Book review: Artistic Violins and Bows: The Music Region of Markneukirchen and Schönbach

Artistic Violins and Bows: The Music Region of Markneukirchen and Schönbach

Bruce Babbitt, Brandon Godman

208PP ISBN 9798218490065

Violin Society of America $175 

This major book is a record of an exhibited collection of violins, curated by Bruce Babbitt and Brandon Godman, held in Indianapolis from 17 to 22 November, during the Violin Society of America’s 50th convention. Babbitt is well known in the violin trade and this publication has brought together his profound study of the violins and violin bows produced in the 19th and 20th centuries by Markneukirchen and Schönbach luthiers. It covers 61 of the most notable, from Brückner through the Heberleins, Nürnberger and H.R. Pfretzschner to Franz Zucker.

He has illustrated the commercial realities and artistic sentiments that rendered the production of high-quality instruments a possibility. The historical violin trade in the so-called Musikwinkel, or music triangle of Saxony, is featured in article form, and its importance in the mass production of all kinds of musical instruments is covered in fine detail.

The book is divided into two sections, a table of contents and an alphabetical list of the illustrated instruments. These essential preliminaries and index are followed by examples of violins and bows, supported by four detailed and accurate articles in English, from Bruce Babbitt; Arian Sheets, curator of stringed instruments at the National Music Museum, Vermillion, SD; Gerald Pfretzschner of the famous musical instrument-making lineage; and Brandon Godman, musician, collector, dealer and luthier. These articles support the importance of the international trade in violins exemplified by this unique region of Germany. Its complexities and historical roots are explained from various angles, which help in the appraisal and appreciation of a usually neglected, but significantly important sector of the history of violin making.

The examples are illustrated by full-page colour plates of the standard three views of the instruments: front, back and scroll, with their original labels. The photos of the violins are by Nathan Tolzmann and the bows by the American bow maker Rodney Mohr. The book traces much of the development of the violins and bows to the relationship between the master luthiers, the German violin export companies and their foreign agents who organised the warehouses for the distribution of the violins, and the eventual relationships with the music merchants and the advertising. This aspect of the trade is illustrated by full-page colour photos of rare advertising ephemera.

The book also covers the history of the imitation of instruments of the great Italian makers, which began around 1866 and immediately gained great success with some instruments being misattributed as the real thing and realising high prices in foreign marketplaces. The production volume of the highest-quality instruments from the master makers of Markneukirchen is thought to have reached around 800 to 1,000 annually, and it is these master instruments and their correct identification that this book attempts to define. Until 1880 the violin, viola, cello and bass bows made in Markneukirchen workshops bore the brand stamps of the dealers who sold them. Later, the famous luthier families developed the trade, and stamped their bows with a personal brand. In addition, they inserted specially designed labelling.

Arian Sheets’s analysis of the Musikwinkel and the guild system of Markneukirchen with its Wanderschaft system is very clearly written and helps to explain the continuity of excellence of the German commercial model and the violins that it produced. This relationship between musicians and their Markneukirchen instruments is a subject that is nicely covered by Brandon Godman. The book contains a bibliography and other footnotes that enable those interested to research the complexities of the subject in further detail.

The book is completed by an index of pseudonyms of the Markneukirchen makers, without cross-references, and a pertinent bibliography of Vogtland violin making by Enrico Weller, both useful additions. This very appreciated publication brings into renewed focus the ancient familial relationships that were so fundamental in the production of fine violins in the area.

ANDREW DIPPER