The strings are different in character and quality of tone. The G is very rich and mellow; D and A (particularly D) are sweet and warm; and E is very penetrating. The French call the latter _chanterelle_ because it so often sings the melody. One peculiar charm about the violin is that though each of these strings has an individual character they “carry over” into each other so beautifully that a good player can pass from one to another smoothly and evenly. He mixes them, as it were, into a lovely whole. In passing from one position to another the violinist often _delicately_ slides with his finger up to, or down from, a note. This effect is called _portamento_; and it is one of the charms in violin-playing. Do not think that with his first fingers, the artist slides along the string until he finds the note he wants. Nothing of the kind. He slides up the string with one finger to _nearly the place_ he wants and then drops another finger firmly on the right note. But this _portamento_ is done so beautifully, so lightly and so swiftly that we never hear a slur, but are only conscious of a lovely and graceful effect. When the composer wants to produce a very soft and veiled impression he writes on his score for the strings _con sordini_. The _sordino_ is a little brass, or wooden, article that looks like a comb. It is placed on the bridge, teeth downwards, to add weight and to deaden the vibrations. You will often see each of the Strings take his _sordino_ out of his waistcoat pocket and place it on the bridge of his instrument during the performance of a composition. Very few compositions are played with the _sordino_ all the way through. The left hand of a violinist is, to a certain degree, _mechanical_ and trained to get accurate intonation, perfect position and tremendous dexterity. His right hand has another kind of work to do. The bowing of a violinist is what _breath_ is to a singer and what _touch_ is to a pianist. The beauty and delicacy of tone and the astonishing effects of scattering showers of notes about are all the work of the loose wrist, strong and flexible arm and yielding fingers that hold the bow and draw it across the strings. [Illustration: INSTRUMENT-MAKER’S WORKSHOP _Eighteenth Century_] The rich, velvety, smooth and peaceful _legato_; the detached or short, sharp strokes; the hammered; the jumping; and the harp-like effects, the _arpeggios_ (or open chords) swinging back and forth, are all accomplished by the bow. Once in a great while, we hear a strange and weird effect caused by rapping the string lightly with the stick of the bow. But this is only a kind of trick that composers sometimes introduce. Liszt calls for it in his _Mazeppa_; Saint-Saëns in his _Danse Macabre_; and Strauss in _Also Sprach Zarasthustra_. More often the violins (and other stringed instruments) play _pizzicato_,—that is the violinist rests his thumb against the fingerboard and plucks the strings with the tip of his forefinger.