Female violinists

[laurelgirl]

I have been looking and have as yet been unable to find solid evidence that women and girls were sometimes trained to play the violin- either in the classical style or to just play for dances or casual social events. If anyone has any information that they would be willing to share, I would be grateful!
Nancy Hogan

[Hank Trent]

Re: Female violinists

There was certainly prejudice against it, so examples are going to be exceptions.

Here's a link (hope it works) to a chapter talking about the reason women were discouraged from learning, from The Violin by George Dubourg, 1852:

http://books.google.com/books?output=html&id=7y0DAAAAQAAJ&dq=%22her+violin%22+date%3A0-1865&jtp=397

In this day of search engines, individual examples aren't hard to find. Try searching Google Books or Making of America for "her violin" or "her fiddle" or "female violinist" or "female fiddler," restricted to pre-1865. The harder part will be figuring out what other attributes typically went along with a female violinist, what type of person she would be, what type of community she'd come from, what context she'd play in, and what made her choose that instrument and stick to it against peer pressure, when she could have selected another instrument that her peers were learning and which would be considered expected and acceptable.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[laurelgirl]

Re: Female violinists

That is a very interesting book... and a great suggestion to look onto Google books. I do try and stay away from a lot of online searching because I don't know who's posting, becuase credentials are not necessary and the writers of the information are not held responsible by anyone.
Again, thank you for your input and the solid suggestion.

[eric marten]

Re: Female violinists

There seems to have been some prejudice against women and girls playing violin/fiddle in the nineteenth century. In one of the most thorough books on nineteenth century violin making and playing, "Violin Making: As It Was And Is", by Ed. Heron-Allen, published in London in 1885, there is included "an essay on the violin and its position as a musical instrument" On p. 12, " As regards the the former of these "signs of the times, " a writer in Casell's Family Magazine (1882) justly remarked a short time ago: "The rage for teaching girls the violin, which at present exists in England. is little more than a fashion, and, unless it is directed with more knowledge and care on the part of parents than most of them now show, it will die like one. And we are not quite clear that, if this care is withheld, a more suitable and salutary end could overtake it. A new terror would be added to society were every budding "Miss," no better instructed in the art than under the present regime she is likely to be, were permitted or required to compel the silence of the drawing room whilst she scraped out one of Bellini's airs with variations." This is quite true en bloc, but there is no doubt that even when the first rage consequent on the perfect technique of such lady-players as Normann-Neruda, Teresina Tua, de Pommereul, and other well-known violinistes, has cooled down, the ladies who continue to play the violin will raise (as I have said before) the name of "Amatuer Violinist" from the slough of despond in which it is at present sunk; for it is obvious that the greater perseverence, delicacy, and spirit of emulation, of the fair sex, to say nothing of the greater time at their disposal, must soon raise them far beyond the standard attained by nineteen out of every twenty male bipeds who "play the fiddle a little, you know."
Please bear in mind, this book was published twenty four years after the beginning of the Civil War, and published in England, but much of it would apply to America as well. Incidentally, this is probably THE best source of information about violin playing, fiddling, and violin making in the nineteenth century that I know of. It includes twelve pages on gut string manufacturing, and a discussion of the "new" addition to the violin, the chin rest. By the way, this addition did not catch on in North America until much later, but that is another subject entirely.

Eric Marten
Franklin Square, N.Y.

[Gary of CA]

Re: Female violinists

In Colonial times, women were not suppose to raise their forearms or elbows as these parts of the anatomy were considered ugly. Thus, the violin or flute was not an instrument a girl or woman would play. The harpsicord and later piano were more appropriate. When the elbow thing fell out of favor is unknown to me, but thank God it did.

[eric marten]

Re: Female violinists

By the middle of the nineteenth century, (in the northeast, at least), flute was considered appropriate for women, but still not the fiddle. Curiously, the 'cello was ok, for light classical and salon music, despite the position in which it was held. Formal violin, and folk fiddling, was still considered somewhat scandalous for women and girls in the 1850's - 1860's. Guitar was also ok, but rare. Guitar (smaller than the modern one) was fine for accompanying parlor singing, though the piano was more popular, but generally not used to accompany dance fiddle tunes. The guitar moved into this genre (accompanying fiddle tunes), around the turn of the twentieth century, around the same time that the keys of F and Bflat were replaced by the sharp keys of G, D, and A on many fiddle tunes to accomodate guitar playing, but again, this was long after the Civil War period.

Eric Marten