Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to recover the female side of the history of violin playing. It considers the means by which female violinists’ pre-eminence was negotiated, traversing the social, the cultural, and the musical. The book explores the women violinists’ ties to corporeality, gender, and society. It also aims to develop critical understanding of the process involved in virtuoso identity construction and an idiosyncratic virtuoso style. The book provides informative tables, music examples, a small discography, and a few illustrations, which give us a personal glimpse of these pioneering women. It outlines the key aesthetic ideals surrounding late nineteenth-century violin playing and gender-based perceptions of musical instruments. The book focuses on the new working opportunities that had been unavailable to female violinists of a previous era.