Life and Work

Ernst Heinrich Roth (1877–1948) was a German luthier

Luthier

A luthier is someone who makes or repairs lutes and other string instruments. In the United States, the term is used interchangeably with a term for the specialty of each maker, such as violinmaker, guitar maker, lute maker, etc...

 and master of a large and successful violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

-making workshop in the East German town of Markneukirchen

Markneukirchen

Markneukirchen is a town in the Vogtlandkreis district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It lies in between the Erzgebirge and the Fichtelgebirge in the Elstergebirge, southeast of Plauen, and northeast of Asch ....

, near the current border with the Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

. He was the most important and distinguished figure in a whole dynasty of Roth luthiers active in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 over many generations and to this day.

Roth's father, the violin-maker Gustav Robert Roth, founded a violin shop in Markneukirchen in 1873. Ernst Heinrich was born there in 1877 and learned to play the violin, viola

Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...

, cello

Cello

The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...

, piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 and trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

. He had perfect pitch and absorbed an excellent sense of craftsmanship in his father's workshop. He travelled extensively to violin makers in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 and France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 in order to perfect his art.

In 1902, at the age of 25, he started his own business, where over the years he worked in conjunction with apprentices, many of whom went on to become well-known violin makers in their own right. The exact extent of Ernst Heinrich Roth's involvement in the making of his instruments has long been a topic for debate, but it is now generally believed that the best instruments were made mainly by Roth himself. The instruments of the Ernst Heinrich Roth workshop were soon in demand all over Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

.

Ernst Heinrich Roth had 2 sons: Gustav Albert and Ernst Heinrich II. Albert Roth learnt the luthier trade from his father. Ernst Heinrich Roth II, on the other hand, received a training in commerce and in 1921 settled in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, where he founded a trading company, Scherl & Roth. It is through this company that Roth instruments, bows

Bow (music)

In music, a bow is moved across some part of a musical instrument, causing vibration which the instrument emits as sound. The vast majority of bows are used with string instruments, although some bows are used with musical saws and other bowed idiophones....

 and other merchandise also came onto the North American market, where quite a number of them, from very different periods and of uneven quality, can be found to this day. In addition to violins, the Roth workshop also manufactured other string instruments, among them a 1927 double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

 famously owned and played by American jazz bassist Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...

.

The Roth company continued successfully in Markneukirchen until the beginning of the Third Reich. From that time onwards, the political climate prohibited the sale of fine instruments to countries unfriendly towards Germany, and the labour force had to be reduced as a consequence. Nevertheless, some instruments, though of lesser quality, continued to be produced after 1933 and throughout the war years, in difficult circumstances but always under the supervision of Ernst Heinrich Roth. After 1945, efforts were made to rekindle the business, but due to restrictions trading out of the Soviet-occupied zone, this proved difficult. Ernst Heinrich Roth died in Markneukirchen in 1948.

Albert Roth took over the management of the company but the company was liquidated by court order on account of breach of regulations. Albert Roth then decided to move to Bubenreuth

Bubenreuth

Bubenreuth is a municipality in the district of Erlangen-Höchstadt, in Bavaria, Germany....

/Erlangen

Erlangen

Erlangen is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located at the confluence of the river Regnitz and its large tributary, the Untere Schwabach.Erlangen has more than 100,000 inhabitants....

, in the newly founded Federal Republic of Germany, and in April 1953 the company started trading again. Soon the Roth company was supplying instruments to Europe and the USA once more.
Albert Roth died in 1961.

After Albert's death, his son Ernst Heinrich Roth III, having learnt the violin-making trade at the technical college in Bubenreuth from 1953 to 1955 and been awarded the master craftsman's certificate in 1961, was in charge of the management. Business expanded and new markets were developed in the Far East

Far East

The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...

. Since 1985 Wilhelm Roth, the son of Ernst Heinrich III, has been active in the company, having trained at the renowned violin-making college in Mittenwald

Mittenwald

Mittenwald is a German municipality in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria.-Geography:Mittenwald is located approx. 16 kilometers to the south-east of Garmisch-Partenkirchen...

. At the moment the Ernst Heinrich Roth company is managed by Ernst Heinrich Roth III and Wilhelm Roth. A branch office in Markneukirchen represents the company where it originated.

Appraisal

It was a policy of the Roth workshop in the days of Ernst Heinrich I to manufacture different grades of instruments for different budgets. For this reason, but also due to the size of the workshop's production and the many decades of its operation, the quality of Roth violins varies greatly, ranging from poor to outstanding. Therefore, expertise in the field is essential in order to identify the highest grade Roth instruments.

The best ones can be stunningly beautiful and well crafted instruments, with the 1920s and until about 1932 generally regarded as the most sought-after period. As mentioned above, it is generally understood these days that the top instruments were made predominantly by Ernst Heinrich Roth himself. They were usually copies after Cremonese

Cremona

Cremona is a city and comune in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po River in the middle of the Pianura Padana . It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local City and Province governments...

 models of the early 18th century, among which the Stradivari

Antonio Stradivari

Antonio Stradivari was an Italian luthier and a crafter of string instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas, and harps. Stradivari is generally considered the most significant artisan in this field. The Latinized form of his surname, Stradivarius, as well as the colloquial, "Strad", is...

 and Guarneri del Gesù

Giuseppe Guarneri

Bartolomeo Giuseppe Antonio Guarneri, del Gesù was an Italian luthier from the Guarneri house of Cremona. He rivals Antonio Stradivari with regard to the respect and reverence accorded his instruments, and he has been called the finest violin maker of the Amati line...

 ones are considered to be the most accomplished (although there exist some beautiful copies of Amati

Nicolò Amati

Niccolò Amati was an Italian luthier from Cremona.-Biography:Nicolò Amati was the fifth son of Girolamo Amati and the grandson of Andrea Amati, the founder of the Amati Family of violin makers. Of all the Amati Family violins, those of Nicolò are often considered most suitable for modern playing...

 and Ruggieri

Francesco Ruggieri

Francesco Ruggieri was perhaps an apprentice of Nicolò Amati, another important luthier in Cremona Italy, although other sources call this association into question....

). These top instruments stand out by the exceptional quality of their wood (with very fine-grained Italian spruce

Spruce

A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...

 on top and a highly flamed maple

Maple

Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...

 back, often made out of a single piece), their glowing oil varnish

Varnish

Varnish is a transparent, hard, protective finish or film primarily used in wood finishing but also for other materials. Varnish is traditionally a combination of a drying oil, a resin, and a thinner or solvent. Varnish finishes are usually glossy but may be designed to produce satin or semi-gloss...

 (frequently an attractive red-brown on a warm, golden ground) and their beautifully finished f-holes. These attributes, together with a powerful, rich and mellow yet focused tone with bright, carrying overtones, have secured top Roth instruments a reputation as excellent orchestral and solo instruments. They are also increasingly sought after for their investment value.

While some instruments from later periods and from other members of the family have been known to be of above-average quality, none reached anywhere near the level attained by the best instruments of the afore-mentioned period.

Labels

The labels of the mid 20s to early 30s were usually printed in cursive script saying:

Ernst Heinrich Roth

Markneukirchen 19(--)

Reproduction of

Antonius Stradivarius

Cremona 17(--)

or

Ernst Heinrich Roth

Markneukirchen 19(--)

Reproduction of

Josef Guarnerius

Cremona 17(--)

Note: The first name is sometimes mistakenly read as 'Erush'. It is written in old German running writing and is definitely meant to be 'Ernst'. The word 'Germany' is also usually printed on the label in purple or black ink. In addition to the label, there is often an oval-shaped brand stamp inside the instrument reading:

Ernst Heinrich Roth / Markneukirchen, followed by a serial number.