Article June 6, 1901 Issue

Violins and Violin Making

Rapidly Growing Interest in this Art in America.

Frank Waldo

Boston Herald

There is a rapidly growing interest among Americans not only in violin music, but in the instruments themselves. There are to-day ten persons learning how to play on the violin where there was one student of the instrument a dozen years ago. The astonishing popularity into which this musical instrument has sprung has led to the present widespread interest in the violin itself. The violin is much more than a musical instrument; it is a work of art. In fact, it is the only musical instrument which has an art history, and which is alike of interest to the art collector and the practical musician.

A good musician always insists on playing on a good violin, but the difference in instruments is so marked that the great-artist players sometimes search for years before they find an instrument which is exactly suited to them individually. Since the market value of violins ranges from one dollar up to ten thousand dollars, it is seen that there exists a wide range for selection, so far as price is concerned.

Musical antiquarians are still wrangling over the question as to who invented the violin, although it is now quite generally recognized that this instrument acquired the form in which it has been known for the past three centuries through the genius of Italian artists. Before the year 1600 a few violins of great beauty and exquisite tone had been made in Italy at Brescia and Cremona, but a steady improvement in their design continued to be made for another hundred years, until the highest point in the art was reached in the instruments of Stradivarius about the year 1700.

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