The Violin: A Social History of the World's Most Versatile Instrument

by David Schoenbaum

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. 16 pages of illustrations

Genres: Music, History, Nonfiction

736 pages, Hardcover

First published December 10, 2012

About the author

David Schoenbaum, a professional historian and lifelong amateur violinist, has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Economist, and many other publications. His previous books include Hitler’s Social Revolution and The United States and the State of Israel.

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful book and rather fascinating.

[Jb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very complete and full of anecdotes which makes it super dry for the first half at least.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shoenbaum's 'The Violin' is a fine reference work, and fills a much-needed gap in the available violin literature. The author presents the book as a collection of four sections, which is structurally agreeable, but causes him to have to scrounge for material to keep the sections of roughly even length.

The true weak spot in this work is the last book: "Imagining It" which consists of plot summaries of books which involve violins, snippets of poetry with the word "violin" in it, and movie plots. Worst of all, there is an entire chapter where he simply describes paintings which have a violin in them, without providing any pictures to actually look at. My advice to readers would be to simply skip the last section.

Additionally, I see a little lazy editing in the author's tendency to re0use words or phrases. He used the same paraphrase of Tolstoy at least twice in the book.

Despite all this, the book is worth the read for the serious violin buff, and I'm glad I read it. I just wish I hadn't wasted my time on the last section.

[Marcus · Rating 3 out of 5]

A chitty-chatty, name dropping, Eurocentric compilation of factoids that are interesting but very disjunct in total presentation.

[Becky L Long · Rating 3 out of 5]

audiobook. very reluctant 3 stars. the only reason it's a 3 instead of 2 is the 25% of the incredibly useful and fascinating information ..... the other 75% should have been left on the culling floor. the other issue I have is that i couldn't figure out who the target audience was or many even if it was meant to be a text book for a music history class? the organization was terrible and made the material even more confusing. I felt like the reader already needed to know all the main players in the book to be able to follow the text. I don't normally have that problem.
I was absolutely not interested in the middle 50% of this book which can basically be summed up: “how much money are people willing to pay/ be scammed out of on old technology”. book took forever to slog through. only for those that need to learn violin and violinist history and can't seem to find any other sources. the narrator was at least tolerable and not distracting.

[F.P. Dorchak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating history of arguably the hardest musical instrument to play. Gives a wide and varied spectrum of all-things violin, from it's earliest known history to present day players. I read this to gain an understanding of the instrument I was beginning to learn.

[Steven Pennebaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting but I had to resort to skimming in the end - there's a limit to how much I really wanted to know...

[Shaitanah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too focused on the finances for my taste, but overall, an interesting book. Just not my cup of tea really.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exhaustingly comprehensive work on the entire history of the violin, from the Amati family to the present. As I violinist, I loved it. Not sure how non-musicians (or non violinists) would react.

[Margaret Mehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the English version when it came out, so I have only sampled parts of this edition. I think it reads very well. And the book fills a gap in the world of German-language publications about the violin just as much as it does in the English-language literature.

[Brent Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a technical source, this book hits all the high points and many anecdotal details in the 500+ years-long story of the instrument's development and use. Useful for its references; enjoyably comprehensive; stylistically engaging and ambitious . . .

[Geir Ruud · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic book, with a combination of fantastic stories and information overload. Will be great to keep as a reference book for the future.

[Ronan O'Driscoll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overly focused on Europe and the classical tradition. Some gems of stories and tales but could have done with more judicious editing.

[Denhi Ekiaka · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an interesting book.... it's just too long...