INTRODUCTION OF THE VIOLIN



Where does the violin come from? What are its ancestors? These seemingly unimportant questions have left perplex many an historian and expert who have tried in vain to unravel the mystery by studying the etymology!

Behind the perfection of the violin as we know it today - from every point of view - is the laborious evolution whose beginnings are lost in the mists of time...
ORIGIN OF THE VIOLIN

In Europe, the violin can be traced back to the 9th century, with its origin possibly in Asia. Not less than 450 years were required to bring it to its present form, representative of the experience acquired throughout the centuries by the makers of stringed instruments.


The primitive form of the stringed instruments is the musical bow, an arched stick held by a taut string tied to its two ends. The string is divided by a loop or bridge. In order to enhance its resonance, the primitive bow was held before the mouth. In the more evolved forms, resonance enhancers included coconut, calabash (a hollowed out, dried gourd generally used as a recipient), tortoise shells, wooden boxes or pig bladders that were thrust tightly between the strings and the bow


The origin of stringed instruments played by rubbing the strings is linked to the appearance of the bow. The more ancient stringed instruments were played by plucking the strings with the fingers. Perhaps the bow was at first a simple stick before the hair-bow was adopted. As there is no trace of a bow instrument in classical antiquity, it is freely admitted that the bow was imported from Asia by the Arabs or the Nordic tribes. But whether the evolution occurred in northern Europe, the Near East, India or Central Asia remains a mystery... The bow may have appeared in various places at the same time, as did several major discoveries in the history of mankind!...

As from the 11th century we also find in Europe the TWO MAJOR TYPES of bow instruments: first, the instruments with a pear-shaped or pyriform resonance box, no distinct neck, no pegs, and a flat belly; second the flat-bodied, oval or elliptic instruments, whose only slightly arched body was connected to the generally flat back by ribs. These instruments had a distinct neck (vielle of the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages in Europe, as from the 11th century, we can find the vielle and the rote (rotta), a simple reproduction of the ancient zither: in order to use it as a bow instrument and produce various sounds by shortening the strings, a fingerboard was placed between the sound-box and the upper transversal bar of the zither.
In the 10th and 11th centuries the rote was widely used in all of central Europe, as testified by iconography. It was superseded by the vielle in the 12th century.
Already quite early on, small instruments were played by holding against the left shoulder or the breast and not only on the knees!


CHRONOLOGY

The violin emerged in its definitive form between 1520 and 1550 in northern Italy with Milan as its centre (cf. map). The first violin makers in the area included, from Brescia, Giovan Giacomo Dalla Corna (ca. 1484-1530) and Zanetto de Michelis da Montechiaro (ca. 1488-1562) who made lutes, lyres and other similar instruments. It should be noted, however, that the instruments of these violin makers were not all violins that had reached the final phase of their evolution.