Figure 1.-- Here we see a German boy about 1910 with he violin he is learning. He is wearing atunic suit with Russian styling.

We do not yet have much information about instrumental music in Germany. We do not know much about the relative popularity of the various instruments that children have played. Here we can draw from the photographic record, although this is an imperfect indicator. We note portraits of boys with instruments. The violin and piano seem very important. For some reason we do not note images of boys playing a wide diversity of instruments. And we see far fewer images of girls with instruments. This is also the case of other countries as well, but most of the images we have archived with children playing musival instruments are American or German. We do not know how to explain this. It may be that violin and piano are gateway instruments and that they are such important instruments in classical music. Of course cost is a factor. A violin costs a lot less thn a piano which affects the family's abiliity to afford an instrument. Guitars were important in the very early 20th century, perhaps because of Wandervogel and then again in the 1960s because of the explosion of rock music. Portraits of boys with instruments do not seem to be as common as similar American portraits. But they may because our German archive is still relatively small. It may also reflect comparative affluence. We hope that the photographic record will shed some light on the relative popularity of different instruments.

Accordian

Chello

The chello was adopted as an important orcestral instrument, perhaps more so in Germany than any other country. So it was an important instrument to learn. Of course the hello plays a smaller proprtion of an orchestra than say the violin. Thus it is understandable tht feer children learned the chello than other instruments. And we suspect that more chello players had the idea of going further with their music thn was the case of say violin players. A chello is a rlatively large instruments. Thus younger boys would have trouble handling such a large instrument. We are not sure, but we supect that many boys began with the violin and then graduted to the chello. We have not found any images of girls playing the chello, at least until after World War II. In America the chello had the image of a a male instrumnt as well. And this seems to have continued afer we begin to see more girls playing musical weapons.

Drums

Flute

Guitar

Guitars were important in the very early 20th century, perhaps because of Wandervogel and then again in the 1960s because of the explosion of rock music.

Piano

A major factor with piano is the cost. Only middle-class families in comfortable circumstances could afford a piano. A working-class family might be able to scrimp and affordd a violin, but a piano was out of the question.

Trumpet

Violin

A substantial number of the photographs we have found of German boys learning msical instruments show them with violins. The boy here is a good example. We are not entirely sure just why this was, but a number of reasons come to mind. The violin is a small instrument and thus can be handeled by children more easily than many other instrumnts. It is also very importnt in classical music. e think it may have also be seen as a gateway instrument to other instruments. Cost may also be a factor. A basic violin costs less than many other instrumnts. We have been surprised to see mostly boys playing the violin until after World War II.

Created: 5:36 PM 1/8/2009
Last updated: 5:25 PM 10/14/2017