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Modern Violin Originated From 9th Century Asia
by Sopphe Nemese
It is difficult to imagine formal black tie affairs without formal music, and it is impossible to imagine formal music without the violin, a four-stringed instrument tuned in fifths and played with a bow.. For many years, the violin has become the symbol of musical elegance and class. Today, when non-musicians see a small four-stringed instrument tucked underneath a musician's chin, it is immediately labeled as a violin and the musician, as a classical artist who properly belongs in gilded halls among prominent guests. Although presently the violin is not restricted to high class use, its present reputation is definitely that of elegance. In truth however, the violin evolved from humble beginnings. Violin history, though somewhat complicated, is also somehow humbling.
Violin history actually began as far back as the 800s with the emergence of primitive forms from whence the present violin was theoretically based. It is theorized that these primitive templates may have come not from Europe but from Asia. In four and a half centuries, the present form of the violin emerged.
In all probability, the first primitive predecessor of the violin in violin history is the musical bow, which is exactly what its name implies. It is but a simple instrument with a bow and a string attached to it. Like the violin, the bow was not played by plucking like other instruments with strings, but was rubbed to produce sound. In the 1000s, bows were divided into two types, oval instruments and pear-shaped resonance boxes.
Other instruments which may find their way in violin history as forerunners of the violin are the rebec, the rebab, the ravanastron, the rote and the vielle. In time, the stringed ancestors of the violin began to have four strings. It was however, ultimately from the viola de braccio that the present violin emerged. By the mid 1500s, the violin came to be widely used. It's name is of Latin origin.
Violin history reached its height in the 1500s in Milan, Italy where, because of the wide use of the instrument, the violin also came to be produced by violin master craftsmen. Probably the first historically known master was Andrea Amati who was also the first to have been known to have made the first modern-looking violin. It was from him that Charles IX ordered twenty-four violins. In time, the name Amati as a premier violin maker came to be associated not just with Andrea but with his whole family which included Antonio Amati (who put up the school of Cremona), Hieronymus Amati I, Nicolo Amati and Hieronymus Amati II.
Other famous luthiers or violin makers in violin history were Andrea Guarneri, Giuseppe Guarneri, Pietro Guarneri, Alexander Gagliano, Ferdinand Gagliano, Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Jacob Stainer, Guarneri del Gesu and the illustrious Antonio Stradivari whose models are the most preferred by musicians the world over. Today, the violin is regarded as a member of a stringed family of instruments which include the cello and the viola. The violin may also be called a fiddle which is an informal term for it.
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Larry's Stringed Instrument Collection 2008
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