Collection Description

Edwin Harris Bergh and the fiddlette

Annotated Bibliography of the Fiddlette

Harris V. Bergh Collection

Collection Description

Harris Vincent Bergh was born in Brainerd, Minnesota on August 29, 1914. He was born into a musical family. His father, Edwin Harris Bergh, was the inventor of the Fiddlette family of pre-orchestral instruments and founder of the Chicago Children’s Festival Orchestra. Harris Bergh attended VanderCook School of Music, receiving his Bachelor of Music Education in 1935, a member of the 5th graduating class. He took over the Chicago Festival Orchestra from his father in 1939 until 1942, when World War II began. He also directed Chicago’s All-City High School Orchestra, the Harrison Technical High School Orchestra (Chicago), and the West Virginia All-State High School Orchestra. He was faculty member and orchestra director at Wheaton College. He was also on the faculty of VanderCook College of Music from 1949 through 1973, where he taught orchestra, string methods, applied strings, and music theory. He was a VanderCook Alumni Association officer. He is the author of a string method series, “String Positions,” and a composer and arranger of band and orchestra music, including “Norwegian Nocturne” for concert band. Bergh died on March 23, 2004.

The collection includes four original "ette" instruments including a fiddle, viola, cello and bass. Also included are papers documenting the history of these instruments, a method book by Bergh on playing the "ette" instruments, and biographical information about Edwin H. Bergh and the "ette" instruments.

7.621 cubic feet (4 boxes plus one musical instrument)

Edwin Harris Bergh and the fiddlette

Edwin H. Bergh, father of Harris V. Bergh, was born in 1885. Edwin Bergh ran the Bergh School of Music and was music teacher at Sterling Grade School. He joined forces with H.A. VanderCook to run the summer music camp in Bridgman, Michigan. Bergh also taught briefly at VanderCook College of Music, his specialty being recruitment of students into string programs. He later founded the Chicago Children’s Festival Orchestra, consisting of approximately 125 players. Edwin Bergh died in 1939.

Designed by Carl Wheeler Mott around 1927, the fiddlette was a stripped-down version of a violin, invented as an inexpensive way for students to find out if they had talent. If they did, they could purchase a standard violin later. Bergh envisioned the potential of the fiddlette, commissioning the building and refinement of Mott's original design. The fiddlette came in a kit, precut, and had to be assembled. The sounding chamber was a hollow box of California redwood. The promotion and sale of the fiddlette were given to the Gamble Hinged Music Company of Chicago, and its manufacture continued to be handled by Mott. The fiddlette sold for less than a dollar. At the height of its popularity, from 1928 to 1929, approximately 8,000 of the instruments were sold. These included violaettes, celloettes and bassettes. In Dixon, Illinois, during the 1929-30 school year, 178 students were enrolled in the fiddlette program. When the depression struck in 1929, the market for them was greatly reduced. Another incident cited in the decline of the fiddlette was a blizzard in Chicago during the spring of 1930. A demonstration by a group of 21 fiddlette students was scheduled to appear before a national convention of music supervisors. Due to the blizzard, and the resulting size of the audience, the intended widespread promotion of the instrument did not occur.

Annotated Bibliography of the Fiddlette

Behrens, Gail. "Birth of the Fiddlette." Illinois History 14/2 (January 1961): 90-91.

Gives a brief history fo the fiddlette, guidelines for using the fiddlette for class instruction, how to organize a fiddlette program, sample lessons, diagrams of the instrument, ordering information for parts and accessories.

Bergh, Edwin H. Organization Manual for String Class Teachers. Chicago: Gamble Hinged Music Co., 1930.

Brief history of the fiddlette, based in part on an interview with Carl Wheeler Mott, who came up with the fiddlette's final design.

Speaker, Charles. "Strains of Bygone Fiddlette Music Silenced by Blizzard, Depression." Rockford Morning Star, 5 February 1961, A15.

Brief history of the fiddlette, citing reasons for the fiddlette's loss in popularity.