This chapter, which pairs with Chapter 7, examines the nature, spread, and function of small-scale recreational string playing in private spaces, the values that people attributed to it, and the meanings it held in individuals’ lives. Emphasis is on instrumental chamber music in the conventional sense of the term, which locates much of the discussion in middle- and upper-class homes, but the chapter also addresses other types of small-ensemble music-making, including activities in working-class culture. The chapter foregrounds the challenges of writing about a private-sphere activity that at first blush seems largely invisible in the historical record, while presenting evidence and arguments for a rich subculture of recreational string playing that contributed to and perpetuated violin culture’s vitality. The ensuing discussion establishes, among other things, that while domestic string playing was valued as a mechanism for reinforcing family ties, it helped many people strengthen relationships with friends and develop networks of personal and professional acquaintances. The chapter also finds beneficial interconnections between public concert life and recreational chamber music.

This chapter sets the scene for readers of the book by defining British violin culture and placing it in historical perspective. It traces the culture’s arc in time by tackling questions of numerical extent, patterns of activity, and related historiographical issues. It also discusses the societal positioning of string players c. 1870 and outlines the socioeconomic factors that triggered the initial surge in learning and playing, including the new availability of cheap instruments and crumbling assumptions about violin playing being out of bounds to women and girls. It ends by tracking Victorian values and activities that persisted from the 1870s into the 1920s – including socioeconomic aspiration, self-betterment, and beliefs in classical music as a meaningful leisure pursuit – to underline the coherence of the book’s periodization. The chapter counters assumptions that the popularity of violin playing was limited to the 1880s and 1890s and further argues that violin culture’s class composition resists generalization.