One has to imagine that in the earlier years of violin making – in the 1500s when we have the first recorded evidence of the modern violin ...
Art evolves, and yet some say it is eternal.
These two things are not incompatible. Human expression, be it in sculpture or painting or music ...
It is well understood that General Motors organized its brands – ranging from the lowest-price Chevrolets on up through Pontiacs, ...
Cremona, Italy in the 16th through 18th centuries was where the finest violins and other stringed instruments in the world were made. Thanks to the ...
Violinist Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931) was and remains perhaps the greatest violinist to come out of Belgium. He was described by his ...
“Do what you love and the money will follow.” So goes the advice of some parents to their children who look for direction on their career ...
The most famous of the Austrian-German luthiers, Jacob Stainer (1618-1683) – the violin maker who preceded the Stradivari and Guarneri juggernauts ...
For the uninitiated, the name “Wurlitzer” means 1950s-retro juke boxes. A smaller audience might know of the “Mighty ...
Anyone who thinks there is no physical exercise involved in playing a stringed musical instrument has never played a stringed musical ...
A recurring motif of the art of Marc Chagall (1887-1985) was stringed instruments, usually violins. Why was this?
Various art historians ...
Henry Ford is best remembered as the inventor of automobile mass-production (and mass production in general), taking ...
There’s an old fiddle joke, which we assume is told by American fiddle fans and players, that goes like this: ...
The saying, “Those who can’t, teach,” has never been true. Without teachers, civilized societies would ...
The liner notes to Madonna’s 1992 Erotica album contain a name that might surprise classical music fans. ...
Art imitates life, they say. And there is no better example of that than the narrative of “The Red Violin,” an award-winning 1998 film. ...
It’s possible to travel the world and, in almost every capital and many secondary cities, particularly at great universities with music ...
The casual fan of orchestral music knows the first-chair violinist, the concertmaster, is the “number one,” the best of the violinists. They ...
Forgeries of fine art and fine stringed instruments go far back in history, including when the Romans copied statues seen ...
A rose by any other name is still a rose.
The same could be said of the 1733 Goffriller cello. The prized instrument of legendary cellist ...
It would be wrong to diminish the influential career of one of history’s greatest violinists and composers, NiccolòPaganini (1782-1840). ...
On the most elementary level, even the beginner violinist understands that the vibration creating the sound of a ...
Of the 650 remaining Stradivarius instruments in existence – fine violins, of course, but also fine violas, cellos, guitars, and harps – ...
Across the arc of violin making, selling, and collecting, it’s important to understand it all started as a story of European culture, ...
Art historians know all about Picasso. They understand his oeuvre (“Cubism,” primarily), his various periods (Blue, Rose, Analytic Cubism, ...
If you peruse fine violin shops and auction sites online, a violin maker name you could well run into (depending on your price range ...
The career of violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962), while brilliant, is fairly consistent with other European virtuosos of the late 19th ...
Every region on earth has its indigenous musical tradition and Norway is no exception. It is the country most associated with the Hardanger ...
Fundamentally, shopping online via Amazon in the 2020s is an awful lot like shopping by way of the Sears catalog in the early 1900s. ...
It’s an understatement to say that Itzhak Perlman has a storied career. And it’s erroneous to say that in the past tense – the ...
When a feature writer for Great British Life magazine interviewed Sir Neville Marriner, the English violinist who founded and conducted ...
Just two years after his death, the auctioning of the fine violins, bows, and memorabilia from the estate of Isaac Stern (1920-2001) set the ...
There are several factors that determine the value of a violin, and for that matter, all stringed instruments. The maker is of course a large part ...
In most major cities in the developed world, it’s a pretty common truism that leaving something on a car seat is an invitation to thieves. ...
When virtuoso violinist Ruggiero Ricci died in 2012 (b 1918), the obituaries tracked his storied career. From his status as a child prodigy (two of ...
As every new genre of music builds on what came before it, it’s always interesting to see how certain instruments are employed in completely ...
Frenchman Francois Tourte is widely credited with inventing the modern violin bow, in almost universal use today by violinists of all ...
In 20th century America, the music most popular among immigrants from Italy, and Naples in particular, is lively and very often full of ...
The innovation of making things smaller – from furniture size radios in the 1930s to hand-held transistor radios in the 1960s, and “car phones” as ...
Perhaps one of the more curious aspects of musical expression is the unfettered creativity of instrument makers. It began with plucking ...
Aspects of the cello that most matter when considering cello accessories and parts: The scroll, pegs, pegbox, neck, fingerboard, strings, upper bout, ...
Pity the viola? Not quite a violin, not quite a cello, and a far cry from the double bass. With its lower and deeper sound vis a vis the ...
It’s curious to know what led to the development of great instrument making in Europe hundreds of years ago. Certainly, an appreciation for ...
We may have Mozart to thank for E=mc2.
The most famous scientific equation in the world, given us by none other than Albert Einstein, is a ...
The stringed instruments made by the famed Cremonese luthier, Antonio Stradivari, have household name recognition, beyond the sphere of classical ...
In the world of very valuable things – think art, antiques, Stradivarius violins – there is a mix of beauty and threat that is ever present.
...The Medieval Era, roughly 500 CE to 1400 CE, was the time when the Church of Rome was the dominant ruling body and religion. Musically, the Catholic churches engaged people in the great ...
The Renaissance was a period so associated with the new, the creative, the break from the status quo, particularly in the arts, ...
Hard as it may be to imagine, it was a practice in the 18th and 19th centuries to reduce the size of bass violins (bassos) to what we ...
The virtuoso violinist Nathan Mironovich Milstein (1903-1992) had a remarkable career by many indicators – his training, his colleagues, his ...
The story of the Amati family of violin makers is closely intertwined with another, historically prominent clan: that of Catherine de’ Medici ...
The Catholic Church, as well as with many other Christian denominations, has a, shall we say, evolving history with the use of instrumental ...
The place of women in music and instrument-making history follows a familiar path. The fairer sex has always been there, playing ...
The arts, music in particular, have always survived due to generosity of the wealthy. Mozart – whose behaviors excluded him from support from the ...
To understand the parts of the bow used in stringed instruments – in Western music, the violin family (violin, cello, viola, bass, and the ...
The French poet, dramatist, novelist, writer, journalist, and critic Theophile Gautier is credited for birthing the phrase, “All passes, ...
When the coronavirus shut down much of the world in mid-March 2020, in-person music instruction failed to meet the criteria for “essential ...
The nature of violinmaking is that the mastery thereof is part science, part art – and lots of patience. Just looking at one aspect of the ...
It was published more than 30 years ago, and all copies sit within a fine Moroccan goatskin ...
To understand the history of the Nyckelharpa – referred to in some circles as the Swedish fiddle – actually requires digging into the ...
Few violinists consider their music to be a contact sport. Sure, there are competitions when the side eye from one player to the next might involve some mental ...
Among the hundreds of surviving fine Italian violins crafted by renowned violin maker Antonio Stradivari, two were once in the hands of ...
Violins and bows of the Baroque period (early 1600s to the mid 1700s) were physically different from their “modern” counterparts ...
The Baroque Period, roughly the 17thand first half of the 18thcenturies, was not just about music but also of the visual arts, fashion and ...
Among the many parts of stringed instruments – violins, cellos, violas, basses – the bridge might appear to be just a simple wedge ...
The story of the stolen Stradivarius violin that is probably most familiar to Americans is that of the Totenberg-Ames Stradivari (circa ...
It’s somewhat challenging to identify when rosin met its first bow to produce music on a stringed instrument. A Google search fails to yield definitive ...
Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987), considered by many to be the greatest violinist of all time, was recognized for his virtuosity in the concert ...
“Antiques Roadshow” is one of the most-watched programs on the PBS television network, seen by up to 8 million viewers per week. But while ...
Whether in a strong economy where market-traded securities are performing well, or in economic downturns when such securities aren’t, a ...
It might be hard to understand the shared characteristic between traditional violin craftsmanship in Cremona, Italy and the following: polyphonic singing ...
What is the connection between virtuoso violinist Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) and Fallout video games, devised in the early 2000s? The former ...
The baryton, a member of the viol family, is a rare but still-played instrument in the 21stcentury. Aficionados of the music of Joseph Haydn ...
When music lovers describe the violinmaking school of Venice, they’re not referring to an educational system per sé, with buildings and ...
Students of stringed instruments who also have an affinity for physics are likely delighted with the subject of harmonics. They not only understand how ...
The distance between Brescia and Cremona, Italy, two bastions of fine stringed instrument making in the 16thcentury forward, is only 29 ...
There’s an argument in education theory circles that the 21stcentury emphasis on STEM – preparing students for careers in science, ...
To understand the history of violins in jazz music, one should understand the history of jazz itself. Violins aren’t typically the first ...
While violin performance competitions are well known to students and fans of fine stringed instruments (the cello, bass, and viola also have ...
“There is something about the emphasis of the very low, and the very high register of the viola d’amore, that for me is quite profoundly ...
In the simplest of terms, there are two kinds of violins in the world. One is made – painstakingly – by a professional ...
Buy a fine violin, cello, viola or bass at auction? It may not be for the faint hearted, but auction sales of fine stringed instruments offer certain ...
...
What does it mean that accomplished musicians perform for and even work with the most disenfranchised parts of society in Los Angeles? ...
Today, a non-descript condominium building stands at 1416 W. Belmont Avenue in Chicago. This is in the re-gentrified Lakeview neighborhood of ...
All stringed instruments – violins, cellos and violas – are in certain respects alive. The strings, the various components (neck, pegbox, ...
Geared pegs are a newer innovation when it comes to useful – some may say ingenious – stringed instrument accessories. Widely available both online as well as ...
There are horror stories about fine stringed instruments getting damaged. You’ve heard them. Despite meticulous care and love a musician puts ...
Among the many perverse facts of the Holocaust is there were camp orchestras. Talented instrumentalists from the Jewish and “Gypsy” (Roma) ...
The sound a violinist produces, as well as the mastery he or she has with the technical aspects of the score, is considered the goal and achievement ...
There are many reasons why education policy experts encourage adding an A, for arts, to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), giving us STEAM. The ...
The Fibonacci Series might sound like a spy thriller, but it’s perhaps more exciting because it draws a direct, mathematical connection ...
In 2018, violin maker Gregg Alf curated a remarkable collection of fine stringed instruments by the iconic Antonio Stradivari. The event, ...
Players of fine cellos, violas and violins typically perform on fine cello, viola and violin bows. At some point in rehairing these ...
For every thing there is a season. Fine violins can perform in all four seasons (as Vivaldi well understood), as do cellos, violas, and ...
Much is made of the fine violins made long ago. The names Stradivarius, Guarneri, and Amati immediately come to mind. The ages of those ...
The enduringly popular Public Broadcast System program, “Antiques Roadshow,” has multiple episodes in its archives ...
The violin is perhaps among the most beautiful of musical instruments in both sound and appearance. A mere picture of violinist playing – or even just the ...
Is it somehow unwholesome for the serious violinist with a firm grounding in classical music to toy with the idea of electric violins? Or for that ...
Perhaps Vivaldi understood both the beauties and curses of nature. Arguably the composer’s most popular composition, “The Four Seasons” (Le Quattro ...
We go to a concert hall and see virtuoso musicians performing some of the most adored musical compositions on some of the finest violins ...
Violin strings are typically tuned by setting the A string to 440 Hz. It’s a scientific metric applied to a tool of art, which in itself might seem odd. ...
Students of the violin and violinmaking are generally aware that a fine violin – as well as cellos and violas – is made up of ...
There are countless variables that affect the quality of music created by a skilled violinist and his or her violin. It is the talent, skill, and ...
Violins, violas and cellos mostly get all the attention. They’re the principle instruments in the orchestra; they are played by the most ...
When is a package or container almost as valued as its contents? One imagines the Fabergé eggs as an ...
Some people know W.E. Hill & Sons for their fine violin bows. Others for the cellos and violins the firm made during the late 19th and most of ...
Chicago’s Fine Arts Building, a gem of the Windy City just steps from Symphony Center and the home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, is ...
Despite the omnipresence of manufactured violins from China, despite the decades of skills development that luthiers must have before becoming ...
Only in America.
The place of the violin in the hills of Appalachia and on the plains of Texas, and along many points in between, is one ...
Mirecourt, France is famous for two things: Violin and stringed instrument bow making, and the making of fine lace. That fact is as true today as it ...
When tourists travel to Germany, must-visit cities are Hamburg, Munich, Berlin and Frankfurt. Unless, that is, the tourists are ...
Children learn to speak before they are able to read. So should beginner violinists learn how to create music before they are able to read music?
...The unfortunate aphorism, “Those who can’t, teach,” is largely untrue and completely misleading where it comes to music instruction. A ...
It isn’t a simple matter to find a viola da gamba for sale or a violin maker who crafts them. They are rare and fascinating. The stringed ...
The history of fine violins, violin making – and violas and cellos for that matter – is rich with craftsmanship applied to ...
Fine violin bows (as well as fine cello bows and viola bows) are a bit of a menagerie. There’s the frog of course, which ...
Traveling on airplanes with musical instruments of any kind can be a challenge, particularly if we’re considering professionals who are carrying ...
The beginning violin student and even someone with a few years of study might choose to purchase what is called a “violin outfit”. ...
Almost all decomposition is actually the work of small bugs and microorganisms. That includes the unfortunate destruction ...
Adults who enjoy being musicians by and large were enthusiastic about studying their instrument as children. They may not stay with the ...
There are quite a few questions – and unresolved matters of opinion – on the technical matter of rosin use on violin, viola and cello ...
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and taste is on the tongue of the gourmand, is the sound of the sweetest violin only in the ear of a ...
In a modern world, we expect everything to be standardized. With a few exceptions – the inability one encounters trying to plug American ...
The extraordinary sound of the fine violins, violas and cellos made by the legendary luthiers Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) and Guiseppe Guarneri ...
There’s a famous unattributed quote about bowed instruments such as cellos, violins and violas: “The left hand makes the notes, but the right hand ...
There is a great deal of difference between a student violin, an intermediate violin, and a professional violin. It has to do with ...
When crafting fine violins, as opposed to cheap, mass-produced ones, placing the neck onto the violin body is the most complex procedure, as ...
The sound holes of stringed instruments such as fine cellos, violas and violins, also known as F-holes, are openings in the top plate. The holes allow the ...
The distinctive scroll found at the top of fine violins, violas and cellos is a purely decorative woodcarving that showcases the violinmaker’s skill as a maker and ...
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) director has worked with the Obama Administration to set in place strict rules ...
Through the years some makers have considered Ivory as an essential choice when it came to building fine musical instruments, from pianos to fine ...
Dendrochronology is the act of analyzing tree ring patterns in wood in order to determine the wood’s age. Dendrochronology has been ...
Whether you are in need of chin rests, rosin, violin strings, metronomes or tuning devices, shopping for the right violin accessories can be a ...
Good care and maintenance are vital in preserving a violin, whether or not the instrument endures frequent travel or gets handled often. All ...
Fine cellos, violas and violins are made of delicate materials and can get damaged, whether through poor storing conditions, exhaustive ...
The craft of violinmaking has changed very little in the 300 years since the time of Antonius Stradivarius and the Cremonese masters. In our current era of factory ...
Performing fine violin restorations is an art form in its own right within the field of violin making. Not all violinmakers perform restorations, ...
Violinmakers know that even the most subtle of details are crucial in perfecting the sound quality of fine violins, violas and cellos. ...
For the practicing instrumentalist, tuning a violin, viola or cello is a daily task. Located in the peg box towards the end of the instrument, pegs are adjusted to tune the ...
Old violins containing an official looking “Stradivarius” label often surface, for instance, while digging through a yard sale or a ...
Knowing the value of a fine violin can be difficult without the eye of an expert. Whether you are looking to settle an estate, resell privately or ...
Violinists and other instrumentalists will find that tuners, metronomes and other useful and necessary violin accessories are now available as applications, or ...
When you’re looking to sell your fine violin (or a viola or cello), consignment to a notable violin shop may be the most lucrative option. ...
Purflings are the decorative inlays highlighting the edges on the faces and backs of most stringed instruments. Since the first ...
The “ribs” are the pieces of wood that make up the sides of violins, violas and cellos, between the outer edges of the top and bottom plates and enclosing ...
The bass bar is a piece of wood on the underside of the faceplate or “belly” of stringed instruments such as violins, violas or ...
The bow is a musical device that is pulled across the strings of violins, violas and cellos to make them produce sound. Bows ...
The string player holds violins and violas similarly. Correctly holding a violin or a viola will enhance the sound of the instrument as well as its ...
Violins and fiddles, by themselves, may be difficult to distinguish physically. The same instrument can be ...
Sound posts in cellos, violas and violins are cylindrical rods inside the instrument body located below the treble ...
The bow is an integral part of playing on violins, as well as on violas and cellos, except when plucking and strumming the strings. The bow, like the violin itself, is ...
The chinrest is a component of violins and violas that helps in positioning the violinist or violist’s chin and jaw on ...
Neck grafting is a repair process for violins, violas and cellos through which the neck is replaced while often preserving the peg box and scroll of the ...
Different kinds of strings can markedly adjust the sonic character of violins. Plain and wound gut, steel and synthetic strings offer timbres varying ...
The final thickness of the wood of violins has a major influence on the quality and character of its sound. As a violinmaker carves the top ...
The mortise is a gap in the violin body sized to hold the protruding neck’s matching dimensions so that they can join together. Like many parts of violins, the neck ...
On all stringed instruments – violins, violas and cellos – the container that houses the pegs is called the “peg box”.
Peg box repair becomes necessary when ...
Violins, violas and cellos are made in a variety of sizes, mainly for youth. Violins and cellos have standard adult sizes as well as a slightly smaller 7/8 adult ...
The shape of stringed instruments such as violins, violas and cellos consists of an upper bout, lower bout, and two C-shape bouts on either side. Looking from the ...
In time, as violins, violas and cellos are used, tuning the strings on the instrument eventually cause the bridge to become slightly angled, leaning upwards ...
The tailpiece anchors the strings on the bottom end of violins, violas and cellos. As the top of the strings are held in place by pegs in the peg box, they are ...
Careful installation of the bridge is necessary to achieve proper sound, tuning and maintenance of violins, violas or cellos. A poorly installed bridge ...
The body of violins, including their front and back plates, their sides as well as the air they contain, all function as part of the process of transmitting the string vibrations through ...
The modern violin’s origins are in the schools of violinmaking in Brescia and Cremona, the traditions of ...
The first modern violins were made in Northern Italy in the middle of the 16th Century. Seven makers of bowed stringed ...
A good violin, viola or cello varnish can play an important role in perfecting the sound quality of an instrument. The varnish applied by Stradivari to his violins is ...
All violins, but especially older, fine violins sound better with fine strings.
The string-maker, or “cordaro” as it was first called in Italy, has been a profession since the 1600s. ...
The fittings of the violin, including the tuning pegs, tailpiece and tail gut, are attachments that are added on to the body, neck and bridge to place the ...
Violinists, violists and cellists use tuning pegs daily to adjust the tones of each string on their instrument. In violinmaking, the ...
The fingerboards of violins, violas and cellos are the most touched surface on the instruments and can wear out ...
Composite instruments are violins, violas or cellos with one or more parts that have been replaced from the ...
Chladni Patterns are the result of techniques of visualizing the vibrations of a resonating two-dimensional object’s sound. ...
There are a variety of woods used for making fine violins, including Maple, Spruce, Ebony, Boxwood, Willow, Poplar and Rosewood. Old growth trees from higher ...
In the production and repair of stringed instruments such as violins, violas and cellos, hide glue, typically from horses, has traditionally been the ...
One of history’s great, unsolved mysteries is what makes ...
It is not unusual to come across a violin in someone’s attic, at a flea ...
In California alone there are more than 30 specialty violin shops, and ...
Perhaps you or the violinist in your family has been accepted ...
In our digital world, some of most rare and fine musical ...
In the realm of stringed instruments, there is a wide range of ...