Early challenges

In the early 19th century, New England violin makers inherited the quirks of style and construction methods used by Yankee Church Bass makers. There was no violin-making tradition this side of the Atlantic to guide an aspiring American violin maker in the production of instruments suitable for playing classical music.

Church basses, sometimes called Yankee bass viols, primitively approximate European instruments the size of a double bass or cello. “Yankee ingenuity” inspired many variations in size, proportions, materials, and construction methods. Bass size instruments often had only three strings, whereas  smaller instruments may have up to five. Most church bass construction methods are similar to low quality factory violins exported from Clingenthal Germany in the late 1700’s. This suggests that inexpensive violins were a source of inspiration for Yankee church bass makers. (Everything from Europe was imported via sailing ship. Bass and cello sized instruments were not cost effective use of cargo space, hence violins made the crossing.)

Church basses served a purpose

Massachusetts was founded in the Puritan religious ethic.  In Puritan society, devotional music was the only acceptable form of musical expression. .Church basses are so named because they played somber low notes to accompany choir and congregational singing.  They were never intended to play classical music.  Fiddlers who played sprightly dance tunes blasphemously played the “devils box.”

European violins were designed to be suitable for the needs of classically trained performing artists. Italian master violins made in the 17th and 18th centuries are generally regarded as the finest ever made. They are the standard to which all violins are compared. The size, proportions, impeccable artistry, and acoustic qualities of these master violins were the product of centuries of effort to perfect the instrument. Royalty and the Church substantially patronized violin makers which fostered the development of the instrument and the industry.  Early American violin makers lacked these distinct advantages.

Although early Massachusetts violin makers were hindered by church bass concepts,  Massachusetts was never the less on the cutting edge of early American violin making by the confluence of three important factors.

Self-taught American violin makers were not limited by their skill, rather they were limited by the instrument concepts that directed their artistry. Seeing a fine violin was a shortcut to critical understanding of what needed to be done. There was no need to re-invent the wheel.

In the late 1830’s Ira White a began a career making violins in Boston. Ira had the good fortune of studying a Stradivarius and perhaps another Italian violin owned by Belgian virtuoso Alexander Artot who performed in Boston in 1843. This set Ira firmly on the path of fine violin making and distinguished his work from other violin makers still using the Yankee Church Bass as a conceptual  model.

Moving in the right direction

Ira formed a partnership with his brother, Asa. Asa became a fine violin maker who taught several apprentices, and so on. As other self-taught violin makers entered the trade, they studied the instruments made by those who came before them. As the quality of the instruments in circulation improved, so did the violins made by self taught violin makers. By this process, fine professional violin making gained a foothold in America. The rise of the American school in Massachusetts validates the process by which all "schools" of violin making were uplifted throughout the world; access to master made Italian instruments.

Massachusetts has a wonderful heritage in violin making with over 275 violin makers recorded in the period 1830-1930 (of this number, some were professional violin makers, but most remained amateur). To date,  only one woman is known to have made a violin during this period. Most Massachusetts violin makers entered the trade by transferring skills mastered through years of professional experience in cabinet making, pattern making, tool making, gun making, clock making or shoe making, etc.  The traditional division of responsibilities between genders which emphasized domestic skills for women precluded them from entering the trade of violin making.

Violins made in Massachusetts are distinctively American because the profession was established by self-taught individuals using original models, local woods, and unique construction details. By contrast, violin makers who established the trade in New York were trained European violin makers who simply re-established their workshops after immigration to the US. Naturally the style of these “New York school” instruments is rooted in European traditions. Regardless of the “school,” an American violin is considered American if it was constructed here.

Ira White pioneered fine professional violin making in Boston in the 1840’s. Professional violin making in the Pioneer Valley began in the 1880’s, delayed in part by the Civil War.