STRADIVARI'S TONE AND SYSTEM--THOSE OF HIS PUPILS AND
ASSISTANTS--QUALITIES OF TONE PRODUCED IN DIFFERENT LOCALITIES.
We may now refer to actual observation or close examination of
Stradivari's work with reference to the question of system, whether
there is evidence of its presence and how followed by him. That his
violins should have been from time to time well measured by the very
numerous army of identical imitators, fair copyists, and all sorts of
connoisseurs and theorists during the present century will be at once
admitted, and the results may be summed up in a few words. Stradivari
did not leave clearly defined any evidence of a system of gauging which
he strictly followed, at any rate in such a manner as to enable the
least approach by such to be made by any followers in his steps with any
measure of success. In short, he was guided by the exigencies of the
moment as to the amount of wood left in his ordinary or choicer
specimens.
It has been stated before that his quality of tone was one, not several,
and for these his patrons flocked to him, as his admirers have also more
and more earnestly sought for him since the supply has ceased. But it
was not desirable that the greatest possible power should be given to
instruments that were in many cases to simply charm a small family
circle of friends in an apartment of modest dimensions. He would,
therefore, naturally enough vary the amount of wood left. This would be
quite in accordance with what is perfectly well known to all makers and
repairers of experience--that with a violin if very "thickly timbered,"
the tone is less easy of emission, or actually weak. On the other hand,
if too thin the emission is comparatively easy, but lacks intensity and
is termed "hollow." Under these circumstances we should expect to find a
variation in the thicknesses of different violins of Stradivari, which
is in accordance with fact.
Some connoisseurs have been in their enthusiasm too hasty in their
reference of general principles from a few particular instances and
their researches--as time thereafter showed--did not bear the fruit so
anxiously looked forward to.
An instance comes to mind of two well known dealers, one British, the
other foreign, meeting together one day and opening some half-a-dozen
Strads, that appeared up to that moment to have had their interiors
undisturbed, or perhaps it might be said untampered with. What a
meeting! and what a parting! let us hope that each table, upper or
lower, that had so long been working in harmony, eventually became again
properly mated and gave no cause for lawyers to "put their fingers in
the pie." The results of the examination is related thus:--"In no two of
the instruments were thicknesses alike; some had thick places and thin
places; some were thicker on one side than the other; all were thicker
in the centre of the upper table and all had these as three to five for
the back."
Another is that of a well known continental repairer in his day,
relating how he had repaired a very large number of real Strads and
found the upper tables to be of the same thickness, two and a half m's.
all over, but that the backs varied in thickness. Some discrepancies
here seemingly. To add to this, a correspondent says the Strads he has
measured "have certainly not been thickest in the centre of the upper
table."
My own observations as to thicknesses I am afraid will not afford much
comfort to those who have been hopeful at any time that the calipers
would drag forth the precious secret. I recollect many years back seeing
a very fresh Strad, and a hasty measurement possible at the time
revealed too much wood, that is judging according to our modern ideas of
regulation.
One instance of a Strad, once my own property, comes to my mind. It had
something wrong with the interior that necessitated opening. The violin
was of good reputation for its tone of fine quality, quantity and ease
of emission. There was no help for it; much against my inclination the
separation of the upper table from the ribs would have to take place,
either by my own hands, or those of some other person, the rectification
being impossible from the exterior as it sometimes may be. With all
necessary care, guided by past experience, the opening was safely
accomplished, and after a very interesting examination of the interior,
which to an ordinary observer would have seemed but peering into a dirty
old wooden box, having nothing perceptibly different from any other, was
in what would be called a fair state of preservation. I took the
calipers in hand, expecting to learn something, but found all the
original thicknesses had been lost under the hands of numerous
repairers.
The supposed system or rule followed by Stradivari--that is, according
to what critics and writers have declared was his habit--was certainly
not demonstrated in this instance: in fact the eyesight alone was
sufficient to perceive that whatever theory the master had believed in
as necessary for the production of his inimitable quality, or whatever
rule as to gauging should be followed in order to obtain enough power
and freedom of emission were, in the present instance, we will not say
ignored, but quite imperceptible; and why? because the fiddle at one
time had been what we moderns--with our ideas of regulation and
fitting--would term "too thick in the wood." The instrument had
undergone much affliction from various physicians, but, judging from
various little details of evidence, been at almost all times highly
prized. Here and there were the studs or buttons of various kinds of
pine stuck by repairers of different nationalities and degrees of skill,
some placed with apparent good intention, others without reason at all,
while several parts bore indications of studs having at one time rested
there and been afterwards removed by succeeding repairers. Now all these
men had a thought of doing their work properly, and in finishing off
their studs with gouge or glass-paper, had whipped off around each spot
some of the precious wood of Stradivari, with a general result of a
series of hollows and gentle prominences not at all pleasing to the eye
of the believer in the thickness theory, but nevertheless instructive.
Other instances in which the master's work--while still good and
serviceable, with much evidence of unskilful repair, or want of proper
attention at the time of accident, have come under my notice, enough,
long ago, to have, as the saying is, "knocked into a cocked hat," all
that has been put forth regarding the mathematical precision of the
thicknesses over the different parts of a violin by Antonio Stradivari.
One or two further remarks may be interesting on this part of our
subject. The fact must not be lost sight of that the pupils of the now
well established master of his art in Cremona were working either at
that place likewise, or in the large cities of Italy, and had become
famous, or were soon to be so and themselves surrounded by learners of
the art. All these had been initiated in the secrets, if any, of their
craft and in the particulars which distinguished them from others, or we
may say, they were of the Stradivari school, showing in a more or less
degree the same species of tone which the master had brought to
maturity, and which he retained with consistency and never swerved from
to his latest day.
It is quite a reasonable supposition that most, if not all, of the
personal pupils were taught by the master, or had the way pointed out to
them by which they might, with the right ear for discrimination of tone
quality and enough of industry, impart to their works the identical
qualities of those of their teacher. But what are the facts left for our
consideration in connection with caliper measurement? the pupils
admittedly of his teaching, among whom we may mention Lorenzo
Guadagnini, his son Joannes Battista, Alexandri Gagliano, one or two of
his sons and Carlo Bergonzi, as the best known, each adopted their own,
or shall we say, left no more evidence for us of having a set rule for
thicknesses than their master. The nearest approach to the asserted
system of Stradivari, that of a gentle declination of substance in the
wood down to the edge, was made by Lorenzo Guadagnini in his extra sized
violins; but then the tone, wonderfully fine, is not Stradivari, but
Guadagnini. Carlo Bergonzi's system, if we may for a moment call it, was
quite unlike Stradivari, and yet connoisseurs have frequently credited
him with having got "the same beautiful quality of tone." From these few
references it will be sufficiently plain that the grand secret of tone
quality must not be sought for with the aid of calipers, so we will
dismiss this part of our subject and proceed to other considerations.
Besides those who have pinned their faith to the thicknesses, there are
those who take up with the "air mass" theory. I am afraid the arguments
in favour of this last will not bear even so much knocking about as
those just considered.
We have in the first place to take into account the fact of the larger
modern bar taking up more room than the old obsolete one of, not only
Stradivari, but all the other masters of his time and before. The upper
and lower end blocks have been enlarged in many instances to obtain a
better hold on the upper and lower table. These alterations have been
each of necessity, not of ignorance or mere whim, and moreover have
proved efficacious for the end in view. The restorers, or regulators who
have performed these operations must--according to the "air mass"
theory--have been acting quite "in the teeth" of it and Stradivari's
regulation, further there is not one fiddle in a hundred--perhaps not
that--which has been in use for a generation but what shows a sinking
one side or the other, or, when the modelling is full, a depression in
the middle of the upper table, and very frequently a greater fulness at
the back where the sound post touches and presses from the inside. These
alterations, individually or collectively, alter the "air mass" of the
interior, and the violin thus, according to the theory, contains within
itself the elements of its own early dissolution, so far as fine quality
is concerned. Facts, however, go to prove the contrary, and with the
modern regulator's efforts to obtain the best amount of a good thing
known to be present, it is quite probable that Stradivari himself never
heard his instruments to such advantage as they may be now,
notwithstanding the unreasonably high pitch to which violinists are
obliged to conform their tuning.
There was another theory promulgated many years back by certain people
of some degree of eminence in their own walk in life. A grand discovery
was announced, that the excellence of the violins of Stradivari
consisted in the tonal difference between the upper and lower tables
peculiar no doubt to that master. This sort of committee of scientific
experimenter, violin dealer and author, did not--while centralising
their efforts on the violins of one master--say whether the same
relationship existed between the back and front of a Nicola Amati,
Maggini or Gasparo de Salo, they made something of a slip when they
mentioned the violins of the great Joseph Guarnerius as showing the same
tonal difference.
It would have been very interesting to have heard of results after
further trials by the same experimenters upon upper or lower tables of
violins by now not very much less celebrated makers, who, although of
the same class or school, were living--for those times--far away from
the central luminary of the Cremonese art. What would have been said of
Montagnana of Venice? a star of the first magnitude, curiously near in
quality and quantity to the great centre to which he was willing to pay
obeisance and throw out a reflected light; of Gobetti, perhaps more
"Straddy" than any other Italian, Gofrilleri, Seraphino, two or three of
the Tononis, besides other lights of lesser magnitude, with exceedingly
fine qualities, but perhaps open to the charge of intermittency.
Further, several of the Milanese school,--offshoots of the Amati and
Stradivari,--of Lorenzo Guadagnini, a master of his art in all its
details, if ever there was one, his son Joannes Battista, steadier in
his working, but more uncertain in his results--shifting from place to
place, may have had some connection with this--and the occasionally fine
artificers of the same place, Landolfi, the Grancinos and Testores and
later on Balestrieri of Mantua and Storioni of Cremona. These men,
always good, and when circumstances were favourable, great in their art,
often grand in their individuality and power, were, by these modern
scientific interrogators placed aside or quietly ignored, apparently
either as unworthy of their recognition, or of such inferior renown as
not to come within the scope of their investigations.
A close and searching inquiry into the causes that enabled different
masters of their art to bring about the desirable end of their labours,
that of imparting a distinct quality and individuality of tone, might
have enabled them to get at least a hint as to the means whereby
Stradivari gratified the tastes of his patrons at the time and
connoisseurs in general of the present day. As indicated before, the
Venetian masters were--probably by the same means--able to put before
their patrons that kind of tone most in agreement with the luxurious
surroundings of the Venetian nobility, or offered and found acceptable
to the musical public generally there.
A prolonged, earnest examination of the peculiarities of tone attached
to the violins of the makers of the chief seats of violin making, has
led to the inference that the difference in kind or degree was not from
individual choice, but chiefly owing to outside influence.
What is known as the old Brescian type of tone was doubtless suitable
to the tastes of musical circles, among whom the then new style of
musical instrument was introduced in Brescia. When settled down, the
Amati family, a group of thorough artists, proved themselves alive to
the requirements of the fresh district that was henceforth to be the
scene of their labours for generations. The Brescian quality had either
been found by them, or was known beforehand, to be too ponderous or
insufficiently endowed with the more feminine quality desirable in the
minds of the Cremonese. The Amatis seem to have been in full possession
of the means necessary for producing the kind of violin in demand and
supplied it.
As time went on, musical compositions changed in style, advancing by
degrees towards the culminating point of nearly a century later. The
simple, oft-times wondrously sweet, yet quaint effusions of the early
composers for the violin, were gradually giving more and stronger
indication of what was possible and likely to follow soon and in its
turn, like all other things, become antiquated and old-fashioned.
Undoubtedly, it was this progressive condition of the music of the
period that induced Stradivari, early in his career, if not at the time
he was with Nicolo Amati, to take up the study of tone calibre as a
matter of essential importance, in order not only to keep pace with the
times, but if possible, anticipate further advances in musical
development.
It was daily becoming more evident that the qualities of refinement and
sympathy would not in themselves be sufficient in an instrument with
such a future as the violin seemed to have. Melodic forms were being
modified, while harmony was becoming more varied and divided.
The art of appropriate phrasing was also being studied, while practical
musicians were bowing to the necessity of leaving old stereotyped forms
for those having more emotional qualities. In short, the violin wanted
in Cremona was one of substantial power and suitable for more dramatic
expression on the part of the performer. To bring forth a violin of this
desirable type, Stradivari directed his energies. With what measure of
success, the whole musical world up to the present day have emphatically
declared.
Now, we may ask, was the difference of tone between the violins of
Stradivari and those of the other makers of the Brescian, Cremonese,
Venetian, Milanese, or Neapolitan school, in consequence of the tonal
difference between the upper and lower table, as supposed to have been
discovered by the modern Parisian investigator? was it resulting from
the correct air mass inside? the relative thickness of the tables, or we
may as well include the straight and fine grain theorists, the amber
varnish in the wood theorists, the wood of great age theorists, and the
generations of use theorists, and lastly those who mix them altogether.
If Stradivari practically worked upon one, some or all of these
theories, there is still more mystery concerning the close proximity at
which his pupils or assistants arrived, several of whom we might
conclude were possessed of all necessary means of acquiring to the full
their master's excellencies.
Just for a moment or two we may turn aside and notice the kind of
variation or the distinguishing difference between the tone in the
general acceptation of the term--of Antonio Stradivari and other makers,
or, as time has proved, masters of their art, if not on an equal
standing with him. There is frequently among musicians a disposition to
set down as inferior any tone that may seem to differ in degree or kind
with that of Stradivari; that is the ideal type, it must be Stradivari
and no other; some have even gone so far as to say, "there is only one
quality," that of Stradivari, and when other masters did not produce it,
they were unable to do so; this is more than a hint at condemnation of
the head of the Cremona school as having been very lax in the proper and
thoughtful training of his number of pupils; this latter an almost
necessary consequence of eminent rank, taken apart from the usual
assistance found to be obligatory from pressure of work. If we glance
over the Italian schools taken one after another, the facts, if
acknowledged, will be seen to point in other directions. Taking for
instance the Milanese master, Lorenzo Guadagnini, who tells us himself
that he learnt his art under Antonio Stradivari, we find distinct traces
of it in his tone, the general calibre is the same and most of the fine,
distinguishing features noticed in the tone produced by his master; the
difference, however, is that which is peculiar to the master makers of
Milan, that of a slightly less reedy emission of sound. Some have called
it harder, which is not a correct description. Chords are produced with
it as easily and roundly as with any other, the individual notes blend
beautifully and give an impression of homogeneousness in no wise
inferior to anything produced in Italy. There was no apparent difficulty
in the way of Milan acquiring and cultivating the variety of Italian
tone known as the Cremonese had they been so disposed; we are therefore
led to infer that each place with its musical world held its own
opinions as to the most satisfactory quality of tone for its purpose and
considered it the best. Milan is situated in Lombardy, north-west of
Cremona, and distant from it between forty and fifty miles; not a very
long way at any time, but quite sufficient for each place to cultivate
or indulge in any artistic or musical fancies or whims independently of
the other. We find maker after maker in Milan keeping within certain
limits as regards the quality of tone produced there; I do not know of
one whose instruments emitted other than the Milanese quality.
We may, I think, safely assume that so far from loosely and
superficially instructing his pupils, Stradivari's tuition was of a
deeper, far-reaching kind than has ever been suspected. If the tone of
Lorenzo Guadagnini is compared with that of the makers who were working
in Milan when he arrived, it will not be difficult to perceive that the
Milanese type is still retained, although much enlarged and matured, in
fact become freshly developed, throwing out the additional qualities for
the obtaining of which the great master of Cremona had carefully
trained his gifted pupil. All this is not in the least interfered with
by the fact of Joannes Battista Guadagnini's tone differing in some
respects--and more at times--with that of his father, but rather helped
by it; both assert on their tickets that they were instructed by
Stradivari, and both show the results of their training in that
largeness and impressiveness which is so much beloved of violinists and
which without doubt came from their great teacher. Josef, the son of
Joannes Battista Guadagnini, appears also to have either been instructed
by Stradivari or to have assisted under his personal supervision--which
would amount to much the same thing. We may perceive in the tone of this
maker also the influence of the great master in the same directions as
are manifested in the works of his father and grandfather, they are all
of the Stradivarian school.
Let us now turn in another direction. Alexandri Gagliano of Naples tells
us that he too was a pupil of Stradivari, and looking at his work there
is nothing about it inconsistent with his statement; his typical design
is formed upon that of Stradivari, and many of his details of
workmanship are such as can only have been carried out as the result of
either a lengthy study, or from being under the immediate supervision of
the master.
The quality of tone produced by the Neapolitans is as distinct as
possible from that of Milan, it is clear, lively, suggestive of a sunny
clime, and free in its emission, but leaves an impression on the ear of
a lack of sufficient profundity, nearly the opposite in fact of the
early Brescian school. Here the best of the Gaglianos--for it is not at
all certain that there were not more than two of them assisting at
different times in Stradivari's atelier--brought the same kind of
improvement to Naples as the Guadagninis did to Milan, the scale was
better regulated so as to give greater breadth of effect,
notwithstanding the general quality--seemingly native to the
place--being uninterfered with. Here then was the influence of
Stradivari having taught his pupils the means whereby the particular
tone quality most appreciated in the locality could be brought forward
in its most developed, or mature condition.
Carlo Bergonzi we shall have to consider more fully further on, and for
the present only refer to him as a pupil or assistant much more in
immediate connection with the atelier of Stradivari than any maker known
to us. Irregular workman as he was, swayed about this way and that by
matters unknown to us, he kept steadfast to the Stradivarian lines to
the end. The rest of his family were either his own pupils, or they may
have even been at times with his master, as they all--so far as I am
acquainted with them--are of the same school. These particulars all
point in one direction--that Stradivari was not anxious and made no
special efforts at introducing any new kind of tone--development of that
already in existence was his aim, and on this line he appears to have
led his immediate or personal pupils.
There is great probability that some very clever workmen whose names are
lost to us, were with Stradivari for a time, long or short, and were
able to imbibe the valuable precepts enjoined similarly on the other
disciples. It is not at present known whether the sons of Stradivari had
pupils or assistants, the rarity of their work seems to point to the
contrary; their father having been so successful from the commercial
point of view, apart from the higher aspect of his career, there may
have been--we might say--the usual disposition amongst sons of
successful fathers to take life more easily and repose among the laurels
won for them, requiring only a little caretaking. There is some
possibility of Thomas Balestrieri, of Mantua, having worked for a time
under Stradivari, but not as a pupil; there is much in his work
suggestive of this theory. His tone quality does not belong to the Amati
school, in which tradition has it he was trained. He may have gone as
help to Stradivari--for loose as was his general tendency, he could work
finely when the fit was on him. Whether he went or not, there remains
tone quality evidence of the strong influence of Stradivari, besides
the throwing aside of the Amati traditions concerning proportions,
curves and archings.
Of the other places to which personal pupils of the master went, we may
take a passing glance at Genoa, a city not replete with makers of
refinement, or numerous, but nevertheless with some sterling qualities.
Among them and the most "Straddy" is Bernardus Calcanius; his earliest
dates, if we can rely upon them, and they may prove at any moment to
have been earlier than hitherto known, almost preclude the possibility
of his having worked under Stradivari except as a youth. The influence
of the master is, however, decidedly paramount in his work and no other
tendency being noticeable, if not an immediate pupil, he took all
possible pains to acquire the excellencies that were to his knowledge
peculiar to Stradivari alone.
Among the Venetian makers there does not seem to be one that can--from
his style and workmanship--be picked out as showing all necessary
evidence of his having qualified under the great Cremonese as a personal
pupil. Nevertheless there is much indication, and such as cannot be
passed over, of the influence of Stradivari among the aristocracy of the
business there. This was not, as in the instances of the other schools
of violin making outside Cremona, in the first ten years of the century,
but after the different individuals of the group of eminent Venetians
must have been well known and of established reputation. In this there
is some apparent indication of one if not more of the party having taken
a trip to Cremona and brought back a few hints of no inconsiderable
value, perhaps received personally from the master. On the other hand,
if this was not the case, his works must have been brought into Venice
and their merits artistically as well as acoustically well thought over.
The outcome was a change, the Amati genius hitherto presiding
uninterfered with, seemingly immutable, had to give way to that which
was pronounced an improvement or a step higher in the progress of the
liutaro's art. As in Cremona, the Amati characteristics were too deeply
rooted in the affections of the Venetians to be eradicated, and we
consequently find in the designs of a few of the prominent makers the
strong influence of Stradivari in conflict with that of Nicolas Amati,
and the two swaying in balance with the settled convictions of the
followers of Jacobus Stainer.
Having now taken a glance round at the chief centres of violin making
that had during Stradivari's lifetime been strongly influenced by him,
directly by means of his pupils or indirectly by the arrival there of
his works, we may note that his qualities artistically or acoustically
considered, while giving him a commanding position, did not reach so far
as to annihilate, during competition, those of the Amatis, especially
where the latter had been of long standing and followed earnestly in
detail, they kept side by side as in Cremona. The influence of
Stradivari beyond the borders of Italy had yet to receive its due
acknowledgment from the crowds of imitators which have now become known
or have pushed themselves in front of the public gaze.