The life, times, and travels of a remarkable instrument and the people who have made, sold, played, and cherished it. A 16-ounce package of polished wood, strings, and air, the violin is perhaps the most affordable, portable, and adaptable instrument ever created. As congenial to reels, ragas, Delta blues, and indie rock as it is to solo Bach and late Beethoven, it has been played standing or sitting, alone or in groups, in bars, churches, concert halls, lumber camps, even concentration camps, by pros and amateurs, adults and children, men and women, at virtually any latitude on any continent. Despite dogged attempts by musicologists worldwide to find its source, the violin’s origins remain maddeningly elusive. The instrument surfaced from nowhere in particular, in a world that Columbus had only recently left behind and Shakespeare had yet to put on paper. By the end of the violin’s first century, people were just discovering its possibilities. But it was already the instrument of choice for some of the greatest music ever composed by the end of its second. By the dawn of its fifth, it was established on five continents as an icon of globalization, modernization, and social mobility, an A-list trophy, and a potential capital gain. In The Violin, David Schoenbaum has combined the stories of its makers, dealers, and players into a global history of the past five centuries. From the earliest days, when violin makers acquired their craft from box makers, to Stradivari and the Golden Age of Cremona; Vuillaume and the Hills, who turned it into a global collectible; and incomparable performers from Paganini and Joachim to Heifetz and Oistrakh, Schoenbaum lays out the business, politics, and art of the world’s most versatile instrument.

An in depth study of the most superlative violin performers and teachers in history. The result of more than eleven years of deep investigation on the subject, this New History is by far the best available in the 21st century. It studies specifically the vibrato and its evolution. A study of the main violin schools of the world, with special emphasis in their evolution, and the direct conexión teacher-pupil. In the course of this history we will see how the great performers became, often, the great masters of new great violinists, who, in their turn, became the teachers of new superlative performers, and so on, in an uninterrupted chain of teacher-pupil intercommunication, the interrelation of whom is carefully studied, to higlight the evolution of the main violin playing schools. For each violinist we give a list of all the valuable instruments they owned and played, i.e. Stradivarius, Guarneri del Gesu, etc.. Such a complete and interesting information is not available in any other history. Contains a list of cassettes we have gathered for the better understanding of our players. Designed to be easily read by everyone, it has not complicated esoteric terms, but is written in plain words that everybody will understand. There is no need to be a professional musican to enjoy it. All you need to be is a music lover. But the main novelty is the sensational discovery of the real founder of the modern-vibrato violin school, with all kind of evidence, even written authentic letters that attest to it. This violinst is unknown in the present time. Contains very useful graphs of all the main schools, for an easy understanding of their evolution. Contains an encyclopaedia of all terms and names of the book that are not sufficently explained in it. Here the reader will be acquainted with the meaning of many musical terms that, although well know to musicians, are not so much known to others, who not being musicians, are, nevertheless, music lovers. But the encyclopaedia contains much more than that: men of letters, politicians, personalities, singers, pianists, composers, painters, etc. are duly explained in it. Done with loving care it sometimes surpasses its parent the book. Contains five sensational, unpublished, autographed letters by Kreisler, that will make readers tremble, plus the contentent of many other unpublished ones, by the most important musicians of the second half of the XIX century. Contains a series of very captivating collateral disquisitions on Modern abstract art; composer versus interpreter; the use of ornamentation; the easiness to reed music; Ingres and his violi; lisztomania and others. In a word, this "New history" is new because: It studies in depth the vibrato and its evolution. Links teachers to pupils, who become teacher in their turn, in a comprehensive general outlook of schools' evolution. It provides us with the list of all the valuable instruments of all our fiddlers. Contains a list of recommended cassettes, as musical examples. Easy to understand by every one, it avoids esoteric, pedantic terminology, and is written in plain laguage. It discovers, for the first time in history, the true founder of the vibrato, with all sort of evidence. With useful graphs of the main schools. Contains an encyclopaedia, which no other book of the genre has. The autographed unpublished letters of Kreisler will give the creeps to the reader. Contains a series of disquisitions on ornamentations; easiness to read music; composer versus interpreter; abstracat art; Ingres and his violin; Lisztomania and others, plus abundant, moving, anecdotes that distract and relax the attention of the reader.

In the early seventeenth century, enthusiasm for the violin swept across Europe--this was an instrument capable of bewitching virtuosity, with the power to express emotions in a way only before achieved with the human voice. With this new guide to the Baroque violin, and its close cousin, the Baroque viola, distinguished performer and pedagogue Walter Reiter puts this power into the hands of today's players. Through fifty lessons based on the Reiter's own highly-renowned course at The Royal Conservatory of the Hague, The Baroque Violin & Viola, Volume II provides a comprehensive exploration of the period's rich and varied repertoire. The lessons in Volume II cover the early seventeenth-century Italian sonata, music of the French Baroque, the Galant style, and the sonatas of composers like Schmelzer, Biber, and Bach. Practical exercises are integrated into each lesson, and accompanied by rich video demonstrations on the book's companion website. Brought to life by Reiter's deep insight into key repertoire based on a lifetime of playing and teaching, The Baroque Violin & Viola, Volume II: A Fifty-Lesson Course will enhance performances of professional and amateur musicians alike.

This classic guide offers an accessible initiation into the mysteries of violin-making. Charming in its style and cultivated in its research, it covers every detail of the process and includes a fascinating history of the instrument. More than 200 diagrams, engravings, and photographs complement the text.

Never before available in English, this classic work is a major contribution to the art and technique of violin playing and an important document in the history of performance practice. A contemporary of Kreutzer and Rode, Pierre Marie Francois de Sales Baillot provides in his treatise many insights into the style of nineteenth-century fingering, bowing, ornamentation, and expressiveness that are not apparent from the directions and markings found in scores of that time. Such information will be invaluable for performers interested in understanding the intentions of composers such as Viotti, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn. This complete, unabridged translation, which includes an extensive introduction by the translator, Louise Goldberg, and a foreword by Zvi Zeitlin, will be indispensable for musicologists, performers, and lovers of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century classical music.

HOW CHINA'S MOST CELEBRATED VIOLIN PRODIGY BECAME AN ENEMY OF STATE. The King of Violins is the heartbreaking story of China's most celebrated violin prodigy, Ma Sicong, who composed his first concerto at the age of 12. During his career, this gentle, dignified man composed 57 of the world's best-known symphonies and concertos and performed in front of hundreds of sold-out audiences across the globe. Chairman Mao Zedong declared Ma Sicong "a national treasure" and nicknamed him The King of Violins. Soon, Chairman Mao's brutal Cultural Revolution distorted the truth of Ma's life and work. He is forced to wear a dunce cap, and is publicly humiliated and physically abused by cadres of Red Guards as "a vile product of bourgeois thinking." Ma and his family make a breath-taking escape in the darkness to America. After Chairman Mao died in 1976, the real circumstances of Ma's poignant, bittersweet life were buried in the pages of history by an embarrassed Chinese government. Eleven years later, Ma died at the age of 76 in Philadelphia. The King of Violins, written in cooperation with all of Ma's remaining family members, and is the first politically balanced life story about this generous, conflicted musical genius. (Contains 89 rare vintage photographs).