George Gemunder's Progress in Violin Making Part 4

CIRCULAR WHICH ACCOMPANIED MY "EMPEROR VIOLIN" IN THE VIENNA EXHIBITION OF 1873--AN INTERESTING EXPLANATION ABOUT VIOLINS AND OF THE SCIENCE OF TONE.

It is an indisputable fact, that of all productions of art in the world, the violin has been least understood.

This wonderful instrument has remained an enigma to the musical world until now. How fortunate it is that this instrument does not understand human language, by which circ.u.mstance it escapes that medley of critical remarks which are made in its regard.

It is, therefore, in the interest of art and its votaries that I have determined to present herewith to the public the results of my long experience obtained in making violins, and in examining those sciences connected with it.

It is generally known that up to the earlier part of the eighteenth century the Italian masters made the best violins, and with the death of those artists a decline of that art, too, took place. Those so-called cla.s.sical instruments have been, especially of late years, eagerly sought at high prices, by all artists and amateurs, because a settled opinion has taken hold of their minds that n.o.body is able to construct a violin which is fit for solo performances; that the secret which the old Italian masters possessed is not yet found, and that new violins, although constructed according to the rules of acoustics, cannot gain the desired perfection until after the use of a hundred years. This, therefore, animated many violin makers with an endeavor to overcome that difficulty, but in vain; at last Vuillaume, of Paris, was impressed with the thought of making wood look old by a chemical process, and he succeeded in creating a furor with his instruments made of such wood, so that people began to believe the right course was being pursued. It turned out, however, that after a few years those instruments deteriorated, and finally became useless and proved a failure.

This especially prejudices the minds of the virtuosi so far that they do not believe it to be possible to make violins which answer the general requirements of concert playing until they have attained a great age.

Vuillaume has, therefore, by his chemical preparation of wood, injured this art seriously, because the previous prejudice was corroborated thereby. Such prejudices stand in the way of progress in making good violins.

But as everything in the world is going on, so the art of the construction of violins has not remained behindhand, and I can prove this to the musical world by my own experience.

To the knowledge of making such violins as artists and amateurs demand, there belong besides ingenuity in carrying out the mechanical work a knowledge of the following three sciences, namely: mathematics, acoustics and the choice of wood.

A knowledge of acoustics, which is most indispensable to the violin maker, cannot always be acquired, since it emanates from an innate genius, which makes itself manifest in the very choice of the wood.

When by the aid of these sciences I had arrived by a natural proceeding at what I aspired, I made violins in imitation of the old Italian instruments and presented them to great artists and connoisseurs, and the highest authorities of Europe and America. They p.r.o.nounced them to be genuine old Italian violins, not only on account of tone, but also in regard to form and appearance. In this manner I broke that prejudice. I proved to the so-called "connoisseurs" that those violins laid before and acknowledged by them to be good, were of my making, hence they were new. If I had presented those violins as new productions of my own to those gentlemen, they would have condemned them forthwith and said that they would not prove good till they had reached a great age, and that they would perhaps in a hundred years equal the old Italian instruments.

In general, however, it is not taken into consideration that if a violin is not scientifically constructed the good quality of tone will never be obtained, either by much playing or by age. In applying the three above mention sciences I have gained not only the fine quality of tone, but also that ease with which the tones are made to come forth.

But we must be thankful to the great masters; they have laid for us the foundation of the manufacture of violins, by which they became immortalized.

Their system, however, is but little understood by the present violin makers, because very few intelligent people devote themselves to this art, and the most of those who are learning it, practice it not in the way of art, but of business. What wonder, when even the greatest artist in Europe, Vuillaume, imitated the very mistakes which the great Italian masters made in regard to mathematical division. He did not consider that they, in improving the art, made experiments in regard to form, swell and different thicknesses in working out the bottom and top. But there are a great many professional men who, from exaggerated veneration, consider all productions of those masters as law and beyond correction.

I have discovered that the old masters did not arrive at perfection, but made mistakes in their mathematical division and in the workmanship of the different thicknesses of the bottom and top. Those faults I have endeavored to avoid in the manufacture of my violins, and I think I have solved this problem.

Just so it is with the knowledge of tone. It is a great mistake to believe that it is only the player who has this knowledge. Experience has taught that playing and knowledge of tone are two different provinces, because the artist very seldom has an opportunity to make close study of the different qualities of tone, and is usually prepossessed with his own instrument.

If many solo performers had more knowledge of tone they would not so often play in concerts on feeble instruments, which are too old, too defective in construction, or have been spoiled by bungling workmen who were employed to repair them. Such instruments often injure the solo performer exceedingly, and the critic is right in charging the fault to feebleness of tone. But the artist is generally satisfied if he only possesses an Italian violin.

Also in the science of tone I have found the way to gain that experience by which I have been enabled to make a violin which will satisfy an unprejudiced solo performer of the present and future.

I have confined myself to the natural process which the Italian violins underwent, and I have put the problem to myself that it must lie within the bounds of possibility to construct violins which will bring forth good tones at once and not depend on a promising future for all their good qualities, and I have not been mistaken, but have secured what I sought.

Many are still of opinion that the art of making violins and predetermining the qualities of tone, is a mere accident. This is, if taken in a general sense, true, because most of those who make violins scarcely know any more of it than a joiner, but the ability to construct violins according to the rules of art, requires a man who has enjoyed a technical education, and whoever has acquired the necessary capabilities knows the method by which the different qualities of tone may be produced and obtained.

Above all, he who occupies himself with repairs can least dispense with these capabilities, since he is often intrusted with the most valuable instruments; but alas! with what inconsideration do those who possess such instruments often give them, for repair, to botchers and fiddle makers.

This proves how great in this regard is the lack of correct judgment.

Through such spoilers of violins most Italian violins have come to naught, because many who own such instruments think that whenever any one makes a neat piece of work and knows how to use his chisel, file and sandpaper, he is the man to be intrusted with such instruments. But where there is a lack of science, the repairer's work, be it ever so neat, may cause damage in half an hour which will be greater than can ever be made good again.

If a violin maker constructs bad instruments it is his own damage, but to make bad repairs is to ruin the instruments of others, the creations of masters.

Neither is a violin maker who does not know how to construct excellent instruments a good repairer. Yet there are many who think that good repairers need not possess the knowledge of making good violins. But what a mistake! It seems, however, wisely ordained by nature that even he who is less gifted and less learned may enjoy life, and thus gladly bear sacrifices in consequence of his error.

This is the plain and simple explanation of matters in regard to the manufacture of violins and the knowledge of tone, and those to whom this does not seem comprehensible may submit to a more thorough experience than they have gained until now; in this case they will, after they have fully convinced themselves of it, sometimes remember G. G.

A REPLY TO MR. E. SCh.e.l.lE'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.

Sch.e.l.le'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 a.s.sert 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 n.o.ble quality of tone--that which affects the heart--is lost.

Mr. Sch.e.l.le then says: "We may also discover a similar experiment in the instrument which Mr. George Gemunder, 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 a.s.sistance 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. Sch.e.l.le 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 a.s.surance we harbor the suspicion that Mr. Gemunder 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. Sch.e.l.le'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 dest.i.tute 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.

Sch.e.l.le ought to have blushed with shame in regard to that injustice and disrespect with which he ill.u.s.trated the experience of an artist and spoke of his talents and sciences, to which Mr. Sch.e.l.le is as much a stranger as he is to the artist's person!

As Mr. Sch.e.l.le 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. Sch.e.l.le to take a lesson of Gemunder, 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 pa.s.sed at Vuillaume's in Paris, consequently I am acquainted with the entire European knowledge of the construction of violins.

Since 1847 I have made violins in America, therefore my instruments do not require to be subjected to a "proof of time," for it is without such a one that I have solved the problem and secured at once the fine tone which all the preceding violin makers strove in vain to find. I obtained my purpose in quite a natural way. This knowledge, however, does not lie in an object whose secret is only to be secured by a patent; it lies purely in the gifts of man. Another century may pa.s.s by before this problem will be solved again. The closing page in Mr. Sch.e.l.le's critique sounds like a lawyer's pleading in favor of a criminal. In this regard his writing is quite creditable, for he has well pleaded the cause of the violin makers of Vienna!

But then those words in my circular about violin makers proved true again: "This wonderful instrument has still remained an enigma to the musical world until now. How fortunate it is that it does not understand human language, by which circ.u.mstance it escapes the medley of opinions which have been given in regard to it."

When, however, its clear tone was heard, and the easiness with which the tones came was noticed, then it became an enigma to professional men and they declared that this violin was an original fixed up again!

But later, when it was objected to and found to be a new Gemunder violin, it was ignored even in the newspapers. The _Neue Wiener Tageblatt_, of Vienna, called it afterwards "the false Cremona violin!"

How envy here glared forth again; for this violin was not exhibited as a Cremona violin, although it has been demonstrated that it had been previously really taken for a genuine Italian instrument.

Its introduction as "Emperor Violin" had a force and pungency which tickled the professionals, and what surpa.s.ses all belief is, that they themselves crowned the work. It was, indeed, the greatest premium that I could gain, in spite of all the pains which those men gave to themselves to deprive me of my merit. Thus a moral prize values higher than a piece of metal?

Although many mocked at the high price, yet no such violin could be made by all those deriders, should millions of dollars be offered to them.

Therefore an unrivaled artist has the right to fix any price on his productions. Although an offer of $3,000 was made for it, yet n.o.body was charged to sell it, even if $10,000 had been presented.

The newspaper of the exhibition of Vienna, published on the 17th of August, 1873: "Gemunder found fault with the Italian constructions and those of Vuillaume."

If Gemunder had not extended his studies so far he would probably not have stirred up those matters which had given such a headache to those people of Vienna, for George Gemunder became thoroughly acquainted with both the faultless and the faulty points of the Italians in the construction of violins. If those people of Vienna had had the good luck to discover imperfections on the above mentioned constructions, then they would have made a great cry about it.

The same newspaper says in another pa.s.sage: "The tone of this violin is indeed strong and beautiful and has an easiness that pleases, also it has not that young tone peculiar to the very best new violins." In saying these words the writer confesses the truth in his innocence, and this verdict crowns this violin again, because this character of tone is just that one which all violin makers in the nineteenth century have been trying in vain to find.

And further: "For this reason some professional men gave vent to the suspicion that the wood was submitted to an artificial preparation, probably by the use of borax." Such was the nonsense to which this peerless violin was subjected, since there was none to take up its defence. _The annexed description in which all chemical preparations were peremptorily opposed, was entirely disregarded by them._ Thus there is no other way to advise those pseudo-professional men to have such borax violins made and patented!