Handbook of violin playing

by Carl Schroeder

Attempts at improving the violin.

Many attempts have been made at improving the violin by altering its form and proportions, and by using other kinds of wood:—metal, glass, and porcelain violins have also been constructed. Experiments have been made with the bass bar, bridge, soundpost, etc., in endeavours to make a further advance in violin making; but all these attempts have yielded no results of importance. The most remarkable attempted alteration of latter days proceeds from the piano maker Hagspiel in Dresden, and consists in bending or arching the upper table of the violin instead of working it out, the sound-holes appearing as round openings in the ribs instead of in the upper surface. The tone of these violins is of surprising power and volume, but they demand a peculiar, and somewhat firm bowing; a heavier bow is also needed. The maker proceeds on the assumption that there exists, in modern orchestras a tonal gap between the string and the brass instrument. The tone of the stringed instruments is often quite overpowered by the predominating force of the wind instruments. This is especially noticeable in opera orchestras, where their space will seldom permit of more than 10 or 12 first violins, and the same number of second violins; for instance in the instrumentation of Wagner’s Nibelungen Ring. In its production the wind instruments need so much space in the orchestra, that instead of a corresponding increase in the number of the strings, they must often be lessened, naturally occasioning a want of balance. A selection of the instruments made by Herr Hagspiel,—violins, violas, violoncelli and double basses, would probably tend to lessen this disproportion, as one of them yields at least as much tone as two of the ordinary instruments. By sufficient familiarity with the method of using them, the tone might be made to blend uniformly with that of the other instruments in passages of a light and soft character. In any case the inventor has thrown out a suggestion, and made a beginning towards preparing the way for a correct balance of tone in the orchestra, and his idea therefore deserves consideration. The author is not aware if practical experiment in the orchestra has been made with these instruments, but it should certainly give some advantageous result.

Another invention has been produced recently by Herr Christopher Scheinert in Berlin. It consists of a vibrating hammer or tongue for stringed instruments. This is a little instrument placed under the bridge of the violin, so that, (it being furnished with a slender hammer), elastic metal tongues vibrate freely between the upper table and the strings. The vibrating hammer is set in motion through the strings by the bow, through which simultaneous movement the power of the instrument is increased, and the tone colour elicited. Experts have tested the contrivance, declaring it to be a happy idea.

Professor H. Ritter’s invention of the normal three-footed bridge must also be mentioned. Assuming that the bridge in use for centuries, with its prescribed feet, does not fully convey the vibrations of the strings to the upper table,—the two middle strings sounding feebler than the outer,—Prof. Ritter has made a middle point of contact between the bridge and the upper table. This inner support is intended to make the middle strings sound with the same intensity as the outer ones.

In his pamphlet on the subject (Wurzburg, G. Herz), Herr Ritter demonstrates that his three-footed bridge has not only an aesthetic significance, but claims consideration scientifically.[1]

Attempts to discover the secrets of measurement
of the Italian violin makers.

For a long period violin making was restricted (deviations such as the experiments explained above, notwithstanding) to imitating the first Italian masters of the art, and endeavouring to equal them. But so conscientious and true in all their parts and contents is the workmanship of the Italian instruments that this has not been attained. A very general opinion is, that certain secrets in instrument making were known to the Italian masters but have become lost, and many have made the attempt to re-discover these secrets. A maker in Aix la Chapelle, named Niederheitmann, a violin amateur, possessing a collection rich in valuable old violins, believed the mystery to be discovered, and that it consisted in impregnating the wood. The substance used was a species of pine found in the vicinity of Cremona, or the instrument was mainly built of this wood. This pine (balsam pine) became quite decayed by the drying up of its resin, and thereby the key to the enigma why in spite of the closest imitation the old Italian tone was not arrived at, was found. This pine exists no longer in Italy, and thus was to be explained the reason why notwithstanding the closest copying of existing instruments, the old Italian tone quality was not reproduced. A friend of Niederheitmann’s, Concertmeister Henry Schradieck (formerly of Leipsic) interested himself greatly in this discovery, and having obtained through a chemist a similar resinous substance, made, with the aid of Herr Hammig in Leipsic many trials with this impregnation, from which a remarkable result was to be got, but which was not of long duration. Herr Schradieck, who went later to America, knowing that the balsam pine still grew there, did not rest until he found this tree, believing that instruments made from it would again approach the old Italians. Several violins were found already made with balsam pine wood, but the brilliant expectations that were cherished were not fulfilled.