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1 results

  • 8 - The Idea of the Violin

  • from Part II - The Conceptual Presence of Strings
  • Christina Bashford, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • Book:
    Violin Culture in Britain, 1870–1930
    Published online:
    13 September 2025
    Print publication:
    18 September 2025, pp 219-261
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  • Summary

    Chapter 8 examines the instruments of the violin family in the cultural imagination, addressing why they captivated so many people, what associations became attached to both the instrument and the person who handled it, and the underlying social currents those associations suggest. Two main topics are treated: the veneration around the instruments of Stradivari and others from the Cremonese School and the concomitant idealization of old artisanal craftsmanship; and how contemporary writers and illustrators sought to understand the instruments’ allure for players, especially women. The discussion assesses the idealization of old instruments in the context of industrialized violin making and broader social anxieties about the modernizing world. Building on scholarship about the gendering and sexualization of stringed instruments, the chapter also considers depictions of people’s responses to them through the lens of sensory and sensual perception, arguing that the prevalence of such material reflects attempts to make sense of the violin family’s powerful hold on British society.