| The violin has been, and still is, the most universal of | | | | adequate for the astonishing variety of roles they |
| stringed instruments. Let us take a moment to | | | | undertake. I have seen the gnarled, clumsy, horny |
| ponder its splendor. There are, of course, many | | | | fingers of Scottish bee keepers and sheep grazers |
| styles of violin playing and of violin music. The violin is | | | | playing Scottish reels, strathspeys, dances and lament |
| very suited to gypsies, that nomadic people who | | | | with never a faltering rhythm. In fact the rhythm of |
| express the wild way of life and knew the start of | | | | folk people, whether in Russia, Hungary or Scotland is |
| the night and every corner of the countryside, the | | | | superior to that of the urban, industrial, commercial |
| wild sounds of the birds and all the animals, their own | | | | civilization of Middle Class America and Western |
| yearnings and nostalgia. They are said to have come | | | | Europe. |
| from India. | | | | The violin is so flexible an instrument that it evolves |
| The violin is at home in the classical music of India, | | | | in each country according to that country's genius. It |
| having been adopted two centuries ago because it | | | | plays Tchaikovsky and the passionate virtuoso |
| was superior in perfection and flexibility to the bowed | | | | romantics if it is in Russian hands; it plays the 'bel |
| stringed instruments native to India. The violin is at | | | | canto' for an Italian; it plays the great musical |
| home on the moors of Scotland, on the plateau of | | | | literature of the classic German and Austrian heritage |
| Norway, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of America. The | | | | in those countries and, in fact, universally. And it was |
| violin is at home in each Russian, Polish and Rumanian | | | | the instrument for which Purcell and Dowland wrote |
| village, where it has always been accompanied the | | | | perhaps the most wonderful music of all. |
| dancing and the singing. | | | | So next time you pick up your treasured instrument |
| Violins have been made of every description, crude | | | | take a moment to daydream and consider its |
| and rough hewn, barely recognizable and yet quite | | | | wonderful place in the world. |
