What follows are deliberations concerning the history of professional lutherie rooted in European musical heritage, although, obviously, this art, stemming as it has from handicraft, has its origins in folk instrument making practiced around the globe for centuries by musicians and local artisans.

A definition

“Lutherie is the art of making necked string instruments, mainly the violin and its closest relations: violas, cellos and double basses. In the 15th century the term was used to refer to making lutes, yet, as luthiers gradually took to making violins around the 16th century, it lost its original connotation. Lutherie is considered an art because the sound and appearance of an instrument produced by a luthier depend not only on the maker’s expertise but also their talent and artistic sensitivity, which are qualities whose lack cannot be compensated by any amount of theoretical calculations and acoustic measurements.”¹ This is how lutherie was defined in Polish Encyclopedia muzyki (Encyclopaedia of Music) released by Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN (formerly Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe) in 1995. Other contemporary definitions of lutherie ring the same bell, emphasising the trade’s connection with necked instruments and its artistic aspect². Still, the definitions can hardly be called precise or comprehensive. Going a bit farther is a definition offered in Polska sztuka lutnicza 1954–2004 (The Polish art of lutherie 1954–2004), which reads: “In the broad, historical sense, the term ‘lutherie’ denotes the practice of making necked string instruments, harps and zithers, be they professional or folk, from musical bow to violin.”³

Considering how difficult it is to define the scope and object of lutherie it comes as little surprise that many studies – both Polish⁴ and international – do not provide such a definition at all. This includes the latest edition of the world’s largest dictionary of musical instruments, which provides only a short entry defining “a luthier as a maker of necked string instruments, and stating that the name was borrowed from French, where it means lute maker.”⁵ This again is rather misleading as in Old French the term most probably denoted an instrument maker and musical instruments in general. In the famous 18^th-century encyclopaedia by Denis Diderot⁶ all figures depicting musical instruments (not their makers) are captioned A luthier or (more often) Lutherie. The former may mean instruments, while the latter an instrument making workshop (or shop). Figure Pl. XI’III, nowadays most often described as a luthier’s workshop, is captioned Lutherie, Ouvrages et Outils and depicts a workshop where different instruments are made along with the tools used in the process (below). The people depicted in the figure are actually busy working on necked string instruments (by the table on the right-hand side you can see a man probably cutting out sound holes in the soundboard) and harps, which are the most numerous instruments in the room, but a careful observer will also notice woodwind and brass instruments as well as the organ in the top right-hand corner. Consequently, the caption should not be understood as “A luthier’s workshop, its products and tools” but “An instrument workshop its products and tools”.

Polish is the only language in which the word denoting the luthier profession (“lutnik”) derives directly from the word for lute (“lutnia”). In Western languages, the term “luthier” has appeared only recently (through French) and for a good reason. It marks what could be described as a comeback of an older, and broader, understanding of “luthier instruments”. The term denotes necked string instruments (either bowed, like the violin, or plucked, like the guitar) as well as other stringed instruments, namely lyres, harps and zithers, such as those shown in the third row of a well-known etching by Daniel Chodowiecki of 1774 (no. 19–26)⁷ and described as: classical lyre, violin, cello, double bass, zither, lute, harp, and arpanetta. Classical lyres, such as ones used in ancient Greece, Egypt, etc., had strings stretched parallelly to the sound box from its lower end to a crossbar (yoke) connecting two arms at their ends. Today, classical lyres mainly serve as theatrical props, although they are still used by folk musicians in Africa and Asia⁸. Harps, on the other hand, have strings stretched perpendicularly between the sound box and the neck. They are used to this day in both classical and folk music around the globe. Finally, zithers⁹ have strings running in a parallel manner along the entire sound box. The predecessors of the well-known 19^th-century concert, or chord, zithers, particularly popular in German-speaking countries, were rectangular or trapezoid psalteries used in classical antiquity, followed by arpanettas and other instruments. Zithers are among the most popular folk instruments around the world. Listed alongside lyres, harps and zithers, in the contemporary classification of instruments¹⁰ are lutes, or necked string instruments, which are currently the main type of instruments produced by luthiers (although this is not where the name of the profession comes from either). Lutes have a distinctive sound box and neck, with strings running along the neck (which makes it possible to stop them by pressing against the fretboard) and in a plane parallel to the soundboard.

What emerges from these considerations is a more precise, if brief, definition of lutherie as an art of making stringed instruments with a sound box, that is lutes, lyres, harps and zithers, as sound box is an integral part of these instruments’ construction. The sound box is a chamber constructed so that all of its walls could vibrate together with the strings. The walls are naturally springy or appropriately tightened and by vibrating enhance the sound produced by the instrument. The clavichord, harpsichord and piano, which are too, for some surprisingly, considered stringed instruments, do not have a sound box but a soundboard. A piano’s body, for example, is in place mostly to bring the whole construction together.

The violin family

The instruments of the violin family (the violin, viola, cello, and double bass), which today are the core of luthier production, had been developing for a relatively long time. Their great-grandparents were instruments of the ancient Far and Middle East, their grandparents – the fiddle, rebec and bowed lyres used to this day by folk musicians across the globe, while their parents are undoubtedly viols and bowed lyres, which is clear to see when you look at figures XX–XXI from M. Praetorius’s early 17th-century theoretic treatise¹¹. Figure XX shows the contrast between the characteristic shapes of violas and that of the bowed lyre pictured under number 5. Figure XXI depicts a few types of historical violins (nos. 3–6) which take their necks and heads after viols and the shape of their body and f-holes after lyres. Present-day violins first developed in the mid-16^th century. Back then three varieties could be distinguished: the descant (or soprano) violin, the tenor violin (viola) and the bass violin (cello). Originally they had three strings, then a fourth one was added. They had a characteristic scroll carved at the end of the neck.¹²

The iconographic resources available indicate that originally the name “violin” could have been used to refer to bowed instruments in general, not only those belonging to the violin family. The etching by Jost Amman from the mid-16th century titled Drey Geiger, which translates as “Three violin players”¹³, depicts three instruments the size of the violin, the cello (held by the sitting musician) and the double bass, presumably all from the viol family (as demonstrated by the form of their corpus, sound holes in the shape of the letter C, and frets on the necks of the larger instruments). A poem featured in another now popular etching by Amman from the same work titled Der Lautenmacher, which translates as “Luthier”, praises lutes made by the artisan and ends with the statement: ”Auch mach ich Geigen und Quintern” (I also make violins and quintern).¹⁴ The illustration clearly shows that the maker specialises in lutes: there is only one bowed instrument hanging on the wall and it seems to be a viol, judging by the profile of the top and back plates and C-shaped sound holes.

Other iconographic materials suggest furthermore that the word “violin” signified the viol at the time, calling into question the once popular theory which held that the violin had Polish roots based on the fact that the term “Polnische Geige”, or Polish violin, was used in the famous 16^th- and 17^th-century theoretical treatises by Martin Agricola¹⁵ and Michael Praetorius¹⁶. Unfortunately, we do not know what made the Polish variety different from other types of the instrument, nor can we ascertain that it was the prototype of the modern variety. The instrument’s development should be first and foremost credited to Italian lutherie centres (also called schools). One of them was founded by Gasparo da Salò (1540–1609) and his student Giovani Paolo Maggini (c.1580–c.1630) in Brescia. However, Cremona soon took over thanks to the efforts of Andrea Amati (c.1505–1577), his sons Antonio (c.1540–1607) and Girolamo (c.1561–1630), and grandson Nicola (1596–1684), whose students were Antonio Stradivari (c.1644–1737), Andrea Guarneri (1626–1698), founder of another local dynasty of violin makers, and Giovanni Battista Rogeri (c.1642– c.1710). Their violins had shorter necks then contemporary instruments. What is more, the neck ran in a plane perpendicular to the body and had a shorter fingerboard, which was later modified to make it possible to play in high positions and extend the instrument’s range to include higher pitches. Bows were arched at the time, yet evolved subsequently into straight ones, to finally attain the concave shape we know today.

European violin making in the baroque and the classical period

Other European lutherie centres also contributed to the development of the violin family. Soon their representatives were all intermingling, as it was customary for craftsmen and musicians to travel across Europe almost without restriction. (Journeymen, for example, were obliged to set out on travel for several years to train and work under several master craftsmen in different countries.) There are records of lutherie centres operating in France already in the 16^th century, e.g. in Paris, Mirecourt, Nancy or Lyon. The same processes were in place in Germany, England and Poland, although it remains unclear whether in those early days these centres were producing violins as well as viols. There are also records of a few luthiers operating in Gdańsk in the 16^th century. In the following century national lutherie centres developed, focusing mainly on violin production. One notable example is the Tyrolean school started by Jacob Stainer (1617–1683) from Absam near Innsbruck; the German school located in Mittenwald, Bavaria; the French school led by Francois Lupot (1720–1750) and Francois Médard (1680–1720); and the Polish school headed by Jan Dankwart (?–1663) and Marcin Groblicz (c.1674–1745), about which you may read a separate article on this website.

In Gdańsk more than 36 luthiers operated in the 17^th century. In the 18^th century the number dropped to 24 after the city was hit by a major epidemic of plague in 1709, with many luthiers being reported dead among the tens of thousands affected by the disease.¹⁷ Gdańsk archives hold a plan of an arrangement of stands at the Dominican Fair c.1700, with a dozen stands reserved exclusively for luthiers and tanners.¹⁸ The famous “Gdańsk violins” mentioned in a range of music inventories found across the Polish territories were undoubtedly produced in the city.¹⁹ The 18^th century also saw the last bout of rivalry between the viol and violin families over supremacy within the group of bowed instruments. As for plucked instruments, it was the last period when different sizes of lutes and citterns were used before they were replaced by their younger relative, the guitar, in the following century. Luthiers were called differently depending on their specialisation. In Gdańsk archives from the 17^th-century one may find such terms as “Fiedelmacher” (fiddle maker), while 17^th- and 18^th documents mention such professions as “Lautenmacher” (lute maker), “Violmacher” (viol maker) and “Violinmacher” (violin maker).²⁰ Of all trades associated with lutherie, the 16^th-century Book of Trades by Hans Sachs illustrated by Swiss-German woodcut artist Jost Amman only lists the luthier and bronze founder.²¹ In the following centuries violin makers came to the fore, although they were still called luthiers in Polish.

The 18^th century saw the beginning of stagnation in the art of lutherie, with no significant improvements being introduced in instrument construction. Most luthiers followed Italian models, with French masters, such as Nicolas Lupot (1758–1824) and Jean Baptista Vuillaime (1798–1875), excelling at that in particular. One new development was the implementation of the domestic system into instrument making. Under the system, different workshops (usually family-owned) would manufacture different instrument parts, while other workshops would assemble them to produce the final product. The system was probably used in Gdańsk, the German towns of Klingenthal and Markneukirchen, the Czech town of Kraslice, the Polish village of Kolbuszowa, across Lower Silesia (e.g. in Hermansdorf Kynast, now: Sobieszów near Jelenia Góra, or Schreiberhau, now: Szklarska Poręba),²² and elsewhere in Europe. The trend continued into the 19^th century, when domestic system organisations operated outside the guild system, thriving in particular in the German lands thanks to an almost insatiable demand from North America. Soon the domestic system evolved into the factory system as parts and complete instruments were becoming more and more standardised while their quality was decreasing, making them fit mostly for amateurs or students of music. German companies lead the way in that respect as well.

It is hard to understand why it was the violin, along with the rest of its family (the bigger, lower-tuned and lower-sounding viola, cello, and double bass) that became the core of the luthier business in the course of the last centuries. Compared to other instruments, the violin family was more universal, suited to play in ensembles big and small, no matter if the repertoire was classical music or folk. Playing the violin (and other instruments of the violin family), it was much easier, and more efficient as compared to the then viols and bowed lyres, to perform sophisticated melodic figures, both for one and two parts, in any scale and tempo, without risking being muffled by the sound of other instruments. Since the 18^th century the violin has been the leading instrument used to perform classical music, both as part of chamber ensembles (duets, trios, quarts, etc.) and symphony orchestras, not to mention solo concerts.

Yet, the violin also used to be the most important component of folk bands, before being dethroned in the course of the 19^th and 20^th centuries by the button accordion, which in turn was unseated by electric and electronic organs and synthesisers. Later the violin was also the leading instrument of bands playing jazz and popular music before it was replaced by saxophones and other brass instruments. A cello acting as a double bass (called basy in Polish) and a double bass itself were, too, key elements of Polish folk bands. No band specialising in popular music, jazz in particular, could do without a double bass either. At the same time, a violin of average quality was relatively cheap and this affordable for less affluent enthusiasts of music. On the same principle another instrument produced in luthier workshops gained immense popularity in the first half of the 20^th century: the mandolin. Mandolin orchestras set up by working men and urban “intelligentsia” were all the rave across Europe at the time. It was undoubtedly due to its “working-class” roots that the communist authorities of the People’s Republic of Poland tolerated the Mandolin Orchestra of Edward Ciukrza (1905–1970), which was a direct successor of the Kaskada Mandolin Society that had operated in Vilnius before World War II.²³

Becoming a luthier in the olden days

Before we discuss the present state of affairs, it is worth to reflect on the system of training luthiers in the past. For centuries it had not been much different from the system used to train practitioners of other crafts, including handicraft, from which contemporary lutherie undoubtedly derives. Aspirant instrument makers were obliged to complete a three-tier training. First, they would spend a few years as an apprentice bound to a master of a given craft (piano making, organ making, trumpet making) or a related trade (carpentry, wood carving), as the ability to process wood is critical for a maker of most types of instruments. Upon the completion of his contract with the master craftsman, the apprentice was absolved from his obligations (“declared free”), sat a guild examination (he had to demonstrate that he could make an instrument part as well as read and write) and, if successful, became a journeyman.

Now, the craftsman would undertake a working trip, travelling for a few years and practicing with workshops in different villages or even different countries. With certificates documenting his journeyman years, the craftsman sat another guild examination, this time to become a master craftsman. To pass, the candidate would usually be asked to build a whole instrument or its key part (a so-called masterpiece). To be admitted to take the examinations candidates would also have to pay the guild various fees, sometimes quite substantial, which meant that not all journeymen could afford to join the guild. (A common practice was to marry one’s master’s widow and thus attain a workshop and funds to pay the fees collected by the town hall or guild for a license to practice the trade.²⁴) The road from apprentice to master craftsman was a very difficult one, also for the family of the aspirant instrument maker, who had to make all sorts of sacrifices. Below is an excerpt from a contract made by the mother of a future luthier, Piotr Kubas, with a Cracow-based master craftsman, Józef Zając:

This contract has been made by the Company of Józef Zając based in Cracow and Mrs Magdalenna [sic] Kubas residing in Węgierka, Jarosław district. 

I) Mrs Magdalena Kubas agrees for her son Piotr to be employed for 4 (four) years as an apprentice with Józef Zając’s instrument making workshop in Cracow. 

II) The term of apprenticeship shall begin on 15 June 1921 and end on 15 June 1925. 

III) The apprentice shall be trained free of charge, yet Mrs Magdalena Kubas shall provide her son with appropriate outerwear, underwear and footwear throughout the apprenticeship, as well use her maternal authority to make sure that her son behaves morally, honestly, and impeccably towards his guardian. 

 IV) Józef Zając shall teach Piotr Kubas how to make and repair musical instrument, provide him with a healthy place to sleep and healthy food to eat, laundry his clothes, send him to a trade school and make sure that he fulfils his duties. 

V) As the apprenticeship is free of charge and considering that keeping an apprentice is very expensive these days, Mrs Magdalena Kubas shall provide Mr Józef Zając 1 (one) metric hundredweight (1 meter) of wheat a year to share in her son’s upkeep.

VI) Apprentice Piotr Kubas shall not be entitled to claim any remuneration from his principal throughout the term of his apprenticeship. Should the principal reward him voluntarily for the progress made, the apprentice shall consider it an act of kindness. The apprentice shall consider the principal’s property as inviolable. Should the principal notice any of his possessions missing due to the apprentice’s wrongful acts, the principal shall have the right to dismiss the apprentice without any notice. 

VII) The guild entry fee mkp. [Polish marks]… and the entry fee mkp…. shall be paid by Mrs Magdalena Kubas^25.




Lutherie today 

The 20^th century, just as the one before it, saw the coexistence of the guild and factory systems of making instruments. Artists were drawing on the old masters on one hand and making efforts to create new models inspired by local music heritage on the other. The second half of the century brought significant changes in the system of training and the approach to the luthier profession, already highly valued among the “artisan handicrafts”. In the Communist bloc, where the priority was to fight capitalism and the bourgeoisie, including craftsmen and instrument makers, efforts were taken to discredit both crafts as such and the system of apprenticeship, which was pilloried as a form of exploitation (of the apprentice by the master). Instead, a system of schools was put in place to make vocational education fairer, more transparent and effective.

First efforts to create a public system of education for aspirant violin makers had been made in the then Polish territories in the 1920s and 1930s. On the initiative of Tomasz Panufnik, who devoted his life to reviving Polish lutherie, a department teaching the art of making bowed instruments was established within the State Crafts and Industry School in Warsaw in 1930 and operated until 1935. In 1938 Panufnik led a course for aspirant violin makers under the auspices of the Polish Instrument Company (Polska Wytwórnia Instrumentów). He designed two violin models: Antica was inspired by classical models, while Polonia had a curvy, baroque profile (modelled on carved violins made by M. Grobicz I in the 16^th century), a female head instead of a scroll and a characteristic, flute-like coloration of the tone. In 1921 Panufnik set up a factory to produce Antica and Polonia violins using the factory system. None of the undertakings survived long due to major crises nagging the world economy at the time. Unabated, Panufnik took up his efforts again after the war, finding numerous allies to his cause.

An important milestone was the founding of the Association (now: Union) of Polish Artist Violin Makers, or ZPAL, which took place in 1954, although first efforts to this effect were made before the war in 1936. ZPAL is an artists’ association not a trade union, and as such was seen by the then authorities as a counterweight to crafts organisations. Similar associations, modelled on organisations existing earlier in Italy and Germany, were set up across the Communist bloc in Europe. On ZPAL’s initiative a training programme for aspirant luthiers was launched in 1954 at the Secondary School of Art Technology in Zakopane, transformed in 1959 into the Technical School of Stringed Instrument Making in Nowy Targ. After it closed down in 1975, a violin making training programme was reinstated at the Mieczysłąw Karłowicz State Secondary School of Music in Poznań. Since 1978 a lutherie section has been operating at the Academy of Music in Poznań.

This comprehensive system of training was further stimulated by academic seminars held by ZPAL as well as national and international violin making competitions²⁶ such as: the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Making Competition (since 1957); the National Violin Making Competition in Warsaw (since 1955); the Zdzisław Szulc Polish National Violin Making Competition in Poznań (since 1979); the Antonio Stradivaldi Polish National Violin Making Competition in Poznań organised in association with the Union of Italian Luthiers (since 1987); and the Włodzimierz Kamiński Polish National Violin Making Competition in Poznań (since 1994). Polish luthiers have been participating in competitions held in Italy (Cremona), Russia (Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow), Belgium (former quartet competition in Liège), the Czech Republic (Náchod, Prague), Germany (Mittenwald) and France (Paris). Efforts have been also made to create new models of instruments drawing on local lutherie traditions.

Also in Western Europe national traditions are being upheld as the well-established training and instrument making centres continue to operate in Mittenwald, Markneukirchen, Mirecourt, or Cremona, stimulated by the violin making competitions mentioned above. However, in most cases the system of training has lost all traces of feudalism as the relationship between the apprentice and the master craftsman has been replaced by a student – teacher relationship. Still, the idea of producing instruments using the factory system has not been fully rejected as evidenced by the Lower Silesia “Defil” Lutherie Factory, which operated in Lubin, Poland from 1947 to 2001. It produced hammer actions for pianos, instruments from the violin family, mandolins and guitars, including electroacoustic and electric ones. The instruments were produced mainly for students or amateurs, although were also used by professional pop musicians (e.g. electric guitars) who had no access to the Western markets. The factory closed down in the wake of the Polish political and economic transformation, unable to fight off competition from similar enterprises and businesses using the domestic system of production in Far East or Latin America. The processes did not damage traditional lutherie, neither in Europe, nor in North America or the Far East (Japan, China, Korea), although demand for musical instruments dropped globally, with less people wanting to be active participants of culture. The reason for that, among other factors, is the ease with which one can access cultural products through modern means of communication. Still, as evidenced by the excellent outcomes of the latest editions of international lutherie competitions, the discipline is still attracting the attention of aspiring violin makers and their potential clients: chamber musicians, members of symphony orchestras, and soloists.

prof. Benjamin Vogel

Bibliography:

1. D. Boyden, The History of Violin Playing from its origins to 1761. Oxford University Press, (Oxford 1965)
2. Lutnictwo (in:) Encyklopedia powszechna PWM, t. 2, (Warszawa 1974), p.777
3. A. Sołtan, Lutnictwo, (Warszawa 1978)
4. W. Kamiński, Lutnictwo (in:) Encyklopedia muzyki, red. A. Chodkowski, (Warszawa 1995), p. 509
5. W. Kamiński, J. Świrek, Lutnictwo. Wstęp do sztuki lutniczej, (Kraków 1972)
6. J. Kusiak, Skrzypce od A do Z, (Kraków 1988)
7. B. Vogel, Major Historical Centres of Stringed Instrument Production in Central Europe (in:) 5th International Violin Making Symposium: The Classical and Modern Art of Violin Making, 11-13 May 2006, Poznań (Poznań: 2006) pp. 21–30

*

1. W. Kamiński, Lutnictwo (in:) Encyklopedia muzyki, red. A. Chodkowski, (Warszawa 1995), p. 509, and following editions.
2. Cf. Lutnictwo (in:) Encyklopedia powszechna PWM, t. 2, (Warszawa 1974), p. 777; A. Sołtan, Lutnictwo, (Warszawa 1978), p. 5.
3. Janusz Jaskulski, Związek Polskich Artystów Lutników. Tradycja – historia – teraźniejszość, (in:) Polska sztuka lutnicza 1954-2004, ed. M. Waller, (Poznań 2004), p. 9.
4. W. Kamiński, Skrzypce polskie, (Kraków 1969); W. Kamiński, J. Świrek, Lutnictwo. Wstęp do sztuki lutniczej, Kraków 1972; J. Kusiak, Skrzypce od A do Z, (Kraków 1988); Polska szkoła lutnicza. Instrumenty Grobliczów i Dankwartów, ed. P. Frankowski, cz. 1, (Poznań 2016).
5. The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, 2nd edition, ed. L. Libin, vol. 3, (Oxford 2014), p. 340. The entry for “Lutnia” (lute) in the Polish 19th-century Encyklopedyja Powszechna by Samuel Orgelbrand (vol. 17, Warszawa 1864, p. 460) ends with the following sentence: “In the 17^th century, apart from the players, also the makers of all kinds of stringed and bowed instruments were metaphorically called ‘lutnistniści’ (‘luthers’).”
6. D. Diderot, L'Encyclopédie [ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers] […], t. 1–17, (Paris 1751–1765). Polish edition: D. Diderot, Encyklopedia albo Słownik rozumowany nauk, sztuk i rzemiosł zebrany z najlepszych autorów [...]; translated and annotated by Ewa Rzadkowska; with a foreword by Jan Kott, (Wrocław 1952).
7. Musical instruments, Daniel Chodowiecki (1726–1801), etching for a textbook titled Elementarwerk by Johannes Bernard Basedow, (Dessau, 1774), fig. LX, book VI, vol. II.
8. Greek lyres should not be confused with hurdy-gurdies and bowed lyres.
9. The zither should not be confused with the cittern, stringed necked plucked instrument used in the course of the 16^th–18^th centuries.
10. Organology (from “organon” meaning instrument in Greek) is a discipline of musicology dealing with the history of musical instruments, the evolution of their construction, sound and performance capabilities, technology involved in their making, and classification.
11. M. Praetorius, Syntagma musicum, (Wittemberg/Wolfenbüttel 1614–1620).
12. For more on the topic, see D. Boyden, The History of Violin Playing from Its Origins to 1761 and Its Relationship to the Violin and Violin Music, (Oxford 1965).
13. Das Ständebuch, written by Hans Sachs, illustrated by Jost Amman, (Frankfurt am Mayn, 1568).
14. A type of 16^th-century guitar.
15. M. Agricola, Musica instrumentalis deudsch, (Wittenberg 1529).
16. M. Praetorius, op. cit.
17. B. Vogel, Major Historical Centres of Stringed Instrument Production in Central Europe (in:) 5th International Violin Making Symposium: The Classical and Modern Art of Violin Making, 11-13 May 2006, Poznań (Poznań: 2006) pp. 21-30.
18. Ibidem, p. 23.
19. A 1769 musical inventory of the Pidhirtsi Castle lists violins made by individual makers (Dankwart, Stainer, Katkowski, Solomirski) along with instruments built in violin making centres in Polish territories such as Wrocław and Warsaw. See B. Vogel, Do dziejów tradycji muzycznych zamku w Podhorcach, (in:) Polski Rocznik Muzykologiczny, (2015), pp. 116–117.
20. Ibidem p. 22.
21. Das Ständebuch, op. cit.
22. Ibidem p. 28.
23. Founded in 1921 in Vilnius, the Kaskada Mandolin Society Orchestra enjoyed great popularity before the outbreak of WWII, one reason being its performances on local radio. In 1945 almost all members relocated to Łódź as part of forced resettlements from former Polish territories adjoined to the Soviet Union after WWII, and continued to operate until the death of its founder. Thanks to its appearances on the radio, the orchestra was known and liked across the country.
24. For more on the training of craftsmen see B. Vogel, Fortepian polski. Budownictwo fortepianów na ziemiach polskich od poł. XVIII w. do II wojny światowej, (Warszawa 1995), pp. 60–75.
25. The original is held by Barbara Ostafin from Cracow.
26. The first violin making competition in the interwar period was held in Cracow together with violin exhibition in the local Industry Museum in 1936. Luthiers also showcased their instruments at the Polish General Exhibition in Poznań in 1929.