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History of the Violin
The long and complex history of the violin begins with appearance of bowed instruments
in the Byzantine and Islamic empires of the 9th century. Filtering into Europe, these
instruments evolved to become a family of instruments split between the lira da braccio
and the lira da gamba.
Initially, the lira da gamba, more well-known as the viola da gamba, predominated.
The various sizes of this instrument made up the viol family prevalent in early music.
With their deeper pitch and somewhat different sound, the viola da gambas have seen
a resurgence of popularity in recent years, but beginning in the 15th and 16th centuries
the lira da braccio began to pull ahead.
Lira da braccio literally means "viol for the arm", and defined the general method in
which the modern violin is played. Sometime around 1500 the violin seems to have
evolved away from the lira da braccio to become its own instrument. First mentioned
about 1530, the violin underwent a meteoric rise in popularity outshining the da braccio
to the point that instrument was effectively extinct in the first few decades of the 18th
century.
No violins from the early 1500's survive, but numerous examples after show the evolution
and fine-tuning that the design underwent throughout the 16th and 17th century. Perfected
by the great makers of the mid-1600's, the violin would culminate in Cremona, Italy with
craftsmen such as Amati, Guarneri, and most famously Antonio Stradivari.
Antonio Stradivari's methods are thought to derive from Amati, who may have been his
teacher, but are effectively very different instruments. Equally respected, the instruments
made by Giuseppe Guarneri command similar prices and desirability among players.
At the opposite end of the spectrum as far as design are the violins of Jacob Stainer,
an Austrian maker in Cremona that flourished somewhat earlier than Stradivarius and
Guarneri.
Since Stradivari's time, the violin has changed little and remains an essentially perfected
instrument, but variations still tend along the lines of Stainer or Guarneri. The violin's
wide popularity to this day makes it among the most commonly manufactured
instruments in the world, with hundreds of makers and manufacturers currently active,
with the majority copying Stradivarius' designs.
For five centuries the violin has held the position of king of the bowed stringed instruments.
It seems like that many more centuries are yet to come. With advances in synthetic
materials, availability of new types of wood, and leaps in string technology, the evolution
and history of the violin may not yet be complete.
