July 18, 2018 at 6:04 p.m.
Libraries Rock! Summer Reading Program presents Rosin the Bow with Joe McHugh
Libraries Rock! Summer Reading Program presents Rosin the Bow with Joe McHugh
According to a library press release, Rosin the Bow explores the many roles the violin family of instruments play in the world today in all musical genres from classical to folk, jazz to rock. Traveling throughout the United States and other parts of the world, storyteller, fiddler, and award-winning radio journalist Joe McHugh and his wife Paula McHugh seek out interviews with violin makers, dealers, restorers, auctioneers, tone wood producers, insurance agents, museum curators, rosin makers, bow hair importers, string manufacturers - even police officers who have played a part in recovering stolen violins.
"Whether referred to as a violin or fiddle, this unique musical instrument has kindled the imagination and lifted the spirits of men and women for hundreds of years," the release states. "Names such as Amati, Guarnari, and Stradivari are uttered with reverence by musicians and non-musicians alike. The instrument they helped invent is as much at home in a concert hall as it is at a prairie square dance, a Jewish wedding, or inside a Parisian nightclub. Its clear melodious tones, so like those of the human voice, have the power to make one laugh or cry, while the graceful curves of its scroll and body and the delicate curl of its maple back and sides bring pleasure to the eye as well as the ear. It is played to worship God and yet has been accused of being the "Devil's box." For many it is a symbol of our longing to find beauty in the world and a talisman of those enduring virtues of craftsmanship and artistry that are increasingly threatened by the dull replication and hustle and bustle of our own machine age."
Joe McHugh is a storyteller, writer, historian, and traditional Appalachian and Celtic fiddler. He is the producer and host of the radio series The Telling Takes Us Home, a Celebration of American Family Stories and has produced a number of radio documentaries and oral history projects looking at the foster care system, educational leadership, juvenile judges, and the allure and danger and whitewater rafting among others. Working with his daughter Anna McHugh, he received the 2000 Golden Reel Award from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters for best local public affairs documentary.
He is the author of a number of books including "The Phantom Fiddler and Other Notable Tales," a collection of original short stories inspired by the rich folklore of the violin.
This event is sponsored in part by the Northern Arts Council and hosted by the Rhinelander District Library Friends of the Library.
For more information, call the library at 715-365-1070 or visit www.rhinelanderlibrary.org.
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