The History of Violins
Violin history is long and complex. Beginning with forebears like ravanahatha and rebab, eventually evolving into the iconic instrument we know today.
Andrea Amati of Cremona, Italy was responsible for creating the first modern violin. Using a mould to ensure precision measurements and creating more vaulted instrument bodies than its predecessors’ flat soundboards.
The Ravanahatha
One of the oldest instruments known to humankind, the Ravanahatha can be traced back to Sri Lanka’s Hela civilisation where its history can be found. Legend holds that its creation by King Ravana as part of his devotion for Lord Shiva is legendary.
The Ravanahatha is played with a bow across its strings and features a fingerboard similar to that of a violin. Constructed with locally available materials like bamboo, metal pipes and strings, coconut shells, leather, and horsehair; its design may also vary slightly from model to model.
Believed to have been taken from Ravana after his death by Hanuman (the monkey god), this instrument made its way west across India where it continues to thrive in Rajasthani culture and remains one of the most frequently played multi-stringed string music instruments today.
The Ravanahatha has a bowl-shaped resonator made of cut coconut shell and covered by goat hide; punctures at regular intervals allow fine tuning knobs to be fixed to fix knobs that provide fine tuning capabilities. At its heart lies its bejara, smoothed hair from horse tail, which gives this instrument its signature sound.
The Rebab
The Rebab is a key instrument in Indonesian traditional music. This three-string spike fiddle is commonly employed during Mak Yong dance drama performances and healing rituals known as Main Puteri.
Malaysian rebab is an integral component of traditional musical ensembles called gamelans.
History begins in Medieval India and was later spread throughout North Africa and Europe via trade routes.
Rebabs, comprising three to four strings strung through a pegbox with the bow held like the German double bass bow-hold (held from the side), are one of the oldest known stringed instruments and were likely an ancestor to modern violin for sale, yet never became popular across Western Europe.
Pear-shaped rebabs were the primary instrument used in antiquity, though boat-shaped examples also had their use. Archetypes have been discovered both in Britain and Iran – for instance one dating back 789 years was discovered at Goshen by Professor Flinders Petrie of Delegation en Perse with permission of Ernest Leroux in Goshen.
The Veille
The violin has long been considered one of the world’s leading stringed instruments. With its elegant form and captivating sound, its popularity has only increased through time; though its origins remain mysterious.
The roots of violin can be traced to Middle Eastern instruments called rababs, two-string instruments played upright on shoulders.
Other forerunners to the violin include the morin khuur from Mongolia and Greek kithara; both instruments were traditionally used to perform traditional rituals as well as music, eventually reaching Europe via trade routes.
The violin’s development was an ongoing journey that took several generations to perfect its form and shape into what we know as today’s classical instrument. Handmade by master craftsmen, each subtlety of patterning must be meticulously created in order to produce tone and resonance balance that fits within its playing chambers.
The Viol
The violin is one of the oldest instruments ever developed, dating back to Asia and spreading throughout Europe via trade routes. Known for being both small and high-pitched string instruments, its long history makes it popular as both spontaneous and formal compositional instruments.
Violinists employ bow and strings with various hand positions learned through instruction and practice; fretless violins require their players to know where exactly each finger goes on each string.
Its body is comprised of wood and features a bridge set between two f-holes in its body (Fig. 1). Each string connects to a saddle which runs along the fingerboard before being tied off into a pegbox on either end; these strings may consist of metal, gut core or synthetic core materials (see Fig. 2).