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Scan 14
The violinist, 1900
15 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Modern Tendencies in Violin Playing
2BY ROBERT BRAINE
4The violin is pretty generally accorded the position of king of musical instruments and the king never had so many followers as he has at the present day. The demand for violin soloists, orchestra violinists and violin teachers has been on a rising scale for many years. Especially is this so in our own country. Theaters are going up all over the land, every city of importance either has or is planning to have its own symphony orchestra. Permanent houses for grand opera or plans for a season of grand opera are multiplying every year and countless musical projects are in process of formation.
6All this makes for the prosperity of the orchestra violinist, since the humblest theater must have its violinists. Oscar Hammerstein has just completed a magnificent Grand Opera house in London; the home for grand opera in Mexico City, just approaching completion, is one of the most beautiful in the world; many South American cities are building opera houses for grand opera; New York City will shortly abandon the Metropolitan Opera house, her present home of grand opera, and build a gorgeous structure which will rank with the world's greatest opera houses; Boston and Philadelphia have recently built splendid temples of grand opera; and similar projects are in the air in Chicago, San Francisco, St. Louis, and many other of the larger American cities. Those cities who have no permanent buildings for the housing of grand opera, have seasons of grand opera which increase in length every year.
8The importance of these grand opera schemes to the orchestral violinist will be apparent when it is remembered that for the production of grand opera on a large scale orchestras ranging from 50 to 100 men are necessary. Of this number at least a quarter would consist of violins, to say nothing of the violas, cellos and double basses.
10In the case of symphony orchestras, the old ones are growing and many new ones are being organized. New York City has several; Chicago, Boston, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Minneapolis have symphony orchestras of the first rank, and we find permanent orchestras of growing importance in a large number of cities in the United States, such as St. Louis, San Francisco, Denver, Los Angeles, St. Paul, Spokane Falls, Memphis and many others. The players in the larger symphony orchestras receive regular salaries averaging from $35 per week upwards for a season of five months or more, and as these orchestras range in size from 50 to 80 men, of which number a quarter or more are violinists, it will be seen that here alone is a large market for the services of the thoroughly equipped orchestral violinist. Theater and other orchestras furnish employment for thousands more.
12Maud Powell, the well known American violinist, estimates the average earnings yearly of the orchestral violinist at $2,000 per year, not a large income truly, but one comparing well with the earnings of the average doctor, lawyer or minister.
14The standard of ability required of an orchestral violinist is constantly rising. It is self-evident that only a thoroughly equipped violinist, with a well grounded technic, can hope to hold down a desk in a grand opera orchestra or a symphony orchestra, and even in the case of theater orchestras the standard of ability required has risen greatly even in the past ten or fifteen years. The private teachers and the conservatories of the world are turning out an ever increasing army of thoroughly competent violinists who are elbowing the old time half-educated violinists out of their positions. The youth of doubtful talent and only a smattering knowledge of his art now finds it practically impossible to obtain a paying engagement. Many professional orchestral violinists increase their incomes materially by learning wind instruments, which procures them band engagements,
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