Why Mirecourt, France is the Bow Making Capital of the World

The discovery of the New World brought prosperous trade in Brazillian Pernambuco wood to Miracourt - establishing a legacy of fine bowmaking

Mirecourt, France is famous for two things: Violin and stringed instrument bow making, and the making of fine lace. That fact is as true today as it was in the 16th century.

But while Mirecourt’s history and the pedigree of its violin bows speak of refinement in the royal courts of European royalty and the aristocracy, it’s not without a little cross-Atlantic controversy. This is due to the source of the most prized basic material used in making the finest bows by the greatest Mirecourt bowmakers (“archetiers” as they are called). That material is Pernambuco wood.

When Portuguese explorers “discovered” Brazil in 1500, they immediately recognized the value of the land’s uniquely beautiful trees, particularly along its coasts. A rich degree of commerce developed, felling the various Brazilwoods and shipping them to the Old World. By 1555 the French admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon sought to establish a colony there in part to harvest and import the wood.

That was unsuccessful, but trade between Brazil and Europe in these woods thrived. This time period coincides with the rise of skilled and renowned archetiers and luthiers (violin makers) in Mirecourt. The city was a mercantilist center, connected to the rapidly expanding world, trading in products, ideas and culture.

Musical instrument craftsmanship began to diversify with increasing wealth, such that by the 18th century bow makers began to hone their craft of producing violin bows. Mirecourt’s history includes famous architiers of the era: Dominique Peccatte, Emile Francois Ouchard, Eugene Sartory and Victor Fétique. Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, was one of Miracourt’s most renowned violin makers.

The bows from some of these archetiers remain in use today, some fetching prices as high as $45,000 at auction and are often offered for sale at high-end violin shops. The Pernambuco supply is greatly restricted today due to overharvesting, so other woods are now used - making the old masters’ bows even greater in value.

Today, almost 500 years later, Mirecourt remains the bowmaking capital of the world. While World Wars One and Two created great hardships - 18 workshops employing almost 700 people in 1925 had disappeared by 1945 - the creation of the National School of Lutherie in the 1970s in Mirecourt revived the professions of bowmakers, violinmakers, and even guitar and mandolin makers.

The city today has a museum dedicated to the history of violin making (Musée de la lutherie et de l'archèterie française), and what’s known as the national violin making high school named for Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (Ecole Nationale de Lutherie Lycee Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume). Students at the school spend five years earning violin making technical diplomas, art trade degrees, and professional aptitude degrees. At least 24 hours per week are spent on benches making instruments and bows; the school focus is on violins, violas, cellos, double bass and viols.

Just as Mirecourt’s fine French lace will always be appreciated - and worn by many more than the aristocracy - so too are the bows and stringed instruments made today in this lovely French city.

Folk Fiddles and Rattlesnake Rattles

Violinmakers do not typically include parts of expired animals in their fine instruments. But nonetheless fiddlers add snake rattles for a variety of reasons.

Only in America.

The place of the violin in the hills of Appalachia and on the plains of Texas, and along many points in between, is one of great cultural richness. Before electronically recorded music, the fiddle was perhaps the only source of music available to the common man. There may not have been a “name” violin maker in Kentucky, no Stradivarius in South Carolina, and no fine cellos or violas made in Tennessee. But whether through roaming Roma (gypsy) troupes and merchants, or later from the Sears catalogue, those fiddles found their way to the churches, dancehalls, schools and barns of the old South. And people danced.

The fiddle remains an important instrument in rhinestone-studded country bands as well as their cousins in the bluegrass and even folk music genres. And sometimes, if you look inside those fiddles - perhaps not at a violin shop, but in the hands of a fine fiddler - you might find the rattle of a very dead snake.

Indeed - rattlesnake rattles are inserted through the f-holes into the interior of the violin body for a variety of reasons. A quick review of the literature (i.e., a Google search) turns up some pretty interesting bits of folklore ... or practical solutions:

It forces a softer touch. “When I was a small boy playing the fiddle, my dad gave me a rattlesnake tail to put in my fiddle! I wondered at the time why he did this? Only to find out later if you are sawing too hard, you could hear the buzz of the rattles. The smooth playing produced a sweeter sound and the tail didn't buzz.”

Channel God into your music. “The snake is the bad one in the Bible, and creates all kinds of noise in our lives. It's better to play with the grace of the Lord’s gift, than to beat the fiddle to death trying to play it! If you put a rattler's tail in your fiddle, listen for the buzz. If you hear it, just take a deep breath and look up! Play it again, you'll feel better and you won't hear the buzz, and that fiddle under your chin will make you and everyone around you feel relaxed and happy!”

Who needs a tambourine? “Alan Jabbour, retired field researcher for the Smithsonian (and the guy who collected many of those great recordings!) has a rattler's tail in his fiddle. He says it is to lend ‘a rhythm section’ to his playing. Now, I don't know when he is doing a dance that anyone can hear it (although, he does amplify, now...) but when he plays live or on some of his recordings you CAN hear the swishing of the dried tail inside his instrument!”

Sweeter sound, and vermin-free. “I read that some believe it ‘sweetens’ the sound of their instrument. And recently someone told me that mice like to enlarge the f holes in a violin if the violin is left lying on a table at night. But if a mouse jumps onto the violin and hears the rattle inside, it will get scared and go away.”

Better than a vacuum cleaner. “About those rattlesnake rattles in a fiddle. Ok, so the other night I finally poked one into my fiddle after reading that they are supposed to improve the tone, keep spiders from building webs, etc., and what do you think! The next day I notice that a big ball of lint, fuzz, dust and cobwebs had been gathered up by the sweeping motion of the rattle as it wandered around the inside of the fiddle. There might be truth to that bit of folklore after all!”

More cleaning tips. “One account is that the rattle settled the dust in a mandolin, providing a deeper clarity of sound. Fiddler Bev Conrad, experimenting with a rattle in her fiddle, removed it the next day to find the rattle dust-coated-a big ball of lint, fuzz, dust and cobwebs had been gathered up by the sweeping motion of the rattle as it wandered around in side of the fiddle.”

Even though the Powhatans didn’t have violins per sé... “The act of keeping a rattle in a musical instrument as an amulet to ward off evil spirits, especially for people steeped in superstition before their arrival to this country, could easily have derived from their own volition... learned from Native Americans as early settlers adopted other natural remedies.”

It’s an outdoors thing. “This particular practice had to begin prior to the 1900s when the fiddle was considered to be the Devil’s instrument. Therefore, the fiddle was not allowed indoors but was hung in the bar or on the porch as a compromise for what was useful to get the work done at corn shuckings and the like.”

It’s what the cool kids did. “Could it just be that someone did it because they thought it was cool and wanted to add some mojo to their instrument? And everyone followed suit because they wanted to be cool too? That kind of thing happens all the time in our modern society; why can't we allow ourselves to think that it happened in past generations similarly?”

What no one seems to report is an adverse effect on the music. So while obtaining said rattlesnake rattle comes with it’s own challenges (one commenter on a post said she founds hers on eBay) it might well be a good idea for a certain type of musician, a certain type of music, and a certain type of band - perhaps one that can shake, rattle and roll.

An Overview of American Violinmaking Schools

Luthiers practice a craft that derives from the old schools of Italy, Germany and France, but several schools for stringed instrument making are in the US.

Despite the omnipresence of manufactured violins from China, despite the decades of skills development that luthiers must have before becoming a “name” violin maker, and regardless of the intense tedium required of the craft, there still are people who wish to and eventually love making fine violins, violas and cellos.

Indeed, accomplished and aspiring violinists, cellists, bassists and violists will always value bench made stringed instruments. The good news is there are several luthier schools in the US such that there’s a good chance a hand-made violin will be American-made as well.

Boston: North Bennet Street School
This is a three-year program in violin making, restoration, and repairs, with an emphasis of hands-on work. Students build six violins and a viola in the course of their multi-year study. Yearly tuition is $26,000, with an estimated cost of materials of $1,000.

Chicago: Chicago School of Violin Making
Also a three-year, hands-on program, the director emeritus, Tschu Ho Lee (a graduate of the Mittenwald, Germany State School of Violinmaking), oversees a faculty of co-directors, a string instructor (who is also concertmistress with the Northwest Chicago Symphony), and a cello instructor. Tuition is $3,640 per trimester, with an additional $440 for a complete tool kit (if the student doesn’t acquire one elsewhere).

Red Wing, Minnesota: Minnesota State College Southeast
While situated about 46 miles from the Twin Cities, Red Wing is very much in the sphere of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The school is a technical and community college, and this program is focused entirely on violin repair. Students can attend as little as a weeklong workshop or a full one-year program. No woodworking experience is required as violin repair is quite different. Tuition for in-state and out-of-state is the same at $167.29/semester credit; the program includes 34 credits of technical courses and five credits of general education credits to complete the diploma. Books, tools and supplies total approximately $1260.

Presque Isle, Wisconsin: The New World School of Violin Making
In comparison to the other schools, this institution (accepted by the Educational Approval Board of Wisconsin) includes instruction and practical construction experience in violin (build 3), viola (one), and two that include a violin, cello or viola. The focus is on construction of all instruments in the violin family based on classical and master models supported by hand tool techniques. Tuition is $2,975 for each of six or seven semesters ($17,925-$20,900).

Salt Lake City: Violin Making School of America
Averaging a student body of 25 people, the school has award-winning graduates in more than 19 countries; nearly 90% of graduates are employed in violin making-related careers. During a three-year course of student students create seven violins, and a cello; some students substitute a viola for one of the violins. Faculty include a woodworking director/instructor, instructor of varnish/setup/art class, an adjunct woodworking instructor, and a violin teacher. Annual tuition is $11,880; costs for tools range from $1500 to $2000.

Elsewhere in North and Central America are the Centre de Formation et de Consultation en Métiers d’Art in Quebec (Canada) and Escuela de Lauderia (National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature) in Querétaro, Quintana Roo (Mexico).