"One of the most significant features of the violin guide I have
mentioned is, perhaps, the fact that its contents largely cover the
whole range of violin literature in American editions. There was a time,
years ago, when 'made in Germany' was accepted as a certificate of
editorial excellence and mechanical perfection. Those days have long
since passed, and the American edition has come into its own. It has
reached a point of development where it is of far more practical and
musically stimulating value than any European edition. For American
editions of violin music do not take so much for granted! They reflect
in the highest degree the needs of students and players in smaller
places throughout the country, and where teachers are rare or
non-existent they do much to supply instruction by meticulous regard for
all detail of fingering, bowing, phrasing, expression, by insisting in
explanatory annotation on the correct presentation of authoritative
teaching ideas and principles. In a broader sense 'Violin Mastery' knows
no nationality; but yet we associate the famous artists of the day with
individual and distinctively national trends of development and
'schools.' In this connection I am convinced that one result of this
great war of world liberation we have waged, one by-product of the
triumph of the democratic truth, will be a notably 'American' ideal of
'Violin Mastery,' in the musical as well as the technical sense. And in
the development of this ideal I do not think it is too much to claim
that American editions of violin music, and those who are responsible
for them, will have done their part."