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The violin is a wooden stringed musical instrument with a slender curved body and four strings, played by drawing a bow across its strings.

Producing a rich, expressive sound capable of conveying a wide emotional range from sorrowful tenderness to joyful brightness, the violin is one of the most widely taught and played instruments globally, and a person who plays the violin is known as a violinist.

The violin emerged in northern Italy in the early 16th century as a compact, bowed string instrument that consolidated features from earlier bowed instruments such as the vielle, rebec, and lira da braccio, and it quickly took its familiar form by mid-century.

The English violin comes from the Italian violino, a diminutive of viola. The word entered English by the 1570s and is connected to older medieval names for bowed instruments derived from Medieval Latin and Old Provençal roots. Eastern bowed instruments, such as the Arabic rabab and various Central land East Asian two-stringed fiddles, are part of the broader family of bowed strings that influenced European development through trade and cultural contact.

The violin family (violin, viola, cello) first appears in paintings and treatises of the 16th century, and makers in northern Italian centers such as Brescia and Cremona refined its design into the form we recognize today.

From the Renaissance through the Baroque and into the Classical and Romantic eras, both instrument design and playing technique evolved. Luthiers such as Amati, Guarneri, and Stradivari established tonal and aesthetic standards during the 17th and 18th centuries. Later changes included neck lengthening, bass-bar and soundpost adjustments, and a modernized setup to support greater projection and virtuosic technique required by Romantic and modern repertoire.

The violin's development continued into the 19th and 20th centuries as players, composers, and makers adapted the instrument for larger concert halls and new styles. At the same time, folk and vernacular traditions kept parallel paths of evolution outside the conservatory system.

A modern violin consists of a hollow arched body (top and back plates joined to ribs), a neck with a fingerboard. This bridge transmits string vibrations to the top plate, a soundpost inside the body, four strings tuned in fifths, and various fittings, including pegs, a tailpiece, and a chinrest. The top (usually spruce) and back/sides (usually maple) are carefully carved and graduated. The internal setup, especially the bass bar and soundpost placement, as well as the bridge shape, critically shapes tone and response.

Small variations in wood selection, plate thickness, varnish, and setup create distinctive voices among instruments. Historically significant instruments crafted by Cremonese makers are prized for their exceptional acoustic properties, but the craft continues to thrive worldwide, with many modern makers producing highly playable instruments.

Playing techniques range from fundamental right- and left-hand basics (controlled bowing, intonation, shifting) to expressive devices such as vibrato, portamento, spiccato, ricochet, double stops, harmonics, pizzicato, and complex bow-arm articulations used across historical and modern repertoires.

Violin technique also varies with historical practice. Baroque bowing and phrasing differ from modern Franco-Belgian and Russian schools, and historically informed performance practices restore earlier setups and articulation conventions when appropriate.

Violin musical styles are vast, and include classical solo, chamber, and orchestral repertoire, jazz and contemporary experimental work, and diverse folk traditions where the same instrument is often called a fiddle.

In practice, the difference between a violin and a fiddle is stylistic and contextual rather than physical. However, fiddlers sometimes set up their instruments (bridge shape, string choice, tunings) to meet idiomatic needs. American fiddling grew directly from immigrant traditions (Irish, Scottish, English), fused with regional influences to produce distinct local styles (Old-time, Bluegrass, Appalachian, Cajun, Texas), tunes and bowing patterns adapted to dances, social settings, and ensemble roles, producing repertoire and techniques specific to American vernacular music.

Five violinists whose names appear consistently in surveys and lists of great violinists include Niccolò Paganini, Jascha Heifetz, Itzhak Periman, Fritz Kreisler, and Yehudi Menuhin, who represent different eras and contributions to the instrument's tradition.

Below, we have assembled a collection of informational or instructional online resources for the violin, although e-commerce sites selling the instruments would be listed in our Musical Instruments area.

 

 

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