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Violin-Making : As It Was and Is, Being a Historical, Theoretical, And CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE [USIC Cornell University Library ML B02.H56 1885 Violin-making :as it was and Is, bein 3 1924 022 320 216 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022320216 VIOLm-MAKmG: AS IT WAS ATO IS. ; "jForetootHs." "(Jfor ktxie jt 5« a man tof attasitt " 'Eat make a thjnjf pwfgtte tdtz feat agghte " ^tti toait Bt ga rtbf, anie iszl orxtt stgite " JfatttfS majii b« fnanli* thatte nexttx ram t0« Isghtt, " "^kouih 2* mafetre 1)0* hgs bgUflfiwe ani msghti. " SiagwKS thegm toi tak« jt a» I hvaxt tntenivi, "^nS« to* iaxsbxt mit, gfjhattt i hane nfcitbji. FRONTISPIECE. From a Photograph by Van der Weyde. Vincent Brooks, Woodburytype. : VIOLIN-MAKING, AS IT WAS AND IS: BEING A ON THE SCIENCE Aro AUT OF VIOLm-MAKITO, POK THE USE OP VIOLIN MA.KERS AND PLAYERS, Amateue asd Propessional. ED. HEEON-^LLEN, AviHOB OF "Thb Ahcestbt of the Violiu," "Thb Histoby of a GtBXAt ViOLiir Case," "The Bouance of a Stbasivabi," etc., etc. WITH UPWARDS OF 200 ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR. Viva fui in sylvis, sum diird oeeisa securi, Dum viici tacui, mortua dulee oano. PRECEDED BY 9n €seas on tte 17101111 antr its position as a. iXtusical Snstcument LONDON WARD, LOCK, & CO., LIMITED, WARWICK HOUSE, SALISBURY SQUARE, E.C. NEW YORK AND MELBOURNE. PrinUdby Hazcll, IVats,,,, &- Fi„^. Ld., Undon and AyU^h»ry, TO His Royal Highness aifrrt €tnm albert, 2Dufee of (t^inWvsh ffiarl of ^ent, ani Saii 0f Sister, S.®.. S-'3C-. SJ-. (SM.§: (i.c.,s.i., (S.(i!;.#:.<!i., XIC, ETC., XIC, Peince of the Bbothebhood of Amateuk Violinists, this volume is, by his boyal highness' most gracldus pekmission, eespect fully at %^t author. Music ! Thou who in the eternal past. Awful, divine, inexorable, grave, Broodedst, as did the Spirit of the Lord, Upon the water's face, we come to Thee. Cheat Soul of Life ! Stern Judge ; Sweet Cbmforter; Magnificent, severe, and heavenly high. Yet tender as a mother to her hahe, Though sh^ pluch kisses eagerly, and while Jmpasdoned as a lover's rhapsody. Still melting as the pleading of a child We bless Thy holy name for evermore. In such poor ways as we are masters of. We sitig Thy praises : and this small sweet thing. Devised in love, and fashioned cunningly Of wood and strings, shall weave the harmonies Thy Spirit sways ; until we know Thee nigh. Who, now afar yet shining in some eyes, Speakest eternal Life in changeless Love, And whisperest of things unspeakable. Percy Reeve. PEEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. As many of my Readers are doubtless already aware, much of the substance of the Theoretical and Practical parts of the fol- lowing treatise appeared originally in the pages of Amateur Work Illustrated (vols, i., ii., iii., 1882-3-4). The work has profited largely by this preliminary publication in serial form, for, as chapter after chapter appeared, many valuable letters were received from readers of the Magazine who were interested in Violin-making, both professionally and en amateur, containing information on doubtful points, hints and suggestions as to the desiderata of fiddle-makers, and pointing out where my work was to the casual reader unintelligible, or seemingly incorrect. All such corrections and additions as were thus suggested have now been added to the original text, greatly, of course, to its advantage, for it is hardly necessary to point out that there must always be much in a work which may seem clear as the noon- day to the writer, but which may be incomprehensible to the reader who cannot follow what was the Author's chain of thought as he committed his sentences to paper. In the same way, since the appearance of the first edition at the end of the year 1884, I have received many valuable suggestions from readers, suggestions by which I have gratefully profited, and I seize this opportunity to record my indebtedness in this respect to Mr. John Bishop (of Cheltenham), with whose kindly and careful assistance I have been enabled to add many touches where they have been seriously needed, and also to elucidate many points which have appeared vague in the text. Written originally for the pages of an exclusively practical Magazine, the work in its serial form was of an exclusively practical nature, but now that space is no longer an object of so — : VIU PREFACE. are much consideration as it is in a periodical, whose pages it oi carefully allotted amongst its contributors, I have thought interest and advantage to the work to add an Introductory- Essay, and the Historical chapters, to the somewhat bald dog- mata which it was necessary to lay down in a string without any comment upon them, when describing the actual steps to be taken in the solution of the problem : —" Given, a log of results wood ; make, a fiddle." These chapters are the tabulated of many years of assiduous study of the history of Stringed Instruments, and of constant research among more or less] forgotten authors for passages which might assist me in forming " an idea of the estimation in which "the king of instruments has been held throughout the centuries which have elapsed since ihe introduction of bow instruments in their present forms, and I have been most careful to give the fullest refer- ences to every author I have consulted, so that my work may have a bibliographical as well as an historical value. Written originally for Amateurs, I trust that the data I have given, with all the minuteness resulting from a long experience of Violin-making, may prove of much practical value to those whose metier it is to give life and song to the dull wood, which is destined to become " that wonder of music, the violin."^ Until recently most works which have been published on ihe Violin, whether practical or otherwise, have been written by Amateurs, who have had but little or no actual experience of the practical processes of Violin-making, and, therefore, the only books which have been of any great value to the luthier have been those written under the direction of, if not dictated I by, some practical fiddle-maker. Thus that scarce little work " La Chelonomie," by the Abb^ Sibire,'' was, we know, practi- i cally in its entirety the work of the celebrated maker Nicolas " Lupot ; again, the anonymous Luthomonographie/'^ written ' " To perfect that wonder of travel—the locomotive—^has perhaps not required the expenditure of more mental strength and application, than to perfect that wonder of music—^the violin." W. -E Gladstone. ^ " La Chelonomie, ou le Parfait Luthier," par M. I'Abb^ Sibire (Paris: Millet " 1806), reprinted in J. Gallay's Les Luthiers Italiens, aux xvii« et xviiio si^cles • Nouvelle edition du Parfait Luthier de I'Abb^ Sibire " (Paris, 1869). ' "LnthomonographieHistoriqueetRaisonnte," etc., par un Amateur (Frank, fort s/M : Ch. Jugel, 1856). PEEFACE. U by the Kussian prince Youssoupow (or Jousoupof), is so full of strange mistakes as to be of but little value apart from its bibliographical rarity ; and there is no doubt that Sandys and Forster's "History of the Violin"^ owes its popularity and value entirely to the fact that to the charming style and cultivated research of Mr. Sandys, F.S.A., was added the practical knowledge of the great Simon Andrew Forster. Thus it is that, though many works are annually produced in various languages on the subject of the Violin, until very recently there has existed really no practical guide to the actual manufacture of Violins in any language, save the somewhat meagre " Manuel Roret" of MM. Maugin et Maigne.^ It was urged by this terrible consideration that I determined to write the present work, so that Amateurs need no longer say in despair, " I should like to make a fiddle, but cannot find directions anywhere Jww to set to work," so that violinists may at last really know some- thing about how their instruments are made, and so that those who would learn how fiddles are built can do so without going through the tedious and expensive course of tuition which I, and all other fiddle-makers, have had to endure. Thus, to the Theory which has been my constant study ever since I first touched a violin, I have brought the Practice which has been the fascinating amusement of late years, and I think I am right in saying that now for the first, time the History, Theory, and Practice of Violin-making have been combined in a single volume. With a view to reducing to a minimum the historical part of my work (so as to make it as much as possible a practice-book), I have confined such part to my Introduction and a few preli- minary chapters, so separated from the rest of the work that those who are not interested in the instrument, beyond the actual principles and practice of its construction, need not necessarily read them to understand the rest of the treatise, but I can hardly imagine that " there breathes the man with soul so dead " as not to feel any curiosity in the evolution, and in the incidents ' " The History of the Violin, and other Instruments played on with the Bow,' etc., by William Sandys and Simon Andrew Forster (London : Smith, 1864). 2 Manuals Eoret, "Nouveau Manuel Complet du Luthier," etc., par MM.
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