Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 158, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1919 — CANNOT IMPROVE ON VIOLIN [ARTICLE]

CANNOT IMPROVE ON VIOLIN

Centuries Pass, but No Difference Io Seen In th* Structure of Thia Instrument Even in this age of bustle and change, some few of the old standbys remain unchanged, hut 1U that it Is rather startling to realize that the violin, probably the best-loved of all musical instruments. has remained virtually unchanged in shape or substance for three centuries. In that time the lute and spinet have passed away, the harp has been Improved, the piano has been invented and developed, but the violin, which took a hundred years to assume Its (•resent form, since the days of the great Stradivari, the world’s most famous violin maker, has remained unchanged. The violin Is popularly supposed to dale from the date of the ancient Indians. hut the present Instrument had Its beginning back in the days of the trouliadours. who used musical boxes called vloles or guitar fiddles. And as the years went by. 'he little vloles were improved. The shape was altered; Mt by bit the instrument changed. Now a bridge was added: now a waist; now the “F holes” —two carved openings on either side of the bridge—\*ere added. And* front 15G0 to 17G0 the violin industry rose to Ito greatest achievement in lite development of Amafl. Guarneri ami Stradivari. Italian violin makers living in the town of Cremona. Since their time th'Te has been no change, ami the finest and most priceless musical instrument of today is a Stradivarhis \*olin. made three centuries ago by the U »ster cCaftsrnttn. Stradivari, in Cremona.