Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

—
;
SAVART
SAVILE 229
ateliers of the Ecole d'Artillerie, and the author
of several useful innovations, including an
ingenious contrivance for dividing circles. He
was born at Mezieres, June 30, 1791. Originally
established at Metz, he left Paris in 1819,
where he was made Conservateur de Physique at
the College de France, and in 1827 was elected
a member of the Acad^mie des Sciences.]
Following in the steps of Chladni, whose
labours had particularly attracted his attention,
he made many investigations in acoustics, which
are recorded in the several publications bearing
his name. He appears particularly to have
thrown light on the nature of that complicated
relation between a vibrating body which is the
source of sound, and other bodies brought into
connection with it, by virtue of which the original
sound is magnified in intensity and modified in
quality ; well - known examples of such an arrangement
being furnished by the sound-hoards
of the violin tribe and the pianoforte.
[In his Memoire sur la construction des Instruments
a cordes et d arehet, published in Paris in
1819, he explains the series of experiments
'
which led him to construct his Trapezoid
Violin,' familiarly known in England as Savart's
'Box Fiddle.' The exhaustive tests therein
described are the most renowned and convincing
that have ever been undertaken. Clearly and
distinctly he proved that wood arched in the
form ordinarily employed for stringed instruments
of the violin tribe does not vibrate in
every part of its length and breadth equally ;
that there are points where the vibrations
decrease, and points i.e. the bouts, cornerblocks
and sound-holes—where the vibrations
cease ; finally, that a flat piece of wood vibrates
more readily and evenly than an arched one.
Taking these facts for his basis, he constructed
» violin in the form of a box, narrower at the
upper than at the lower end. The two tables
were flat, planed on the inner side and slightly
raised on the outer so as to support the increased
pressure of the strings caused by the bridge,
which was necessarily higher "than usual, so as
to allow the bow a free passage across the
strings, which would otherwise be hindered
by the straight sides of the instrument. In
contrast with the customary curved sound-holes
of the ordinary violin, Savart cut his straight
and their position in the belly, and distance
apart, he determined by a series of practical
experiments which are minutely described in
his book. He tried two bass-bars, one placed
down the centre joint of the violin, the other
crescent-shaped, only touching the belly at a
point just below the bridge. Curiously enough
both these forms produced apparently identical
effects. The sides of the instrument were ^ in.
in thickness, and no side' linings were employed.
The sound-post was placed behind the bridge,
but a little more to the right than is customary.
To prevent the excessive pull of the
strings on the tender part of the belly (inseparable
from a tail-piece attached in the ordinary
way), Savart carried his strings over a hardwood
or ivory nut at the end of the violin and
attached them to the tail-pin, which was set
slightly below the centre. A jury of the Academic
des Sciences, composed of MM. Biot,
Charles, Haiiy, and De Prony, together with
four members of the Acad^mie des Arts, MM.
Berton, Catel, Le Sueur, and Cherubini, were
appointed to consider the merits of this violin.
The eminent violinist M. Lefebvre played alternately
on a fine Cremona and M. Savart's
violin before this jury, and eventually the
latter wsis pronounced to be equal, if not
superior, to the Italian masterpiece.]
Savart's name is also connected with an
ingenious little device for measuring, in a
manner easily appreciable by a lecture-audience,
the number of vibrations corresponding to a
given musical note. A wheel, caused to rotate
quickly by ordinary mechanical contrivances, is
furnished on its circumference with teeth or
ratchets, against which a tongue of pasteboard
or some other elastic substance is brought into
contact. The passage of each tooth gives *a
vibration to the tongue, and if the wheel revolve
fast enough, the repetition of these vibrations
will produce a musical sound. Hence, as the
number of rotations of the wheel in a given
time can be easily counted, the number of
vibrations corresponding to the note produced
can be experimentally ascertained with tolerable
precision. This mode of determining vibration
numbers has been since superseded by the more
elegant instrument, the Syebn, and by other
modes known to modern acoustic physicists,
but from the simplicity of its demonstrations it
is still often used. Savart also investigated with
some attention and success the acoustical laws
bearing on wind instruments and on the production
of the voice.
[He also wrote Mimoire sur la Voix Humaine, •
published in 1825, and also Sur la Voix des
Oiseaux, 1826. His complete works were
published in the Annates de Chimie et de
Musique, beginning with the year 1819. He
died March 16, 1841.— (P. Davidson, The
Violin ; Heron - Allen, Violin making - ; J.
Gallay, Zuthiers Italiens ; Leon Mordret, La
Luth4rie Artistique ; J. A. Otto, tjher den Bau
und die Mrhaltung der Geige ; F. Savart,
Miinoire sur la construction des Instruments, etc.
(a condensed German translation of this work
was published in Leipzig iii 1844) ; F. J. F^tis,
'
Biographical Notice of Mcolo Paganini, ' The
Repository of Arts, Literature, and Fashion, etc.,
vol. xi., 2nd Series, Jan. 1, 1821, No. 6, pp. 21
and 80 ; NonvelleBiographieGen^alepuiliiepar
FirminDidot; NouveauLarousselllustri; Fetis,
Biog. des. Mus.)"]. w. p. ; additions by B. h-a.
SAVILE, Jekemt, a composer of the middle
of the 17th century, some of whose songs are