Yet, none of these early violins exist today. This history of the violin is inferred from paintings from this era that feature violins. With these two violin makers, the history of the violin emerges from the fog of legend to hard fact. Violins produced by these two still exist today. In fact, the oldest violin in existence today is one built by Andre Amati around Though the violin was introduced to the world in the middle of the sixteenth century, there was a similar looking instrument made in about the fourteenth century called the viol.
The viol thrived in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the violin and the viol actually coexisted in the Baroque period. Instruments in the viol family did not have the f-shaped sound hole of the violin but rather a C-shaped sound hole or even some more decorative shape. During the 18th century, the Baroque violin had a shorter and thicker neck than modern violins, and the fingerboard was shorter and flatter — violinists almost never played past the first position.
There were no chin rests or shoulder rests on violins from this time. The sound of this violin was sweeter than the instruments that preceded it and sounded more like the human voice. Gut strings and a shorter bow than what we use now gave the violin a more muted sound. During the Baroque era, violinists used bows with a convex shape, rather than the concave shape we know today. Their bows were usually made of snakewood , which is a little heavier and denser than the wood most of our bows are made of now.
During the Classical era, composers wrote many violin sonatas and concertos, and the instrument became the main voice of the orchestra. The violin went through a few major changes during the Classical period to really make it the instrument we know now.
The fingerboard became longer for violinists to play in higher positions , and the angle was changed to accommodate a higher string tension. The bass bar was lengthened, the bridge was made higher, and the soundpost was thickened. These modifications all gave the instrument a bigger sound better suited for larger concert halls.
Finally, the modern violin bow was created around Francois Tourte began making the bows longer and with pernambuco wood. The concave bend in the stick was created by heating up the wood, whereas previously the convex bend was cut into the wood. During this time, the bow transitioned from merely being considered a violin accessory to being considered equal to the instrument. In , Louis Spohr invented the chin rest. This changed the course of violin music forever, as the invention made playing high, virtuosic passages much easier.
The original chin rest design was a block of wood placed over the tailpiece. Today, we have a plethora of options to choose from, varying between heights, placement, and materials. During the Romantic period, the E, A, and D strings were still gut, but the G string was typically gut wound with silver.
This string setup lasted for the entire 19th century. In the early 20th century, violinists began playing on steel strings. Not everyone loved the sound, and many fine instruments buckled under the high tension of the new strings. Throughout the century, musicians experimented with combinations of gut and steel strings, until synthetic strings were created in by Thomastick-Infeld. These new strings were named Dominant , and are still widely used today.
In the s, musicians began experimenting with ways to amplify the violin. Jazz musicians like Stuff Smith modified their violins by adding pickups and amplifiers. The electric violin was invented in by a company called GE. It was practically unplayable and was a regular violin with a megaphone attached to it. As rock music quickly gained popularity, more and more companies experimented with the electric violin, until it evolved to the general instrument that we know today.
Now, electric violins come in a variety of different styles: solid body, skeleton, and silent violins. They can all come with a variety of different strings — this is especially helpful for musicians who play both the violin and viola — they can purchase a 5 string electric violin and get the best of both worlds! Andrea Amati is often credited as the inventor of the modern violin. Charles IX, an Amati violin named after the King of France, is the oldest violin that still exists today.
The oldest known ancestor to the violin is the ravanastron , dating back to BCE and found on the island of Sri Lanka. The ravanastron had one inch string that spanned three octaves, which is similar to the combined tonal range and string length of all four strings on a contemporary violin.
However, stringed instruments appear throughout the ancient world, from the Chinese erhu to the Greek kithara. The rebec from the 10th century Middle East is the first believed to be held under the chin while played. The rebec had three strings. Some sources say the rebec made its way to Western Europe via the Muslim conquest of Spain. Others say the rebec was developed in Spain during the Muslim Conquest as an evolution of the Arabic rabab.
The rabab was a two-string instrument played upright. One of the earliest evolutions of the rebec was the French vielle. The vielle had three to five strings. It was popular with Medieval troubadours. The modern violin was developed in Europe, with its origins firmly in Italy. Paintings depict a three-string violin as early as Often referred to as the "concertmaster," the first chair violinist has become the leader of the orchestra, second only to the conductor.
She tunes the orchestra, plays the violin solos, and coordinates how the other strings should play their parts in perfect harmony. All rights reserved. History Magazine. Italian musical masters took the violin from fiddle to first chair Strummed, plucked, or bowed, violins had been making music for centuries before Andrea Amati and Antonio Stradivari brought them to new heights in the 16th and 17th centuries.
A vielle, an ancestor of the modern violin, appears in a fresco. Museum of Navarra, Pamplona. First Among Instruments. Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Sonata Prima for Violin by Giuuseppe Tartini. Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice. Share Tweet Email.
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