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ENTIRE POPULATION OF TOWNS HELPS TO MANU FACTURE FIDDLES. FIFTEEN THOUSAND SAXONS ENGAGED IN WORK. Men, Women and Children of Markneukirchen and Another Colony in Alps Turn Out Thousands of Violins. Village industries, even in Europe, have all but died out, being unable to meet the competition of the wholesale manufac turing concerns of the cities. Here and there, however, there are a few which have survived, such as toy making in the Black Forest of Germany, where in some instances every man, woman and child in an entire community is engaged in making toys. Perhaps the most remarkable of these survivals is to be found in the vicinity of Markneukirchen in Saxony. This is the only place in the world where the manu facture of violins constitutes the entire industry of the town itself and its many surrounding villages. In the whole countryside the violin holds sway, and every family exists by its manufacture. Markneukirchen itself is a city of violins, and the Wealth of a family is estimated by the amount of food seasoned wood it possesses and the number of workers it can provide. Says the New York Sun. Altogether at least 15,000 people live by fiddle making. Markneukirchen and its clusters of picturesque Saxon villages were probably the earliest of all districts to establish violin making. You will find the instruments made today on the pat tern resolved upon at the end of the sixteenth century by the famous Antonio Stradivarius of Cremona. . A curious thing is that the Italian city now has little interest in violin making, being principally engaged in the more prosaic industries of porcelaina, silk and earthenware. At around about Markneu kirchen you will find ancient timbered farmhouses. but farming has long since ceased to interest. the population, en edged tools and gluepots have taken the place of harrow and plough. Hard Working People, Hard working, independent folk are the men always seen in these their coarse aprong and heavy weather boots, and the women bustling to and fro, striving to combine the treat and cleanly execution of household duties with the eternal violin making. Every homestead contains a pretty large family, for race suicide is welw in Saxony, and in many cases you will find three generations living under the same roof, so that the cottage will re semble a factory in miniature, so many laborers are there at work. But let it not be supposed that these villagers turn out cheap, low-class in struments. On the contrary, the wolimn that Paganini himself used was made entirely by one of the patriarchs of this district. And today aged peasants show visitors marvellous examples of their handiwork, some of them exquisitely be laid and hoarded up in the family, to be handed down as heirlooms. Some cl lections of these prized fiddles represent four or five generations of patient work ers. Quite apart from the rule that the bet ter the instrument the better the price, the system chaining by which hhe family produces and finishes the complete article instead of making some integral part, as in certain specialized industries, tends to give these peasants pride in their handiwork. Often enough the master worker will produce an instrument so cherished by himself that it will not be sold at any price, but put aside among the heirlooms to be parted with only in some season of dire stress. Primitive Tools. As might be supposed, the tools em ployed are primitive, yet nothing would induce these people to adopt any mma chinery. The work is split up among the members of a family; thus, one man will devote himself to making the pegs, an other to fashioning necks, a third to shaping the back and belly and a fourth to cutting the peculiar “f shaped sound ing holes in the belly. Others again give up, polish, varnish and finish the instru ments, performing every operation with scrupulous pride. When the warm weather comes this community of violin makers take their work out into the open air, so that 2 tour through that district would persuade you that all the violins on earth were produced in little Markneukirchen and its clustered villages. In cold and wet weather every room in the cottages is utilized for work. Some cottages have benches fitted up even in the bedrooms. From time to time as a batch of instru ments is finished they are packed up and taken into town for sale. It is a common enough sight to see villagers wending their way from outlying districts into Markneukirchen with canvas covered packages on their backs that often tower high above their heads. Some carry their violins in special wicker baskets, while those who have made ’cellos carry them openly, perhaps strung loosely together in twos or threes. A few families specialize in hows and , bring them into town in thousands. Some Large Factories. In the town itself there are some large factories for violin making, but never theless ready buyers are always found for the handmade productions of the peasants, for these are superior to the machine-made article. As might »be sup posed, prices vary enormously, from five marks to 500, according to quality. Many families have a reputation for earning out the very highest grade of violin, and buyery rarely or never haggle with such superb work-people. Thus Markneukirchen and her villages scatter their sweet toned instruments all over the world. More than once a specially expert fam ily has been approached with a view of taking an Amati or Stradivari, and on more than one occasion the villagers have yielded to temptation and gone about pa tiently baking and smoking the pine, maple and sycamore used in the bodies. All such copies, however, invariably fail to produce a tone equal to that of a genuine instrument. There is yet another colony of vision makers in Mittenwald, a corner of the eastern Alps, between southern Bavaria and northern Tyrol. The forests here are filled with subtle fragrance from the prostrate trees and rough hewn plants which are waiting for the delicate ma nipulation of the instrument makers. The very houses of Mittenwald are things of beauty, fashioned out of Alpine timbers, curiously and fantastically carved by village artists, who revel in beauty of form and tone. Above the vil lage towers the precipitous peak known as the Karwendelberg, whose almost per pendicular walls attain an altitude of 000 feet. Methods of the Masters. In the violin factories here the woods chiefly used are pine and “ahorn.’ The methods followed are those traditionally inherited from the old Italian masters. Violin ribs and sides are usually made out of the choicest maple, the back and belly being ordinarily of old and sound mountain pine. Maple strips for the side are immersed many times in boiling wa ter so as to render them pliable without being brittle, and they are then reduced to the proper shape by means of heated irons. Of course, no kind of metal awaif is ever used. Before the belly of the violin is fixed one of the most skilled of all the mechanics has to do his delicate part. This is to place in the precise spot, with infinite tact and caution the sound post, which is called in French “the heart of the violin,’ because throught all all the heart throbs or vibrations generated between back and belly. The most exquisitely sensitive item in the whole fabric, however, is the bass or sound bar, which is considered to be the very nerve of a violin. It is always of soft green pine, and plaved inside the upper table it passes at a Slight angle under the left end of the bridge.
Newspaper Details
Indianapolis Sun
Indianapolis, Indiana, US
Mon, Apr 08, 1907
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Matthias T.
DE 09 Sep 2026
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