ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the story of one particular instrument over a century and a half of history. Fiddles are usually instruments that play musical styles at least symbolically rooted in their places of origin and are taught in circumstances different from those in which students learn violin. Violins and fiddles are the same thing, though the words often convey something about the status of the music and players involved. A faded slip of paper, presumably from the time of the violin’s manufacture, identifies the master maker upon whose work the instrument is modeled. While it might be impossible to say with certainty that the violin belonged to the McIntyres, that a family of McIntyres lived in Centerville from 1854, and that they played music on violins, is certain. Life for the McIntyres in Northeastern California was fundamentally shaped by the gold rush of 1849. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
