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.

It is said that more thought has been expended in trying to make improvements in the violin than in any other single direction, but instead of excelling those of the greatest of the old masters, their productions have been but in few cases even approached. These old Italian makers had the same genius that their old painters possessed.

The essentials in the making of a fine violin are: The selection of wood of a proper graining, elasticity, condition, and age: the shaping of the wood into the graceful curves, and the proper thickness which shall allow of the most perfect vibration; the artistic finishing of the wood carving, and, finally, the covering of the instrument with a varnish which shall add beauty to its appearance without injuring the freedom of the tone. Be it said, however, it requires genius to exercise the judgment and skill necessary for doing these things properly. The perfect violin is the product of the artistic temperament, and all the science in the world will not avail to make a good instrument if the divine spark is absent.

A most practical matter in connection with the subject of violins is the question of the kinds of instruments that one meets with in this country. It may as well be admitted in the first place, however, that in no civilized country on earth is there such ignorance concerning violins as in the United States, and in most cases the retail dealer is nearly as ignorant as the purchaser.

Genuine violins by the great Italian masters, Stradivarius, Guarnerius, Amati, and Bergonzi, are as rare in this country as paintings by Raphael, Michael Angelo, Titian, or Murillo. There are a few undoubtedly genuine instruments of this class on this side of the water, but most of the so reputed ones are but copies by less renowned makers. A New York violin connoisseur recently said that he saw two probably genuine violins by Stradivarius among about a hundred instruments which he found in the possession of collectors and musicians, and which their owners firmly believed to be genuine.

It is seldom that a well-made violin by an inferior maker, and which bears some resemblance to one from the hands of a great maker, is ever allowed to shed lustre on the true maker's name, but it is foisted off as the work of the greater man. A genuine specimen of the handiwork of the great makers cannot be bought under two thousand dollars. Of the violins constructed by the second and third rate makers, a very considerable number are in the hands of our good musicians and the few collectors who are scattered over the country. Such violins are worth from two hundred to two thousand dollars, depending on condition, tone, and name attached. They are usually better in tone than in looks.

Hundreds of European violin makers have been laboring incessantly at their art during the past two centuries, and they have produced hundreds of thousands of instruments which may now be termed old. Among all these, really fine old violins are rare. Modern Europe turns out annually probably one hundred thousand new violins, and among them all fine new instruments are equally rare.

Nine tenths of all the violins which have been made within the past one hundred years, and which are still being made, come from the neighborhood of Markneukirchen, or Mittenwald, in Germany, or Mirecourt, in France. One factory in the latter town sends out twenty thousand instruments a year. Most of these violins bear the same relation to the really fine instruments by good makers that chromos bear to the paintings of great artists. It is said that near Markneukirchen there are about thirty thousand people who are dependent on the violin industry, and the majority of the cheap violins come from there.

The question arises as to the kinds of violins made in America, and the answer is that, while a few instruments are made here, and they range in excellence from the toy violin whittled out of common wood with a jack-knife, by persons who have no knowledge of the art, up to the finest productions of modern times, yet these American-made violins are relatively few in number, and probably not two in five hundred of the instruments sold in this country were made here.

For a hundred years the self-taught American violin maker has been at work, but most of his productions have been but mediocre, and, so far as appearance goes, vastly inferior to the instruments produced in the great violin-making centres of Europe, where the traditions of the art have been transmitted through successive generations.

There have, however, settled in the United States many German and a few English violin makers, some of them men of the very highest ability, who have brought with them the best European traditions of the art of violin making. Two or three of these artists have produced some violins which have been pronounced by excellent judges to be unsurpassed by new instruments of any other modern makers.

In fact, it has been said more than once in London, that most critical of all centres of violin worship, that the best violins of modern times have been made in America. Certainly the prices received by their makers have been far higher than any foreign maker has been able to obtain, and that, too, in direct competition with the best of the European productions.

Unfortunately, not all the violins of even the best makers are of the same excellence as regards tonal qualities or beauty, and there is no single standard of value which may be placed on one man's instruments. One of the greatest of these makers received sums varying from one hundred to five hundred dollars for his instruments, and some of the highest priced ones quickly found their way over into Europe.

I have seen some of these American made instruments which even in their new state had tones that were really finer than most old violins of any but the very highest rank. Such violins are rare, however, but are to be had for the seeking—and a goodly, sum of money.

One thing which has been detrimental to the production of many fine violins in the United States is the fact that the good makers are good repairers of old instruments, and they are called upon to do so much of this latter work that they have to sandwich in the time, so to speak, to make new ones. Probably on the average not over two dozen really high-class American violins are made in a year, and in individual years some of our best makers do not complete a single instrument.

When one of these men has a violin in process of manufacture, the growth of that instrument is watched with eager eyes by a dozen musicians or amateur collectors, each begging to be allowed the first trial, and he is considered a lucky man who becomes the favored one. Nor do they always wait until the violin is completed; when it is still lacking the varnish, the strings are put on the instrument and its tone is tested, and an unusually fine quality of tone in this condition will call forth offers for the violin, even before it is seen what will be its final voice after the beautiful coloring has been applied.

In Europe there are many art connoisseurs who collect violins just as they collect paintings. Some such collections have been made in the United States. The best known of these are the Hawley collection, gathered by the late Mr. Hawley of Hartford, but purchased after his death by a Californian; and the collection of Mr. Sears of Boston. Mr. Hawley carefully guarded his treasures, but Mr. Sears pursues the generous policy of lending his violins to some of the numerous Boston musicians. Thus the instruments are kept in good playing order, and the musicians have the use of treasures which might be a long way beyond their purses.

In regard to the collecting of violins, at least in this country, I will say that it is much more sensible and far safer for the connoisseur to make a collection of the best instruments that he can find by our modern makers, and the identity of which can be established with certainty, rather than to accumulate the older treasures which command high prices and are of uncertain authenticity and value.

There are some modern violins which may be had at prices ranging from two hundred to five hundred dollars, which are equal in tone to any of the instruments which are in the market at five times these sums, and these are really the most satisfactory violins to be obtained for moderate outlays. We have the testimony of many eminent authorities on the violin that an instrument made of properly selected and seasoned old wood, will become about as good as it ever will be after twenty-five years' playing; so what is the use of paying high prices for the wear and tear of a century?

The general impression seems to prevail, and I think mainly due to the newspaper paragraphs on the subject, that really valuable violins may be picked up at small prices in the stores where they sell such instruments, or in out-of-the-way places. During some fifteen years' experience as a violin collector, I have never yet known of an instance, from personal knowledge, where a rare instrument has been obtained in this manner. Nearly all the violins that one sees are of the chromo type, and I would as soon think of finding a rare painting in a store where picture prints and chromos are for sale, as I would expect to find a rare old violin in the ordinary shop where fiddles are sold.

Frank Waldo, Ph. D.
In the Boston Herald.