133-628: The Betts Stradivarius is a violin made in 1704 by the Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari of Cremona . It is one of around 650 known extant Stradivari instruments. It has been owned by the French violin maker Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume and London instrument dealers W.E. Hill & Sons . The instrument is currently in the collection of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. , among
266-407: A chinrest , which may attach directly over, or to the left of, the tailpiece . A distinctive feature of a violin body is its hourglass-like shape and the arching of its top and back. The hourglass shape comprises two upper bouts, two lower bouts, and two concave C-bouts at the waist , providing clearance for the bow . The "voice" or sound of a violin depends on its shape, the wood it is made from,
399-804: A mail ordering catalog company migrating to opening retail locations in 1925, the first in Chicago . Through the 1980s, Sears was the largest retailer in the United States. In 2005, the company was bought by the management of the American big box discount chain Kmart , which upon completion of the merger, formed Sears Holdings . In 2018, it was the 31st-largest. After several years of declining sales, Sears's parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018. It announced on January 16, 2019, that it had won its bankruptcy auction, and that
532-406: A shift, and effective shifting maintaining accurate intonation and a smooth legato (connected) sound is a key element of technique at all levels. Often a "guide finger" is used; the last finger to play a note in the old position continuously lightly touches the string during the course of the shift to end up on its correct place in the new position. In elementary shifting exercises the "guide finger"
665-521: A string quartet or a string orchestra , the strings typically "sweeten" their tuning to suit the key they are playing in. When playing with an instrument tuned to equal temperament , such as a piano , skilled violinists adjust their tuning to match the equal temperament of the piano to avoid discordant notes. The fingers are conventionally numbered 1 (index) through 4 (little finger) in music notation , such as sheet music and etude books. Especially in instructional editions of violin music, numbers over
798-412: A "special committee" to explore the sale of Kenmore. On September 24, 2018, the retailer's CEO warned that the company was "running out of time" to salvage its business. Sears Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018, ahead of a $ 134 million debt payment due that day. On November 23, 2018, Sears Holdings released a list of 505 stores, including 266 Sears stores, that were for sale in
931-475: A Guarneri. "The Messiah" or "Le Messie" (also known as the "Salabue") made by Antonio Stradivari in 1716 remains pristine. It is now located in the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford . The most famous violin makers ( luthiers ) between the 16th century and the 18th century include: Significant changes occurred in the construction of the violin in the 18th century, particularly a longer neck which
1064-504: A Stradivari violin is £ 9.8 million ( US$ 15.9 million at that time), when the instrument known as the Lady Blunt was sold by Tarisio Auctions in an online auction on June 20, 2011. A violin generally consists of a spruce top (the soundboard , also known as the top plate , table , or belly ), maple ribs and back, two endblocks, a neck , a bridge , a soundpost, four strings, and various fittings, optionally including
1197-452: A colored silk wrapping at both ends, for identification of the string (e.g., G string, D string, A string or E string) and to provide friction against the pegs. The tapered pegs allow friction to be increased or decreased by the player applying appropriate pressure along the axis of the peg while turning it. Strings were first made of sheep gut (commonly known as catgut , which despite the name, did not come from cats), or simply gut, which
1330-727: A coming of age, financially, of the consumer sector. The company traded under the ticker symbol S and was a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1924 to 1999. In 1906, Sears opened its catalog plant and the Sears Merchandise Building Tower in Chicago's West Side . The building was the anchor of what would become the massive 40-acre (16 ha) Sears, Roebuck and Company Complex of offices, laboratories, and mail-order operations at Homan Avenue and Arthington Street. The complex served as corporate headquarters until 1973 when
1463-401: A farm household could desire. Sales continued to proliferate, and the prosperity of the company and their vision for more significant expansion led Sears and Rosenwald to take the company public in 1906, with a stock placement of $ 40 million ($ 1.4 billion today). They had to incorporate a new company to bring the operation public; Sears and Rosenwald established Sears, Roebuck and Company with
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#17327726453591596-443: A fingered A on the D string against the open A string), giving a ringing sort of "fiddling" sound. Playing an open string simultaneously with an identical stopped note can also be called for when more volume is required, especially in orchestral playing. Some classical violin parts have notes for which the composer requests the violinist to play an open string, because of the specific sonority created by an open string. Double stopping
1729-456: A fixed-pitch instrument such as a piano or accordion, the violin tunes to the corresponding note on that instrument rather than to any other tuning reference. The oboe is generally the instrument used to tune orchestras where violins are present since its sound is penetrating and can be heard over the other woodwinds.) The other strings are then tuned against each other in intervals of perfect fifths by bowing them in pairs. A minutely higher tuning
1862-414: A metal screw that moves a lever attached to the string end. They permit very small pitch adjustments much more easily than the pegs. Turning a fine tuner clockwise causes the pitch to become sharper (as the string is under more tension), and turning it counterclockwise, the pitch becomes flatter (as the string is under less tension). Fine tuners on all four of the strings are very helpful when using those with
1995-470: A new concept store called Sears Grand. Sears Grand stores carried everything that a regular Sears carries, and more. Sears Grand stores were about 175,000 to 225,000 square feet (16,300 to 20,900 m ). On November 17, 2004, Kmart Holdings Corporation announced it would acquire Sears, Roebuck, and Co. for $ 11 billion after Kmart completed its recovery from bankruptcy. As a part of the acquisition, Kmart Holding Corporation, along with Sears, Roebuck, and Co.,
2128-548: A new mail-order firm, again selling watches and jewelry, with Roebuck as his partner, operating as the A. C. Roebuck watch company. On September 16, 1893, they renamed the company Sears, Roebuck, and Co. and began to diversify the product lines offered in their catalogs. Before the Sears catalog, farmers near small rural towns usually purchased supplies, often at high prices and on credit, from local general stores with narrow selections of goods. Prices were negotiated and relied on
2261-464: A number of reasons. Hide glue is capable of making a thinner joint than most other glues. It is reversible (brittle enough to crack with carefully applied force and removable with hot water) when disassembly is needed. Since fresh hide glue sticks to old hide glue, more original wood can be preserved when repairing a joint. (More modern glues must be cleaned off entirely for the new joint to be sound, which generally involves scraping off some wood along with
2394-438: A particular technical challenge, for two reasons. Firstly, the difference in location of different notes becomes much narrower in high positions, making the notes more challenging to locate and in some cases to distinguish by ear. Secondly, the much shorter sounding length of the string in very high positions is a challenge for the right arm and bow in sounding the instrument effectively. The finer (and more expensive) an instrument,
2527-466: A publicity role. Sears offered Roebuck's half of the company to Chicago businessman Aaron Nusbaum , who in turn brought in his brother-in-law Julius Rosenwald , to whom Sears owed money. In August 1895, they bought Roebuck's half of the company for $ 75,000 ($ 2.7 million today), and that month the company was reincorporated in Illinois with a capital stock of $ 150,000 ($ 5.5 million today). The transaction
2660-683: A reduced number of 425 stores would remain open, including 223 Sears stores. Sears was based in the Sears Tower in Chicago from 1973 until 1995, and was later headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois from 1993 until 2021, the year when it announced that it would be selling its Hoffman Estates headquarters complex. On December 12, 2022, Sears Authorized Hometown Stores, LLC, and affiliated debtor Sears Hometown, Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and on December 26 announced
2793-475: A screw adjuster tightens or loosens the hair. Just forward of the frog, a leather thumb cushion (called the grip) and a winding protect the stick and provide a secure hold for the player's hand. Traditional windings are of wire (often silver or plated silver), silk, or baleen ("whalebone", now substituted by alternating strips of tan and black plastic.) Some fiberglass student bows employ a plastic sleeve as both grip and winding. Bow hair traditionally comes from
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#17327726453592926-616: A semitone higher, and the Mystery Sonatas by Biber , in which each movement has different scordatura tuning. In Indian classical music and Indian light music, the violin is likely to be tuned to D ♯ –A ♯ –D ♯ –A ♯ in the South Indian style. As there is no concept of absolute pitch in Indian classical music, musicians can use any convenient tuning to maintain these relative pitch intervals between
3059-415: A sign of an inferior instrument. The back and ribs are typically made of maple , most often with a matching striped figure , referred to as flame , fiddleback , or tiger stripe . The neck is usually maple with a flamed figure compatible with that of the ribs and back. It carries the fingerboard , typically made of ebony, but often some other wood stained or painted black on cheaper instruments. Ebony
3192-417: A small frame may use a so-called 7 ⁄ 8 size violin instead of a full-size instrument. Sometimes called a lady's violin , these instruments are slightly shorter than a full size violin, but tend to be high-quality instruments capable of producing a sound comparable to that of fine full size violins. The sizes of 5-string violins may differ from the normal 4-string. The instrument which corresponds to
3325-413: A specific sound especially in historically informed performance of Baroque music . Strings have a limited lifetime. Eventually, when oil, dirt, corrosion, and rosin accumulate, the mass of the string can become uneven along its length. Apart from obvious things, such as the winding of a string coming undone from wear, players generally change a string when it no longer plays "true" (with good intonation on
3458-404: A sponge and an elastic band for younger players who struggle with shoulder rests). The jaw and the shoulder must hold the violin firmly enough to allow it to remain stable when the left hand goes from a high position (a high pitched note far up on the fingerboard) to a low one (nearer to the pegbox). In the Indian posture, the stability of the violin is guaranteed by its scroll resting on the side of
3591-464: A steel core, and some players use them with synthetic strings. Since modern E strings are steel, a fine tuner is nearly always fitted for that string. Fine tuners are not used with gut strings, which are more elastic than steel or synthetic-core strings and do not respond adequately to the very small movements of fine tuners. To tune a violin, the A string is first tuned to a standard pitch (usually A=440 Hz ). (When accompanying or playing with
3724-518: A stretched left-hand position with the fingers extended. The term "double stop" is often used to encompass sounding an open string alongside a fingered note as well, even though only one finger stops the string. Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. , commonly known as Sears ( / s ɪər z / SEERZ ), is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald , with what began as
3857-441: A string is bowed or plucked without any finger stopping it, it is said to be an open string . This gives a different sound from a stopped string, since the string vibrates more freely at the nut than under a finger. Further, it is impossible to use vibrato fully on an open string (though a partial effect can be achieved by stopping a note an octave up on an adjacent string and vibrating that, which introduces an element of vibrato into
3990-507: A violin are usually made from different types of wood . Violins can be strung with gut , Perlon or other synthetic, or steel strings. A person who makes or repairs violins is called a luthier or violinmaker. One who makes or repairs bows is called an archetier or bowmaker . The word "violin" was first used in English in the 1570s. The word "violin" comes from "Italian violino , [a] diminutive of viola . The term "viola" comes from
4123-465: Is Camille Saint-Saëns ' Danse Macabre , where the solo violin's E string is tuned down to E ♭ to impart an eerie dissonance to the composition. Other examples are the third movement of Contrasts , by Béla Bartók , where the E string is tuned down to E ♭ and the G tuned to a G ♯ , Niccolò Paganini 's First Violin Concerto , where all four strings are designated to be tuned
Betts Stradivarius - Misplaced Pages Continue
4256-495: Is 356 mm (14.0 in), smaller in some 17th-century models. A 3 ⁄ 4 violin's body length is 335 mm (13.2 in), and a 1 ⁄ 2 size is 310 mm (12.2 in). With the violin's closest family member, the viola, size is specified as body length in inches or centimeters rather than fractional sizes. A full-size viola averages 40 cm (16 in). However, each individual adult will determine which size of viola to use. Occasionally, an adult with
4389-410: Is angled more toward the back of the instrument than in earlier examples, heavier strings, and a heavier bass bar. The majority of old instruments have undergone these modifications, and hence are in a significantly different state than when they left the hands of their makers, doubtless with differences in sound and response. But it is in their present (modified) condition that these instruments have set
4522-464: Is generally thought to be the maximum number of strings practical on a bowed string instrument; with more than seven strings, it would be impossible to play any particular inner string individually with the bow. Violins with seven strings are very rare. The extra strings on such violins typically are lower in pitch than the G-string; these strings are usually tuned (going from the highest added string to
4655-424: Is largely determined by the skill of the player, who may easily play more than two octaves on a single string, and four octaves on the instrument as a whole. Position names are mostly used for the lower positions and in method books and etudes; for this reason, it is uncommon to hear references to anything higher than seventh position. The highest position, practically speaking, is 13th position. Very high positions are
4788-448: Is less well defined: E 7 , the E two octaves above the open string (which is tuned to E 5 ) may be considered a practical limit for orchestral violin parts, but it is often possible to play higher, depending on the length of the fingerboard and the skill of the violinist. Yet higher notes (up to C 8 ) can be sounded by stopping the string, reaching the limit of the fingerboard, and/or by using artificial harmonics . The arched shape,
4921-609: Is likely to be tuned (E–A–E–A) in Dastgah-h Esfahan or in Dastgāh-e Šur is (E–A–D–E) and (E–A–E–E), in Dastgāh-e Māhur is (E–A–D–A). In Arabic classical music, the A and E strings are lowered by a whole step , i.e. G–D–G–D. This is to ease playing Arabic maqams , especially those containing quarter tones . While most violins have four strings, there are violins with additional strings, some with as many as seven. Seven
5054-425: Is often indicated in the music by the marking, for example, sul G or IV (a Roman numeral indicating to play on the fourth string; by convention, the strings are numbered from thinnest, highest pitch (I) to the lowest pitch (IV)). Even without an explicit instructions in the score, an advanced violinist will use her/his discretion and artistic sensibility to select which string to play specific notes or passages. If
5187-419: Is often voiced while gliding up or down the string, so the player can establish correct placement by ear. Outside of these exercises it should rarely be audible (unless the performer is consciously applying a portamento effect for expressive reasons). In the course of a shift in low positions, the thumb of the left hand moves up or down the neck of the instrument so as to remain in the same position relative to
5320-456: Is played with the fourth finger on the E-string, sounding a B5. Moving the hand up the neck, the first finger takes the place of the second finger, bringing the player into second position . Letting the first finger take the first-position place of the third finger brings the player to third position , and so on. A change of positions, with its associated movement of the hand, is referred to as
5453-400: Is related to Old Norse fiðla , Middle Dutch vedele , Dutch vedel , Old High German fidula , German Fiedel , ' a fiddle ' ; all of uncertain origin." As to the origin of the word "fiddle", the "...usual suggestion, based on resemblance in sound and sense, is that it is from Medieval Latin vitula ." The earliest stringed instruments were mostly plucked (for example,
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5586-460: Is seen in classical music which is imitating the drone of an organ (J. S. Bach, in his Partita in E for solo violin, achieved this), fiddling (e.g., Hoedown ) or where taking steps to avoid the open string is musically inappropriate (for instance in Baroque music where shifting position was less common). In quick passages of scales or arpeggios an open E string may simply be used for convenience if
5719-448: Is sometimes employed for solo playing to give the instrument a brighter sound; conversely, Baroque music is sometimes played using lower tunings to make the violin's sound more gentle. After tuning, the instrument's bridge may be examined to ensure that it is standing straight and centered between the inner nicks of the f-holes ; a crooked bridge may significantly affect the sound of an otherwise well-made violin. After extensive playing,
5852-406: Is the preferred material because of its hardness, beauty, and superior resistance to wear. Fingerboards are dressed to a particular transverse curve, and have a small lengthwise "scoop," or concavity, slightly more pronounced on the lower strings, especially when meant for gut or synthetic strings. Some old violins (and some made to appear old) have a grafted scroll , evidenced by a glue joint between
5985-413: Is used sometimes in lieu of adequate ear-training, guiding the placement of fingers by eye and not by ear. Especially in the early stages of learning to play, the so-called "ringing tones" are useful. There are nine such notes in first position, where a stopped note sounds a unison or octave with another (open) string, causing it to resonate sympathetically . Students often use these ringing tones to check
6118-487: Is usually played seated. In the 2000s and 2010s, some orchestras performing Baroque music (such as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra ) have had all of their violins and violas, solo and ensemble, perform standing up. The standard way of holding the violin is with the left side of the jaw resting on the chinrest of the violin, and supported by the left shoulder, often assisted by a shoulder rest (or
6251-531: Is when two separate strings are stopped by the fingers and bowed simultaneously, producing two continuous tones (typical intervals include 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, and octaves). Double-stops can be indicated in any position, though the widest interval that can be double-stopped naturally in one position is an octave (with the index finger on the lower string and the pinky finger on the higher string). Nonetheless, intervals of tenths or even more are sometimes required to be double-stopped in advanced repertoire, resulting in
6384-600: The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico . In 1997, Sears sold 85% of its Mexico affiliate to Grupo Carso . Sears Holdings continued to produce specialty catalogs and reintroduced a smaller version of the Holiday Wish Book in 2007. In 2003, Sears sold its U.S. retail credit card operation to Citibank . The remaining card operations for Sears Canada were sold to JPMorgan Chase in August 2005. In 2003, Sears opened
6517-919: The Discover credit card in 1985. However, these actions have been said to have distracted management's attention from the core retail business and allowed competing retailers to gain significant ground, culminating with Walmart surpassing Sears as the largest retailer in the United States in 1990. In the 1990s, the company began divesting itself of many non-retail entities, which were detrimental to its bottom line. Sears spun off its financial services arm, which included brokerage business Dean Witter Reynolds and Discover Card. It sold its mall building subsidiary Homart to General Growth Properties in 1995. Sears later acquired hardware chain Orchard Supply Hardware in 1996 and started home improvement store The Great Indoors in 1997. The cost of distributing
6650-689: The Sears Archer 600 typewriter as a rebranded Silverette model, manufactured by Silver Seiko Ltd. of Japan. The success of Sears outdoor products raised the attention of the Federal Government and the antitrust laws. Sears purchased David Bradley to manufacture farm and lawn equipment. Its success was broken up in 1962 as they sold more plows than John Deere. Sears sold half of the David Bradley factory in Bradley, Illinois to
6783-436: The Sears Tower was completed and served as the base of the mail-order catalog business until 1995. By 1907, under Rosenwald's leadership as vice president and treasurer, annual sales of the company climbed to roughly $ 50 million ($ 1.6 billion today). Sears resigned from the presidency in 1908 due to declining health, with Rosenwald named president and chairman of the board and taking on full control. In 1910, Sears acquired
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#17327726453596916-419: The violino piccolo and the pochette , but these are virtually unused. Most violins have a hollow wooden body, and commonly have four strings (sometimes five ), usually tuned in perfect fifths with notes G3, D4, A4, E5, and are most commonly played by drawing a bow across the strings. The violin can also be played by plucking the strings with the fingers ( pizzicato ) and, in specialized cases, by striking
7049-533: The 1920s to the 1950s, Sears built many urban department stores in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico (apart from, but not far from, existing central business districts ), and they overshadowed the mail-order business. Following World War II, the company expanded into suburban markets and malls. In 1959, it had formed the Homart Development Company for developing malls. Many of the company's stores have undergone major renovations or replacements since
7182-460: The 1980s. Sears began to diversify in the 1930s, creating Allstate Insurance Company in 1931 and placing Allstate representatives in its stores in 1934 (Allstate was also used as a house brand on a range of motorized vehicles sold by Sears). Over the decades, it established major national brands, such as Kenmore , Craftsman , DieHard , Silvertone , Supertone , and Toughskins — and marketed widely under its private labels , e.g., marketing
7315-409: The A string, and the fourth finger is in a downward extension from its regular position, e.g. D ♮ on the A string, with the other two fingers placed in between as required. As the position of the thumb is typically the same in "half position" as in first position, it is better thought of as a backwards extension of the whole hand than as a genuine position. The upper limit of the violin's range
7448-764: The David Bradley Plow company. This acquisition would lead to the manufacturing of riding mowers, chainsaws, tillers, etc., in the Bradley Illinois factory. The company was badly hurt during 1919–21 as a severe depression hit the nation's farms after farmers had over-expanded their holdings. To bail out the company, Rosenwald pledged $ 21 million ($ 358.7 million today) of his personal wealth in 1921. By 1922, Sears regained financial stability. Rosenwald decided to shift emphasis to urban America and brought in Robert E. Wood to take charge. Rosenwald oversaw
7581-667: The French king Charles IX ordered Andrea Amati to construct 24 violins for him in 1560. One of these "noble" instruments, the Charles IX , is the oldest surviving violin. The finest Renaissance carved and decorated violin in the world is the Gasparo da Salò ( c. 1574) owned by Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria and later, from 1841, by the Norwegian virtuoso Ole Bull , who used it for forty years and thousands of concerts, for its very powerful and beautiful tone, similar to that of
7714-726: The Greek lyre ). Two-stringed, bowed instruments, played upright and strung and bowed with horsehair, may have originated in the nomadic equestrian cultures of Central Asia, in forms closely resembling the modern-day Mongolian Morin huur and the Kazakh Kobyz . Similar and variant types were probably disseminated along east–west trading routes from Asia into the Middle East, and the Byzantine Empire . Rebec , fiddle and lira da braccio are generally considered
7847-659: The Newark Ohio Company that was shortly acquired by Roper Industries. Sears reached its pinnacle in the 1970s. In 1974, Sears completed the 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago, which became the world's tallest building , a title it took from the former Twin Towers in New York. Upon moving out of Chicago, Sears sold the Sears Tower in 1988. In the sale contract of the tower, Sears retained its naming rights to
7980-677: The Prairie Stone campus. The Sears catalog became known in the industry as "the Consumers' Bible". The company began selling to foreign customers after the American occupation of Greenland in World War II and the Philippines, among others, when locals ordered from catalogs left by soldiers. Novelists and story writers often portrayed the importance of the catalog in the emotional lives of rural folk. The catalog also entered
8113-440: The R.W. Sears Watch Company. That year, he met Alvah Curtis Roebuck , a watch repairman. In 1887, Sears and Roebuck relocated the business to Chicago, and the company published Richard Sears's first mail-order catalog, offering watches, diamonds, and jewelry. In 1889, Sears sold his business for $ 100,000 ($ 3 million in 2021 dollars) and relocated to Iowa, planning to be a rural banker. He returned to Chicago in 1892 and established
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#17327726453598246-584: The Sears Essentials format, only to change them later to Sears Grands. The combined company's profits peaked at $ 1.5 billion in 2006. By 2010, the company was no longer profitable; from 2011 to 2016, the company lost $ 10.4 billion. In 2014, its total debt ($ 4.2 billion at the end of January 2017) exceeded its market capitalization ($ 974.1 million as of March 21, 2017). Sears declined from more than 3,500 physical stores to 695 U.S. stores from 2010 to 2017. Sales at Sears stores dropped 10.3 percent in
8379-585: The ancestors of the violin, Several sources suggest alternative possibilities for the violin's origins, such as northern or western Europe. The first makers of violins probably borrowed from various developments of the Byzantine lyra. These included the vielle (also known as the fidel or viuola ) and the lira da braccio . The violin in its present form emerged in early 16th-century northern Italy . The earliest pictures of violins, albeit with three strings, are seen in northern Italy around 1530, at around
8512-519: The bankruptcy process, while all others would hold liquidation sales. On January 16, 2019, Sears Holdings announced it would remain open after Lampert won a bankruptcy auction for the company with an offer to keep about 400 stores open. On February 7, 2019, a bankruptcy judge approved a $ 5.2 billion plan by Sears's chairman and biggest shareholder to keep the business going. The approval meant roughly 425 stores, including 223 Sears stores, and 45,000 jobs would be preserved. In April 2019, Sears announced
8645-415: The better able it is to sustain good tone right to the top of the fingerboard, at the highest pitches on the E string. All notes (except those below the open D) can be played on more than one string. This is a standard design feature of stringed instruments; however, it differs from the piano, which has only one location for each of its 88 notes. For instance, the note of open A on the violin can be played as
8778-420: The body off balance and makes the shoulders rise. Another sign that comes from unhealthy tension is pain in the left hand, which indicates too much pressure when holding the violin. The left hand determines the sounding length of the string, and thus the pitch of the string, by "stopping" it (pressing it) against the fingerboard with the fingertips, producing different pitches. As the violin has no frets to stop
8911-400: The brand's huge popularity helped attract customers. Sears retail stores were pioneering and broke the conventions of the time in three ways: Many stores at this time were designed by architect George C. Nimmons and his firms. The architecture was driven by merchandising needs rather than the desired outer appearance. This made the stores excellent examples of the modern architecture of
9044-483: The building until 2003, but the Sears Tower retained the name until early 2009, when London-based insurer Willis Group Holdings, Ltd. was given the building's naming rights to encourage them to occupy the building. Sears moved to the new Prairie Stone Business Park in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, between 1993 and 1995. The Sears Centre is a 10,001-seat multi-purpose arena located in Hoffman Estates adjacent to
9177-666: The company announced that Transform Holdco would acquire Sears Hometown & Outlet Stores . As per deal, it might need to divest its Sears Outlet division to gain approval. On August 6, 2019, it was announced that 26 stores would close that October, including 21 Sears stores, among them the last Sears stores in Alabama and West Virginia , at Riverchase Galleria in Hoover and at Huntington Mall in Barboursville , respectively. The announcement also included plans to "accelerate
9310-417: The company was looking to focus on becoming a more tech-driven retailer. Sears's CEO and top shareholder said the sell-off of key assets in the last year had given the retailer the money it needs to speed up its transformation. Sears Holdings had lost a total of US$ 7 billion in the four years to 2015. In part, the retailer was trying to curb losses by using a loyalty program called Shop Your Way. Sears believed
9443-400: The correct positions on full-sized instruments. While related in some sense to the dimensions of the instruments, the fractional sizes are not intended to be literal descriptions of relative proportions. For example, a 3 ⁄ 4 -sized instrument is not three-quarters the length of a full size instrument. The body length (not including the neck) of a full-size, or 4 ⁄ 4 , violin
9576-507: The current Ford line ]). By 1895, the company was producing a 532-page catalog. Sales were over $ 400,000 ($ 12 million in 2021 dollars) in 1893 and over $ 750,000 ($ 20 million in 2021 dollars) two years later. By 1896, dolls, stoves, and groceries were added to the catalog. Despite the strong and growing sales, the national Panic of 1893 led to a full-scale economic depression , causing a cash squeeze and large quantities of unsold merchandise by 1895. Roebuck decided to quit, returning later in
9709-520: The design and construction of the firm's first department store, built on land within the Sears, Roebuck, and Company Complex. The store opened in 1925. In 1924, Rosenwald resigned the presidency but remained as chair until he died in 1932; his goal was to devote more time to philanthropy. The first store opened on February 2, 1925, as an experiment in the North Lawndale Sears, Roebuck and Company Complex . Despite its remote location on
9842-733: The expansion of our smaller store formats which includes opening additional Home & Life stores and adding several hundred Sears Hometown stores after the Sears Hometown and Outlet transaction closes." On August 31, 2019, management announced that Transform would close an additional 92 stores, including 15 Sears stores, by the end of 2019. Near the end of 2019, Sears sold the brand name DieHard to Advance Auto Parts for $ 200 million. A total of 100 more stores closed by January 2020. 51 Sears stores were closed in February 2020. More stores continued to close throughout 2020 and 2021, including
9975-429: The expression for "tenor violin" in 1797, from Italian and Old Provençal viola , [which came from] Medieval Latin vitula as a term which means ' stringed instrument ' , perhaps [coming] from Vitula , Roman goddess of joy..., or from related Latin verb vitulari , "to cry out in joy or exaltation." The related term Viola da gamba meaning ' bass viol ' (1724) is from Italian, literally "a viola for
10108-588: The family fortune in a speculative stock deal. Sears moved across the state to work as a railroad station agent in North Redwood , then Minneapolis . While he was in North Redwood, a jeweler refused delivery on a shipment of watches. Sears purchased them and sold them at a low price to the station agents, making a profit. He started a mail-order watch business in Minneapolis in 1886, calling it
10241-690: The final Sears in Maine at The Maine Mall. In September 2021, the company's website listed 35 Sears stores. That month, Sears announced that it would close more stores, including the last Sears store in New York City. The New York City Sears closed by November 24, 2021, with the potential to be redeveloped. Transformco announced in December 2021 its plans to sell the 2.3 million-square-foot Sears headquarters in Hoffman Estates, which includes 100 acres of undeveloped land. On January 19, 2022, Sears shut
10374-530: The final quarter of 2016 when compared to the same period in 2015. Sears spent much of 2014 and 2015 selling off portions of its balance sheet; namely, Lands' End and its stake in Sears Canada , one of the biggest e-commerce players in Canada, with Can$ 505 million in sales in 2015—more than Walmart and others who had begun pushing aggressively into online sales, such as Canadian Tire . Sears stated that
10507-400: The fingers (though the movement of the thumb may occur slightly before, or slightly after, the movement of the fingers). In such positions, the thumb is often thought of as an 'anchor' whose location defines what position the player is in. In very high positions, the thumb is unable to move with the fingers as the body of the instrument gets in the way. Instead, the thumb works around the neck of
10640-447: The first finger back down to a C ♯ , or the fourth finger up to an A ♮ , forms an extension. Extensions are commonly used where one or two notes are slightly out of an otherwise solid position, and give the benefit of being less intrusive than a shift or string crossing. The lowest position on the violin is referred to as "half position". In this position the first finger is on a "low first position" note, e.g. B ♭ on
10773-1050: The first of its Christmas catalogs known as the " Sears Wishbook ", a catalog featuring toys and gifts, separate from the annual Christmas Catalog. From 1908 to 1940, it included ready-to-assemble Sears Catalog Home kit houses. Sears opened a small store in Downtown Havana , Cuba in 1942. Sears opened its first store in Mexico City in 1947; the Mexican stores would later spin off into Sears Mexico , now owned by billionaire Carlos Slim 's Grupo Sanborns , which in 2020 operated more than 75 stores across Mexico. Sears had sales of US$ 78 million in other territories in 1953. Over time, Sears expanded into all Central American countries, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, and Spain. Currently Sears operates in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Puerto Rico. From
10906-410: The foot. While teachers point out the vital importance of good posture both for the sake of the quality of the playing and to reduce the chance of repetitive strain injury , advice as to what good posture is and how to achieve it differs in details. However, all insist on the importance of a natural relaxed position without tension or rigidity. Things which are almost universally recommended are keeping
11039-573: The four other Stradivaris in the Cremonese Collection donated by Gertrude Clarke Whittall in 1935. This article relating to violins is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Violin The violin , sometimes referred as a fiddle , is a wooden chordophone , and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano ) in regular use in the violin family . Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including
11172-432: The graduation (the thickness profile) of both the top and back, the varnish that coats its outside surface and the skill of the luthier in doing all of these steps. The varnish and especially the wood continue to improve with age, making the fixed supply of old well-made violins built by famous luthiers much sought-after. The majority of glued joints in the instrument use animal hide glue rather than common white glue for
11305-413: The harmonics), losing the desired tone, brilliance and intonation. String longevity depends on string quality and playing intensity. A violin is tuned in fifths, in the notes G 3 , D 4 , A 4 , E 5 . The lowest note of a violin, tuned normally, is G 3 , or G below middle C (C4) . (On rare occasions, the lowest string may be tuned down by as much as a fourth, to D 3 .) The highest note playable
11438-701: The instrument a more powerful sound and projection. In Europe, it served as the basis for the development of other stringed instruments used in Western classical music, such as the viola . Violinists and collectors particularly prize the fine historical instruments made by the Stradivari , Guarneri , Guadagnini and Amati families from the 16th to the 18th century in Brescia and Cremona (Italy) and by Jacob Stainer in Austria. According to their reputation,
11571-446: The instrument to sit at the point at which the neck meets the right bout of the body, and remains there while the fingers move between the high positions. A note played outside of the normal compass of a position, without any shift, is referred to as an extension . For instance, in third position on the A string, the hand naturally sits with the first finger on D ♮ and the fourth on either G ♮ or G ♯ . Stretching
11704-401: The intonation of the stopped note by seeing if it is harmonious with the open string. For example, when playing the stopped pitch "A" on the G string, the violinist could play the open D string at the same time, to check the intonation of the stopped "A". If the "A" is in tune, the "A" and the open D string should produce a harmonious perfect fourth. Violins are tuned in perfect fifths, like all
11837-439: The language, particularly of rural dwellers, as a euphemism for toilet paper, as its pages could be torn out and used as such. In addition, for many rural African-Americans, especially in areas dominated by Jim Crow racial segregation , the Sears catalog was a vital retail alternative to local white-population-dominated stores, bypassing the stores' frequent intention to deny them fair access to their merchandise. However, as
11970-404: The left hand on the fingerboard is characterized by "positions". First position, where most beginners start (although some methods start in third position), is the most commonly used position in string music. Music composed for beginning youth orchestras is often mostly in first position. The lowest note available in this position in standard tuning is an open G3; the highest note in first position
12103-410: The left wrist straight (or very nearly so) to allow the fingers of the left hand to move freely and to reduce the chance of injury and keeping either shoulder in a natural relaxed position and avoiding raising either of them in an exaggerated manner. This, like any other unwarranted tension, would limit freedom of motion, and increase the risk of injury. Hunching can hamper good playing because it throws
12236-506: The leg" (i.e. to hold between the legs)." A violin is the "modern form of the smaller, medieval viola da braccio ." ("arm viola") The violin is often called a fiddle. "Fiddle" can be used as the instrument's customary name in folk music, or as an informal name for the instrument in other styles of music. The word "fiddle" was first used in English in the late 14th century. The word "fiddle" comes from "fedele, fydyll, fidel, earlier fithele, from Old English fiðele ' fiddle ' , which
12369-419: The legal name Sears, Roebuck and Co. , in the state of New York, which effectively replaced the original company. The current company inherits the history of the old company, celebrating the original 1892 incorporation, rather than the 1906 revision, as the start of the company. Sears's successful 1906 initial public offering (IPO) marks the first major retail IPO in American financial history and represented
12502-462: The liquidation of the 115 largely owner-operated Hometown stores. As of November 2024, there are nine Sears stores remaining, with eight in the mainland U.S. and one location in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Richard Warren Sears was born in 1863 in Stewartville, Minnesota , to a wealthy family which moved to nearby Spring Valley . In 1879, his father died shortly after losing
12635-510: The lowest) to C, F, and B ♭ . If the instrument's playing length, or string length from nut to bridge, is equal to that of an ordinary full-scale violin; i.e., a bit less than 13 inches (33 cm), then it may be properly termed a violin. Some such instruments are somewhat longer and should be regarded as violas. Violins with five strings or more are typically used in jazz or folk music. Some custom-made instruments have extra strings which are not bowed, but which sound sympathetically, due to
12768-572: The membership scheme would enhance repeat business and customer loyalty in the long term. CEO Eddie Lampert also concluded an arrangement that sold the Craftsman brand to Stanley Black & Decker Inc. for approximately US$ 900 million. In October 2017, Sears and appliance manufacturer Whirlpool Corporation ended their 101-year-old association, reportedly due to pricing issues, although Whirlpool continued supplying Sears with Kenmore -branded appliances. In May 2018, Sears announced it had formed
12901-404: The nation urbanized, Sears's catalog business faced competition from city department stores. Rural America's population was slow-growing and possessed far less spending power than urban America. In the 1980s, the company began to diversify into non-retail entities such as buying Dean Witter and Coldwell Banker in 1981. In 1984, it launched Prodigy as a joint venture with IBM , and introduced
13034-413: The note does not have time to ring and develop a harsh timbre. In folk music, fiddling and other traditional music genres, open strings are commonly used for their resonant timbre. Playing an open string simultaneously with a stopped note on an adjacent string produces a bagpipe -like drone, often used by composers in imitation of folk music . Sometimes the two notes are identical (for instance, playing
13167-462: The notes may indicate which finger to use, with 0 or O indicating an open string. The chart to the right shows the arrangement of notes reachable in first position. Not shown on this chart is the way the spacing between note positions becomes closer as the fingers move up (in pitch) from the nut. The bars at the sides of the chart represent the usual possibilities for beginners' tape placements, at 1st, high 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fingers. The placement of
13300-408: The old glue.) Weaker, diluted glue is usually used to fasten the top to the ribs, and the nut to the fingerboard, since common repairs involve removing these parts. The purfling running around the edge of the spruce top provides some protection against cracks originating at the edge. It also allows the top to flex more independently of the rib structure. Painted-on faux purfling on the top is usually
13433-515: The once highly influential general merchandise catalog became prohibitive; sales and profits had declined. The company discontinued the catalog in 1993. It dismissed 50,000 workers who had filled the orders. In 1992, the company posted a $ 3.9 billion loss, the largest ever from an American retailer. In 1992, California successfully sued the company for falsely finding things wrong with automobiles in for repair for other reasons. In 1997, criminal charges were made. In 1998, Sears announced it had sold
13566-441: The onset of such wear while allowing the pegs to turn smoothly. The tuning G–D–A–E is used for most violin music, including Classical music, jazz, and folk music . Other tunings are occasionally employed; the G string, for example, can be tuned up to A. The use of nonstandard tunings in classical music is known as scordatura ; in some folk styles, it is called cross tuning . One famous example of scordatura in classical music
13699-434: The open A, or on the D string (in first to fourth positions) or even on the G string (very high up in sixth to ninth positions). Each string has a different tone quality , because of the different weights (thicknesses) of the strings and because of the resonances of other open strings. For instance, the G string is often regarded as having a very full, sonorous sound which is particularly appropriate to late Romantic music. This
13832-519: The opening of three new stores with a limited set of merchandise under the name Sears Home & Life. Also that month, Sears closed its store at Windward Mall in Kaneohe, Hawaii , and its store at Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook, Illinois (which was razed and already rebuilt as a 1-story store), making it the first post-bankruptcy closure for the brand since being bought by ESL. On June 3, 2019,
13965-462: The orchestral strings (violin, viola, cello) except the double bass, which is tuned in perfect fourths. Each subsequent note is stopped at a pitch the player perceives as the most harmonious, "when unaccompanied, [a violinist] does not play consistently in either the tempered or the natural [just] scale, but tends on the whole to conform with the Pythagorean scale ." When violinists are playing in
14098-492: The other strings, especially on a student instrument, and are sometimes built into the tailpiece. The fine tuners enable the performer to make small changes in the pitch of a string. At the scroll end, the strings wind around the wooden tuning pegs in the pegbox. The tuning pegs are tapered and fit into holes in the peg box. The tuning pegs are held in place by the friction of wood on wood. Strings may be made of metal or less commonly gut or gut wrapped in metal. Strings usually have
14231-513: The outskirts of Chicago, its success led to dozens of further openings across the country, many in conjunction with the company's mail-order offices, typically in lower-middle-class and working-class neighborhoods, far from the main downtown shopping district. This was considered highly unconventional at a time when shopping was concentrated in city centers, but through World War II , there was an extensive streetcar network in Chicago and other U.S. cities. However, rapidly increasing car ownership and
14364-415: The overtones). In the classical tradition, violinists will often use a string crossing or shift of position to allow them to avoid the change of timbre introduced by an open string, unless indicated by the composer. This is particularly true for the open E which is often regarded as having a harsh sound. However, there are also situations where an open string may be specifically chosen for artistic effect. This
14497-423: The pegbox and neck. Many authentic old instruments have had their necks reset to a slightly increased angle, and lengthened by about a centimeter. The neck graft allows the original scroll to be kept with a Baroque violin when bringing its neck into conformance with modern standards. The bridge is a precisely cut piece of maple that forms the lower anchor point of the vibrating length of the strings and transmits
14630-411: The pickups plugged into instrument amplifiers and speakers to produce sound. The violin has come to be incorporated in many non-Western music cultures, including Indian music and Iranian music . The name fiddle is often used regardless of the type of music played on it. The violin was first known in 16th-century Italy, with some further modifications occurring in the 18th and 19th centuries to give
14763-474: The quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or equal it, though this belief is disputed. Great numbers of instruments have come from the hands of less famous makers, as well as still greater numbers of mass-produced commercial "trade violins" coming from cottage industries in places such as Saxony , Bohemia , and Mirecourt . Many of these trade instruments were formerly sold by Sears, Roebuck and Co. and other mass merchandisers. The components of
14896-625: The remaining 15 Sears Auto Centers in the United States with a message on the Sears Auto Center website stating: "Auto Centers have closed for business. We appreciate your patronage over the years. If you have any questions concerning warranty claims, please visit us at Sears Help." In May 2022, it was announced that roughly 100 more Sears Hometown stores, including the last four in Michigan, would close permanently. On December 13, 2022, Sears Hometown filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It
15029-648: The remnants of Western Auto (which it had acquired in 1998) to Roanoke -based Advance Auto Parts . The business deal was not what experts in the after-market automotive industry expected: Sears, Roebuck became "one of the largest shareholders" after obtaining a 40% stake in Advance Auto Parts and merging their two store networks, which included Western Auto's wholesale and retail operations. The existing store network of Advance Auto Parts, comprising 915 stores in 17 U.S. states, merged with 590 U.S.-based Parts America Stores in addition to 40 Western Auto stores in
15162-512: The same time as the words "violino" and "vyollon" are seen in Italian and French documents. One of the earliest explicit descriptions of the instrument, including its tuning, is from the Epitome musical by Jambe de Fer , published in Lyon in 1556. By this time, the violin had already begun to spread throughout Europe . The violin proved very popular, both among street musicians and the nobility;
15295-404: The standard for perfection in violin craftsmanship and sound, and violin makers all over the world try to come as close to this ideal as possible. To this day, instruments from the so-called Golden Age of violin making , especially those made by Stradivari, Guarneri del Gesù, and Montagnana, are the most sought-after instruments by both collectors and performers. The current record amount paid for
15428-423: The stick, at all levels of craftsmanship. Inexpensive bows for students are made of less costly timbers, or from fiberglass (Glasser). The violin is played either seated or standing up. Solo players (whether playing alone, with a piano or with an orchestra) play mostly standing up (unless prevented by a physical disability such as in the case of Itzhak Perlman ). In contrast, in the orchestra and in chamber music it
15561-422: The storekeeper's estimate of a customer's creditworthiness. Sears built an opposite business model by offering in their catalogs a larger selection of products at published prices. By 1894, the Sears catalog had grown to 322 pages, including many new items, such as sewing machines, bicycles, sporting goods and automobiles (later produced, from 1905 to 1915, by Lincoln Motor Car Works of Chicago [no relation to
15694-580: The strings with the wooden side of the bow ( col legno ). Violins are important instruments in a wide variety of musical genres. They are most prominent in the Western classical tradition , both in ensembles (from chamber music to orchestras ) and as solo instruments. Violins are also important in many varieties of folk music , including country music , bluegrass music , and in jazz . Electric violins with solid bodies and piezoelectric pickups are used in some forms of rock music and jazz fusion , with
15827-425: The strings, as is usual with the guitar , the player must know exactly where to place the fingers on the strings to play with good intonation (tuning). Beginning violinists play open strings and the lowest position, nearest to the nut. Students often start with relatively easy keys, such as A Major and G major. Students are taught scales and simple melodies. Through practice of scales and arpeggios and ear training ,
15960-524: The strings. Another prevalent tuning with these intervals is B ♭ –F–B ♭ –F, which corresponds to Sa–Pa–Sa–Pa in the Indian carnatic classical music style. In the North Indian Hindustani style, the tuning is usually Pa-Sa-Pa-Sa instead of Sa–Pa–Sa–Pa. This could correspond to F–B ♭ –F–B ♭ , for instance. In Iranian classical music and Iranian light music, the violin has different tunings in each Dastgah ; it
16093-470: The tail of a grey male horse (which has predominantly white hair). Some cheaper bows use synthetic fiber. Solid rosin is rubbed onto the hair, to render it slightly sticky; when the bow is drawn across a string, the friction between them makes the string vibrate. Traditional materials for the more costly bow sticks include snakewood , and brazilwood (which is also known as Pernambuco wood). Some recent bow design innovations use carbon fiber (CodaBows) for
16226-716: The thickness of the wood, and its physical qualities govern the sound of a violin. Patterns of the node made by sand or glitter sprinkled on the plates with the plate vibrated at certain frequencies, called Chladni patterns , are occasionally used by luthiers to verify their work before assembling the instrument. Apart from the standard full ( 4 ⁄ 4 ) size, violins are also made in so-called fractional sizes of 7 ⁄ 8 , 3 ⁄ 4 , 1 ⁄ 2 , 1 ⁄ 4 , 1 ⁄ 8 , 1 ⁄ 10 , 1 ⁄ 16 , 1 ⁄ 32 and even 1 ⁄ 64 . These smaller instruments are commonly used by young players whose fingers are not long enough to reach
16359-493: The time—styles made famous by Bertram Goodhue and Eliel Saarinen . Its stores were oriented to motorists. Set apart from existing business districts amid residential areas occupied by their target audience, they had ample, free, off-street parking and communicated a clear corporate identity. In the 1930s, the company designed fully air-conditioned, "windowless" stores, such as Sears-Pico in 1939 in Los Angeles , which
16492-440: The top and the back of the instrument. The tailpiece anchors the strings to the lower bout of the violin by means of the tailgut, which loops around an ebony button called the tailpin (sometimes confusingly called the endpin , like the cello's spike), which fits into a tapered hole in the bottom block. The E string will often have a fine tuning lever worked by a small screw turned by the fingers. Fine tuners may also be applied to
16625-406: The tuning pegs and their holes can become worn, making the pegs more likely to slip under tension. A slipping peg leads to the pitch of the string dropping somewhat, or if the peg becomes completely loose, to the string completely losing tension. A violin in which the tuning pegs are slipping needs to be repaired by a luthier or violin repairperson. Peg dope or peg compound, used regularly, can delay
16758-424: The vibration of the strings to the body of the instrument. Its top curve holds the strings at the proper height from the fingerboard in an arc, allowing each to be sounded separately by the bow. The sound post , or soul post , fits precisely inside the instrument between the back and top, at a carefully chosen spot near the treble foot of the bridge, which it helps support. It also influences the modes of vibration of
16891-410: The vibrations of the bowed strings. A violin is usually played using a bow consisting of a stick with a ribbon of horsehair strung between the tip and frog (or nut, or heel) at opposite ends. A typical violin bow may be 75 cm (30 in) overall, and weigh about 60 g (2.1 oz). Viola bows may be about 5 mm (0.20 in) shorter and 10 g (0.35 oz) heavier. At the frog end,
17024-479: The violin in the violin octet is the mezzo violin, tuned the same as a violin but with a slightly longer body. The strings of the mezzo violin are the same length as those of the standard violin. This instrument is not in common use. Violins are tuned by turning the pegs in the pegbox under the scroll or by adjusting the fine tuner screws at the tailpiece . All violins have pegs; fine tuners (also called fine adjusters ) are optional. Most fine tuners consist of
17157-410: The violinist's left hand eventually "finds" the notes intuitively by muscle memory . Beginners sometimes rely on tapes placed on the fingerboard for proper left hand finger placement, but usually abandon the tapes quickly as they advance. Another commonly used marking technique uses dots of white-out on the fingerboard, which wear off in a few weeks of regular practice. This practice, unfortunately,
17290-518: Was handled by Albert Henry Loeb of Chicago law firm Loeb & Adler (now Arnstein & Lehr ); copies of the transaction are still displayed on the firm's walls. Sears and Rosenwald got along well with each other, but not with Nusbaum; they bought his interest in the firm for $ 1.3 million in 1903 ($ 44.1 million today). Rosenwald brought to the mail-order firm a rational management philosophy and diversified product lines: dry goods, consumer durables, drugs, hardware, furniture, and nearly anything else
17423-433: Was stretched, dried, and twisted. In the early years of the 20th century, strings were made of either gut or steel. Modern strings may be gut, solid steel , stranded steel, or various synthetic materials such as perlon , wound with various metals, and sometimes plated with silver . Most E strings are unwound, either plain or plated steel. Gut strings are not as common as they once were, but many performers use them to achieve
17556-428: Was the first to have an open plan selling floor (instead of breaking up the floor into discrete sections). Sears was also a pioneer in creating department stores that catered to men and women. The stores included hardware and building materials. It de-emphasized the latest clothing fashions in favor of practical and durable clothing and allowed customers to select goods without the aid of a clerk. In 1933, Sears issued
17689-579: Was transformed into the new Sears Holdings Corporation . The new company started trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange as SHLD; Sears sold its single-letter ticker symbol 'S' in the New York Stock Exchange that it had held since 1910 to Sprint Corporation . The new corporation announced that it would continue to operate stores under both the Sears and Kmart brands. In 2005, the company began renovating some Kmart stores and converting them to
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