CHAPTER XIII
HOW TO TEST A VIOLIN’S TONE
The method of testing tone which I have used for many years, with uniform success, is this: I procure a fine-toned old master violin, a really first-class solo instrument and one possessing those qualities of voice and carrying power most desired by artists. I then secure the services of a competent critic. The old master and the violin to be tested are then played under two environments: in a large hall, and in a room, carpeted, furnished, and curtained. The piece to be played is selected with a view to placing upon both instruments (which are tuned to exactly the same pitch) a severe tonal and operative test, and this piece is played successively upon both violins. The critic is never allowed to know which fiddle is being played, but must judge by the tone, and decide which possesses (1) the best carrying power, (2) the greatest depth and richness on the lower strings, (3) the most incisive and telling qualities of clearness and brilliancy in the upper register, and (4) which of the two violins conveys the best general impression of tonal refinement.
Where the slightest doubt exists regarding the flexibility of tone, that is to say, the ease with which it can be produced under the bow, I submit the violin to some great player. This last is a very important test, for it determines the playing possibilities of the instrument. If the violin passes with honour through these trials it is a very fine-toned and satisfactory fiddle indeed. Should it fail to equal the old master on any tonal point, or not prove perfectly satisfactory to the artist as a responsive instrument, the points wherein it is at fault are clearly indicated.
Those who wish to settle the question of a violin’s tone, therefore, should carry out the test upon these lines, or follow them as closely as circumstances permit. Thereafter the instrument may be treasured or condemned with equal confidence, for it has been weighed in an impartial and accurate balance. The violin submitted to test must, of course, be in proper adjustment and equipped with suitable strings. If there is doubt about this, place it in the hands of a qualified expert in such matters.
Since age is so universally invoked; since it is this element which gives to the old violin its greatest value and (so it is said) to tone its quality and mellowness, let us endeavour to determine just what relationship exists between age, the violin, and tone.
CHAPTER XIV
EFFECT OF AGE ON TONE
It has always seemed to me that theories dealing with the effect of age upon the tone of the violin are lacking in conviction, and that most of them are held as mere beliefs, founded upon a larger experience of the old violins than of the new. Many celebrated players have expressed the opinion to me that age alone gives to a violin its mellowness, or richness, of tone; some, indeed, adding that the instrument must also be much played upon. As to this last, it would appear disproved when we consider the few magnificent examples of the old masters’ work which have come down to our times almost untouched, and with the tone of which we have heard no complaint. Manifestly, then, the theory refers to the age of the violin, that is to say, the age of the wood of which it is constructed. To accept this theory would be to say the old violin had no mellowness, or richness, of tone when new, a statement impossible of proof, as no living man has seen or heard it when fresh from the maker’s hands. Documents exist which go to prove that the violins were quite satisfactory from a general tone point, and were much sought after solely on that account, even when their makers were living. But if we take refuge in the hypothesis and say that age of wood is responsible for mellowness of tone, how do we account for the failure, in this respect, of violins constructed from materials one to two hundred years old, and in some cases even older? Everybody knows these fiddles are not one whit better in mellow, or any other kind of tone, than those made from new, but thoroughly seasoned, wood.
It is because of these contradictions between theory and fact that we cannot accept the idea that age is solely responsible for mellowness of tone—even were we not possessed of concrete evidence to the contrary. There is no denying the lack of mellow tone in many new violins. One would hardly expect it in machine-made and spirit-varnished factory fiddles with plates arched by compression between hot iron moulds, and I shall presently indicate the reason why it is so seldom found in handmade instruments of a higher grade; but to say the bulk of new fiddles have little or no mellowness of tone is, after all, only what may be said regarding the bulk of old violins, and brings us no nearer a solution of the problem.
Mellowness, softness, richness, or whatever it may be termed, appears to me as merely one of those elements which, like purity, adds one to the total of desirable features which we look for and expect in a violin of Quality. It may appear reasonable to assume that time might improve one or all of these features, provided they originally existed, or act with more potency on the quality of mellowness; but it is against experience, as well as reason, to say that time is an unfailing creator of them, else mellowness would not be absent in the tone of hundreds—not to say thousands—of hand-made violins constructed prior to 1800. Furthermore, should we accept this theory we must be prepared to believe that the greatest makers of the olden time were not the masters of tone we have always supposed them to be. Again, how does it come about that time has selected the violins of certain old makers, and not always the best workmen either, while the violins of others just as old, or even older, remain untouched by this miraculous, mellow-producing elixir? If it be said that certain conditions in the structure of the instrument are unfavourable to the action of age, is it too much to ask that these be pointed out to us?
This question of age and tone is but one of the many and much-debated aspects of the violin which resolves itself when considered from the standpoint of tone-creation advanced in these pages. In whatever age a violin maker (if he be also a capable tone-builder) may work, he will construct his tonal edifice according to his ideals. He may hold every desirable element as an ideal save mellowness, while another may develop much of that quality and little else. To hold the balance evenly between all the desirable elements of tone is, therefore, no easy task, and we may well marvel at the genius of the great ones who accomplished the feat, and even admire those who succeeded only partially. We can also understand why the copyists, those who work without tone ideals, fail so often in the production of a mellow quality, and, on the occasions when they do produce it, remain in ignorance as to how it was done.