A REPLY TO MR. E. SCHELLE'S CRITIQUE CONCERNING THE VIOLINS IN THE EXHIBITION OF VIENNA IN THE LEIPSIG "NEUE ZEITSCHRIFT FUR MUSICK," No. 52, 1873.
In the foregoing circular, treating upon violins, I said: "It is indisputable that no production of art in the world has been less understood than the violin." This truth has proved good again in Mr. Schelle's critique concerning violins, and it shows how little he is able to judge about them! In his very introduction it is plainly shown that he has made no studies in regard to tone when he says: "Thus an idea came to Vuillaume to make, by a chemical preparation, wood to look like that of the old violins. Instruments made of this material excel in regard to their splendid and real Italian tone."
Against this I assert just the contrary and can prove it to be nonsense by the fact that wood, when submitted to a chemical process, will produce a dry, covered tone, and the noble quality of tone—that which affects the heart—is lost.
Mr. Schelle then says: "We may also discover a similar experiment in the instrument which Mr. George Gemünder, of New York, has in the exhibition, under the ostentatious name of Kaiser Violin (Emperor Violin). Of course its manufacturer would protest against this insinuation, for in a little pamphlet he declares that by the assistance of three sciences, the mathematics, acoustics and knowledge of the wood to be chosen, he had not only comprehended the system of Italian school, but had even discovered errors in it, etc."
Mr. Schelle further says: "There have been many celebrated violin makers who were gifted with the same talents and learned in the same sciences, yet they could not reach what they aimed at, in spite of their most strenuous efforts. We confess quite openly that in spite of his assurance we harbor the suspicion that Mr. Gemünder has taken refuge in a chemical preparation of the wood. The violin in question, a faithful imitation according to Guiseppe Guarnerius, is indeed beautiful in its appearance and has a very excellent tone. But the extravagant, really American, price of ten thousand dollars could only be excused when its excellence should have been proven good in future," etc.
From this (Mr. Schelle's) critique it is evident that he has tried to throw into the shade the interesting production of art which I had in the exhibition, in order to be enabled to put the productions of the Vienna violin makers in a more favorable light. But this proves that only such persons as are destitute of sufficient knowledge to judge of violins may be transported to such one-sided critiques, dictated either by partiality or other interests; for if that were not the case Mr. Schelle ought to have blushed with shame in regard to that injustice and disrespect with which he illustrated the experience of an artist and spoke of his talents and sciences, to which Mr. Schelle is as much a stranger as he is to the artist's person!
As Mr. Schelle takes into consideration that the violin at ten thousand dollars exhibited by myself must first undergo "a proof of time," it may be rather advisable for Mr. Schelle to take a lesson of Gemünder, that he may learn those characters of tones which will prove good in future and which will not; so that he may be able hereafter to show better knowledge in his critique upon violins!
From my childhood I have grown up in this art in Germany and have devoted myself to all those studies which are connected with it. The last four years in Europe I passed at Vuillaume's in Paris, consequently I am acquainted with the entire European knowledge of the construction of violins.