Another branch of the violin tree...

This quote captures perfectly the central themes of the violinist-genealogy project I am working on: purity of lineage, self-legitimation, and the quasi-mystical valuation of pedigree:

"As a seventeen-year-old about to graduate from high school, I felt that my own violin lineage was already quite impressive. Couched in Old Testament terms, Joseph Joachim, the distinguished German violinist, begat Leopold Auer, who begat Toscha Seidel, who begat me. Without doubt, I belonged to an illustrious family--one in which Auer's pupils Heifetz, Elman, and Zimbalist were in effect my uncles. If only some of that DNA would rub off!" (Arnold Steinhardt, Violin Dreams. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006, pp. 88-89).