truly reverential work. Although foreign to the habitual nature of my studies, this occupation presented much of interest to me, like everything that concerns the art to which I have devoted mj life. Enlightened b) the experience X of M. Vuillaume, I have been enabled to render myself sufficiently familiar with the technical details of the manufacture of bow-instruments, to speak of them, I hope, with clearness. This, then, with the exception of what relates to the origin of these in- struments, is all that belongs to me in the present little publication. FETIS. Brussels, May 8, 1856. C OK TESTS. Fac-simile of a letter written by Anthony Stradivari . . Front. Dedication . • v Editor's Preface = vii Author's Preface ix Introduction — Anthony Stradivari, known by the name of Stradivarius, the celebrated violin-maker ; his pre- decessors, contemporaries, and pupils xiii Historical researches on the origin and transformations of bow-instruments 1 Violin-makers of the Italian school from the earliest times 45 Anthony Stradivarius — improvements of bow -instruments 01 The Guarneri or Guarnerius [family] 101 The bow of Francis Tourte 109 Experimental determination of the form of Tourte's bows . 121 A P P E X I) I X. I;'. THE EDITOR. No I — Letter of Anthony Stradivari, deciphered from the fac-simile 127 No. II — Translation of the preceding letter 128 No. 1 1 1 — Soi oil of Paganini's celebrated < iuarneriue violin (mentioned a» p 100). . . . •. . 1 1'J INTRODUCTION. ANTHONY STRADIVARI, KNOWN BT THE NAME OF STRADIVAR1US, TIIK CELEBRATED VIOLIN-MAKER; Ii!S PREDECESSORS, CONTEMPORARIES, AND PUPILS. Italy, the fertile land of great and beautiful things; Italy, which preceded all the nations of Europe in civilisation ; Italy, in short, which has been endowed with every species of glory in poetry, philosophy, science and the arts; Italy, I say, has given birth to the artists who have carried the manu- facture of musical instruments of the bow kind to the highest degree of perfection. From the middle of the fifteenth century, this arl was already culti- vated there with success. From whence did it come? XIV By what progressive causes Avas it developed, until it had attained its utmost limits under the hands of Anthony Stradivarius and those of Joseph Guarnerius, surnamed del Jesit ? Why has it degenerated among their successors ? Such are the problems which I propose to examine carefully in this work, and of which I hope to present the solution, as well from an historical as from a theoretical point of view. TO VIOLINISTS. gb&crtiscmcnt. YUILLAUMB'S RENOWNED COPIES of the OLD MAKERS, Stradivarius, Guarnerius, the Amatis, Magini, &c. \ " Some two thousand or more of M. Vuillaume's instruments hare already been sold, and have been, after a little use, pre- ferred, even by good judges, to the genuine old instruments. In these copies the proportions, thicknesses, &c. of the old violins are preserved with scrupulous exactness ; the wood (sought out with much labour and at great expense, amongst the weather-beaten chalets of Switzerland) possesses the requi- site qualities of age and consequent resonance, and the varnishes have the purity, colour, and fine and limpid appearance of the The Bows of M. Vuillaume's manufacture are remarkable for their perfect balance, and exact division of hair. SOLE AGENTS FOR ENGLAND, ZROIBEIRT COCKS JL.1&JD CO. 6, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, W. old Italian varnish." Price of each Instrument, £14 14s. gofos. VUILLAUME'S PATENT BRAZIL-WOOD VIOLIN BOWS, Ornamented with mother of pearl, gold and silver lapped, and otherwise elegantly finished, with moveable hair, 30s. ; without moveable hair, 10s. Od. New Hanks of Hair, for Vuillaumes Bows, price Is. (id. each. STANDARD WORKS ON THE VIOLIN. Dubourg, G. — The Violin ; some account of that leading Instru- ment and its most eminent Professors, from the earliest date to the present time; with hints to Amateurs, Anecdotes, &c. by George Dubourg. Fourth Edition, carefully revised and greatly enlarged, post 8vo. pp. 410, handsomely bound in ultramarine cloth, gilt lettered 6 " This is, without question, the most amusing work ever written on the Violin, and contains much that is necessary to be known by connoisseurs — including details respecting the early history and construe- *^^&$$$iiMffl tion of bow instruments, strictures on # Jr s&mKm \% : .-; s Otto's Treatise, remarks on the old makers, , v «§H| r^III?^ &c - &c " ^ .^Hio^S"> The work also contains a detailed ac- ^^^^SHIiHi^^-< counl ui' the life and history of Paganini, , .I^^JflMfflE^^- with an elaborate critical investigation of %JM^§^j 5«B« 81IbBi J V -V the character of his genius, and his style ,^ JllS'ril^MEffll jljB " ~\,^ of playing, and illustrations in wood. '< ^S- . .' JKhBIIh ' -s**^ There are also copious details respect- ^o^„. : '( ; '(jK^ ing the "Rise and Progress of Quartet ? V-^ Performances in England" (p. 294, etseqq.), ^^^^^mmm which will lie found extremely interesting ^^§^^^gSi^^^B^^0^ to the admirers of chamber music, those more especially who are engaged in the formation or conduct of Quartet Societies Otto's Treatise on the Structure and Preservation of the Violin and all Bow-Instruments, with an account of the most celebrated Makers, and of the genuine characteristics of their Instruments. (John Bishop's enlarged Edition) 5 "The study of this book will show any unfair dealing on the part of dealers in old Violins." — Harmonicon. Spohr's celebrated Violin School, translated from the original by John Bishop, of Cheltenham, 1 vol. folio, cloth boards 1 11 G " I have carefully looked over the English Edition of mv Violin School, published by Messrs. Cocks and Co. and have no hesitation in recommending it as a faithful translation of the original work. (Signed) Louis Spohr." Campagnoli's New and Progressive Method on the Mechanism of Violin Playing, translated by John Bishop, of Cheltenham, 4 parts, each 7s. ; or in 1 vol. folio, illustrated, cloth boards ... 1 4 Goodban's New and Complete Guide to the Art of Playing on the Violin 10 6 Hamilton's Catechism for the Violin, 8th Edition 10 Pacini's Easy Method, with 50 Airs, revised and enlarged by Hamilton, 13th Edition 2 Paganini's Method of Playing the Violin, by Guhr 12 Praeger's Elementary and Practical School for the Violin, 3 parts, each 5 Bode, Baillot, and Kreutzer's celebrated Method for the Violin 10 6 Supplement to Ditto 8 Brum's Method for the Tenor 4 Fetis, F. J.— Notice of Anthony Stradivari, the celebrated Violin- maker, known by the name of Stradivarius. Translated by John Bishop 7 6 Corelli's Twelve Solos, arranged by Czerny 10 Forty-eight Trios or Sonatas, for two Violins and Bass ... 1 4 Haydn's Eighty-three Quartets; Beethoven's Quartets, Quintets, and Trios; Mozart's Quartets and Quintets; Mendelssohn's Violin and Piano Quartets; Viotti's Trios; Romberg's Scp- tetts, &c. &c. For particulars of the foregoing Works and an elaborate List of Works for Hi ringed Instruments, vide Robert Cocks and Co.'s Thematic Catalogue of Music for Violin, Arc. supplied gratis on application to the Publishers. HISTORICAL RESEARCHES ON THE ORIGIN AND TRANSFORMATIONS OF BOW-INSTRUMENTS. What is the origin of bow-instruments? This archaeological problem has engaged the attention of many learned men, without their having arrived at a satisfactory solution. Certain obscure expressions, in- terpreted in an unnatural manner, have induced the belief that the Greeks and Romans possessed, among their instruments of music, something which resembled the viol. Some have fancied they recognized it in the magadis — the name of which is derived from mag as (a bridge) — because nothing like a bridge appears in the lyres and cytharas. The magadis was mounted witli twenty strings, or with twenty-one according to Athcnauis, or twenty-two according to Pausanias. John Baptist Doni thought it might have borne some analogy with the viola di Bor- done, otherwise called Urone, which was used in Italy in the sixteenth century, and the eleven or twelve strings of which served to pi od u< <: arpeggios with the how, or B harmony in many parts. These conjectures, however, have no historical value, being unsupported by any pas- sage in the ancient writers ; neither does any monument among the Greeks present us with an instrument having a neck and a bridge. Some have been disposed to trace the bow in the plectrum ; but itXrJKrpov comes from ntkfaactv, to strike. The dictionaries, it is true, define it as the bow of a musical instrument ; but this arises from a confusion in regard to the real meaning of the word. Statues, bas-reliefs, and the pictures on Greek vases, afford us numerous representations of the plectrum; but in all we see a piece of wood, bone, or ivory, ending with little hooks to pull the strings, or to strike them with the back. Had the Greeks wished to describe a veritable bow, the hairs of which serve, by friction, to put the strings into vibration, they would have called it roljapiov (little bow). But nothing like a bow appears in any Greek or Roman sculpture or painting which has come down to us. The country which affords us the most ancient me- morials of a perfect language, of an advanced civilization, of a philosophy where all directions of human thought find their expression, of a poesy immensely rich in every style, and of a musical art corresponding with the lively sensibility of the people — India, appears to have given birth to bow-instruments, and to have made them known to other parts of A sia, and afterwards to Europe. There, no conjecture is needed, for the instruments themselves exist, and still preserve the characteristics of their native originality. If we would trace a bow- instrument to its source, we must assume the most simple form in which it could appear, and such as re- quired no assistance from an art brought to perfection. Such a form we shall find in the ravanastron, made of a cylinder of sycamore wood, hollowed out from one end to the other. This cylinder is 11 centimetres* [4.331 inches Eng.] long, and has a diameter of 5 centimetres [1.969 in.]. Over one end is stretched a piece of boa skin, with large scales, which forms the belly or sound- board. The cylinder is crossed from side to side — at one-third of its length, next the sound-board — by a rod or shank of deal, which serves as a neck, of the length of 55 centimetres [21.654 in.], rounded on its under part, but flat on the top, and slightly inclined back- wards. The head of this neck is pierced with two holes for the pegs, 12 millimetres [.472 in.] in diameter; not in the side, but in the plane of the sound-board. Two large pegs, 10 centimetres [3.937 in.] in length — shaped hexagonally at the top, and rounded at the ends which go into the holes — serve to tighten two strings made of the intestines of the Gazelle, which are fixed to a strap of serpent skin attached to the lower extremity of the rod or shank. A little bridge, 18 millimetres [.709 in.] long, cut sloping on the top, but flat on the part which rests on the sound-board, and worked out rectangularly in this part, so as to form two separate feet : this sup- ports the strings. As to the bow, it is formed of a small bamboo, of which the upper portion is slightly curved, and the Lower straight. A hole is made in the * Approximate value- in English mca-nre- ate -iven within brack- ets, retaining only two or three decimal places. — Tr. R 2 head of the bow, at the first knot, for fastening a hank of hair, which is strained and fixed at the other end, by binding a very flexible rush string twenty times round it. Such is the primitive bow-instrument, now aban- doned to people of the lowest class, and to the poor Buddhist monks, who go from door to door asking alms. Its sound is sweet, though muffled. According to Indian tradition, it was invented by Ravana, King of Ceylon, five thousand years before the Christian era. Other instruments, made in imitation of the rava- nastron, are known among the poorer classes of Hindos- tan. The first, which we may consider as the base of that, is also made of a cylinder of sycamore, 16 centi- metres [G.299 in.] long, and 11 centimetres [4.331 in.] in diameter, and hollowed throughout its length ; so that the thickness of this sonorous body does not exceed 3 millimetres [.118 in.]. This body is crossed from side to side by a rod or shank of the total length of 86 centimetres [33.858 in.], which forms the neck, as in the ravanastron. A hole is bored vertically, at the lower extremity of this shank, into which is inserted a little pin of iron-wood, 9 centimetres [3.543 in.] long, termi- nated by a knob or button, which carries a strap of jackall leather, to which the strings are attached. The sound-board is formed of a thin plate of mounah-wood, which, in its longitudinal fibres, bears a resemblance to deal. This instrument, which is called the rouana, is mounted with two strings, like the ravanastron, to which it is in all other respects similar. To an epoch doubtless posterior to the invention of the two instruments before mentioned belongs the omerfi, another bow-instrument, mounted with two strings, and which evinces some progress in the art of manufacture. The body is made of a cocoa-nut shell, one-third being first cut away, and after reducing its thickness to 2 millimetres [.079 in.], it is then polished inside and out. Four elliptical openings, and another of a lozenge form, are cut in the front part of the body, to serve as sound- holes. I possess two of these instruments ; in one of them the sound-board is formed of a piece of Gazelle skin, well prepared and very smooth ; in the other it consists of a veneer of satin-wood, extremely fine in the grain, and 1 millimetre [.03937 in.] thick. In both instruments, the size of this sound-board at its greatest diameter is m ,05,15 [2.027 in.]. As in the ravanastron and the rouaua, the neck is formed of a shank of deal (red wood of India), which passes through the body of the instrument. The lower part is rounded, and a hole i- bored longitudinally at the bottom, to receive a pin, ending in a knob or button, as in the rovanu. This button is a little cube, having a hole in it where the strings are fastened. The upper part of the neck is flat, and terminates in a head turned back and finished off at right angles with the neck. The pegs are not placed upon tli is head, but both are inserted on the left of the Deck, and a longitudinal opening is made through the head, 6 centimetres [2.362 in.] in length, and 12 milli- metres [.472 in.] wide, for passing the strings into tin' holes of the pegs: this is :i rude commencement of the scroll. Lastly, at the lower end of the opening is a little ivory nut, 1 millimetre [.03937 in.] in height, mi which the strings rest. The bridge, over which they pass at the other end, is exactly like that of the ravanastron. The bow, which is longer than that of the latter instru- ment, is also made of a light bamboo, which forms the curved part. At its upper end is a slit in which the hank of hair is fixed ; but, instead of being fastened by a rush string at the other end, it passes through a hole in the bamboo, and is there stayed by a knot. If we compare the omerti with the Arabian instru- ment called kemdngeh a gouz (from Iceman, a bow, and Jcdh, pronounced guidh, place ; that is to say, place of the bow, or bow-instrument), we shall immediately perceive that the Indian instrument has furnished the model for that of Arabia. The expression a gouz signifies ancient ; from whence it follows that kemdngeh a gouz answers to ancient bow-instrument, or primitive bow-instrument. The lexicons translate &^Uj, kemdngeh, by viol. Villoteau remarks that this word is Persian*. Now, ancient Persia was contiguous to India on the east, and the relations of these two great countries are apparent throughout history. I affirm that it is impossible to forget the omerti in the kemdngeh a gouz ; a mere glance at the latter being sufficient to reveal their identity. The body of both instruments is formed of a cocoa-nut shell, with one-third part cut off; openings are made in the body of the kemdngeh, as in that of the omerti, for putting the exterior air into communication with that which is contained in the instrument ; the only differ- * Description historique, technique, et litteraire des instruments de mu- sique des Orientaux, in the great Description del'Egypte, tome xiii, p. 290, of the 8vo edition. ence being that these openings are small, very numer- ous, and ranged symmetrically in the Arabian instru- ment. In this, as in the other, the belly or sound-board consists of fine skin glued to the edges of the cocoa-nut shell. The neck consists of a cylindrical shank of cour- bary wood, its lower part terminating in a large ivory ferrule. The length of this shank, from the body of the instrument to the commencement of the head, is 66 centimetres [25.984 in.]. The head, which is hollowed out for the two pegs, like that of the omerti, is made of a single piece of ivory, 20 centimetres long [7.874 in.]. The pegs are placed one on each side of the head, in- stead of being both on the left as in the Indian instru- ment. The shank is bored longitudinally, to receive an iron rod, which crosses the body of the instrument, and, instead of ending in a button, like the omerti, is extended outwards, to the length of 25 centimetres [9.842 in.], to form a foot. To this foot there is a hook, to which is Listened the ring which serves for a tail-piece. In the description of this instrument, Villoteau speaks of the finger-board* ; but there is nothing like it on the ke- mdngeh a yoaz which is in my collection : the cylindrical neck itself serves for the finger-boardf, as in the omerli. The strings are the most curious part of this instrument, each of them being formed of a hank of black hair highly stretched. Tin- bow is composed of a rod of * Description historique, technique, et litteraire dee instruments f Lane's Manners and Custom* ■/ //<< Mn,/, m Egyptians. Knight's small edit.— Tu. 8 sycamore fig-tree (figuier-sycomore), worked round and then curved, to which is attached and stretched a hank of the same hair [as that used for the strings]. The instruments already described fall not, properly speaking, within the domain of art ; they belong to music of a primitive and popular kind, the instinctive expression of a feeling which has everywhere preceded genuine art. In the same category must be ranged, as mere varieties, certain other instruments made on the same principle, the diversity in the forms of which ap- pears to have originated only in fancy. Such is the rebdb of the Arabs, which does not enter into any com- bination of instruments used at concerts in eastern countries, and which serves no other purpose than to guide the voice of the poets and story-tellers in their chanted recitations. The body of the rebdb consists of four sides, on which are stretched two pieces of parch- ment, which thus form the belly and the back. This combination of parts presents the appearance of a tra- pezoid, of which the summit is parallel to the base, and the two sides are nearly equal. The neck is cylindrical, and formed of a single piece, including the head. The foot consists of an iron rod fixed into the neck, which passes through the instrument. The rebdb is placed on this foot, like the kemdngeh a gouz. There are two kinds of rebdb, both of which have the same form : the first is called the poet's rebdb, and has only one string ; the other, which has two, is named the singer s rebdb. To say the truth, the rebdb is nothing but a modification of the Indian rouana — a modification which consists only in the form of the body of the instrument. The rebdb dues not appertain to music, properly speaking ; it is confined to its primary use of sustaining the voice, by rubbing the string with the bow*. If we now turn to Europe, and there examine the oldest monuments, together with the earliest particu- lars collected on the subject of bow-instruments, we shall find in them the same traces of Indian origin. There is nothing in the West which has not come from the East. In many places of my writings I have stated this truth, and now again repeat it. Formerly, I thought it admitted of a single exception as regards the bow, whose origin I had observed in the gouclok of the Russian peasantryf > °ut, at tnat tmie ' I had only a very imper- fect knowledge of India, in a musical point of view. Favorable circumstances, however, which, during the lapse of twenty years, have enabled me to fully investi- gate the ancient musical doctrines of this country, and which have brought into my possession a portion of its native instruments, — these circumstances, I say, have enlightened me ; so that I can now reiterate, without any reservation, there is nothing in the West which has not come from the Hast. The gonrfok — with its three strings, •roll, its finger-board placed on the neck, its regu- larly constructed -onorous chest, its sound-holes in the belly, its bridge duly proportioned to the length of the Btring8, iN tail-piece similar to that of our violins — is a * Representations of this instrument may be seen in Lane's wmk before referred to. — Tr. t See my /.'■ n the Musical Instruments of the Welsh, p. 114, Note 2. 12 cruisigh (music), which is itself derived from the Sanscrit Jems' (to cry out, to produce loud sounds), the root of which is Jcur (to yield a sound).* The Gaelic Kymri, who originally peopled Kymbery [? Kymni\ or Cambria, now Wales, were a Celtic colony which issued from Gaul ; for Gaels, Galli, Gauls and Welsh are identical terms, and refer to one and the same people. The Gaelic [? Celtic] language which they spoke, and which they still speak in the mountain dis- tricts, differs but little from the Celtic dialect in use among the Low Britons of France. Now, in the present state of ethnographical knowledge, the Indo-Germanic origin of the Celts is no longer contested. At epochs anterior to all historical records, and by slow migrations, the European races have advanced from India through Bactriana, Persia, Arabia, and Armenia; then, after having crossed the Hellespont (the present Dardanelles), they have invaded the vast countries now known by the names of Roumelia, Transylvania, Wallachia, Servia, Sclavonia, Croatia, Hungary, Styria, and Bohemia. Subsequently, when pressed by other masses of people arrived by the same route, they have abandoned these * This etymology seems incontrovertible. (See Pictet, de VAffinite des langues celtiques avec le sanserif, pp. 21 and 64.) As to that proposed by Edward Jones (loc. eit.) in deriving crwth from croth, which, in the Gaelic [? Celtic] language, signifies the calf of the leg, the womb, and also vessel for holding water, and which resembles the Syriac word crulh, and the Greek xpoca-oi;, the signification of which is the same, I confess I do not understand the analogy. — Author. A [Ed. Jones's words are these : " Croth, or Crwth, by the Britons, sig- nifies the calf of the leg, the womb, or belly ; as also by the Syrians rra (Crath), and by the Grecians Kpua-o-l$, signifies the womb, or a water-vessel. — Baxter's Glossarium Antiquitatum Britannicarum, p. 92. And Richards' s Welsh Dictionary."] — Tr. 13 stations in order to disperse themselves in various directions, crossing the great rivers, such as the Danube, the Elbe, the Rhine, the Saone, and the Meuse ; in short, peopleing, by one of their branches, the whole of Gaul, under the name of Celts, and sub-dividing them- selves into an infinity of tribes continually at war with one another. This, however, is not the place to point out the traces more or less authentic — more or less certain of these relationships : some learned men of the greatest eminence have acquitted themselves of this task, in modern times, in a manner altogether special. Lin- guistic science, too, has thrown a light on these questions, and triumphed over the most obstinate incredulity. Music, the universal expression of the affections of the soul, can also furnish its auxiliary proofs, as I shall show elsewhere. But, in connection with the present subject, we have only to trace the analogies between the bow-instruments of the West and the primitive type which we have seen in India, and then to verify the transformations and the progress of them. A question here presents itself: is the crouth (the two forms of which we shall presently show) an instru- ment invented by the Britons, as certain English and Welsh antiquaries pretend, especially the bard Edward Junes; or is it sinqily an improvement of a previous rude model? At the first view, this problem appears i" be resolved by the expression of Venantius Fortu- natus, chrotta Britanm (the British croicth) ; but, inde- pendently of Britons and Gaels existing in France, as well as in England, there is substantial ground for re- jecting the immediate invention of such an instrument us the crouth, even in its simplest form; because the 14 idea of a sonorous chest, consisting of a belly, back and sides, with a neck, several strings raised by a bridge and attached by iron pegs to the back of the head — the idea, I say, of such an instrument, cannot be primitive. One can understand the invention of the Indian ravanastron ; because such a rude type might be the work of the first person who should accidentally discover that a skein of thread twisted, a piece of wood, and a metallic rod, pro- duce sounds when they are put into vibration by rubbing them with horse-hair ; but one cannot conceive that an instrument whose construction requires the skill of a violin-maker was contrived, as a first essay, in times of barbarism. There is, then, every reason to believe that the Indo-Celtic race, in its migrations, transported the shapeless model of the apparatus with fretted strings (I 'appareil a cordes frottees) which, in its highest state of perfection, now charms us in the hands of the virtuosi. The principle of the production of sounds by the action of the bow might doubtless have been discovered in dif- ferent places ; but a regularly constructed instrument could not have been produced at once by a people little advanced in civilization, who lived under a rigorous cli- mate ; whilst its origin in India is only marked by feeble essays. The very remarkable affinities of the Sanscrit and the Celtic dialects are certain indications of the primitive relationship of these nations, so widely sepa- rated from each other. Be that as it may, there were two kinds of crouth, which belong to different periods. The oldest of them is the crouth trithant, that is, the crouth with three strings ; which is probably the one referred to by Venantius For- tunatus. Perhaps even this primitive crouth had [at first] 15 but two strings ; as was the case, long afterwards, with other instruments which will be mentioned farther on. A manuscript of the eleventh century, formerly belong- ing to the Abbey of Saint Martial de Limoges, but now in the Imperial Library, Paris (No. 1118 of the Latin MSS.), contains some representations of instruments, very rudely designed, among which there occurs the figure of a crowned personage, who holds in his left hand a crouth with three strings, which he plays with the bow in his right, as here shown : Fig. 1. 16 The instrument is known by the opening through which the hand passes for placing the fingers on the strings. Another representation of the croidh trithant is seen among the exterior ornaments of Melross Abbey, in Scotland, which was built at the commencement of the fourteenth century, in the reign of Edward the Second ; consequently it was still in use at that period. On the 3rd of May, 1770, Daines Barrington, then judge of the counties of Caernarvon and Anglesey, in Wales, read, at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries in London, of which he was a member, some remarks on two instruments used in that country — the croidh and the fib-corn ; they were published in the third volume of the Archceologia*, with a plate representing the two instruments, on a very large scale, to render the details intelligible. Although a little too summary, the remarks of Daines Barrington are interesting, because he had not only seen the instruments of which he speaks, but had also heard the croidh played by John Morgan, who was born in the Isle of Anglesey, in 1711, and was then 59 years of age, and who appeared to be the last bard capable of playing this instrument, which had become excessively rare. The figure of the crouth given by Daines Barrington was drawn from the instrument itself. Bottee de Toumiont has had a bad copy made of it, for his Dissertation on the Musical Instruments used in the Middle Agesf, which gives false ideas of the construction * Archwologia, or Miscellaneous tracts relating to Antiquity ; published by the Society of Antiquaries, of London. Vol. iii, p. 32. 1775. t Dissertation sur les instruments de musique employes au moyen age, in vol. xvii of the Mcmoires de la Societe royale des Antiquaires de France. 17 of the crouth. M. Cousseniaker has done more : in re- producing the bad figure of Bottee de Toulmont, instead of reverting to the Archceologia, he writes beneath this new copy : crout a six cordes. — Mss. du XI e . siecle* Now, it is neither a matter which concerns a manuscript — since the instrument was drawn from nature — nor the eleventh century ; for it relates to an instrument com- paratively modern and brought to perfection, which existed towards the end of the eighteenth century. This blunder is tantamount to presenting the harp with three rows of strings, as now used by the bards of Caernarvon and Merioneth, for that of the sixth century of which Venantius Fortunatus speaks. To determine the epoch when the crouth with six strings succeeded the crouth trithant, would be impossible ; for no positive information on this subject has been dis- covered up to the present timef. The first had not ceased to exist when the other became adopted, since the bard, Edward Jones, informs us that it was less esteemed, because it could not produce such full * Essai sur les instruments de musique du moyen dge, in the Annates orehioUtgiquet, published by Didron Sen., vol. iii, p. 150. t " We have," says Mr. Bingley, " no authentic information res- pecting the crwth of more ancient date than the fifteenth century." North Walt , including its scenery, antiquities, customs, $c. vol. ii, p. 332. The Information referred to by this learned writer is doubtless the iption of the instrument with six strings by the Welsh bard, Graf- fyd Davydd ab Eowel, who really lived in the fifteenth century, and the original of which La subjoined, together with an English version, from the work of Edward Jonec p. 116). C r W 1 h. Prennol teg bwa a gwrt A fair coffer with a bow. a girdle, Pont a bran, punt yw ei brta ; a finger-board, and a bridge; its value ie ;i DOUnd ; c 18 harmony.* The admirable construction of the crouth with six strings, which the same author and Daines Barring- ton have described, shows that the art of manufacturing stringed instruments had greatly advanced among the Welsh at the period when crouths were made. These instruments have the form of an elongated trapezoid, the length of which, from top to bottom, is 57 centi- metres [22.441 in.] ; the greatest width, near the tail- piece, is 27 centimetres [10.63 in.], and the least, at the top of the trapezium, is 23 centimetres [9.055 in.]. The thickness of the sonorous chest, composed of a back and a belly of sycamore, united by sides, is 5 centi- metres [1.968 in.], and the length of the finger-board A thalaith ar waith olwyn, it Las a frontlet formed like a wheel, A'r bwa ar draws byr ei drwyn, with the short-nosed bow across ; Ac o'i ganol mae dolen, and from its centre it winds in a ring, A gwar hwn megis gwr hen ; and the bulging of its back is some- what like an old man ; Ac ar ei vrest gywair vrig, and on its breast harmony reigns, O'r Masarn vo geir Miwsig. from the sycamore music will be ob- tained. Chwe yspigod o's codwn, Six pegs, if we screw them, A dynna holl dannau hwn ; will tighten all its chords ; Chwe' thant a gaed o vantais, six strings advantageously arefound, Ac yn y Haw yn gan llais ; which in the hand produce a hun- dred sounds ; A Taut i bob bys ysbys oedd, a string for every finger is distinct- ly seen, A dau-dant i'r vawd ydoedd. and also two strings for the thumb. From this description, we learn that the back of the crouth bulged ; a detail which is not shown in the drawings of Daines Barrington and Jones. * " The performers, or Minstrels of this instrument were not held A in the same estimation and respect as the Bards of the Harp and Crwth ; A because the three-stringed Crwth did not admit of equal skill and har- mony," &c. — See A Dissertation on the Musical Instruments of the Welsh, p. 116. 19 28 centimetres [11.023 in.]*. Of the six strings with which the instrument is mounted, two are situated off the finger-board, and are played pizzicato by the thumb of the left hand. The lower ends of these strings are attached to the tail-piece, which is fastened in the same way as in the ancient viols or quintons. In some in- struments — for instance, in that depicted by Dames Barrington — this tail-piece presents a right line parallel to the base of the crouth, at the end where the strings are attached (see fig. 2, p. 22) ; but in others, according to the drawing given by Jonesf , the tail-piece takes the oblique direction which is observed in that of the viola bastarda (bastard viol) with six strings, of which we shall speak farther on. The upper ends of the strings pass through holes bored in the solid top part of the instru- ment, rest on nuts, and are fastened at the back of the head by pegs, which are turned, says Mr. W. BingleyJ, with a key or lever, after the manner of the guitar. Two circular sound-holes are cut in the belly, 3 cen- timetres [1.181 in.] in diameter. The most singular * These measurements, obtained by considering the centimetre as equal in .89870 of an inch, differ from those given by Edw. Jones, which are as follow : — " The length of the Crwth is 20J inches, its breadth at bottom f J£ ; towards the top it tapers to 8 inches. Its thickness is l T - -, ami the finger-board measures 10 inches in length." {Loc. cit. p. 115.) The 'limi'ii-ion- of an old Crwth, in the possession of Mr. C. W. G. YVsnne, as given in a recent publication, are — Length, 22 inches; width, '.i J inches; greatest depth, 2 inches ; length of finger-board, 10J inches. — Tr. i Loc. cit. p. 89. % North Wales, including ts scenery, antiquity, customs, be remarked, one of the fi<>ii,t, iftuic ■•(tin Olden Tin,', vol. ii, |i. 768, there can !"• very little doubl that the Albinus here referred i>> was Alcuin, who died in 804, and who assumed the oame of Flaccus Albinus in hie writings. — Tn. b 34 Many viols of the thirteenth century have five strings, according to the monuments which exhihit them : so, likewise, have those of which Jerome of Moravia speaks, in the work before mentioned. The form of these in- struments is always that of the guitar ; which form is steadily preserved throughout the fourteenth century. The absence of the bridge is the most remarkable pecu- liarity of these figures, which invariably appear under this shape : J%*:5. In a great many figures of viols or vielles which we meet with on monuments, in manuscripts, and even in works of a date approaching our own time — such as those of Martin Agricola* and of Othmar Lucinius or Nachtgailf — we observe that some have bridges, and others have not, even at the same periods. Thus, * Musica instrumentalis deutsch, $c. printed at Wittemberg, by George Ehaw, 1529, sm. 8vo. t Mumrgia seu Praxis musiccc. Ilium primo qu ~°~ r> 8 va ■ Ti <"■'' • hordt ■ liv. iv. p. 194. \ Syntagi />■ Organography p. 26. 42 Thus, as we see, these instruments are all tuned a fourth lower than the Italian viols. At such a pitch, they could only produce a dull and mournful effect. They were all played on the knee, except the bass, which was held between the legs, and the double bass, which was played standing. There was another viol, whose sides were narrower than those of the bass viol, and which was called viola bastarda (bastard viol), because it was tuned by fifths and fourths. We have now approached towards the end of the sixteenth century, and, up to this period, have found nothing in the form of the violin, although the name of violino had already occurred in a work of Giovanni Maria Lanfranco, printed at Brescia in 1533*. Does he speak of the violin such as we know in the present day ; or merely of the little viol, which was called, somewhat later, violetta ? This is difficult to determine. The first precise reference [to the violin], although given in an indirect way and without the least detail, is found in the first part of the Prattica di Musica, by Ludovico Zacconi, printed at Venice in 1596. He there gives the compass of various instruments of his time, and among them that of the violin, represented in this manner : f JZ. * Scintille, ossia regole di musica, che mostrano a leggere il canto firmo e figuralo, gli accidenti delle note mensurate, le proportioni e tuoni, il contra- punto e la divisione d 'il monocordo ; con la accor datura di varii i?istrumenti, - Such is the sketch of the history of bow-instruments, confined to the most essential details, prior to the time when the great Italian school so admirably illustrated it. We have now to trace the relation between the makers belonging to this school, who have contributed to the progress and transformations in the manufacture of these instruments, until their highest perfection was attained by the renowned master who is the subject of this notice. * See the Sciagraphia of Prsetorius, pi. xx, figs. 4 and 5. f Syntant pin-ceil with four holes for fastening the strings, which i ineii to indicate thai this instrument belonged to the -••■ |; s tin' /.,«"/, or arching ol the back aud bell} "i violins and other Btringed in truments, i- i" !»■ understood the degree <>f elevation of those parte, dewed longitudinally.— Te. 46 species of Gfeige with four strings, which is mentioned in the work of Martin Agricola. The quality of tone was sweet and subdued. The instrument bore within it this inscription : Joan. Kerlino, ami. 1449. This name, commencing with the syllable Ker, probably led La- borde to believe that the maker flourished in Brittany ; because the names of many families in that country are known to begin in the same way ; but from information recently obtained from Italy — through a correspondent of M. Vuillaume, who has long dealt in bow-instruments, and had numerous originals pass through his hands — we learn that there was a maker at Brescia, about 1450, named John Kerlino. There is every reason to believe that the instrument possessed by Koliker, at the begin- ning of this century, was made by this artist, and that he was the founder of the school of Brescia, one of the oldest and most distinguished in Italy. It is worthy of remark that Kerlino, like all the makers of the first period whose names and works are known, made only rebecs, viols of all dimensions, lire oVarco and lirone with eleven and twelve strings. After Kerlino, the oldest Italian maker is Pietro Dardelli, of Mantua, who flourished about the year 1500, and of whose manufacture some beautiful viols still exist in the cabinets of the curious. Then came Gaspard Duiffoprugcar, a celebrated artist, born in the Italian Tyrol, and who established himself in Bologna, about 1510. Fine instruments of this maker, such as bass-viols, tenors, and violettas, or little viols, constructed by Duiffoprugcar for the chapel and the chamber of Francis the First, King of France, have been preserved 47 by different amateurs in Paris until the present time. A superb bass-viol, on the back of which is represented the plan of Paris in the fifteenth century, is now the property of M. Vuillaume, but previously belonged to the late J. M. Raoul, King's Counsellor, and Advocate in the Court of Cassation. This amateur — a violon- cellist of some merit, who has published several compositions and a Method for the Violoncello — endeavoured to resuscitate the bass-viol, to which he gave the name of heptachord. A notice on the labours of M. Raoul on this subject has appeared in the Revue Mxmcale by the author of this work (tome ii, pp. 56—61). In gradually approaching the middle of the six- teenth century, we find Venturi Linarolli, who worked at Venice in 1520; Peregrino Zanetto, of Brescia, in 1540; and Morglato Morella, of Mantua, perhaps a pupil of Dardelli, and of whom instruments are known bearing the date 1550. It thus appears that these old masters made nothing but viols of all kinds and sizes, most of which have been destroyed to form tenor violins, and to repair ancient instruments which are still in use. Modern violin makers have always sought after them for this purpose. The first period of Italian viol-making, of which we have just spoken, was succeeded by that of the creation of the vinl in, and its relatives of deeper pitch — the alto, the violoncello, the hnss (of somewhat hir^er dimensions than the preceding), and the quint-bass, or primitive double-bass. The firsi in date, among the artists of this second period, is Gaspard or Gasparo di Salo, so 48 called because he was born in the little town of Salo, on the lake of Garcia, in Lombardy. He was one of the best Italian makers of the sixteenth century, and worked at Brescia from 15G0 to about 1610, that is to say, for nearly fifty years ; instruments of his manufacture having been found with these distant dates. Gasparo di Salo was particularly renowned for his viols, bass-viols and violoni, or double-bass viols ; besides which, some violins of his make are known, which are distinguished for their fine quality of tone. Of these, there was one very remarkable instrument, bearing the date 1566, in a valuable collection which was sold at Milan in 1807. Baron de Bagge also possessed one about the year 1788, of which Rudolph Kreutzer spoke with admiration. Mr. T. Forster, an English amateur, and the owner of a numerous collection of violins, has one which bears within it the inscription : Gasparo di Salo in Brescia, 1613. Its quality of tone is clear, but dry. If this instrument is genuine, it is a degenerate production of the maker's old age. A little later, John Paul Magini, born in Brescia, worked in his native town from 1590 to about 1640, and was perhaps a pupil of the artist just named. He especially distinguished himself in the manufacture of violins. The pattern of his instruments is, in general, large; their proportions are the same as those of Gasparo di Salo, and the style of workmanship is similar. The swell, or arching, is decided, and reaches almost to the edges. The sides, or ribs, are narrow ; the bellies, very strong, and of good quality; the backs, generally thin, with the wood cut on the 40 layers (sur couche).* The varnish, which is remarkable for its delicacy, is of a yellowish light brown colour, and of excellent quality. The extended dimensions, and the proportion of the arching relative to that of the thick- ness, impart to most of these instruments a superb, grave, and melancholy tone. Before Gasparo di Salo, there was nothing defini- tively settled as regards the form of the violin ; but it is quite evident, from his productions, that henceforth the existing shape of this instrument became firmly esta- blished. Subsequently, the differences of detail among the instruments of various makers are so slight, that they are only obvious to a well-practised eye. A cotemporary of John Paul Magini, Anthony Mariani, of Pesaro, likewise manufactured violins from 1570 to about 1G20; but his instruments, made at random, and without fixed principles, have no value, and are not even sought after as objects of curiosity. * In examining the transverse section of the trunk of a tree which has been felled for some time, two marked features will be observed ; namely: 1st, the clearly defined circles which, gradually enlarging, surround the heart of the tree, and which represent the annual layers or growths of the wood ; and, 2ndly, the cracks or fissures caused by the dcssication of the timber, and which extend in straight lines from the centre towards tin- circumference. These cracks are termed, in French, mail/it, and planks which are sawn in the direction of them — that is, from the heart to the bark — are said to be cut sur ma>lh ; while those which are sawn as nearly as |ios-il>lo on the annual layers above ii'd, are said to be CU< mr couche. In England, different terms are nsed by the sawyers in different counties to designate these modes of catting the timber. On the aur;i. Schitia. uxor. Cariss. P. The same collection also gives the copy (p. lxiii, No. 378) of the epitaph of Gnglielnraa Stradivertus, an excellent lawyer, who died in L439. This inscription 62 exists in the suppressed Church of St. Andrew, at Cremona, and is as follows : Hodie. Mihi. Cras. Tibi Viator Respice. Finem Guglielmus. Stradivertus J. C. Prsestantissimus Sibi. suisque. iEredibus Hie. Situs. Est Obiit. Anno. MCCCCXXXIX. We perceive, from the registers above mentioned, that the Stradivari family was sometimes called Stradi- varius, sometimes Stradivera, and even Stradiverta. Notwithstanding the perseverance of M. Vuillaume, in his researches to discover the precise date of the birth of Stradivarius, and despite the devoted com- plaisance of M. Julius Fusetti, vicar of the Cathedral of Cremona, who has spared no pains in order to attain this object, through circumstances which it is impossible to explain, this date cannot be found. It is therefore presumable that, at the time of the suppression of many of the churches of Cremona, their archives may have been stolen, concealed, or even destroyed. Fortunately, however, one memorial remains, which dispels all doubt as to the year when the celebrated violin maker came into the world. Among the memoranda of Carlo Carli, banker at Milan, occurs an inventory of the instruments which belonged to Count Cozio de Salabue, and which were deposited with him. Now, in this inventory, 63 appears a violin of Stradivarius, having within it a label written by the hand of the maker himself, and in which we read his name, his age (ninety-two years), and the date 1736. Stradivarius was therefore born in the year 164-i. As a pupil of Nicholas Amati, he manufactured, in 1667 — that is, at the age of twenty-three years — some violins which were merely the exact reproduction of the forms of his master, and in which he placed the label of Nicholas. It was not until 1670 that he began to sign his instruments with his own name. In the twenty years following, to 1690, he produced but few. "We are inclined to think that the artist was then more occupied in meditations and experiments on his art, than on labours in a commercial point of view. In the dis- position of the wood, cut on the layers (sur couche), in the pattern, in the arching and in the varnish, the instruments then made by Stradivarius are but little different from those of Nicholas Amati. The year 1690 is a very marked period of transition in the career of Anthony Stradivarius. It was then that he began to give greater amplitude to his model, to improve the arching, and to determine the various degrees of thickness in a more rigorous manner. His varnish became more highly coloured, and, in a word, hie productions assumed a different aspect; but we still discern in them some traditions of the school of Nicholas Amati. Violin makers of the present day habitually designate them by the name of Stradivariiit-Amatis. In 1700 the artist had attained to his fifty-sixth year; his talent wub then in its full vigour, and from 04 that period to 1725 the instruments which came from his hands are perfect masterpieces. He no longer felt his way ; but, being certain of all that he did, he carried his manufacture, even to the minutest details, to the highest possible finish. His model has all the amplitude desirable ; the outlines of it are designed with a taste and a purity which, after a century and a half, still excite the admiration of connoiseurs. The wood, se- lected with the keenest discernment, unites to richness of figure all the conditions of sonority. For the back, as well as for the sides, he then altered the disposition of it, having the timber cut on the quarter (sur maille) instead of on the layers (sur couche). The arching of his instruments, without being too elevated, falls off in gentle and regular curves, which leaves it all the requisite flexibility. The sound-holes, cut with the hand of a master, became models for shape and size (modeles de dispositions) to all his successors. The scroll, which had assumed a more severe character, is carved with great perfection. The beautiful, warm tone of the varnish of Stradivarius takes its date from this period : the quality of it is fine and extremely supple. The workmanship of the interior of the instrument displays no less perfection; all is there finished with the greatest care. The degrees of thickness are ad- justed in a rational manner, and are remarkable for a precision which could not have been attained except by long study. The back, the belly, and all the parts of which the instrument is composed, are in a perfectly harmonious relation. It was, doubtless, repeated trials and diligent observations which also led Stradivarius, 65 throughout this period of his productive career, to mak e the blocks and the sides of his violins of sallow, the specific lightness of which surpasses that of every other wood. In short, every thing has been foreseen, cal- culated and determined with certainty, in these admi- rable instruments. The bar alone is too Aveak, in con- sequence of the gradual rise in the pitch, from the beginning of the eighteenth century ; the inevitable result of which has been a considerable increase of tension and a much greater pressure exercised on the belly. Hence the necessity has arisen for re-barring all the old violins and violoncellos. At the same period when Stradivarius had acquired the perfection which is here related, and when he worked with certainty as to the results, he has sometimes de- parted from his established type, in order to satisfy the fancies of artists or amateurs. Thus it happens that he has made violins of a more elongated pattern, whose appearance has less grace, although the same care has presided over their manufacture : indeed, every part of them is proportioned to this modification of their form, in order to maintain the equilibrium in the vibrations. In these, as in the other instruments which left the artist's hands at this period of his life, the tone possesses that noble energy, that brilliance and distinctive cha- racter which have every where established the great renown of Stradivarius The instruments produced by Stradivarius from 172.") to L730 are also very good; though the workmanship no longer displays the Bame perfection. The swell or arching is somewhat more rounded, which slightly t 66 impairs the clearness of the sound ; the delicacy and finish of the work progressively decrease, and the varnish is brown. There seems also to have been a falling off in the manufacture ; for we meet with proportionably fewer instruments of this period than of the preceding. In 1730, and even somewhat earlier, the impress of the master almost entirely disappeared. A practised eye discovers that the instruments have been made by less able hands. He himself signed many of them as having been made simply under his direction : " sub discipline/, Stradivarii." In others we recognize the hand of Charles Bergonzi, and of the sons of Stradivarius, Omobono and Francesco. After the death of this celebrated man, many instruments which remained unfinished in his workshop were completed by his sons. The greater number bear his name on the printed label, and hence arises the uncertainty and confusion in regard to the products of the latter times. Stradivarius made but few altos, all of which are of a large size. Their quality of tone is extremely beauti- ful, being penetrating, noble, and sympathetic. The violoncellos of his make are more numerous : in them we notice the same progressive steps towards perfection of workmanship and admirable finish, as in the violins. These instruments are of two dimensions : the one large, to which the name of bass was formerly given ; the other smaller, which is the violoncello proper. To the first of these categories belongs the bass of M. Servais, Professor at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, and a virtuoso whose renown is European. The tone of this fine instrument has an extraordinary power, united G7 to silvery mellowness. The violoncello of the admirable artist M. Franchomme is of the other pattern ; it formerly belonged to Duport, and is an instrument of very great value. At the present day this pattern is preferred, the dimensions of which are convenient for the performance of difficulties. The hand of a Servais is required for a bass so large as his. The violoncellos of Stradivarius are immeasurably superior to all other instruments of this kind: their powerful tone possesses a fulness, a distinctive character and a brilliance which cannot be equalled. These ad- mirable qualities result, on the one hand, from- the choice of the wood, on the other, from the degrees of thickness ; and, in short, from the exact relations of all parts of the instrument, which are set in equilibrium in order that the vibrations may be free, energetic, and prolonged. The superiority of these instruments is ensured, as in the case of the violins, by the constant application of the laws of acoustics. At the period .when Stradivarius worked, viols of all species were still used in the orchestras ; he himself made many of them, of different forms and dimensions, with six and seven strings, as well as quintons with flat barks, raised sides, and arched bellies ; also some guitars, Lutes, and mandoras. One of the latter instru- ments, constructed by this great artist, exists ai Paris, ;it the presenl time: the delicacy of the workmanship and the beauty of the varnish are very remarkable ; the carving of the head Le of exquisite finish, so that, both as a whole, as well as in its details, this pretty Instru- iii <] 1 1 combines all kinds of perfection. r 2 68 Two things are equally worthy of attention in the labours of Anthony Stradivarius ; namely, the excellence and the almost infinite number of his instruments. It is true that the multiplicity of his productions is ex- plained by the great age to which he arrived, and by his perseverance in working, which he maintained to the end of his life. Stradivarius was one of those few men who, in aiming at perfection, so far as it is possible for humanity to attain to it, never swerve from the path which may conduct them thereto: men who suffer nothing to divert or turn them aside from their object ; who are not discouraged by fallacies, but who, full of faith in the value of the object they have in view, as well as in their ability for its realisation, continually recom- mence that which they have done well, in order to i arrive at the best possible result. To Stradivarius, the making of stringed instruments was the whole world ; thereon he concentrated his entire self. In this way only can a man raise himself, when aptitude answers to the will. The prolonged existence of ninety-three years, which was that of the artist who is the subject of this notice, was entirely passed away in a quiet workshop, before a bench, with compass or tool in hand. We have before seen that Anthony Stradivari finished a violin at the age of ninety-two years, in 1736. For some years previously, he had been preparing him- self for death, having made ready his tomb in 1729. The proof of this is to be seen in the following extract from the book of inscriptions of Cremona (Inscriptiones Cremonenses universal), which has been already mentioned. The extract runs in these terms : 09 " Finalmente nello stesso volume a pag. CXXXII, No. 923, " leggesi la Epigrafe del sepolero del celebre fabbricatore di " violini Antonio Stradivari, che era gia nel Pavimento, intera- "mente rifatto della Chiesa di San Domenico de Padri " Domenicani ed e la seguente : Sepolero. Di Antonio. Stradivari E. suoi. Eredi An. 1729. " In fede di quanto sopra, "Cremona, le 18 Settembre, 1855. " II Prelato Primicerio Antonio Dragoni, " Ex Vicario Generale Capitolare " della Citta e diocesi di Cremona."* Then follow three seals displaying the arms, names, and titles of the chief prelate Anthony Dragoni. The date, 1729, placed on the tomb of Stradivari, led to the belief that he had died at that period ; but the discovery of a violin of 1736, in which Stradivari himself had stated his age to be ninety-two years, has completely subverted that tradition. Some new re- searches, made with indefatigable perseverance, have * " Finally, in the same volume, at page cxxxn, No. 923, we read '■the epitaph of the tomb of the celebrated violin-maker, Anthony "Stradivari, which waa formerly in the pavement — [now] entirely "relaid — of St. Dominic's Church, of the Dominican Fathers, and is " a- follows . Sepulchre. Of Anthony. Stradivari And. bis. Heirs. Year 1729. " In testimony of the above, "Cremona, the 18th of September 1866. "Anthony Dragoni, Chief Prelate (or Dean), • < apitnlar Ex-\ l< ar general "of the city and diocese of Cremona." 70 been finally crowned with success, and have made known the precise date of the decease of this celebrated artist. In an authentic extract from the registers of the Cathedral of Cremona, signed and delivered by M. Julius Fusetti, vicar of that church, we have the proof that Anthony Stradivari was buried on the 19th of December, 1737, and consequently that he died on the 17th or 18th of the same month, at the full age of ninety-three years. But, by an inexplicable singularity, neither his own remains, nor those of his children, were deposited in the tomb which he had prepared for them ; for the burial extract is worded as follows : " Nel libro col titolo : Libro de Morti nella Chiesa di " S. Domenico, essistante nell' archivio di questa parocchia • " trovasi quanto segue : "A di 19 Dicembre 1737. Dato sepoltura al fu. sig. "Antonio Stradivari, sepolto nella sepoltura del sig. Francesco " Vilani, nella Capella del Rosario, parocchia di S. Mateo. " Dalla Cattedrale di Cremona, "Li 19 Settembre, 1855. In fede Signe : Fusetti Giulio Vic .* (with the church seal). * " In the book entitled : Libro de morti (Burial Register) of the " Church of St. Dominic, existing in the archives of this parish, we " find the following : "On the 19th day of December, 1737: Took place the funeral of " the late Signor Antonio Stradivari, who was buried in the vault of " Signor Francesco Vilani, in the chapel of the Rosary, in the parish " of St. Matthew. " From the Cathedral of Cremona, "The 19th of September, 1855. In testimony Signed : Julius Fusetti, Vicar." 71 Anthony Stradivarius had been married and had had three sons and one daughter. The sons were named Francesco, Omobono, and the third Paolo. The first two worked in their father's shop until his death ; but Paolo entered into [other] business. If Catharine, the daughter of Stradivarius, was his first child, Ave might pretty nearly determine the period of his mar- riage; for she died in 1748, at about the age of seventy years, according to an extract from the burial register of the Cathedral of Cremona, from 1730 to 1752* It follows, from this date, and from the age at which she had arrived, that she was born about the year 1678 ; from whence we may conclude that the marriage of Anthony Stradivarius must have taken place in 1676 or 1677, that is, when he was twenty-two or twenty-three years of age. The life of Anthony Stradivarius was as tranquil as his calling was peaceful. The year 1702, alone, must have caused him much disquiet, when, during the war concerning the Succession, the city of Cremona was taken by Marshal Villeroy on the Imperial side, retaken by Prince Eugene, and finally taken a third time by the French: but, after that period, Italy enjoyed a long tranquillity, in which the old age of the artisl glided peacefully away. We know bul little respecting that * "Catarina, figlia del in Antonio Stradivari, domiciliata sotto la "paroccbia delta catedrale
  • this effected by chance? No; as we ahal] proceed to prove. A man endowed with the raresl powers for the observation of tacts and for the deductions which might be drawn from them, Felix Savart, too early lust to science, was, for nearly twenty years, absorbed in the 76 problem of the laws by which the best possible tone might be produced in bow-instruments ; and having duly considered all the various theories on this subject, he finally resolved to submit the instruments of Stradivarius to analysis, hoping to derive therefrom the illumination which he had been unable to obtain elsewhere. As he himself declared, in his course of lectures on experi- mental philosophy, delivered in the college of France during the academic year 1838 — 9, he was indebted to the courtesy of M. Vuillaume, and to his zeal for science, for the opportunity of experimenting upon a great number of violins by Stradivarius and Guarnerius, as well as on the remains of instruments by these great masters. It was from the result of these reiterated experiments, varied in a thousand ways, that the learned Professor deduced his theory of the construction of bow- instruments, the principles of which he detailed in his course, and of which he was preparing a definite abstract, which death unfortunately prevented him from finishing and publishing. It is from these researches that I bor- row what follows. It is at once evident that all the doubts which per- plexed the mind of Savart, concerning the laws that govern the construction of bow-instruments, were im- mediately dispelled when he experimented on the instruments of the grand epoch of Stradivarius ; because there he always found the same results produced by the same causes, the same forms, and the same proportions. Sagacious as any one could be, in the art of discovering these causes, by experiments as well conceived as they were nicely carried out, Savart was able, at the close of 77 them, to determine the laws which (even without his knowing it) had directed our celebrated artist in his labours. In general terms, the instruments of Stradivarius owe their admirable qualities : first, to the excellent choice of the wood ; secondly, to the relations of sonority subsisting among the different pieces which compose these instruments ; thirdly, to the capaciousness of the chest, combined with the proportions of thickness of the back and belly, from whence results the sound produced by the vibrations of the air under the action of the bow, which sets the sonorous body in motion ; lastly, to the very exact precision of the workmanship, and to the varnish, whose essential properties are to protect the wood against the influence of the hygrometric changes of the atmo- sphere, without offering any obstacle to the elasticity on which the freedom of vibration depends. In analysing the instruments of Stradivarius, it was requisite to begin with an analysis of the sonority of the wood used by him. The appearance of it is of no assist- ance whatever as a guide to facts, in this respect; the most practised eye can discern nothing therein : care- fully conducted experiments can alone afford any in- formation. That all kinds of wood yield a sound, no one can doubt: but by what method can fchey be examined in order to determine their intonation? The specific sonority of wood was already known al the period when Mersenne published his Traite de VHarmonie universeUe (1636) ; he 3peaks of it, and indicates percussion as the means for knowing and determining it. No doubt this 78 method was adopted by Stradivarius ; indeed, we shall find a proof of it in what follows. But, in the first place, let it be observed that the experiments and discoveries of Chladni, on the vibrations of sonorous plates of all kinds, have made known a preferable method to per- cussion for determining the specific intonations of woods of given dimensions : this method consists in the friction of a bow against the edges of a rod suitably prepared. But such a dimension of rod had to be sought, from which might be obtained with facility a sound sufficiently intense to be accurately appreciated, in order that the intonation might be determined and compared with other sounds produced likewise by the friction of the bow. Some fragments of instruments by Stradivarius presented dimensions large enough to admit of rec- tangular rods being made out of them — cut perpen- dicularly, and parallel to the fibres of the wood — of a length of 20 centimetres [7.874 in.], a breadth of 20 millimetres [.787 in.], and a thickness of 5 millimetres [.197 in.]. These rods were alternately put into vibra- tion, by holding the one under examination between the fingers, in such a way as to touch it only at points a quarter of the length from each end, and presenting the side of the thickness to the action of the bow, precisely at the middle of the length. On the upper surface of the rod, some fine, dry sand was scattered, and, in order to leave this surface perfectly free, the rod was held at one end, between the first finger and thumb, and sustained horizontally with the little finger underneath. In this position, and with the bow in action, the sand 70 was seen to divide itself into two parallel lines on the sides of the rod ; thus proving that the whole rod had entered into regular vibrations. These experiments yielded the following results : — 1. A rod of well-figured maple, of the dimensions stated, obtained from a fragment of a violin of Stradi- varius, made in 1717, produced the note A sharp : ** 2. Another rod of plain maple, a fragment of an instrument of the same master, made in 1708, gave the same note. 3. A rod of deal taken from a violin of Stradivarius, made in 1724, produced F: 4. Another rod of deal, from an instrument of the same master, made in 1G90, gave the same note. 5. Lastly, a third rod of deal obtained from another instrument of this celebrated maker, bearing the date 1 7:0, also gave the same note. The pitch having continually risen during the last quarter of a century, the ancient standard was used, in making these experiments, which gave for the [lowest ] C of the violin 512 vibrations in a second. Results so identical, produced by wood employed at such distani periods, Leave do doubl thai Stradivarius made use of means analogous to those adopted by Savart in his experiments, and that he attached greal import- ance to them : for his < at, however keen and well- practised it mighl have been, could never have enabled 80 him to judge beforehand of the intonation of the wood which he used. This is proved by the fact that experi- ments of the same kind, made on various woods whose appearance was identical, and with rods of the same dimensions, have yielded extreme diversities of sound, such as a third, a fourth, and even more, when the rods were not taken from the same piece of wood. Let us now see what of positive instruction theory has deduced from the facts which have been mentioned, and why we may conclude with certainty that the ad- mirable qualities of the instruments of Stradivarius have been obtained by virtue of the laws of this theory, and not by the effect of time and use, which can never bring forth perfection from a mediocre article. We know that the sound-board or belly, which sup- ports the strings and the bridge, is made of deal, and the back of the instrument, of maple. Deal is preferable to every other kind of wood for the belly, by reason of its feeble density, and especially on account of its elasticity.* Its resistance to flexion is greater, not only than that of any other wood, but even than that of many metallic bodies. It is equal to that of glass, and even steel, over which it has the advantage of exceeding lightness. Sound is propagated with as great a rapidity in deal, as in the other substances which have been mentioned. This fact is demonstrated by the following experiment : if we take three rods of glass, steel, and deal cut in the direction of the fibres, all having the * We here reproduce a part of what we have said in our Rapport sur les instruments de musique de V Exposition de 1855, concerning the theory of bow-instruments. SI same dimensions, and if we cause them to vibrate longi- tudinally or transversely, so as to make them produce the same kind of vibratory division, the intonation of the sound rendered by the three rods will be precisely the same ; which would not be the case with a rod of any other wood than deal. Thus, the rapidity of sound is as great in deal, as in glass or steel, where it is great in an eminent degree ; and, besides, deal offers the im- portant advantage of presenting a large resisting surface to the flexion [inevitable] in a thin belly like that of a viobin, and of possessing the greatest elasticity possible. Maple is preferable to every other kind of wood, for the back of bow-instruments : the great masters of the ancient school of Italy never used any other. In maple, the propagation of sound is much less rapid than in deal ; in the latter, it is from fifteen to sixteen and a half times quicker than in the air ; while, in maple, it is only from ten to twelve times quicker than in the aerial waves. Hence it follows, that if we make two rods of precisely the same dimensions, one of deal and the other of maple, the sound of the deal rod will be per- ceptibly higher than that of the maple. Consequently, the belly and the back of a violin, being of the same H/e, do not possess an identical intonation. AVe shall presently, the importance of these data. Let ua now examine in what relation the back and belly should stand [to each other] before they are united. This it was not possible to determine, until after re- repeated and carefully-conducted experiments. A violin was constructed with a back and belly of deal, perfectly in unison, and the tone proved to be weak and dull ; G 82 a maple back was then substituted for the deal one, also in unison, but the instrument was utterly bad and the quality of tone very weak. The cause of this phenomenon was easily discovered; for, maple not being endowed with the like degree of rapidity in the propagation of sound-waves as deal, it is evident that the back of the instrument could not be put in unison with the belly, except by making it too thick. Hence, these facts clearly prove that the back and belly ought not to be in unison. Not only should they not be so, but they should be decidedly kept distant from it ; in order to avoid the beatings always consequent on two sounds which ap- proximate in their intonation. To determine the relation of the sounds which the back and belly should yield, so as to obtain the best resonance possible, it was necessary to resort to direct experiments, which were made con- jointly by Savart and M. Vuillaume on several very valuable instruments of Stradivarius and Guarnerius. The [true] sounds of the back and belly were ascertained in the following manner : these pieces were fastened in a wooden vice, at a point where two nodal lines crossed each other, the one transversal and the other longi- tudinal, answering to the two kinds of elasticity of deal and maple. When they were put into vibration by the bow, longitudinal and transversal lines were produced,* which proved that the two kinds of elasticity were in action, and the nodal system being the same both on the back and on the belly, it Avas found there was a tone * The wooden plates forming the back and belly were previously sprinkled with dry, fine *and. — Tr. 83 difference between them. The back was exactly one tone lower than the belly. For contradictory experiments, a back and belly were constructed in other relations : when nearly in unison, beatings resulted ; and when farther apart than an interval of a tone, they no longer vibrated conjointly in a normal manner. Here, then, is a new fact acquired for science : the maple plate, or the back of the violin, should be a tone lower than the deal plate [or belly], in order to obtain the finest sonority possible when they are united. Can it be supposed to be by mere chance that this relation is invariably found in the excellent instruments of Stra- divarius and Guarnerius, and that the first of these masters, of whom the other was the pupil, had no method for determining the said relation, of which his great experience and practical skill had incontestably recog- nised the necessity ? Chance may give rise to a fact in one instance, but it never regularly repeats the same. We now come to another point no less essential. The intensity of the sounds rendered by a violin depends on the mass of air contained within if, which ought to be in ;i certain relation with the other elements; a re- lation which if is here the question to determine. By a series of ingenious experiments, made with an apparatus which permitted the mass of air contained in a violin to be augmented or diminished [at pleasure], we are ired that, if the strings are pul into vibration while the mass of air is .-if a medium, we obtain sounds at once mellow and powerful; if the volume of air be too great, the grave sounds are weak and dull, and the acute harsh <; 'J 84 and thin ; if it be too little, the grave sounds are coarse, and those of the first string lose their brilliance. If we examine the sound produced by the air in the chest when the tone rendered by the strings is most beautiful and intense, we find that it keeps within cer- tain limits which depend on the form and the other elements of the instrument. In trying the mass of air contained in several [instruments of] Stradivarius, by means of a wind- conductor formed of a simple brass tube, slightly conical, and flat at its larger end, so as to leave only a little slit for the escape of the air, it was found, by placing the fiat end of this apparatus over one of the / holes and blowing through the other end, that the air always produced a sound corresponding to 512 vibrations in a second, which was that of [middle] C, in the time of Stradivarius; but which, in 1838, when Savart made his experiments, answered to B natural [a semitone below]. Through the excessive rise in the pitch for about the last eighteen years, the sound produced by 512 vibrations is now nearly in unison with B flat. All the excellent violins of Stradivarius and Guarnerius have yielded the same result. This, then, is another fact acquired for science : the air con- tained in a violin should produce a sound equal to 512 vibrations in a second, when set in motion by the appa- ratus of which we have spoken. If the intonation of the air be higher, the grave sounds of the instrument are dry ; if lower, the sounds of the first string are of diffi- cult emission, and those of the fourth resemble those of the alto. 85 It will perhaps be asked whether Stradivarius made all these experiments. Doubtless, he did not ; but it is certain that, since he always arrived at the same results in regard to the quantity of air contained in the body of his instruments, he had observed, from an attentive study of his own productions, that the capacity, both by the curve of the arching and by the height of the sides in relation with the pattern of the violin, should be in certain proportions which he was always able to realize by the marvellous dexterity of his hand. Here, again, be it observed, chance does not uniformly repeat the same effects. The /holes in the belly exercise an important in- fluence on the mass of air contained in the instrument. It has been noticed that, when a strip of paper is glued over one of them, the sound of the mass is perceptibly' lowered, and the tone of the instrument becomes changed in a remarkable manner. The consequence of this ex- periment is that, if the holes are too small, the sound of the air will be too low, and the signal defects above- mentioned will declare themselves. If, on the contrary, the holes are too large, the sound of the air will be too high. Such is actually the case in a violin of large pattern by Maggini, the mass of air in which ought to yield a lower sound than that of 512 vibrations in a second, but which, on the contrary, produces a higher sound, because the / holes are larger than those of Stradivarius; this circumstance, bowever, is an excep- tion in the instruments of thai master. It is by such pbservatiorj as these 'hut we bave obtained proof of the 86 care which this great artist took to establish a perfect harmony in all the parts of his instruments, so that they might be always in a state of equilibrium. We know what absolute regularity he has always displayed in the cutting of the/ holes, invariably so true and graceful ! Sometimes this great master departed from his ac- customed dimensions, either for the sake of experiment, or to gratify the taste of artists and amateurs who desired of him a certain special quality of tone ; but precisely in such instances is found the most striking demonstration of the excellence of the principles which guided him in the construction of so large a number of his perfect instruments. There are some violins of Stradivarius perceptibly larger than his ordinary pattern, and in which the mass of air is not in exact relation with the resonance of the back and belly ; as a consequence, these instruments are inferior to the others. The reason of the excellence of the violins, altos, and basses of Stradivarius — or, to speak more correctly, of all instru- ments of this species — lies in the perfect equilibrium of all the parts. So, be it observed, that two violins, one of Stradivarius and the other of Guarnerius, having considerable analogy in their forms and dimensions, and both possessing the like harmonious proportions, have a remarkable resemblance in their tone, and equally rank among the best instruments which have emanated from these great masters. The necessity of harmony in the proportions is observable throughout. If the back or the belly be too thin, the tone of the instrument will be feeble ; if too 87 thick, the emission of the sounds will be laborious and obstinate : the excess of thickness will nullify the advan- tages which the wood should present by its rapid trans- mission of sonorous waves and its very acute specific sonority. If too great a bulge be given to the belly, or the arching be too elevated, the equilibrium of the mass of air will be destroyed, and the tone of the instrument will become dull and nasal. The height of the sides is likewise of the greatest importance; for it is that which determines the capacity of the chest in its relations with the model of the back and belly, and which, consequently, decides the quantity of air introduced in the instrument. And it is here that the action of the mass of air contained in a sonorous chest displays its importance in regard to the production of the sounds. In giving to a violoncello proportional dimensions to those of a violin, and in the relations previously indicated, the back and belly should be 35 inches [long], by 20 inches wide; because the A of this instrument is a twelfth below the first string of the violin, and it is requisite that the volume of sound should be proportioned to the gravity of the intonation ; but these great dimensions would be inconvenient for playing. Stradivarius gave to the back and belly of his violoncellos a length of only 26 or 27 inches, and a width of 15 or 16, at the most ; but he provided, in the height of the sides, ;i compensation necessary for the mass of air, in making them t inches instead of three, which would have been the exad proportion if the hack and l>ellyhad been larger. Jt i compulsory to adopt tin- proportions 88 of Stradivarius and Guarnerius for the height of the sides of violins, in order to put the sound of the mass of air in harmonic relation with that of the back and belly. The bar glued under the belly of the violin, on the left of the bridge, is now too weak in the old instru- ments, particularly in those of Stradivarius and Guar- nerius : in all of them it has been found necessary to replace it by a stronger one. But we must not conclude that these masters were mistaken in this part of their work : they proportioned the bar to the pressure of the strings on the belly, conformably to the pitch of their day. Tartini found, by experiments made in 1734, that the pressure of the four strings on the instrument was equal to 63 pounds. It must be observed that the strings of Tartini were smaller than those with which violins are now mounted, and that his bridge was lower, so that the angle formed by the strings was considerably less. Twenty years ago,* the first string required a weight of 22 pounds in order to bring it up to pitch, and the other strings a little less ; so that the total pressure was, then, about 80 pounds. After 1734, the pitch was raised a semitone, the instruments were mounted with thicker strings, and the angle which they formed on the bridge was more acute : hence the neces- sity of re-barring the violins. Since then, so excessive has been the rise in pitch, through the craving for a brilliant sonority, that there is nearly a difference of a semitone between the pitch of 1830 and that of 1856. * This was written by M. F<§tis in 1855.— Tit. 89 If a new experiment were now made to ascertain the pressure of the four strings on the belly of a violin, no doubt it would be found greatly augmented. This enormous weight incessantly tends to effect the destruc- tion of the old instruments, and demands increased power of resistance in the bar underneath the bridge. Such is the real cause of the necessity of substituting for the old, weak bar, in the violins of Stradivarius, one of stronger proportions. Most of the violin makers are ignorant that it is with this appendage, as with the back and belly of the instru- ment. The wood whose sonority, in given dimensions, is the most acute under the action of the bow, is that which should be preferred for the construction of the bar ; because, as before stated, in these conditions the vibrations are more prompt and free. The same is true, in regard to the wood of which the bridge is made. If it were necessary to prove, otherwise than by results, the profound knowledge which the celebrated makers of Cremona possessed of all the phenomena of resonance in their instruments, it would suffice to examine the form of the bridge, and to follow the experiments of Savart on this essential part of the sounding apparatus. How many conjectures must they not have made before arriving at the knowledge of the necessity of ;ill the incisions seen in the present bridge, which even artists themselves merely view as ornaments! Prom the immense number of differently shaped bridges which have come down to us, I have chosen only two varieties of viol bridges, our belonging 90 to a viol with seven strings, the body of which is not cut out, except at the two sides {Fig. 1), and the other Fig. 1. obtained from a viol with five strings, cut through in every part {Fig. 2) ; next, two violin bridges, the first Fig. 2. from a small-pattern violin of the ancient school of 91 Anthony Amati {Fig. 3), the other having been used Fig. 3. in fitting up a Nicholas Amati {Fig. 4). The two latter Fig. 4. already belong to the definitive form of the bridge, but with certain variations, either in the number of the incisions, or in their shape. It was Stradivarius who definitively established the existing form, represented below {Fig. '>). Delicate experiments, made with the 92 minutest care, have demonstrated that any modifications introduced into this model tend to impair the sonority of a good instrument. Thus, it appears that the beautiful experiments of Savart have proved, to a demonstration, the excellence of the principles which guided Stradivarius in the making of the fine instruments produced by him from 1700 to 1725. Nor did he swerve from them in his later works ; but the great age to which he had attained gradually diminished his firmness of hand. The form is not essentially changed in his latest instruments, but the workmanship betrays timidity. His finest instru- ments known are : 1st. That which belongs to the Grand Duke of Tuscany; 2nd. M. Alard's; 3rd. Viotti's, now belonging to M. Brochant de Villiers; 4th. Artot's, which is in the possession of the Count de Cessol, at Nice; 5th. M. Boissier's, of Geneva; and, lastly, those of Messrs. Betts, Goding, Plowdens, and Fountain, of London. These principles, so rich in results, the master communicated to his best immediate pupils, at the head of whom stand Joseph Guarnerius, an original but capricious genius ; next, Charles Bergonzi, the most exact imitator of his master, and of whose make there are some excellent instruments. Francis Stradivarius has likewise made some good violins, which, from 1725 to about 1740, bear his name; but we know others made by him in conjunction with his brother, Omobono, which bear this inscription : Sotto la disciplina (TA. Stradivarius, Cremona. Omobono Stradivarius was more particularly occupied with the repair and fitting-up of instruments, than with their manufacture. He died 93 early in June, 1742, and was interred on the 9th of that month, as is proved by an authentic extract [from the register] of the Church of St. Dominic, at Cre- mona.* His brother, Francis, survived him only eleven months, having been buried the 13th of May, 1743, as shown by an extract from the same register. f Both brothers were laid in the same tomb with their father. The other immediate pupils of Anthony Stradivarius are Michael Angelo Bergonzi, of Cremona ; Laurence Guadagnini, also of Cremona; Francis Gobetti, of Venice, and Alexander Galiano, of Naples. They are here arranged in chronological order according to their productions : 1st. Franciscus Gobettus, Venetiis 1G90 to 1720 2nd. Alexander Galianus, Neapoli 1G95 to 1725 3rd. Lorenzo Guadagnini, Cremonse. 1G95 to 1740 4th. Homobonus Stradivarius f sub disciplina ) . . -3 . .. f 1700 to 1725 5th. Franciscus Stradivarius t A. Stradivarn > 6th. Homobonus Stradivarius, Cremonse 1725 to 1740 7th. Franciscus Stradivarius, Cremonse 1725 to 1730 8th. Carlo Bergonzi, Cremonte 1 720 to 1750 9th. Michael Angelo Bergonzi, Cremonse 1725 to 1750 \
  • >\' which a fee-simile is given herein, were sold mi Thursday, June 26tb, 1862, bj M' - Puttick and Simpson. The letter realised the sum of eight pounds. — Tb. t SeeMoritz Berman hiichebiographitchet Lexikon, Vol. I. p. 69. II 98 instruments from his father, and labouring in the work- shops of Cremona, he made many instruments which have been esteemed nearly equal to those of the Amati. Gerber, who confounds him with his father, mentions two violins by him, which belonged to the violinist and com- poser Albinoni, one dated 1702, and the other 1709. There was another Albani who worked in Sicily during the first half of the seventeenth century. His instruments bear no Christian name, and nothing is known of his life. There is, in Brussels, a small violin possessing a brilliant volume of tone, and bearing within the inscription — Signor Albani in Palermo, 1633. Matthias Klotz or Clotz, a Tyrolese maker, was the best pupil of Stainer. After the death of his master, he manufactured instruments, the forms of which are in general imitated from Stainer, but the tone of them has less distinction. Most of the violins of Klotz were made between 1670 and 1696. However, there exist some instruments which bear the name of Matthias Klotz and a later date ; but it is thought they were made by the sons of this artist, and that they did not put their own names on the violins and altos which came from their workshops, until after the death of their father. George, Sebastian and JEgides (Egide) Klotz, sons of Matthias, have made violins which are not devoid of merit, but they are less sought for, in Germany, than those of their father. It is said of these artists, that, when an instrument of their make turned out superior to others, and better finished in the details of its form, they had the habit of putting the name of Stainer upon it ; to which fraud is attributed the counterfeit Stainers 99 which are found in the market. All the Klotz family lived in the Tyrol, and there formed numerous pupils, the founders of all the manufactories of instruments in that country. There existed a maker of the name of George Klotz, in 1754, at Mittenwald on the Iser, near Landshut, in Bavaria. I have seen one violin of his, dated from that place, in that year. There is nothing to indicate whether he was the grandson of Matthias. Among the makers foreign to Italy who had worked under Anthony Stradivarius, we distinguish 1st, Medard, who afterwards worked at Paris, and then at Nancy, from 1G80 to 1720. He was the founder of the trade in Lorraine. 2ndly, Ambrose Decombre, of Tournay (Belgium), who, on returning to his own country, worked at his business from 1700 to 1735. He is particularly known for his good basses, which are held in esteem. 3rdly, Francis Lupot, of Stuttgard, who wrought in that city from 1725 to 1750 : he was the father of the maker of the same name, who established himself at Paris, in the second half of the eighteenth century. 4thly, and lastly, John Vuillaume, of Mirecourt, who made good instruments from 1700 to 1740. ii 2 101 THE GUARNERI OR GUARNERIUS [FAMILY]. The Guarneri family, of Cremona, has furnished many distinguished makers of stringed instruments, all of whom have been surpassed by Joseph, so justly cele- brated for the excellence of his productions. The head of this family, Andrew Guarnerius, born at Cremona, in the first part of the seventeenth century, was one of the first pupils of Nicholas Amati. He worked at his art from 1650 to about 1695. His instruments are estimable for good workmanship in the style of the Amati, although marked by certain peculiar details, by which indeed they are recognised. Their sound is pleasing, but it has little intensity and does not travel far. They are ranked in the market amongst instru- ments of the second class. Joseph Guarnerius is generally considered as the eldest son of Andrew, and is said to have been the pupil of his father. II<' worked from 1690 to 1730. Although he may have been the pupil of Andrew, he has DOl followed his models. His first tendencies were to imilate him to Stradivarius, whose contemporary he was; Imt subsequently lie imitated the style <>f his cousin, named Joseph, like himself, of whom we shall speak presently. lie has consequently varied both in 102 his patterns and in the details of manufacture ; but his instruments are of good quality and esteemed. Peter Guarneri, second son of Andrew and brother of the preceding, worked from 1690 to 1725. His first productions are dated from Cremona, but later he esta- blished himself at Mantua, where he made a great number of instruments which are not without merit, but which have the fault of too high an arching, and are also wanting in brilliancy. There was another Peter Guarneri, son of Joseph, and grandson of Andrew. Violins and basses exist of his make, dated from Cremona, from 1725 to 1740. During these fifteen years he produced but few. His instruments resemble those of his father, whose pupil he was, but they have less finish. It remains for me to speak of the great artist of this family, Joseph Anthony, commonly called in Italy Giuseppe del Jesii, because many of his violins bear the monogram tttq upon the label. Up to this time, no positive information has been obtainable of this celebrated maker, so that only vague rumours, more or less ro- mantic, could be gathered concerning his life. He himself had given the most direct indication of his origin, in informing us that he was the nephew of Andrew, by this inscription placed in his instruments : Joseph Gruarnerius Andreas nepos ; but we had no indica- tion of the date of his birth. Thanks to the persevering researches of M. Vuillaume, an authentic document has been found which dispels all doubt on the last point. It is now proved that Joseph Anthony Guarneri, legiti- mate son of John Baptist Guarneri and Angela Maria 103 Locadella, was born at Cremona on the 8th of June, 1683, and was baptized on the 11th of the same month, in the parish of St. Donato, at the chapel of ease of the Cathedral* John Baptist Guarneri, father of Joseph del Jesic, of whom mention is here made, was the brother of Andrew. It appears beyond doubt that he was a stranger to the manufacture of instruments, for not one is known which is signed with his name. It even seems that his rela- tions with the members of his family were not intimate ; for it was neither with Joseph, nor yet with Peter Guarnerius that his son learnt his art, but with Anthony Stradivarius. Joseph Guarnerius del Jesu worked at Cremona from 1725 to 1745. His first attempts were not marked by any characteristic sign of originality, except a certain indifference in the choice of his materials, in the forms — which are variable — and in the varnish. Some years later, we find his instruments made with care : the wood used for the sides and the back is of excellent quality, and cut on the quarter (sur maille) ; the deal of the belly has been well chosen; the varnish, of fine complexion and elastic quality, is of the loveliest tint and rivals that of Stradivarius. The instruments of this period arc of small pattern ; their outlines are happily designed; the arching, slightly elevated, subsides by a gentle curve to * Qvarneri (Giuseppe Antonio) flglio de* legittimi conjugi Gio- vanni Battiflta Qnarner] "I Angela Maria Locadella nacquc nclla parocchia di San Donato aggrcgata alia cattedrale ii giorno 8 Gingno 1688 •■ battezato il giorno 1 1 del detto mesc. — Libro di nati dalT 1669 al 1692. G.— Dalla cattedrale
  • in 177"., neither the length nor the weight of bows, nor yet their conditions of equilibrium in the band had been determined: enlightened by the counsels of i 2 116 celebrated artists, by whom he was surrounded, Tourte fixed the length of the stick of the violin bow, including the button, at 74 or 75 centimetres [29.134 or 29.528 in.]; that of the alto, at 74 centimetres [29.134 in.]; and that of the violoncello at 72 or 73 centimetres [28.347 or 28.740 in.]. At the same time, also, he determined the distance of the hair from the stick by the heights of the head and nut, and obtained by these proportions the angle requisite to the hair for the attack of the strings, avoiding the inconvenience of the latter being touched by the stick. In these bows, the head, more elevated than formerly, and consequently heavier, obliged Tourte perceptibly to increase the weight of the lower part, in order to bring the hand again near the centre of gravity, and to put the bow in perfect equilibrium. It was with this object that he willingly loaded the nut and button with metallic ornaments which augmented the weight of them. Hence it follows that, notwithstanding the light- ness of the plain bows, we prefer those which are ornamented, although heavier in appearance ; for, in the former, the centre of gravity being removed from the hand, the weight is more perceptible towards the upper end of the stick ; while, in the others, it is found in the lower part. In bows which possess the most satisfactory equilibrium, the length of the hair is 65 centimetres [25.59 in.] for the violin, and the centre of gravity is at 19 centimetres [7.48 in.] from the nut; in the violoncello bow, the length of the hair is from 600 to 620 millimetres [23.622 to 24.410 in.], and the centre of gravity is from 175 to 180 millimetres [6.89 to 7.087 in ] from the nut. 117 M. Vuillaume has seen Tourte himself saw the billets of Fernambuc wood, in order to obtain the straight thread, and that the grain (mailk) might be placed as it ought to be; he then bent the sticks by means of fire. Some persons have supposed (Norblin was of this number) that Tourte did not bend his bow- sticks by fire, but that he cut them out of the billet according to the form which they should have : but this proceeding would have been in manifest contradiction with the principle of the direction of the straight thread, of which he had recognised the excellence. It is there- fore certain that he obtained the requisite curvature by heat. He knew that this curvature could not be invariably preserved unless the inside of the stick were heated as well as the outside, in order that all the fibres might concur in maintaining the permanence of the curve. In fact, it lias been remarked, that when the sticks are only heated on the outside, the inner fibres, which have not been submitted to the action of the fire, remain in their primitive state and oppose a constant resistance to the direction of the curve; sometime-, even, this resistance is such, that it ends by restoring the stick to its normal condition, particularly when the bow 1ms been exposed to the influence of damp. This is the reason why the bows which are got up apparently cheap lose their curvature and have none of the necessary qualities. Tom te gave the mosi scrupulous care t« the prepare tion of the hanks of hair for bows. He preferred the hair of Prance, because it is larger and stronger than that of other countries. The preparation to which lie 118 subjected it consisted in scouring it with soap ; he then put it into bran water, and lastly, after removing the heterogeneous particles which had adhered to it, he plunged it into pure water, lightly colored with blue. His daughter was almost constantly occupied in sorting the hairs, rejecting such of them as were not perfectly cylindrical and equal throughout their length : this is a delicate and necessary operation; for not more than one-tenth of a given number of hairs is fit for use, the greater portion having one side flat and presenting numerous inequalities. At the period when Viotti arrived in Paris, the hairs of the bow nearly always clustered together in a round mass, which impaired the quality of the sounds. After making his observa- tions on this point, Tourte conceived the possibility of compelling the hairs to preserve the appearance of a flat plate, like a ribbon, by pinching them at the nut with a ferrule which he at first made of tin, and after- wards of silver. Subsequently, he completed this important amelioration by a little plate of mother-of- pearl, which covered the hair from the beginning of the mortise in the nut to the ferrule by which it is retained. Bows furnished with this plate were called, archets a recouvrements.* The number of hairs determined on by Tourte for his bows was rather less than has been adopted since players have endeavoured to draw the greatest amount of sound possible from their instru- ments : this number now varies between 175 and 250, according to the size of the hairs. * The little plate or covering over the nut, here described, is called, in England, the slide — Tr. 119 It is in the distribution of forces and the perfection of his sticks that Tourte has shown himself superior to other bow-makers. We naturally inquire, at the present day, how a man destitute of all instruction, and whose education had been neglected to the extent of his being unable either to read or write, could determine, by the mere power of his instinct and the certainty of his eye, the proportions of the progressive diminu- tion of the stick and its swell towards the head. His faculties never failed him, in this respect ; as is incon- testably proved by the preference accorded to his bows by the most skilful artists over all productions of the same kind, and by the high price which is given for them in the market. Their fame is universal. The difficulty which is experienced in procuring one of them, and the necessity of compensating for them by others which should equal them in quality, have aroused the attention of science, and we have forthwith applied ourselves to the theory of the production of sound by the action of the bow on the strings. Without here entering into all the developments of the researches which have been made, and of the analyses to which this subject has been submitted, I shall remark that learned men have recognised the following fundamental po ints: If the continued action of the bow on a string does not stop it from vibrating, whilsl the least contact of a finger suffices to check its vibrations, it is because the bow, in passing over il, does not touch if in a continuous manner, bul by a succession of very rapid shocks, which tl ' 30 regular that they keep up the motion instead of 120 destroying it. The regularity of the phenomenon de- pends on the particular elasticity of the hair, on the action of the particles of rosin with which it is coated, and especially on the ability of the performer's hand. This explains the purpose of the rosin which is rubbed on the hairs of the bow, deprived of which coating the hairs glide over the string without producing any sound : but the roughness occasioned by the rosin deposited on them gives rise to those rapid and regular shocks from whence results the continuity of the vibration. It is mainly owing to this result that science has been enriched with the theory of the bow ; for hitherto she had not furnished the law of the progressive diminution in the size of the stick, found instinctively by Tourte, and so essential to the production of all the phenomena of power, lightness, delicacy and expression by which the artist manifests his talent. We are indebted to M. Vuillaume, of Paris, for the recent discovery of this law, a discovery induced by his intelligent and attentive observations, and of which he has demonstrated the reality by some very ingenious geometrical constructions : the results of which will be appreciated on the perusal of the following analysis, by keeping in view the plate in which these geometrical operations are represented. 121 EXPERIMENTAL DETERMINATION OF THE EORM OF TOURTE'S ROWS. The medium length of the bow, to the head exclusively, is O m ,700* [27.56 inches, English]. The bow comprises a cylindrical or prismatic part of uniform dimensions, the length of which is m ,110 [4.33 in.]. When this portion is cylindrical, its diameter is m ,008A [.34 in.]. From this cylindrical or prismatic portion, the diameter of the bow decreases up to the head, where it is reduced to m ,005 1 ' u [.21 in.] ; this gives a difference of m ,003 1 Vor " of a millimetre [.13 in.] between the diameters of the extremities ; from whence it follows that the stick comprises ten points where its diameter is necessarily reduced by -,% of a millimetre [.012 in.] reckoning from the cylindrical portion. After proving by a great number of Tourte's bows that these ten points are not only found always at decreasing distances on the same stick, but also that these distances are perceptibly the same, and that the situations of the points are identical on different bows compared together, M. Vuillaume sought to ascertain whether the positions of these ten points could not be obtained by a geometrical construction, by which * Here, :i - in i in' previous parte of this work, the Freni b measure- ments are given preciselj ■>■ thej Btand in the original, and are followed by el is approximating English lengthi within brackets. — Tu. 22 mill. If | I 110 mill. 123 they might be found with certainty; and by which, consequently, bows might be made whose good con- ditions should be always settled a priori. This he attained in the following manner : At the extremity of a right line a b, equal to m ,700 [27.56 in.], that is to say, the length of the bow, raise a perpendicular a c, equal to the length of the cylindrical portion, namely m ,110 [4.33 in] At the extremity b of the same line, raise another perpendicular b d, of the length m ,022 [.866 in.] and unite the upper extremities of these two perpendiculars or ordinates by a right line c d, so that the two lines a b and c d may lie at a certain inclination to each other. Take the length m ,110 [4.33 in.] of the ordinate a c, with the compasses, and set it off on the line a b, from a to e : from the point thus obtained, draw another ordinate (parallel to a c and perpendicular to a b) until it meets the line c d. Between these two ordinates a c and e f — the latter of which is necessarily less than the former — lies the cylindrical portion of the bow, whose diameter, as before stated, is O^OOS^ [.34in.]. Then take the length of the ordinate last obtained e f and set it off, as before, on the line ab, from f to <:, and at the point G draw a third ordinate g n, the length of which must also be set off on the line A B, to determine tliereon a new point i, from which draw the fourib ordinate u; the Length of which likewise, when setoff on the line a i!, determines the point where the fifth ordinate b \, is to be drawn. Tlie latter, in like manner, determines the -i.\tli u n, and bo of the others, to the last blli one V z. 124 The points gikmoqsuwyso obtained, starting from the point e, are those where the diameter of the bow is successively reduced ^y of a millimetre [.012 in.] Now, these points have been determined by the successively decreasing lengths of the ordinates drawn from the same points, and their respective distances progressively de- crease from the point e to the point b. If we subject these data to calculation, we shall find that the profile of the bow is represented by a logarithmic curve of Avhich the ordinates increase in arithmetical progression, while the abscissae increase in geometric progression ; and lastly, that the curvature of the profile will be expressed by the equation : y = — 3,11 + 2,57 log. x; and, in varying x from 175 to 765 tenths of millimetres, the corresponding values of y will be those of the radii [or semidiameters of the transverse circular sections of the bow at corresponding points in the axis].* In this manner is formulated the rigorous theory of the violin bow. By an analogous geometrical con- struction, it will be easy to determine the decreasing proportions of the bow of the alto, and of that of the violoncello. * The values of y in tenths of millimetres obtained from the above equation (the ordinates, that is, of the profile of the bow) may be re- duced to their equivalents in English inches by multiplying each result by .003937. So also the abscissa? 175 and 765. In entering the table, values of x in English inches may be converted into tenths of milli- metres French, by multiplying by 253.99, the reciprocal of the former multiplier — Tr. FINIS. APPENDIX, BY THE EDITOR. 127 APPENDIX. No. I. LETTER OF ANTHONY STRADIVARI, DECIPHERED FROM THE FAC-SIMILE* Molto Stim. m0 e molto Rev. do mio Sig. r Padrone Ill. mo Compatira la tardanza del violino, perche e stato la causa per la vernice per le gran crepate che il sole non le faccia ajirire, pero V. a Sig. a lo ricevera ben aggiustato dentro la sua cassetta e mi spiace che non ho potuto far di piu per renderla servita, e per la mia fattura, V. a Sig. a mi maiidcra un Filippo che merita di piu ma per servire la di lei persona mi contento. Cosi qui resto con riverirla di tutto cuore e se valgo in altro la prego delli suoi comandi e le bacio la mano. Divotissimo Servitore Di Vostra Molto Ill. ma Sig. ia Ant. Stradivari. Cremona, i 2 A bo 1708. * This task hai been acoompliBhed \>y Slgnor Manfredo Sfaggioni, who baa alec obligingly corrected the translation whicb (bUomk— Tb. 128 No. II. TRANSLATION OF THE PRECEDING LETTER. Most Esteemed, Very Reverend, and Illustrious Sir, Pardon the delay of the Violin, occasioned by the varnishing of the large cracks, that the sun may not re- open them. However, you will now receive the instru- ment well repaired in its case, and I regret that I could not do more to serve you. My charge for the repair will he a Philip.* It should be more, but, for the pleasure of serving you, I am satisfied with that sum. If I can do anything else for you, I beg you will command me ; and kissing your hand, I remain, Most illustrious Sir, Your most devoted Servant, Anthony Stradivari. Cremona, August 2, 1708. * Filippo — A silver coin then current in Lombardy, of the value of five shillings. 129 No. III. SOME ACCOUNT OF PAGANINl'S CELEBRATED GUARNERIUS VIOLIN (MENTIONED AT PAGE 10G). Having made enquiry of M. Vuillaimie respecting the anecdote of Paganini's violin, as related by Mr. Dubourg, the following was the interesting reply obligingly furnished, with permission to print it in this place : — TRANSLATION. In the year 1838, Paganini, on his return from London to Paris, disembarked at Boulogne: He took a coach, in which his violin case, being badly placed, fell, and the concussion was sufficiently violent to un- glue one of the inner blocks of the instrument. On arriving at Paris, Paganini came to me in great distress, his violin having lost its tone. I told him the cause, and said it would be necessary to open the in- strument. To this he would not at first consent and manifested extreme anxiety; at length, however, I in- duced him to allow it to be done, there Iteing no other remedy. He therefore consented, on Hie express con- dition thai 1 would 'In the work myselfal hi^ house, and under In- own eyes. Although Buch :t delicate operation is more agreeable t" accomplish withoul ;i looker-on and in the retirement of one's own workshop, K 130 I acceded to his desire, and went to his house for the purpose of taking off the belly of his violin. It is impossible to describe the torture which Paga- nini endured during the progress of the work. He twisted about on his chair, made grimaces, and suffered like a martyr; uttering exclamations which plainly showed the affection he entertained for his instrument, and the dreadful fears which he experienced at each crack, caused by the breaking away of the glue, as it yielded to the action of the thin knife used in removing the belly. The task having been accomplished with unexpected success, he entrusted me with this violin, the renown of which was equal to that of its master. I then resolved to analyse this famous instrument in every part, to take the precise dimensions of it, and to make a similar one. I had some woods of first-rate quality and very old, and could find a back and belly so exactly like those of Paganini's violin, as regards the figure of the maple and the grain of the deal, that I felt assured I should attain a satisfactory result as to quality of tone. Paganini allowed me three days for the repair of his instrument, and that time sufficed for making mine — at least, the most essential parts of it. I then returned him his violin, with which he was enchanted, and begged me to call again to see it. On proceeding to do so, a few days afterwards, I met him on the Boulevards, when he took my arm and said to me : "I thank you, my dear friend; it is as good as it was before." He then drew from his waistcoat pocket a little red morocco box, say- ing, " I have had two pins made, the one for the doctor 131 of ray body, the other for the doctor of my violin." I opened the little box, and found the pin was ornamented ■with a capital P. formed with twenty-three diamonds. Astonished at such generosity for so small a labour, and wishing to testify my appreciation of it, I concluded by saying to Paganini I would offer him the violin which I had commenced making like his and on the model of it. Some months afterwards, I went to his house. He was practising, but, on seeing me enter, he laid his violin on the table. I took mine from its case, and placing it by the side of his, begged that he would accept it. The soene was strange and unaccountable. Paganini became serious and immoveable. A look of doubt and fear overspread his features. Then he seemed surprised. He turned about the violins ; changed their places ; and, more than once, took the imitation for the original. He was evidently but little pleased to see a violin so similar to his own. At length he seized his bow to try the new violin, and, on sitting down, ex- claimed, " It is very good, it is like mine, it has the same tone — the same quality ; it is my violin, leave it with me." Some time afterwards, he came to express his entire satisfaction, and asked me how much I would charge to make him another violin exactly like the former. I replied 500 francs (£20). He then weni to Nice, and wrote to me from that place, in the kindest and most friendly manner, enclosing a cheque for the above sum, for another instrument, which 1 made with the Bame the first, ami forwarded to him at Nice; but 132 Paganini had just expired as the violin arrived there. This instrument is either at Genoa, or at Parma, at the residence of the Baron Achilles Paganini, the son of the illustrious master. The first of the two violins which I made for Paga- nini is that on which Sivori plays. END OF THE APPENDIX. UCLA - Music Library ML 424 S89F43E L 006 969 477 6 KUStO UDSARY ML s89Fk3E \c ^m ithfrw rpc "ACILITY AA 000 530 067 I MVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY fcCD mhr MU$ 95 ^>. JAWyj98S DEC 1 4 1990 ram mos-ob N0V>o 10Qf> JRN7 1992 OCT 2 3 1992 WV > o 199? °£ ° 1992 JAW j ly : - REC0 MUS-LW APR 5 1995 APR 1 5 iy3 °