The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-30
Ransacking Old Buildings.

AtloDdABs
 Ransackine Old Buildings. There are traditions, too. of search among buildings of the older cities for the well seasoned spruce timbers that made some of the American yiolins of the nineteenth century almost the equals of those of the great Italians. You hear of a famous maker in New York who used | to buy up old rafters and beams when l ever an ancient structure was razed. some of his finest creations being made from wood taken from St. aMtthew's church | at the corner of Broadway and Houston streets, deiL Lolished now more than forty l years aao.
 American literature as we all know, | is full of stories of the peaceful ne'er- do-wels whose delight in extracting di- ! vine harmony from the fiddle prevented l their getting ahead in the world Even l to this day it is rare rural community 1 in which some genius of the bow, 'pind- l ling' perhaps, and not much goods at farm work, can be relied upon to keep l the light fantastic tripping fopthe bene- { fit of all the young folks far into the | small hours of the morning.
 Proficiency with the violin was &C.,
 quired in the good old American way, | by few hints and helps which the as- l pirant who is naturally gifted picked up without much difficulty. Then came
 a few evenings of practice at actual | dance or concert. The beginner made mis- takes but who cared? At least with the
 help of his older compatrot, he got into the swing of the simple dance music. A short round of entertainments, supple mented by constant practice in the barn
 or the chicken coop, made. him local expert, frequently called upon to officiate at country dances for miles around. And now the day of fashionable Adding has returned. The instruments has again be- 1 come a favorite for amateurs as well
 as professionals. We have with us. some | times to our regret, the girl violinist. Most, however, are well trained, if wise to present-day musical opportunities. ! In the schools the candidate for a violin | ists career has to embrace specialties that | the simple fiddler of the bacxwoods never dreamed of-mathematical studies of har- mony and analysis, physical exercise to develop those muscles which are most needed in lowing a violin, ceaseless sight ] playing, analytical studies of concertos | by Spohr. Paganini. Mendelssohn, Bruch. ! Saint-Saens and Beethoven. Before start ing in at all upon the manipulation of so | difficult instrument he must at least ] have a knowledge of rudimentary musi- cal matters. It is long and arduous course which the candidate for teaching the violin or for performance on the con | cert hall stage or in the theatrical or i chestra must undergo.
 Practical Work Wanted. Yet in. it's crowninG feature it is not so unlike in one way the training of the rustic fiddler. The thory of the thing is to get the player into actual prac- tical work as quickly as possible-just | as the country lad who has learned to ! scrape few tunes is encouraged on the first opportunity to render music suitable | for
 "waItzes, polkas, lanc;ers, galops'
 wjoNnolynof HawtGshrdluetaoinshr
 Portland fancies, reels quadrilles
 and slides"
 and all the rest of the popular dance repertoire.
 In the same way it is of advantage to | the serious student of the violin of whichever sex to find his way as soon as may be into a full-sized modern or chesttra. Women students as well as men are found among the violins of such an orchestra as that maintained by the New i En gland Conservatory of Music as an es- sertial part of it's instruction in instru- | mentation, and the only one of it's kind among American music schools. The girls, as do the young men, acquire professional efficiency as a result of the training, as may be noted from the work of those graduates of this particular orchestra who are now playing in some of the leading womens orchestras
 Particularly for the devotees of the violin, though of course all the familiar instruments are included, the advan- tages of performance in an orchestra, coached by performers of the Boston Symphony the first musical organization of it's kind in the world, have become very apparent to the school management, and all advanced pupils in the violin are required to attend the rehearsals reg .1... snI1r all the conditions of professional prac- tice. Members of the Symphony play among the amateurs and speed up' all the performances. Jordan Hall, the gift of Eben D. Jordan, with it's fine concert or gan and spacious stage, specially adapt ed to orchestral and choral concerts gives a setting to make the violin learn CT In a rural community envious indeed The interpretation of works of classical and modern music goes on under the di- rection of so eminent a composer as George w. Chadwick, director of the Con servatory, and author of the opera "Ju- dith" and many other works.
 Appreciation Increasing.
 Amidst such possibilities of instruction for prospective violin players, and midst the remarkable concert and or chestral work of the American music sea- son in all our larger and some of our smaller cities, 1t is not strange that American appreciation of the finest of in- struments is steadily increasing. Withal it Is good to know, the supply of excel lent vioins is likewise on the increase. One of the best known of New York manufacturers has recently declared that it is a mistake to suppose that expert knowledge of the making of the instru- ment died cut with the school of Gre mona. Some people have an idea that some mysterious elements went into the making of violins in Italy during the