Biographical notice of Nicolo Paganini: With an analysis of his compositions, and a sketch of the history of the violin.Fétis, François-Joseph
History
Biographical notice of Nicolo Paganini: With an analysis of his compositions, and a sketch of the history of the violin.
Fétis, François-Joseph
Paganini, Nicolò, 1782-1840; Violin -- History
Some years after Chanot’s Violin had been consigned to the department
of the museum specially devoted to this object, Felix Savart, a
physicist of eminence, struck with the discoveries of Chladni on the
communication of vibrations and regularity of sonorous waves, devoted
himself with great ardour to the application of these discoveries in
the construction of bow instruments, and after several experiments,
made with great sagacity, he arrived at the following deductions:--1st,
When two or a larger number of bodies, whatever they may be, come
into immediate contact, and one is directly put into motion, they
all produce the same number of vibrations at the same time; 2nd, All
these vibrations follow parallel directions; 3rd, The increase of the
sound of any kind of body--for example of a string--depends upon the
simultaneity of the vibrations of the bodies with which this string is
in contact; and this increase is carried to its highest point when the
bodies put into motion by communication are in such conditions that, if
they were directly put into motion, they would produce the same number
of vibrations as the body acted upon in the first instance.
The chief consequences of these principles are, that the vibrations
produced by the strings of the Violin are communicated to the belly by
the bridge, from the belly to the back by the sounding-post; and that
the oscillations, in equal number, of all these bodies, cause equal
vibration, and, by similar numbers of oscillations, to the mass of air
held in suspension within the body of the instrument; hence it follows
that the object in the construction of this sonorous box is to favour
as much as possible the communication of the sound-waves, and to bring
them into harmony. In seeking the application of this theory to the
manufacture of bow instruments, Savart fell into error in the first
pamphlet he wrote upon this subject,[B] when he expressed the opinion
that the curves, the angles, and the raised belly adopted by the old
manufacturers could only have proceeded from the prejudices of routine;
but he discovered this error while prosecuting the continuation of his
studies, and he ultimately extolled the proportions of Stradiuari,
which he first believed to be only favourable to good effects from
considerations which the celebrated maker had not perceived.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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