WE will now resume our consideration of the handiwork of the Cremonese master as regards other details. We left him steadily working through his so-called "Grand epoch" or, more strictly speaking, his period of finely settled designs in outline and modelling. He had arrived at the goal of his ambition and produced works of excellence which—taking them as a whole—it seemed impossible to improve upon. He was henceforth content to put into them such slight modifications as would prevent too great similarity. Thus we find some were flatter in the arching, others a little shorter, being a trifle under the usual fourteen inches, others again were over it, but there was the same general contour, his now well-known accentuated design, complete as possible in all its details.
From the great number of finished works that were turned out one after another, it is quite reasonable to assume that there would be occasionally some little evidence of extra pressure of business and consequently less time spent over minor details. That this actually occurred at times there is no doubt and can be perceived clearly when looked for. One instance occurs to me in which the purfling had been cut off a trifle short at the corners and did not quite fill up and make a good mitreing, otherwise all along the border the easy, swift, yet powerful stroke was maintained up to his usual standard of accuracy. In other instances the point or "bee-sting," as it is sometimes called, is not so sharply defined perhaps in two corners, while the others were the perfection of minute finish.
It seems fairly certain that the great Cremonese was not at the time thinking of the almost microscopical scrutiny of critics certain to occur one hundred and eighty or so years in the future. These little differences in accuracy of unimportant detail or accidents of work may be taken as evidence that Stradivari was labouring day by day to meet the requirements of patrons different in disposition and perhaps patience. When at the same period he has been allowed to put his full time and attention to his work, then we find the four corners of equal unsurpassable finish, and other minute details over the whole structure so intently studied that nothing could possibly go beyond. These should really and appropriately be termed his "grand pattern." There is present in those instances the combined excellences in the highest degree of mechanical precision, beautiful proportion and drawing, such as no master designer of the Renaissance could surpass, the choicest materials, including splendid varnish, the whole united and capped with that essential, a beautiful tone.
A few words about the interior of Stradivari's instruments; one kind of work is perceptible in all of them. There is not, as we may see in the works of other masters, that off-handed, or even slovenly want of finish inside while the whole attention of the maker has been concentrated on the exterior. With Stradivari all is well done, the blocks, end and corner ones are carefully faced and have little, if any can be seen, of the tool marks left upon them. The linings let into the corners are in every instance done with minute exactness. The wood of these and the blocks is a kind of Italian poplar, sometimes called willow and by the French sallow; it is light and has no threads like pine to cause difficulty in the manipulation. Too much importance has been attached by critics to the presence of this wood in Stradivari's violins. That it had nothing whatever to do with the excellence of tone quality is clear from the fact of makers of inferior skill and less renown for tone having used it in the same parts. The most likely reason is—as most repairers have concluded—the absence of thread, its lightness, pliability and evenness of texture, being thereby adapted for the necessary long strips for fitting round the curves. Some makers used it invariably, while others did so occasionally, perhaps not always having a stock on hand. When for some reasons, such as being worm eaten or badly fractured, it has been found compulsory to remove them and substitute others in their place and of other wood, there has been no perceptible deterioration in the tone either as regards quality or quantity. Not only so, but there is the fact that many of the Italian masters and their numerous pupils, to say nothing of makers of a lower order, as often as not sent forth their violins without linings, some even without corner blocks. In most of these instances, however, the ribs were left very stout in substance in order to retain a sufficient holding surface for the glue. The subtle curvings of the ribs of an Amati, and more so of a Stradivari, almost precluded the use of a very thick material, especially so when the curl or figure was bold and elaborate. In consonance with this, we find with Stradivari that the thin plate or veneer from which the ribs have been cut is not thick, but of accurate and equal measurement along its course. The linings being equally true and fitting in the closest manner to the ribs, are in their original state somewhat stouter, the middle or waist ones parting slightly on approaching the corner blocks each way and thus giving a gradually increasing area of attachment (diag. h). All of the four blocks are well trimmed off and their surfaces levelled, being quite regular in their form and size and trimmed to proper measurement. The end blocks serving to sustain the greatest amount of strain longitudinally, are also found well finished, in contrast with so many seen in instruments by makers of eminence that are simply hacked roughly into size and shape. They were carefully estimated in their proportion for strength sufficient to resist the strain caused by the size, length, and pull of the strings in use at the time of Stradivari, and with something to spare, so that even now, under the enormous strain of the modern high pitch, when in perfect and original condition they are equal to their task. In a number of instances, when much repairing, good or bad has been done, the end, and often the corner blocks, have been replaced by modern ones. There is, of course, under these circumstances less of Stradivari present, but it has often been a case of painful necessity or question of expense as to the choice between two steps for restoration to health and particularly for strength. The form viewed vertically adopted by Stradivari was that of a parallelogram with two rounded corners (diag. i.). The upper block was left a little thicker, the junction or root of the neck necessitating this. The renewal of one or both of these has also been caused incidentally by the deep insertion of the modern and longer neck, thus lessening much of the grip or purchase of the block on both upper and lower table. The same may be said of the nut over which the tail string passes, this being—owing also to the rise of the modern tone pitch and increase of tension—much larger than in Stradivari's day, and he may in a sense be said to have had to buckle to modern requirements.
Diagram h.
Diagram i.
While the seat as it were of our criticism is at the present moment in the interior portion of the admirable structures bequeathed to us by the great Cremonese, we may consider further the surface work of this part. Everyone knows that the interior of a violin is left unvarnished by violin makers. Stradivari was in no way anxious to become an exception to this rule. The reasons for its adoption were, and are, still obviously wise, although not necessitous. He knew that his work, in common with that of other craftsman, would be liable to fracture, and that in the process of restoration the surfaces and junction of parts must be laid bare, and varnish where not obviously necessary would be an obstruction.
For the satisfaction of the anxious inquirer it may be stated that varnishing the interior has, to my knowledge, been tried by an excellent modern workman as an experiment and did not bring any adequate reward by perceptible improvement in tone quality. In another instance, to prevent the encroachment of the collector's arch-enemy, the worm, the innovation seemed to have proved ineffectual. Stradivari may have tried this and perhaps, for once at least, met with failure. The bar—there is but one—ofttimes erroneously called sound-bar or bass-bar—is, in common with all the violins of the old Italian school, quite inadequate for modern requirement, that of supporting the upper table on the fourth string side against the pressure caused by the tension of the third and fourth, the heaviest strings.