54 pages • 1 hour read
Brendan SlocumbThe Violin Conspiracy
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Historical Context: The Stradivarius Violin
In the novel, the word “Stradivarius” carries weight and resonance throughout the musical industry. Ray often uses the word “Strad” to describe it, knowing that the term is so widespread that other musicians and those associated with music will immediately recognize its importance.
“Stradivarius” generally refers to historic violins made by the 17th-century craftsman Antonio Stradivari. However, Stradivari made other instruments as well, including violas, cellos, harps, and guitars. During his lifetime, he created an estimated 1,200 instruments; approximately 650 of them survive today, the majority of which are violins. The height of his craftsmanship career, between 1700 and 1725, is considered the “golden age” of Stradivarius instruments. These instruments are considered to be the best in the world, and experts have invested significant amounts of time and money into testing these violins and trying to determine what makes them superior. Theories have included special properties of the varnish used or chemical coatings meant to inhibit deterioration. One popular theory states that, because of the colder global climate during Stradivari’s time, certain trees were growing more slowly and formed denser wood, which contributes to the instruments’ rich sound.
It’s also been proposed that the magic of the Stradivarius is entirely psychological. In 2014, a study was conducted in which several accomplished soloists blind-tested a range of violins including Stradivariuses as well as modern alternatives (Cho, Adrian. “Million-Dollar Strads Fall to Modern Violins in Blind ‘Sound Check.’” Science, 9 May 2017). The researchers determined that there was no true distinction between the Stradivarius and comparable, high-quality alternatives; however, the study was small and limited. In the novel, Ray gets into a discussion about this topic and professes that a Stradivarius violin is more than simply its materials but contains some echo of the maker’s own spirit. This offers another theory; many believe that Antonio Stradivari was simply an expert craftsman whose talent and intuition has not been met since.
Cultural Context: Racial Disparity in Classical Music
Brendan Slocumb uses his work of fiction to communicate social truths about the state of the American classical music industry. Some of Ray’s interactions with white authority figures are based on the author’s own experiences and are a reality that many Black musicians face today.
Across America, fewer than 2% of all professional orchestral musicians are Black (“Dear American Orchestras.” Black Orchestral Network, 2022). This detail is touched on in Ray’s 60 Minutes interview, but only briefly; something not explored is how disproportionate this figure is compared to the number of Black graduates from high-ranking music conservatories. There is a wide range of talented musicians of color trying to carve out a place in classical music, and the majority of them face racist obstacles like Ray does, from the loss of tangible opportunities to disparaging comments at a day-to-day level. To combat this pervasive disparity, a group of Black classical musicians formed the Black Orchestral Network, a collective dedicated to improving opportunities and visibility for Black musicians and to gathering more concrete data about the efforts being made by orchestras to address these issues. The network argues that, following the COVID-19 pandemic in which many professional musicians turned to other lines of work, more orchestral seats are available to new musicians than ever before. This offers American orchestras a limited window in which to address these issues and fill these seats with Black musicians. The network also attempts to draw more attention to Black composers and find ways to have their work recognized.
