Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Violins and Violin Makers
    Violins and Violin Makers
    Violins and Violin Makers
    Ebook139 pages1 hour

    Violins and Violin Makers

    By Joseph Pearce

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Violins and Violin Makers" (Biographical Dictionary of the Great Italian Artistes, their Followers and Imitators, to the present time. With Essays on Important Subjects Connected with the Violin) by Joseph Pearce. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDigiCat
    Release dateJul 31, 2022
    ISBN8596547132882
    Violins and Violin Makers
    Author

    Joseph Pearce

    Joseph Pearce is the author of numerous literary works including Literary Converts, The Quest for Shakespeare and Shakespeare on Love, and the editor of the Ignatius Critical Editions series. His other books include literary biographies of Oscar Wilde, J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

    Read more from Joseph Pearce

    Related to Violins and Violin Makers

    Related ebooks

    Classics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      Learning Violin Helped Me Survive Prison

      Jul 6, 2018

      First, let me situate you: doors clanging, people yelling, guards barking. The noise in prison is non-stop, and nighttime is often louder than daytime, because at night many inmates cry out, haunted by their trauma. I often felt like joining them. Fo

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      In The Violin Workshop

      Nov 1, 2021

      Robyn picked up her first violin when she was 7 years old. She now plays the viola (a kind of larger violin) in orchestras, and makes violins. To learn how to be a luthier, Robyn first apprenticed with a violin-maker. Then she spent three years at th

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A cello SAVED MY LIFE

      Dec 8, 2021

      A cello SAVED MY LIFE
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Playing with Paganini

      Mar 18, 2021

      The value of high-quality violins has soared in recent years, especially those made by Cremonese makers Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) and Giuseppe Guarneri (1698-1744). The latter, known as ‘del Gesù’ – due to the cross motif found on his later inst

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      How To Save The Land Without Music

      May 29, 2024

      For centuries, Britain was known on the continent as das land ohne musik, the land without music, and – ouch – it was apt. After our brief purple patch of Tudor brilliance, we tumbled down the European rankings, not re-emerging until the Stanford and

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Hit Parade

      Oct 1, 2024

      The Hit Parade
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Wonders Of Space

      Sep 6, 2022

      The Wonders Of Space
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Investing In The Classics

      Apr 23, 2017

      Investing In The Classics
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Sackbut Player

      Aug 6, 2020

      Sackbut Player
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Quietest Guest Of All

      Mar 30, 2023

      Crown your career with the clavichord. You cannot, I admit, play concertos with big ensembles, since it does not roar and thunder like the pianoforte; neither can you, surrounded by a large audience, sound above their shouts of bravo and make their c

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Theory Of Relativity

      Jun 14, 2022

      The Theory Of Relativity
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Instantly Iconic

      Dec 3, 2024

      Instantly Iconic
      11 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Saving The STRADIVARIUS SOUND

      Apr 19, 2022

      Saving The STRADIVARIUS SOUND
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Sound Of Centuries Past

      Apr 17, 2024

      The Sound Of Centuries Past
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Concert Hall Of The Future

      Feb 24, 2022

      MUSIC IN AMERICA has not come well out of Covid. The Metropolitan Opera, half-empty, shut down for the month of February. Music directors in New York and Seattle, a Dutchman and a Dane, left their jobs. Bigger European names polished their excuses. A

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Beyond Bach

      May 21, 2019

      Orchestral sounds tend to get a bit of a bad rep in music production cirlces. Sure, everybody loves the swell of strings beneath a classic house track, but many modern electronic producers tend to assume that strings, brass and woodwinds are purely o

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Have Your Say…

      Sep 5, 2023

      Have Your Say…
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Timothy Vernon + Jordan de Souza

      Nov 6, 2020

      JORDAN DE SOUZA: What was it like to discover Vienna as a young person in the 60s and 70s? TIMOTHY VERNON: When I arrived to begin my studies in Vienna in 1965, the Staatsvertrag, which created the Second Austrian Republic, was only 10 years old. Wor

      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Voices From The Past

      Jul 11, 2023

      Voices From The Past
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Rich Heritage

      Jun 14, 2022

      A Rich Heritage
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Why Do We Persist With Opera?

      Sep 28, 2023

      ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND’S RECENT funding round enticed an unprecedented 1,723 applications. If all of these had been granted, the total funding would have exceeded £2 billion. Ultimately, £445 million was assigned to 985 organisations for the 2023-26 In

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Richard Morrison

      Oct 1, 2020

      Just to be clear, I have the highest regard for the pianist Imogen Cooper. As I have for the singers Bryn Terfel and Emma Kirkby and – while they were still with us – the conductors Charles Mackerras and Colin Davis. I just wonder why, when it comes

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Guide To Easy Strings

      Nov 27, 2020

      If you ever have the opportunity to attend a recording studio session with real string players, it’s something that needs to be grabbed firmly with both hands. It’s a truly magical experience to hear something that’s been written on a computer brough

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Come In and Practice!

      Nov 1, 2021

      Some things never change. Kids have been learning to play instruments since the first prehistoric mother gave her baby a bone rattle. Mozart had to practice. Beyoncé had to practice. Even Marvin practices. It’s the only way to get good. But while pra

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Classical Music

      Jun 5, 2020

      WHEN we use the term “classical music”, we’re referring to the unbroken Western musical tradition that has its roots in the ancient civilisations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. This musical tradition stretches back so far

      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Violins and Violin Makers

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Violins and Violin Makers - Joseph Pearce

      Joseph Pearce

      Violins and Violin Makers

      EAN 8596547132882

      DigiCat, 2022

      Contact: DigiCat@okpublishing.info

      Table of Contents

      INTRODUCTION.

      BOW MAKERS.

      THE GREAT CREMONA MAKERS.

      THE GREAT TYROLESE MAKER.

      WHY ARE CERTAIN VIOLINS OF MORE VALUE THAN OTHERS?

      ON THE PRODUCTION OF GOOD TONE IN VIOLINS.

      GENERAL NOTES.

      REPAIRS OF INSTRUMENTS.

      ADDENDA.

      PREFACE.

      The Violin is an instrument which, though small and of trifling original cost, has yet commanded most extraordinary prices. The reason of the immense difference in the value of these instruments must therefore be a subject possessing strong claims to notice from virtuoso and amateur.

      To distinguish by the outward characteristics and peculiarities of tone, that which will be of pecuniary value to the possessor, and yield the utmost delight to the hearer, is an acquirement at once difficult to obtain and very valuable when obtained. To assist the amateur and collector in this pursuit is the object of the present little work. Such a work has long been a desideratum.

      Of late years, the History of the Violin and its congeners has received much attention. Elaborate and costly treatises have been published, some of which being written in Foreign tongues, are exceedingly difficult to obtain, and not accessible to many of those who desire to peruse them, on that account. Others are very imperfect and unsatisfying. Others again, are, from their high price, beyond the reach of the greater number of amateurs.

      The present work is intended chiefly for the use of those who desire a handy guide to the principal characteristics both of make and tone which mark the chief builders of this most famous instrument. Many persons anxious to possess a good instrument, and led away by the very natural desire to possess an Amati, a Guarnerius, or a Stradiuarius are tempted into purchasing Violins which are presented to them under false and delusive titles, and reject frequently good and genuine instruments of less famous makers, but still valuable because they are good and genuine. Undoubted specimens of the great masters are now very rarely to be had, unless at a very high price. Yet, when we consider that even Stradiuarius himself obtained no more than four pounds for his best instruments, which now command as many hundreds—it is evident that, in the absence of those great productions, the works of his pupils and successors are well worthy the attention of amateurs. There is no doubt, indeed, that many of these, which from being built on his principles are of first-rate quality, have been sold as those of the master himself. It cannot, therefore, be questioned that a knowledge which will lead the amateur to buy an instrument for what it really is, instead of what it professes to be, will at once save him from the unpleasantness of paying too dearly, and in real enjoyment yield all that can be desired.

      The author believes he has in this work given the amateur and connoisseur information not easily attainable elsewhere, but as he is fully conscious that there may be imperfections in it still, he will be glad to receive any suggestions or information which may enable him to render it still more complete.

      Sheffield, February, 1866.

      INTRODUCTION.

      Table of Contents

      The two most pleasing, expressive, and powerful single instruments of music are the human voice and the violin. The one, the gift of beneficent nature, has from the creation exercised its touching influence on the human soul—the other, the product of the ingenuity of man, has only within the last three centuries attained to perfection, but since that period what delight, what rapture has arisen from so simple a construction, when acted upon by the hand of genius!

      While the melodious tones of Grisi and Mario have touched with sympathetic feelings the hearts and imaginations of spell bound listeners, how have the magic tones of Paganini and Ernst wrapped the souls of wondering thousands in an elysium of delight and admiration! What effect cannot be produced by the Violin, (except that of speech,) which the voice can accomplish?

      The Violin in the hands of genius can draw tears or create laughter. Whoever has heard the great masters of this extraordinary instrument, has heard all the sweetness of tone, the intensity of feeling, the power of expression that the most gifted sons and daughters of song could possibly produce without the additional aid of speech. The Violin, in fact, in its power of expression far excels those singers, of whom there are too many, who while singing the notes, fail to make their hearers understand the sense of their songs. If a merry dance is produced by the agile bow, its sympathetic tones at once excite a corresponding feeling. If a plaintive air streams in delicious and heart-touching cadences from the strings, what soul is there so dead to feeling as not to respond?

      The perfection of the Violin is that its master, if alive to the subtle and mysterious influences of the imagination, can elicit from it the most perfect and touching songs without words.

      It is besides the only instrument, except the voice, which is perfect. Every shade of expression, every nicety of tone can be produced on it. All other instruments sink into insignificance in comparison with the Violin, because they cannot do this. They are all more or less imperfect; and therefore fail in those subtleties of expression of which the Violin and the voice are such able exponents.

      What gratitude do we owe therefore to those great masters of Cremona, more especially the Amati and Stradiuarius, who have succeeded in bringing the Violin to its present state of perfection.

      Music has in all ages been a source of the purest delight. The greatest poet and dramatist the world ever knew says that whoever has not music in his soul is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils. In the present age the cultivation of Music forms one of the most general and the most refined sources of amusement and pleasure. All ranks of people are now privileged to join in its delightful enjoyments.

      Even the cottage of the artisan is now often elevated by the elegant practice of music, through the increased facilities for producing instruments at a cheap rate. The consequence is that in the present age there is a more general study and a finer perception of what is good and beautiful, and their elevating tendencies are doing much for the mental cultivation and refinement of all classes.

      A very extraordinary feature of the musical world of the present day is the enormous orchestras which can be produced on special occasions. A chorus of several thousand voices supported by hundreds of instruments may now be heard, rendering the immortal compositions of the greatest masters of the divine Art, in the Peoples' Palace at Sydenham and elsewhere. These Orchestras are chiefly selected from the ranks of the people, of whom the artisan is the chief contributor.

      The reduction of the cost of instruments and the adoption of what may be called the joint stock principle are tending still further to enlarge the boundaries of the practical musical world. At any time and for any special purpose it is now easy to secure a band and chorus sufficient in numbers and executive power to render in an efficient and powerful manner, the glorious productions of Beethoven, Mozart, Handel, and other great masters.

      In all these transitions, the Violin bears a most important part. It is the leading instrument in these

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1
      pFad - Phonifier reborn

      Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

      Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


      Alternative Proxies:

      Alternative Proxy

      pFad Proxy

      pFad v3 Proxy

      pFad v4 Proxy