At first,String instrument
was plucked. And then how about violin, viola, and cello??
Bowed instrument appeared
from the culture of horse rider, from the Central of Asia. For the example,
Turkic and Mongolian horseman’s two stringed instrument, which played with
horsehair bow. Until now, the bow of violin, viola, and cello, have been made
by horse hair, that’s because
of horse rider culture.
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| http://www.davidfinck.com/blog/2012/01/16/horsehair-and-wood-re-hairing-a-violin-bow/ |
And then, these instrument
was spread to East of Asia, China, India, Middle East, and the Byzantine
Empire. Some of them, became erhu in China,
the rebab in
the Middle East, the lyra in
the Byzantine Empire and the esraj in India.
Modern violin emerged in
early 16th-Century Northern Italy, especially port towns of Venice and Genoa which associated
with Central Asia through the trade routes of the silk road.
The modern European violin evolved from various bowed stringed instrument
from the Middle East and the Byzantine Empire. Three kind of current instrument which is usually referred as the forerunner of
violin is :
1.Rebec (derived from
the Arabic
bowed instrument rebab and
the Byzantine lyra)
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| http://www.trombamarina.com/instruments/rebec |
2.Vielle( one of the most popular instruments of the Medieval
period, derived from the lyra, a Byzantine bowed instrument)
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| http://earlymusichicago.org/photos/NewberryConsortConcertMarch2006/Vielle1.jpg |
3.lira da braccio most closely related to vielle
The oldest violin, which have 4 strings, has been made in
1555 by Andrea Amati.By this time, Violin immediately became very popular, both
among street musicians and the nobility. Even the French king Charles IX ordered Amati to
make 24 violins for him in 1560.
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| http://pinchgutopera.typepad.com/pinchgut_opera/2009/07/australias-first-lira-da-gamba.html |
Great changes of violin’s construction occurred in the 18th
century, especially in the length and angle of the violin’s
neck. The majority of the old instrument have been updated fit with this new
standard size. Therefore there is a differences in sound and response before
and after update.
To this day, instruments from the "Golden Age" of
violin making, especially those made by Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesù, are
the most sought instruments by the collectors and performers.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2006053/Stradivarius-violin-sells-record-10m.html
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