The narrative arc of The Violin Maker’s Secret mirrors the folk ballad from the British Islands that dates to the 17th century called “The Two Sisters,” or the Scottish translation “The Twa Sisters” (Zierke, Reinhard. “The Twa Sisters / The Two Sisters / The Bows of London / The Wind and Rain / The Berkshire Tragedy / Binnorie / Minorie.” Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music, 2026). There are many variations of the ballad, but the general story of the song follows two sisters who fall in love with the same man, and the older sister pushes the younger sister into a body of water and drowns her in jealousy. In many versions of the ballad, someone crafts an instrument from the bones and hair of the murdered sister, and when played, the instrument reveals the truth of the murder (Zierke).

A Brothers Grimm tale titled “The Singing Bone” mimics this chronicle: Two brothers seek to kill a boar to win a reward from a king, and the younger brother with a pure heart succeeds. The older brother then murders the younger brother and presents the boar to the king himself. Years later, a shepherd discovered one of the younger brother’s bones and carved a mouthpiece for his horn. When the shepherd played the horn for the king, the king realized the truth of the murder and executed the older brother (Ashliman, D. L. “The Singing Bone.” University of Pittsburgh, 2002).

These stories, especially “The Two Sisters,” heavily influence Woods’s construction of the history of the violin in The Violin Maker’s Secret. Clara and Ursula are the two sisters, but Clara isn’t in love with Ursula’s fiancé. Still, Ursula murders her, and Clara dies in her beloved William’s arms, and William imbues her spirit into a violin that he plays at Clara’s funeral, revealing the truth of the murder. Woods engages with the murder ballad to create the magical violin, but she changes the more macabre element of the story, using parts of the murdered sister’s body to create the instrument, to a mystical element of magically transferring Clara’s very soul into the violin, and the violin serves as the driving force behind the entirety of the novel’s events.