How to Play the Fiddle; Or, Hints to Beginners on the Violin

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1908. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... 4 Cremonen is probably a contraction 01 Cremonensis. Old English fiddles are most serviceable. They possess a sweet and sometimes a really fine tone, and should be preferred to many second-rate and third rate Italian instru mental CHAPTER V. DIFFERENT PARTS AND ADJUNCTS OF A VIOLIN. A. The Sound-bar And Sound-post. The Sound-bar.--The left foot of the bridge is to some extent supported by the sound-bar, just as, indeed, its right foot is by the sound-post. The sound-bar, or, as it is sometimes called, the bass-bar, is a strip of pine-wood, placed immediately under the left foot of the bridge. It has a sloping oblique position, and is stretched along the whole length of the left side, in a direction parallel to that ot the strings, in order to facilitate the vibrations of the belly. At the present day it is longer and deeper near the centre, so as to support more perfectly the greater pressure resulting from the higher pitch now in vogue. Formerly it was not only shorter and slighter, but also inserted in a perfectly straight position. Experience has, however, led to the conclusion that there was thus produced a tendency to mute the instrument to some extent. By means of this girder the belly is strengthened at that part where, the pressure is greatest, so as to render it capable of res sting the enormous force of the four strings. The pressure exerted in this way is said to be, in the case of a violin tuned up to a concert pitch, as much as that of a weigrit of ninety pounds. The utmost care is requisite in ord*r to adjust correctly this support in each instrument, since a -slight error in its position, a looseness or a roughness of finish, will give rise, when the fiddle is pliyed, to that hollow, teeth-on-edge-growl, called the 'wolf' (Haweis* The bass-ba...