Maryaguirre
StringsRenaissance–Baroque (1400–1750)

Violin

Also known as fiddle · violino

Front view of a varnished golden-brown violin with two f-holes, an ebony tailpiece and fingerboard and four strings, photographed upright against a soft grey background.
The Francesca violin by Antonio Stradivari, Cremona, 1694, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photo: Antonio Stradivari (maker); photograph by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0. Image credit

The violin is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the modern violin family, with four strings tuned a fifth apart and set into vibration by a horsehair bow. It took its recognisable form in northern Italy in the sixteenth century and was refined in Cremona over the next two hundred years. It leads the orchestra, anchors the string quartet, stars in the concerto and, under the name fiddle, drives dance and folk music in many regions.

Cremona and the standard pattern

Nobody can name the inventor of the violin with certainty. Historians generally agree that it appeared in northern Italy early in the sixteenth century, drawing on earlier bowed instruments such as the rebec and the lira da braccio, and that its makers were working in several towns, including Brescia and Cremona. What is better documented is the workshop of Andrea Amati in Cremona, which by the 1560s was supplying instruments to European courts, including that of France.

Amati's descendants and pupils established the standards that later makers have copied. His grandson Nicolò Amati trained apprentices, and the Guarneri and Rugeri families worked alongside them. Antonio Stradivari, born in the 1640s and active until his death in 1737, is associated with a so-called golden period beginning around 1700. The exact dates of his training, and whether he learned in the Amati shop, remain debated, because workshop records are incomplete.

Changes continued after the Cremonese age. In the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, players wanted more power to fill larger halls. Makers and repairers lengthened the neck, tilted it back and raised the bridge, a modification applied to many surviving old instruments. An Edinburgh violin of about 1720 is unusual for keeping its original shorter neck and wedged fingerboard. Around the same time, the French bowmaker François Tourte is usually credited with setting the pattern of the modern bow.

Carved woods, each with a job

A violin is built from a small number of woods chosen for how they behave. The top is carved from spruce, the back and ribs from maple, and the fingerboard, pegs and tailpiece are commonly ebony, as in the Edinburgh example. Top and back are carved on both faces, with a gentle arch outside and a graduated thickness inside that the maker adjusts by ear and touch. The ribs, bent with heat, join them to form a hollow box about 35 centimetres long in standard size.

Two hidden parts are critical. A long strip of spruce, the bass bar, is glued under the lower strings to strengthen the top and spread bass vibrations. A slim spruce dowel, the soundpost, stands between top and back under the treble foot of the bridge and acts as a pivot that links the two plates. Moving it a millimetre can change the tone. The bridge itself is a thin, cut piece of maple that transmits the strings' motion into the body, and the two f-shaped holes let air move in and out.

Friction as a sound source

A bowed string does not ring like a plucked one. Rosin on the bow hair makes it grip the string, which is pulled sideways until it slips back, then caught again, many hundreds of times each second. This stick-slip motion keeps the string vibrating for as long as the bow moves, which is why the violin can sustain a note and swell or fade it at will.

The body then does the work of a loudspeaker. The bridge rocks under the string's motion, the top and back vibrate together, and the air inside the box resonates, each with its own favoured frequencies. Varnish, the thickness of the plates and the wood's density all have effects, though scientists have not settled exactly how much each matters to the sound listeners hear. Players speak of brightness, warmth, focus and response, terms that blend what the ear hears with how the instrument feels under the bow.

From G3 to E7 and beyond

The four strings are tuned in perfect fifths to G3, D4, A4 and E5, a pattern that gives about two and a half octaves in the first position of the left hand and close to four octaves once the hand moves higher. Solo writing often rises to E7 or above, where the tone becomes thin and whistle-like. There is no fixed top note, and the practical limit depends on the player and the passage.

The four strings have different personalities. The lowest string is dark and powerful, the two middle strings sound warm, and the E string is brilliant and penetrating. Different bow positions alter the tone further: near the bridge it turns glassy, over the fingerboard soft and veiled. Harmonics, played by touching a string lightly, give flute-like tones an octave or more above the stopped pitch.

Chin, shoulder and bow arm

The violin is held between the left collarbone and the jaw, often with a chin rest and a shoulder rest to keep it steady. The left hand finds pitches along the unfretted fingerboard, which demands a fine ear, since no frets mark the notes. Vibrato, a small rocking of the finger that varies the pitch, gives sustained notes warmth and is part of most classical playing and of some folk styles.

The right arm controls the bow and therefore the sound. A down-bow tends to carry more weight than an up-bow, and bowings are chosen with that in mind to shape phrases and rhythm. Players produce a wide range of articulations: long legato strokes, bouncing spiccato, hammered martelé, plucked pizzicato, and notes drawn with the wooden stick of the bow, called col legno. Double stops, where two strings sound at once, allow the violin to play harmony as well as melody.

Sizes, fiddles and relatives

Violins come in fractional sizes, from very small to full size, so that children can learn on an instrument suited to their arm length. The same instrument with a different style of playing is called a fiddle, and folk fiddlers often tune the strings differently, a practice known as scordatura or cross-tuning, for extra resonance or drone effects. Baroque violins use gut strings and a lighter, differently shaped bow, and sound softer and more speech-like than modern instruments.

The violin family includes the Viola, a fifth lower, and the Cello and double bass, lower again. Five-string violins add a lower C string. Many electric violins dispense with a resonant body and use pickups. Beyond Europe, the violin has been adopted in Indian and Iranian music, where it is tuned and played according to local practice.

The orchestra’s front desks and beyond

In the symphony orchestra, violins are divided into firsts and seconds, each commonly with twelve to sixteen players seated two to a desk. The first violins usually carry the melody, and their principal, the concertmaster, leads the section and the orchestra’s tuning. String quartets, made up of two violins, viola and cello, form the core of chamber music, and trios, quintets and duos with piano extend the tradition.

As a soloist, the violin has inspired concertos from the Baroque to the present, and solo sonatas for unaccompanied violin are among the most exacting works in the repertory. Outside the concert hall, fiddle traditions are important in Celtic, Scandinavian, Appalachian, Eastern European and many other folk musics, and the violin also appears in jazz, country and popular music. Its ability to bend and slide between pitches suits styles that do not follow fixed tuning.

Rosin, dust and humidity

Each session leaves rosin dust on the strings and the top, which dulls the sound if left to build up. Most players wipe the instrument gently with a soft dry cloth after playing, and loosen the bow hair before putting the bow away, so the stick does not stay under tension. The hair is periodically replaced, as it wears and loses its grip.

Violins dislike extreme conditions. Dry air can open seams or crack the top; heat and cold can shift the bridge and soundpost. The bridge should stand upright, since string tension tends to pull it out of true, and adjustments to the bridge, soundpost or pegs are the work of a trained violin maker or repairer. A padded case kept in a stable environment, and strings replaced when they sound dull, keep an instrument in good condition.

Facts from the workshop

  • Drawings, moulds and tools from Stradivari's workshop survive in Cremona, where most were donated to the Town Hall in 1930.
  • One museum counts only 23 documented instruments by Andrea Amati as surviving today.
  • Early violin makers produced instruments for royal patrons; Andrea Amati is recorded as making instruments for the French court.
  • A single bow is strung with roughly 150 to 200 horsehairs, which are treated with rosin so that they catch the string.
  • The violin's tuning in fifths is shared by the viola and cello, which is why the basic logic of the left hand carries over between them.

Terms used in this entry

bass bar
A long spruce strip glued inside the top under the lowest string to support it and spread vibration.
concertmaster
The leading first violinist of an orchestra, who leads the string section and is responsible for tuning.
double stop
Bowing or playing two strings at the same time to sound two notes together.
pizzicato
A playing technique in which the strings are plucked with the finger instead of bowed.
purfling
A decorative inlay of thin wood strips along the edge of the plates that also helps prevent cracks from spreading.
rosin
A hardened tree resin rubbed on bow hair so that it grips the string.
scordatura
Tuning the strings to pitches other than the standard ones for a special effect.
soundpost
A small spruce dowel wedged inside the body between top and back, which couples the two plates.
vibrato
A slight, rapid variation in pitch produced by rocking the left-hand finger, used to add warmth.

Browse the full glossary

References

  1. Google Arts & Culture (Museo del Violino, Cremona). Two centuries of Cremonese violinmaking — Google Arts & Culture. artsandculture.google.com/story/two-centuries-of-cremonese-violinmaking-museo-del-violino/xQVxAhr8seMBKg?hl=en
  2. Musical Instrument Museum (MIM), Phoenix. See a Rare Andrea Amati Violin in MIM’s Europe Gallery | Musical Instrument Museum. mim.org/news/see-a-rare-andrea-amati-violin-in-mims-europe-gallery
  3. Musical Instrument Museum (MIM), Phoenix. Stradivarius: Origins and Legacy of the Greatest Violin Maker - Musical Instrument Museum. mim.org/special-exhibitions/stradivarius
  4. Philharmonia Orchestra. Violin | Philharmonia. philharmonia.co.uk/resources/instruments/violin
  5. University of Edinburgh, St Cecilia’s Hall. "Violin" — St Cecilia's Hall (c. 1720). collections.ed.ac.uk/stcecilias/record/95863
  6. Google Arts & Culture. Violin — Google Arts & Culture. artsandculture.google.com/entity/violin/m07y_7?hl=en

Sources were consulted for facts and context; the text is original. See Sources and Methodology.

Published Last reviewed 1,365 words · 6 min read

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Keep exploring: instruments that share ancestry, technique or repertoire with the violin.

Front view of a dark reddish-brown viola with two f-holes, black tailpiece, fingerboard and pegs, and four strings, shown upright against a pale grey background.
Strings

Viola

The viola is the middle voice of the violin family, tuned a fifth below the violin to C, G, D and A and held under the chin and played with a bow. Its body is larger than a violin's, but not large enough to match its low pitch, which gives it a dark, slightly husky tone. Music for it is usually written in the alto clef. It fills the inner harmony of the orchestra and the string quartet and has a solo repertoire that grew mostly in the twentieth century.

Renaissance–Baroque (1400–1750)
Full front view of a red-brown cello with f-holes, ebony tailpiece, fingerboard and pegs, and a metal endpin, standing upright against a plain grey studio background.
Strings

Cello

The cello is the tenor-bass member of the violin family: a four-string instrument played seated, with its body resting on a floor spike between the player’s knees. Its strings are tuned in fifths an octave below the viola, giving a compass of roughly four octaves that spans much of the human bass and tenor voice and more. Developed in sixteenth-century Italy, it moved from supporting bass lines to concertos, suites and chamber music, and it remains a fixture of orchestras and string quartets.

Renaissance–Baroque (1400–1750)
Three-quarter view of an aged reddish-brown double bass with sloping shoulders, f-holes, ebony tailpiece and fingerboard, three strings and a turned black endpin, against a grey background.
Strings

Double Bass

The double bass is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern orchestra, standing well over a metre and a half tall and played upright from a stool or standing. It is tuned in fourths rather than fifths and sounds an octave lower than written. Its ancestry is debated, because it blends features of the viol and violin families. It anchors orchestral harmony, and in jazz and bluegrass it is usually plucked to keep the beat.

Renaissance–Baroque (1400–1750)
Bowl-back mandolin with a spruce top, ornate black fingerboard and pegbox inlaid with mother-of-pearl, a gilt lyre-shaped tailpiece and eight strings, shown upright from the front on a grey background.
Strings

Mandolin

The mandolin is a small, pear-shaped lute with eight metal strings grouped in four pairs and tuned like a violin. Born from Italian lutes of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it developed a rounded Neapolitan body and, later, flat-backed and carved arch-top American forms. Because a plucked note fades fast, players sustain pitch with rapid tremolo picking. Its repertoire stretches from Baroque concertos and opera serenades to Irish reels, Brazilian choro and bluegrass.

Renaissance–Baroque (1400–1750)
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Strings

Harp

The harp is a plucked string instrument whose strings run in a triangular frame at an angle to the soundboard, one string for each pitch. Harps of many shapes have been played for at least four thousand years. The modern concert harp, with 47 strings and seven pedals, became fully chromatic in the early nineteenth century through a mechanism patented by Sébastien Érard. Smaller lever harps and regional harps continue in folk, sacred and popular music around the world.

Classical–Romantic (1750–1900)
Rosewood grand piano with carved scroll cheek blocks, tapered turned legs on brass casters and a lyre-shaped pedal assembly, shown from the keyboard end with the lid and music desk raised against a plain white background.
Keyboard

Piano

The piano is a keyboard instrument in which felt-covered hammers strike tensioned metal strings, and in which the player shapes loudness through the speed of the touch. Devised in Italy around 1700, it grew through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries into an iron-framed machine with a standard compass of 88 keys. It serves as solo voice, accompanist, chamber partner and orchestral colour, and it remains a working tool for composing, teaching and rehearsing in many musical traditions.

Renaissance–Baroque (1400–1750)

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