Music meant something different to the Ancient Greeks than it means to us today. It was not simply sound or performance on an instrument; it was, in addition, an entire artistic collection of song, poetry, and dance. Music also sounded very different to the Ancient Greeks than it does today. Their system of organizing pitches, […]
A Violin by George Gemunder With Original Bill of Sale
Fall
The Arensberg Gemunder violin, complete with receipt from the firm of George Kappel, Pittsburgh, June 2, 1890 is a rare example of unbroken provenance for a fine art object. We can presume that the 1890 sale of this Gemunder in Pittsburgh was the first retail sale of this violin with a label dated 1889. How […]
A History of the Arensberg Family Reminiscences of Charles Frederick Covert Arensberg (1879-1974)
Fall
Conrad Frederick Covert Arensberg purchased a handsome Gemunder violin in the summer of 1890. It still remains in the possession of his family. As the history that follows indicates, the Arensbergs may not be a “typical American family,” but their history parallels that of many of the immigrant families in America, past, present, and hopefully […]
A Fine Addition: Stefano Scarampella by Eric Blot
Winter
Within the last few years a number of large-scale works on violin makers have been published, and so it may be with some surprise that a new study of the makers of the Scarampella family appears in a relatively “modest” 143-page publication. The unassuming title—Stefano Scarampella—belies a detailed and splendid review of the lives and […]
Hoax or Howler? Musical Analysis in Huxley’s Point Counter Point Examined
Winter
Chapter 37 of Aldous Huxley’s 1928 novel Point Counter Point contains an often quoted description of the slow movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet in A minor, op.132. Like Thomas Mann’s lyrical passage on the final movement and final measures of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata, op.111, Huxley invokes Beethoven’s music as a metaphor for larger thematic issues […]