Violin Culture in Britain, 1870-1930: Music-making, Society, and the Popularity of Stringed Instruments
Interweaving a social history of string playing with a collective biography of its participants, this book identifies and maps the rapid nationwide development of activities around the violin family in Britain from the 1870s to about 1930. Highlighting the spread of string playing among thousands of people previously excluded from taking up a stringed instrument, it shows how an infrastructure for violin culture coalesced through an expanding violin trade, influential educational initiatives, growing concert life, new string repertoire, and the nascent entertainment and catering industries. Christina Bashford draws a freshly broad picture of string playing and its popularity, emphasizing grassroots activities, amateurs' pursuits, and everyday work in the profession's underbelly—an approach that allows many long-ignored lives to be recognized and untold stories heard. The book also explores the allure of stringed instruments, especially the violin, in Britain, analyzing and contextualizing how the instruments and their players, makers, and collectors were depicted and understood.
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Violin Culture in Britain, 1870-1930: Music-making, Society, and the Popularity of Stringed Instruments
Interweaving a social history of string playing with a collective biography of its participants, this book identifies and maps the rapid nationwide development of activities around the violin family in Britain from the 1870s to about 1930. Highlighting the spread of string playing among thousands of people previously excluded from taking up a stringed instrument, it shows how an infrastructure for violin culture coalesced through an expanding violin trade, influential educational initiatives, growing concert life, new string repertoire, and the nascent entertainment and catering industries. Christina Bashford draws a freshly broad picture of string playing and its popularity, emphasizing grassroots activities, amateurs' pursuits, and everyday work in the profession's underbelly—an approach that allows many long-ignored lives to be recognized and untold stories heard. The book also explores the allure of stringed instruments, especially the violin, in Britain, analyzing and contextualizing how the instruments and their players, makers, and collectors were depicted and understood.
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Violin Culture in Britain, 1870-1930: Music-making, Society, and the Popularity of Stringed Instruments

Violin Culture in Britain, 1870-1930: Music-making, Society, and the Popularity of Stringed Instruments

by Christina Bashford
Violin Culture in Britain, 1870-1930: Music-making, Society, and the Popularity of Stringed Instruments
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Violin Culture in Britain, 1870-1930: Music-making, Society, and the Popularity of Stringed Instruments

Violin Culture in Britain, 1870-1930: Music-making, Society, and the Popularity of Stringed Instruments

by Christina Bashford

Overview

Interweaving a social history of string playing with a collective biography of its participants, this book identifies and maps the rapid nationwide development of activities around the violin family in Britain from the 1870s to about 1930. Highlighting the spread of string playing among thousands of people previously excluded from taking up a stringed instrument, it shows how an infrastructure for violin culture coalesced through an expanding violin trade, influential educational initiatives, growing concert life, new string repertoire, and the nascent entertainment and catering industries. Christina Bashford draws a freshly broad picture of string playing and its popularity, emphasizing grassroots activities, amateurs' pursuits, and everyday work in the profession's underbelly—an approach that allows many long-ignored lives to be recognized and untold stories heard. The book also explores the allure of stringed instruments, especially the violin, in Britain, analyzing and contextualizing how the instruments and their players, makers, and collectors were depicted and understood.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781108842877
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication date: 09/18/2025
Pages: 354
Product dimensions: 6.50(w) x 1.50(h) x 9.50(d)

About the Author

Christina Bashford is Professor of Musicology at the School of Music, University of Illinois. She has published extensively on string quartets and chamber music concerts in Britain and is author of The Pursuit of High Culture: John Ella and Chamber Music in Victorian London (2007).

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Growth of a culture; Part I. People and Practicalities: 2. Starting out: equipment and instruction; 3. Moving along: learning and attainment; 4. Advanced training; 5. Worlds of work; 6. Playing together (1): 'Chamber' music; 7. Playing together (2): Amateur orchestras; Part II. The Conceptual Presence of Strings: 8. The Idea of the violin: associations and allure; 9. Sounding the nation(s); Conclusion.
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