time.'"

"In the chain of this creative skill, however, a link was wanting.
Nobody rose up who could marry the music to the instrument. For years
and years the violin, and the music for it, marched steadily on, side
by side, but not united. Bach was writing far in advance of his time,
while Stradivarius and the Amatis were 'rounding' and 'varnishing' for
a people yet to come. It was not till the beginning of the present
century that executive skill, tone, and culture stepped in, and were
brought to bear upon an instrument that is, perhaps, more than any
other, amenable to such influences. Consequently, to us has fallen the
happy fate to witness the very zenith of violin-playing. A future
generation may equal, but can scarcely hope to surpass a Joachim, a
Wilhelmj, or a Strauss,--players who combine the skill of Paganini with
a purity of taste to which he was a stranger, and, moreover, with a
freedom from those startling eccentricities which, more than anything
else, have made the reputation of that strange performer."

The greatest violin-maker that ever lived, Antonio Stradivari, or
Stradivarius, was born in Cremona, probably in 1644. No entry of his
birth has been found in any church register at Cremona, but among the
violins which once belonged to a certain Count Cozio di Salabue was one
bearing a ticket in the handwriting of Stradivarius, in which his name,
his age, and the date of the violin were given. He was then ninety-two
years old, and the date of the violin was 1736. He was the pupil of
another famous Cremonese violin-maker, Niccolo Amati, and his first
works are said to bear the name of his master, but in 1670 he began to
sign instruments with his own name. His early history is quite
unknown, but a record exists showing that in 1667, when twenty-three
years old, he married Francesca Ferraboschi. For about twenty years
after his marriage, Stradivarius appears to have produced but few
instruments, and it is supposed that during this time he employed
himself chiefly in making those scientific experiments and researches
which he carried into practice in his famous works. It was about the
year 1700, when he was fifty-six years old, that Stradivarius attained
that perfection which distinguishes his finest instruments. The first
quarter of the eighteenth century witnessed the production of his best
violins,--the quality of those made after 1725 is less satisfactory.

During his long life (he died in 1