estebanana -> RE: Is Manuel Reyes Sr. overrated? (Mar. 8 2017 5:28:15)
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Many reasons. For one the Western concept of an ensemble for classical music is centered around the bowed string section, this concept has been in play for a few hundred years. Prior to the orchestral ensemble when the violin family, really beginning with the viola in Italy, was being formed in the early 16th century, the viola then the violin became important to accompany choirs. Around 1525 the first viola and violins begin to appear, some in Brescia and in Cremona, at roughly the same time. The call for building them accelerated as churches and royal courts required them for the music that choir directors and court composers were writing. The industry began nearly 500 years ago, coming up in 2025 ish. The demand for violins, celli and viola became so great that soon Cremona evolved as a great center for the industry, along with other Italian cities. The development of a system of standards and apprenticeship also evolved. The other enterprise than that began to evolve was the secondary violin market. The guitar secondary market which sets prices via dealer offer and auction after the primary price set by the maker is perhaps only a hundred years old or less in its capacity to be self sustaining. In other words, guitar dealing is much younger business than violin dealing. Prominent dealers for worldwide trade did not really set up shop until the 1950's. Contrast that with violin speculators who scoured Italy for violins made by the masters of the Cremona tradition. The collectors of Italian violins saw a need to collect and preserve these instruments and made trips through Italy at the end of the so called Golden Era of the Cremonese industry. The Cremona golden era lasted 200 years, between roughly the 1560s and the 1760s, after that the situation changed and violin making moved to other European city centers. By 1780 there were collectors and dealers who were vying for the instruments of Strativari, the Guarneri family, the smaller independent masters like Bergonzi, Serafin, and casting an eye towards the great cello makers of Venice Gofriller and Montagnana. There was already a 200 year old tradition of makers setting the prices in the primary market direct from the makers the likes of collectors like Count Cozio and Tarisio who championed the great Italian makers now in the late 18th and early 19th century resold these high value instruments in a secondary market thus creating the first set of secondary market prices for violins. Later dealers in London and Paris acquired these rare instruments and then resold them into the 19th century market, often times one dealer brokering the same violin over and over as one customer returned it to pick up another violin to trade up. A Paris dealer named Vulliaume claimed to have sold the same Strad five or six times, and he no doubt raised the price each time. After Mr. V there came the Hill Family of London. The Hill family examined and wrote books about the Guarneri's, Stradivari, Maggini, and several other makers, including the famed Guarneri del Gesu. That scholarship elevated the prices even more as the Hills published book after book on the Italians. Later in the 20th century other books about the complete history including the French, German, Czech, English, Dutch etc maker came to be published. As these compendiums rounded out the catalogs on schools an individual makers the prices of those instruments rose. The complex answer to why violins cost more than guitars is predicated on many factors: Violin making is a much older industry as a mature art form, importance of the violin family and it's central musical role within the entire canon of Western music, the much older and better researched secondary market,. Violins have risen in price over the centuries, and the most rare from the top Cremonese makers have entered the commodities market. Top old Italian violins are also place holders for money, they become investment pieces. There will be no more Sanctus Serafin violins made and no more Strad violas made, not more Gofriller celli, therefore the rarity increases and the value is driven up by further auctions sales of these works, these objects as commodities. The top violins have left the realm of being affordable to top musicians mostly, and are purchased by banks, music foundations to be loaned to players, or bought by pure value speculators who have no interest in music whatsoever and store the instrument in a safe like an expensive diamond or moon rock. Violins today in the top tier have left the secondary instrument market and have entered the investment market. Pretty depressing until you think that you can get a good guitar for $5000.00 and it will last a lifetime and appreciate in value if you buy well in the primary market. If not your guitar will still outlast every car you will ever own, and probably see you through every break up, and marriage that ends. So money well spent when you consider how much cars, homes, lawyers and therapists cost. I encourage you all to buy a guitar from an independent guitar maker!
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