The Violin

The violin is the smallest and highest instrument of the violin family, which also includes the viola, the cello and – with some qualification – the double bass. Four strings tuned in fifths, a fretless fingerboard and a bow of wood and horsehair make an instrument whose tone can be shaped without steps: in pitch, volume, colour and articulation. The design has barely changed in almost 500 years; instruments made by Stradivari in the early eighteenth century are played on the greatest stages today. At the same time the violin is one of the most international instruments there is: it has been taken up in India, the Arab world, Ireland, Scandinavia, the Americas and East Asia, and developed there with different postures, tunings and techniques. This article covers history, construction, acoustics, technique, teaching and repertoire, as well as playing traditions around the world, the instrument market and the practical path to playing.

1Overview and classification

The violin is a composite chordophone: the string carrier (the neck) and the resonator (the body) are firmly joined. In the Hornbostel-Sachs system it belongs to the box-neck lutes played with a bow (321.322-71). It differs fundamentally from the viols that were widespread in Europe at the same period: viols had frets, usually six strings tuned in fourths and a third, flat backs and sloping shoulders, and were held between the knees; the violin family has no frets, four strings in fifths, arched backs and – in the case of the violin and viola – a posture at the shoulder and chin (“da braccio”, on the arm).

Within the string family the violin is the soprano. The viola lies a fifth lower (C3–G3–D4–A4), the cello an octave below the viola, and the double bass, tuned in fourths, below that. In the symphony orchestra the violins are by far the largest group, divided into firsts and seconds (14–16 and 12–14 players respectively in large orchestras). The string quartet has two violins, and in chamber music with piano the violin is the most frequent partner.

Musically its importance rests on three qualities: a bowed note can be sustained indefinitely and changed while it sounds; fretless pitch allows fine shades of intonation, glissandi and a vibrato of great expressive power; and the bow makes possible an enormous variety of articulations, from broad legato to bouncing spiccato. This closeness to the voice is one reason why the violin accompanies or imitates singing traditions in so many cultures.

2Names and etymology

The English word violin comes from the Italian violino, a diminutive of viola (“little viola”). Viola itself goes back through medieval Latin vitula or vidula, which also gave Old French viele and German Fidel. The German word Geige is old (Middle High German gīge); it first denoted bowed instruments in general and is probably onomatopoeic, connected with a back-and-forth movement.

The violin in other languages

Language	Name	Note
Italian	violino	the language of origin; viola means the viola
German	Violine; Geige	“Geige” is the everyday word for the same instrument
French	violon	“violon d’Ingres” means a hobby (after the painter Ingres)
Spanish / Portuguese	violín / violino	–
Polish / Czech	skrzypce / housle	–
Russian	скрипка (skripka)	–
Arabic	kamān, kamanja	originally the name of the spike fiddle
Turkish	keman	–
Tamil / Telugu	vayalin / fiḍēlu	central to Carnatic music
Chinese	小提琴 (xiǎotíqín)	“small held string instrument”
Japanese	バイオリン (baiorin)	from English
Norwegian	fiolin; hardingfele	the hardingfele is the Hardanger fiddle, with sympathetic strings

3Prehistory: bowed instruments before the violin

The bow as a way of making sound is documented in Central Asia and the Middle East from the ninth and tenth centuries. Arabic and Persian sources describe the rabāb, a bowed instrument that reached Europe by way of the Iberian peninsula and Byzantium. Several types developed from it in medieval Europe:

Instrument	Period	Features
Rebec	about 11th–17th century	pear-shaped, carved from one piece, usually three strings; an instrument of dance and of travelling musicians
Fiddle (vielle)	about 12th–15th century	a flat body with ribs, 3–5 strings, often with a drone string; played on the arm or the knee
Lira da braccio	about 1480–1600	an Italian Renaissance instrument with 7 strings (two of them drones); used to accompany improvised singing
Viola da gamba	from about 1490	frets, six strings, held between the legs; a separate, parallel family

From the fiddle and the lira da braccio the violin took the posture on the arm, and from the lira also elements of the body shape (the arching, the corners, and f-holes as a development of C-holes). What was new was the restriction to four strings in fifths: it gives a wide range in a small space and a logical system of fingering that repeats on every string.

4Origins in northern Italy

The earliest references to “violini” date from the 1520s and 1530s. A fresco by Gaudenzio Ferrari in the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Saronno (about 1535) shows a three-string instrument that already has the shape of a violin. The earliest surviving instruments come from Cremona and from Andrea Amati (before 1511–1577): violins, violas and cellos, some from a magnificently painted set built around 1560–1570 for King Charles IX of France. Amati established the basic form still in use: an arched top and back, ribs with corner blocks, inlaid purfling, a scroll and four strings.

A second school developed in parallel in Brescia around Gasparo da Salò (1540–1609) and Giovanni Paolo Maggini (1580–about 1630), whose instruments are broader and more strongly built and whose violas are especially prized. The question of whether Cremona or Brescia came “first” has receded in scholarship in favour of a shared north Italian origin.

At first the violin was an instrument of dance music and town musicians, while the viol was considered more refined. That changed in the early seventeenth century: Claudio Monteverdi used violins in his opera L’Orfeo (1607), Biagio Marini published sonatas with double stops and tremolo from 1617, and at the French court the Vingt-quatre Violons du Roi (from 1626) formed the first permanent string orchestra in Europe.

5The golden age of violin making

• 1560–1577 Andrea Amati builds the oldest surviving violins.
• 1580–1630 His sons Antonio and Girolamo (“the brothers Amati”) refine the form.
• 1630–1684 Nicolò Amati (1596–1684), Andrea’s grandson, develops the “Grand Amati” model and trains important pupils. After the plague of 1630 he is almost the only master left in Cremona.
• from 1666 Antonio Stradivari (about 1644–1737) signs instruments of his own; around 1690 he builds the longer “long pattern”, and from about 1700 to 1725 comes his “golden period”.
• 1640s–1720s Jacob Stainer (about 1617–1683) in Absam, Tyrol, builds highly arched instruments that were more expensive than Stradivari’s in the eighteenth century.
• 1680–1745 The Guarneri family: Andrea, Pietro “da Mantova”, Giuseppe “filius Andreae”, Pietro “da Venezia” and Giuseppe “del Gesù” (1698–1744), whose powerful, irregular instruments Paganini played (“Il Cannone”).
• 18th century Other centres: Venice (Matteo Goffriller, Domenico Montagnana, Santo Serafin), Naples (the Gagliano family), Milan (Carlo Giuseppe Testore, Giovanni Grancino), and later Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (Piacenza, Milan, Parma, Turin).

On present knowledge Stradivari built around 1,100 instruments, of which some 650 survive, including about 500 violins. Many bear the names of former owners or of anecdotes (“Messiah”, “Lady Blunt”, “Dolphin”). The “Messiah” of 1716 is considered almost unplayed and is now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

Why do the old Italians sound so good?

Few questions in organology have been discussed so much. The factors usually named are these:

• The wood: the Little Ice Age (the Maunder Minimum, about 1645–1715) is said to have produced particularly even, dense spruce; dendrochronological studies do show narrow annual rings, but the effect on sound is not proven.
• Chemical treatment of the wood: analyses (by Joseph Nagyvary and Hwan-Ching Tai among others) found evidence of mineral treatments, with borax or salts for instance, possibly to protect against woodworm.
• Varnish and ground: studies at the Musée de la Musique (Paris, 2009) found an oil-based ground and an oil-resin varnish – no secret ingredient, but careful technique.
• Age and playing: the wood changes over centuries; whether that improves the sound is disputed.
• Workmanship: the masters’ arching and plate thicknesses are beautifully judged; today they are measured by computer tomography and copied.

Double-blind studies led by Claudia Fritz and Joseph Curtin (Indianapolis 2010, Paris 2012, New York 2014 and 2017) found that internationally renowned soloists and listeners could not reliably distinguish fine new instruments from old Italian ones, and often preferred the new. That does not diminish the historic and craft standing of the old masters – but it shows that violin making today can reach the same level.

6The violin transformed: Baroque to today

The instruments of the Amati and Stradivari look from the outside much like today’s violins, but almost all of them were rebuilt in the nineteenth century. The changes served greater volume and brilliance for larger halls, and a virtuosity that reached into higher positions.

Feature	Baroque violin (about 1700)	Modern violin (from about 1830)
Neck	shorter, almost level with the top, nailed on	longer (about 130 mm), angled back, mortised in
Fingerboard	shorter, often wedge-shaped and veneered maple	longer (about 270 mm), solid ebony
Bass bar	shorter and lighter	longer and stronger (greater string pressure)
Bridge	lower, more openly cut	higher, more substantial
Strings	plain gut, with a wound G string (from about 1660)	synthetic, steel or wound gut
Chin rest, shoulder rest	none	chin rest (Spohr, about 1820), shoulder rest (20th century)
Concert pitch	very variable by region, often around 415 Hz	440–443 Hz
Bow	lighter, convex or straight, shorter	the Tourte bow: concave, heavier, more even

Since the 1960s, historically informed performance (Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Reinhard Goebel, Sigiswald Kuijken, Andrew Manze, Rachel Podger) has again used instruments in baroque set-up. Many original instruments have been converted back for the purpose.

7Violin making worldwide

After the Italian flowering, violin making shifted to several centres that remain influential today:

Centre	Period	Significance
Mittenwald (Bavaria)	from 1684 (Matthias Klotz)	family workshops; today the state vocational school for musical instrument making (founded 1858)
Markneukirchen / Vogtland (Saxony) and Schönbach (Luby, Bohemia)	from the 17th century	mass production with a division of labour; around 1900 the world leader in school and trade instruments
Mirecourt (Lorraine)	from the 17th century	the French centre; Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (1798–1875) became the most important maker and dealer of the nineteenth century in Paris; national school of violin making since 1970
London	18th–20th century	W. E. Hill & Sons: dealers, experts and bow makers, and authors of the standard biography of Stradivari (1902)
Cremona (revived)	since 1938	the international school of violin making (today the Istituto Antonio Stradivari), the Museo del Violino, some 150 workshops; UNESCO cultural heritage 2012
Japan, Korea	from the 1880s	Masakichi Suzuki founded Japan’s first violin factory in Nagoya in 1887
China	since the 1980s	today the largest producer in the world, concentrating on student instruments (the Taixing region among others), and increasingly on fine hand-made work
USA	20th/21st century	a centre of modern makers and of research (the Violin Society of America, the Oberlin Acoustics Workshop)

In Germany the trade is learnt through a three-year apprenticeship with journeyman and master examinations; internationally there are schools in Mittenwald, Cremona, Newark (United Kingdom), Mirecourt, Salt Lake City and Chicago.

8Construction in detail

A violin consists of around 70 separate parts joined without screws, using warm hide or bone glue. The glue is deliberately weaker than the wood: under stress a glue joint opens first rather than the wood cracking – and the instrument can be opened for repair.

Main dimensions of a 4/4 violin (guide values, depending on the model)

Dimension	Value
Body length	about 355–358 mm
Width, upper / middle / lower bout	about 166 / 110 / 206 mm
Rib height	about 30–32 mm
Thickness of the top	about 2.4–3.2 mm (spruce)
Thickness of the back	about 2.5–4.5 mm (thickest in the middle)
String length (nut to bridge)	about 325–330 mm
Neck length / body stop	about 130 / 195 mm (a ratio of 2:3)
Bridge height	about 33 mm
Weight without chin rest	about 380–420 g

Parts and woods

Part	Wood / material	Function
Top	spruce (Picea abies), often from the Alps (Val di Fiemme, Bavaria, Switzerland), in two pieces with fine, even grain	the most important vibrating surface; the f-holes
Back, ribs	sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus), often flamed, classically from the Balkans or Bosnia	resonating body, reflection
Neck and scroll	maple	stability, the pegbox
Bass bar	spruce, about 270 mm long	under the G-string side; supports the top and distributes vibration
Soundpost	spruce, about 6 mm in diameter	unglued, just behind the treble foot of the bridge; it links top and back, and the smallest shift changes the sound
Blocks and linings	willow, spruce or lime	internal reinforcement of the rib structure
Purfling	black-white-black, for instance dyed pear and poplar	protection against edge cracks, and decoration
Fingerboard, nut, saddle	ebony	the playing surface
Pegs, tailpiece, chin rest	ebony, boxwood, rosewood; the tailpiece also carbon or titanium	tuning, attaching the strings
Bridge	maple (often by Aubert or Despiau)	transmits the vibration of the strings; held only by string pressure

How a violin is built

A master instrument takes about 200–300 hours of work. The main stages: choosing the wood; building the rib structure on an inside mould (the Italian method) or an outside mould; gluing on the back and top after working the arching and the plate thicknesses (“tuning” the plates by tap tone and, today, by their resonant frequencies and Chladni patterns); inlaying the purfling; cutting the f-holes; fitting the bass bar; carving the neck and scroll; grounding and varnishing; and finally the set-up: soundpost, bridge, nut, fingerboard and strings. The set-up has a great effect on sound and playability, and on good instruments it is readjusted several times.

Varnish

Violin varnish protects the wood and shapes the appearance; its effect on the sound is smaller than often claimed but not nil (varnish that is too thick or too hard damps the instrument). A distinction is made between oil varnishes (linseed oil with resins such as colophony or amber, slow-drying, typical of Cremona) and spirit varnishes (resins such as shellac or sandarac dissolved in alcohol, quick-drying, widespread in France and Germany in the nineteenth century). Many workshops today “antique” new instruments to imitate the wear of old models.

9The bow

The bow matters as much to the sound as the instrument; professional violinists often invest a considerable part of their budget in one.

History

Early bows were convex, shorter and lighter, and the hair tension was sometimes regulated with the thumb. Around 1700 straight bows with a screw appeared (the “Corelli bow”), around 1760 the longer “Tartini bow” and the transitional type after Wilhelm Cramer. Around 1780–1790, François Xavier Tourte (1747–1835) in Paris – probably working with Giovanni Battista Viotti – standardised the modern bow: a concave (heat-bent) pernambuco stick, a fixed length and weight distribution, and a frog with a metal ferrule that holds the hair flat and wide. Later makers such as Dominique Peccatte, Nicolas Maire, Joseph Henry, Eugène Sartory and Joseph Alfred Lamy shaped the French school, which remains the benchmark.

Construction

Part	Description
Stick	round or octagonal, about 73–75 cm; pernambuco (Paubrasilia echinata), brazilwood, ironwood, carbon fibre or fibreglass
Head (tip)	with a face plate of ivory substitute, bone or metal
Frog	ebony, with a pearl eye and a slide; it holds the hair
Screw and eyelet	tension the hair
Winding and thumb leather	silver, gold or whalebone winding, for grip and weight balance
Hair	about 150–200 white stallion hairs, usually from Mongolia, China or Siberia

A violin bow typically weighs 58–62 g; more important than the total weight are the balance point (about 18–20 cm from the frog), the elasticity of the stick and the way it responds. Pernambuco has been listed in Appendix II of the Washington convention on trade in endangered species (CITES) since 2007; new sticks and travel with bows are subject to particular documentation requirements. The bow makers’ International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative supports reforestation in Brazil. Carbon-fibre bows are robust, unaffected by climate and affordable, and have won acceptance among professionals too.

Rosin

Rosin is purified resin from conifers. It gives the hair grip: the bow sticks to the string and carries it along until it releases and springs back. Light rosin is harder and usual for the violin, dark rosin softer and used for cello and double bass. Additions such as gold, silver or copper are said to change the sound – what is demonstrable is above all the difference in hardness and stickiness. Hypoallergenic types are available.

10Strings

Type of string	Construction	Sound and properties
Gut	twisted sheep gut, plain or wound	warm, rich in overtones, capable of the finest nuances; sensitive to humidity and slow to settle; historically the standard
Synthetic	a core of nylon, perlon or a high-performance polymer, wound with aluminium, silver or tungsten	gut-like and stable in tuning; the standard since Thomastik’s “Dominant” (1970)
Steel	a steel core, plain or wound	direct and brilliant, stable in tuning at once; children’s violins, folk, jazz

The E string is almost always plain or coated steel, because a gut E breaks very easily. Important makers include Thomastik-Infeld (Vienna), Pirastro (Offenbach), D’Addario (USA), Larsen (Denmark) and Warchal (Slovakia). The total tension of all four strings is about 200–250 N (around 20–25 kg), and the resulting downward pressure on the top is about 8–10 kg. Strings are changed every 3 to 12 months depending on how much you play – always one at a time, so that the bridge and soundpost do not lose their position.

11Concert pitch and tuning

The violin is tuned in perfect fifths: G3 – D4 – A4 – E5. The reference note is A4. Concert pitch was historically not uniform: in the Baroque, pitches in use ranged from about 392 to 465 Hz depending on the place; today baroque performance mostly uses 415 Hz, and 430 Hz is common for the Viennese Classical repertoire. An international conference in London recommended A4 = 440 Hz in 1939, confirmed in 1955 and 1975 by the standard ISO 16. Many orchestras tune higher today: usually 443 Hz in Germany and Austria, and 440–442 Hz in the United States.

The A is tuned first, from the oboe, a piano or a tuner; the other strings are matched by listening for perfect (beatless) fifths. Roughly with the pegs, finely with the adjusters on the tailpiece.

Scordatura

Scordatura is an altered tuning used to obtain particular colours, double stops or resonances. Classic examples: Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber’s “Rosary” Sonatas (about 1676) with fifteen different tunings; Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante K. 364 (the viola tuned a semitone higher); the solo violin part in the second movement of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony (“Freund Hein”, tuned a whole tone higher); and Saint-Saëns’s Danse macabre (the E string down to E♭5). In folk traditions (Appalachian old-time, the hardingfele, Carnatic music) altered tunings are the rule.

12Range

The lowest note is G3 (196 Hz). Upwards the range is limited by technique: orchestral parts rarely go above C7 or D7, while the solo repertoire reaches about E7 (2637 Hz); harmonics can produce higher notes still. The upper positions on the G string (“sul G”) are often used for their dark, intense colour.

13Acoustics: how the sound is made

Helmholtz motion

In 1862 Hermann von Helmholtz described the vibration of a bowed string: the bow carries the string along through static friction (sticking) until the restoring force wins and it slips back (slipping). A kink travels back and forth along the string, shuttling between the nut (or the finger) and the bridge. The result at the bridge is an approximately sawtooth force containing all the harmonic partials, whose amplitudes fall off as 1/n. This overtone-rich raw sound is then filtered by the body.

Three parameters control the tone (after John Schelleng, 1973): bow speed, bow pressure and contact point (the distance from the bridge). For each contact point there is a range between a minimum and a maximum bow force within which stable Helmholtz motion is possible. Close to the bridge this range is narrow but the tone is loud and rich in overtones; further away it is wide and the tone softer. Too little pressure gives a whistling, harmonic-heavy sound, too much a scratch.

Resonances of the body

Resonance	Frequency (approx.)	Significance
A0 (air or Helmholtz resonance)	270–290 Hz	air vibrating through the f-holes; supports the low notes of the D and G strings
CBR (corpus bending)	about 400 Hz	a bending mode of the body
B1− and B1+	about 450–550 Hz	the most important body modes; they give power and carrying capacity
The “bridge hill”	about 2–3 kHz	enhanced radiation through the coupling of bridge and top; brilliance and projection

The bridge acts as a mechanical filter: its mass and its cut-outs determine how much high-frequency energy reaches the top. That is why simply changing the bridge noticeably changes the sound. Above about 1 kHz the violin radiates strongly in particular directions, which is why a violin sounds different to the player than to the audience.

The wolf note

When a played note coincides exactly with a strong body resonance, an instability arises: the wolf note, a fluttering or growling sound. On the violin it is rarer and weaker than on the cello, but it can occur around B1 (roughly B4–C5). A small wolf eliminator or a change to the set-up will help.

Mutes

The orchestral mute (con sordino) is fitted onto the bridge, increasing its mass and reducing the transmission of high frequencies: the sound becomes veiled and quieter. Practice mutes of rubber or metal reduce the volume drastically and are useful for practising in a flat.

14Posture

The violin rests on the left collarbone, with the chin or jawbone in the chin rest. A shoulder rest (Kun, Wolf, Bonmusica and others) fills the space between instrument and shoulder; some players – often in the Russian tradition or in baroque practice – do without one or use a cushion. What matters is that the head and shoulder do not clamp: the weight of the head is enough, and the left hand must stay free.

The right hand holds the bow with a bent thumb opposite the middle finger; the index finger lies on the stick and transfers weight, while the little finger balances on it. A distinction is made between the “Russian” bow hold (index finger lower, plenty of weight), the “Franco-Belgian” (balanced, the most common today) and the older “German” (index finger higher, flat).

Modern teaching pays close attention to ergonomics. Common problems are tension in the neck, jaw and shoulder; the “fiddler’s neck” is a harmless skin reaction. Adjusting the chin rest and shoulder rest and taking regular breaks are part of a professional approach to the instrument.

15Left-hand technique

Positions and finger patterns

The fingerboard is divided into positions. In the first position the first finger lies a whole tone above the open string (on the A string, therefore, B4). In each position the four fingers cover a fourth. The sequence of whole tones and semitones between the fingers makes up the finger patterns (in German teaching these are named by where the semitone falls: between the first and second, second and third, or third and fourth fingers). Playing up to the seventh position is usual; in the solo repertoire it goes beyond that to the end of the fingerboard.

Shifting and portamento

In a shift the hand slides; a distinction is made between shifts on the old finger (a guide finger) and on the new one. An audible slide is a portamento – a central means of expression in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Kreisler, Heifetz) and used more sparingly today. A deliberate, long slide between two notes is a glissando.

Vibrato

Vibrato is a periodic fluctuation of pitch, typically five to seven times a second with a width of about a quarter tone or less. It is produced from the finger, the hand or the arm, usually in combination. Historically, vibrato was an ornament (Leopold Mozart called it “tremolo”); continuous vibrato only became established in the twentieth century, largely through Fritz Kreisler. Historically informed performance again uses it selectively.

Other techniques

• Double stops: two strings at once (thirds, sixths, octaves, tenths); chords on three or four strings are broken or bowed as quick arpeggios.
• Harmonics: natural harmonics by touching the string lightly at a node (octave, fifth, fourth); artificial harmonics by stopping with one finger and touching lightly a fourth higher (sounding two octaves above the stopped note).
• Pizzicato: plucking with the right hand; left-hand pizzicato (Paganini) allows plucking and bowing at once; the Bartók pizzicato snaps the string against the fingerboard.
• Trills and ornaments: trills, upper mordents, mordents and appoggiaturas – to be played in a style-appropriate way in Baroque and Classical music.
• Quarter tones and microtonality: in new music and in Arabic, Turkish and Indian music.

16Bowing technique

Fundamentals

The right hand is the violinist’s voice. Bowing involves the distribution of the bow (how much bow for which note), keeping the stroke parallel to the bridge, choosing the contact point, changing strings (by altering the height of the arm; each of the four strings has its own “plane”) and changing bow direction at the frog and the tip without an audible break. The signs are: ⊓ down bow (from frog to tip) and V up bow (from tip to frog). The down bow is naturally heavier and suits accented beats.

Bow strokes

Stroke	Execution	Character and use
Détaché	separate strokes on the string, without lifting	the basic stroke; fast passages, Baroque to Romantic
Legato	several notes slurred in one stroke	cantilena; marked with a slur
Portato (louré)	slurred notes slightly separated from one another	dots under a slur; speaking and soft
Martelé	“hammered”: a strong start with pressure, then a stop on the string	marked and accented
Collé	a very short stroke from the fingers, the bow set down from above	a precise start to the note; an exercise for finger flexibility
Spiccato	the bow is dropped onto the string in a controlled way and bounces off	light and short; classical sonatas and concertos
Sautillé	fast détaché at the balance point, bouncing of its own accord	very fast passages (the finale of the Mendelssohn concerto)
Staccato (firm)	many short, stopped notes in one up bow	a virtuoso stroke (Wieniawski, Paganini)
Flying staccato	as staccato, but the bow leaves the string	Paganini, Kreisler
Ricochet (jeté)	the bow is thrown and bounces several times in one movement	arpeggios, effects
Tremolo	very rapid détaché on one note	tension, an orchestral wash of sound
Viotti stroke	a combination of a short down bow and an accented up bow	syncopated accents
Arpeggio / bariolage	rapid alternation between stopped and open strings	Bach and the baroque virtuosos

Colours and playing instructions

Instruction	Meaning
sul ponticello	close to the bridge: glassy, rich in overtones
sul tasto / flautando	over the fingerboard: soft, flute-like
col legno battuto / tratto	striking or drawing with the wood of the bow
sul G, sul D …	play the passage on a particular string
punta d’arco / al tallone	at the tip of the bow / at the frog
con sordino / senza sordino	with / without the mute
non vibrato	without vibrato
Overpressure (crushed tone)	a noisy sound from extreme bow pressure (new music)

New music has greatly widened the palette, as in Krzysztof Penderecki (Threnody, 1960), Helmut Lachenmann (Toccatina, 1986; “musique concrète instrumentale”), Salvatore Sciarrino (6 Capricci) and George Crumb.

17Violin schools and teaching

The history of violin playing is a history of teacher-pupil lines that can be traced across continents.

School	Leading figures	Features and works
The Italian school (17th/18th century)	Arcangelo Corelli, Giuseppe Torelli, Giuseppe Tartini, Pietro Locatelli, Pietro Nardini	a singing tone and the art of ornamentation; Tartini’s Regole per arrivare a saper ben suonar il violino; Locatelli’s 24 caprices L’arte del violino (1733)
The German school of the 18th century	Johann Georg Pisendel, Leopold Mozart, Franz Benda	Leopold Mozart: Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule (1756) – one of the most important methods ever written
The French school	Giovanni Battista Viotti, Rodolphe Kreutzer, Pierre Rode, Pierre Baillot (Paris Conservatoire, founded 1795)	the Tourte bow, a big tone, systematic studies; the Méthode de violon (1803)
The Franco-Belgian school	Charles de Bériot, Henri Vieuxtemps, Henryk Wieniawski, Eugène Ysaÿe	brilliance and colour; it shaped bow hold and vibrato to this day
The German school of the 19th century	Louis Spohr, Ferdinand David, Joseph Joachim	fidelity to the work, chamber music, the Brahms concerto; Spohr’s Violinschule (1832)
The Russian school	Leopold Auer (St Petersburg), Pyotr Stolyarsky (Odessa), Abram Yampolsky, Yuri Yankelevich	a powerful tone and a heavy bow; pupils included Heifetz, Elman, Milstein, Oistrakh and Kogan
The Hungarian school	Jenő Hubay, Carl Flesch	Flesch: The Art of Violin Playing (1923/28) and Scale System
The American school	Ivan Galamian, Dorothy DeLay (the Juilliard School, New York)	systematic practice and independence of movement; pupils included Perlman, Zukerman, Midori, Shaham, Kennedy and Chang
The Suzuki method (Japan)	Shin’ichi Suzuki (1898–1998), Matsumoto	the “mother-tongue method”: an early start from about three, learning by ear, parental involvement and group lessons; used worldwide
Other approaches	Paul Rolland (USA), Kató Havas (the “new approach”), Colourstrings (Géza and Csaba Szilvay, Finland)	movement-based learning, releasing tension, Kodály-based early teaching

Studies and methods

Level	Works
Beginners	violin methods (Doflein, Sassmannshaus’s Early Start on the Violin, Fiedel-Max, the Suzuki Violin School, Essential Elements, A Tune a Day)
Lower level	Franz Wohlfahrt op. 45, Heinrich Ernst Kayser op. 20, Otakar Ševčík (the technical books op. 1–9, especially the bowing studies op. 2)
Intermediate	Jakob Dont op. 37, Hans Sitt, Federigo Fiorillo, Rodolphe Kreutzer’s 42 Studies (the violinist’s basic book)
Advanced	Pierre Rode’s 24 Caprices, Jakob Dont op. 35, Pierre Gaviniès’s 24 Matinées, Henryk Wieniawski’s L’École moderne
Virtuoso level	Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices op. 1, Eugène Ysaÿe’s 6 Sonatas op. 27
Scales	Carl Flesch’s Scale System, Ivan Galamian and Frederick Neumann’s Contemporary Violin Technique, Simon Fischer’s Basics and Scales

18Repertoire

Baroque

The violin became the leading solo instrument in the seventeenth century. Important works:

• Arcangelo Corelli: 12 sonatas op. 5 (1700), including “La Follia” – the most influential violin work of its time.
• Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber: the Rosary Sonatas (about 1676) with scordatura; the Passacaglia for solo violin.
• Antonio Vivaldi: over 230 violin concertos, among them The Four Seasons from op. 8 (1725) and L’estro armonico op. 3.
• Johann Sebastian Bach: the sonatas and partitas for solo violin BWV 1001–1006 (1720) with the Chaconne in D minor; the concertos in A minor BWV 1041 and E major BWV 1042 and the Double Concerto in D minor BWV 1043; six sonatas with harpsichord BWV 1014–1019.
• Georg Philipp Telemann: 12 fantasias for solo violin; also Jean-Marie Leclair, Giuseppe Tartini (the “Devil’s Trill” Sonata), Francesco Maria Veracini and Pietro Locatelli.

The Classical period

• Joseph Haydn: violin concertos, but above all 68 string quartets, which founded the genre.
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: five violin concertos K. 207, 211, 216, 218 and 219 (1775); the Sinfonia concertante K. 364; numerous violin sonatas.
• Ludwig van Beethoven: the Violin Concerto in D major op. 61 (1806); ten violin sonatas, including the “Spring” op. 24 and the “Kreutzer” op. 47; two romances; the late string quartets.
• Giovanni Battista Viotti: 29 violin concertos that set the style for the nineteenth century (no. 22 in A minor).

The Romantic period

Composer	Work
Niccolò Paganini	24 Caprices op. 1; the violin concertos no. 1 in D major and no. 2 in B minor (“La Campanella”)
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy	Violin Concerto in E minor op. 64 (1844)
Max Bruch	Violin Concerto no. 1 in G minor op. 26 (1866/68); the Scottish Fantasy
Johannes Brahms	Violin Concerto in D major op. 77 (1878, for Joseph Joachim); three violin sonatas; the Double Concerto
Pyotr Tchaikovsky	Violin Concerto in D major op. 35 (1878)
Antonín Dvořák	Violin Concerto in A minor op. 53; Romance; Sonatina
Édouard Lalo	Symphonie espagnole op. 21
Camille Saint-Saëns	Concerto no. 3 in B minor; Introduction et Rondo capriccioso; Havanaise
Henryk Wieniawski, Henri Vieuxtemps	concertos and virtuoso salon pieces
Pablo de Sarasate	Zigeunerweisen op. 20, the Carmen Fantasy
César Franck	Violin Sonata in A major (1886)
Ernest Chausson	Poème op. 25
Edvard Grieg	three violin sonatas

The twentieth and twenty-first centuries

Composer	Work
Jean Sibelius	Violin Concerto in D minor op. 47 (1905)
Edward Elgar	Violin Concerto in B minor (1910)
Fritz Kreisler	Liebesleid, Liebesfreud, Praeludium and Allegro
Eugène Ysaÿe	6 Sonatas for solo violin op. 27 (1923)
Maurice Ravel	Tzigane; the Violin Sonata (with its blues movement)
Karol Szymanowski	Violin Concertos nos 1 and 2; Mythes
Sergei Prokofiev	Violin Concertos no. 1 in D major and no. 2 in G minor; sonatas; the solo sonata
Béla Bartók	Violin Concerto no. 2 (1938); Sonata for solo violin (1944, for Menuhin); Romanian Folk Dances
Alban Berg	Violin Concerto “To the Memory of an Angel” (1935)
Igor Stravinsky	Violin Concerto in D (1931)
Arnold Schoenberg	Violin Concerto op. 36; Phantasy op. 47
Erich Wolfgang Korngold	Violin Concerto in D major (1945), built from film themes
Samuel Barber	Violin Concerto op. 14
Dmitri Shostakovich	Violin Concertos no. 1 in A minor (1948/55) and no. 2
Benjamin Britten	Violin Concerto op. 15
Aram Khachaturian	Violin Concerto in D minor (1940)
Olivier Messiaen	Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1941)
Bernd Alois Zimmermann	Violin Sonata; Concerto
Alfred Schnittke	Violin Concertos nos 1–4; Moz-Art
Arvo Pärt	Fratres, Spiegel im Spiegel
György Ligeti	Violin Concerto (1990/92)
Sofia Gubaidulina	Offertorium (1980/86), In tempus praesens (2007)
John Adams, Philip Glass, Thomas Adès, Jörg Widmann, Unsuk Chin	violin concertos (Chin: 2001, Grawemeyer Award 2004)
Chen Gang, He Zhanhao	The Butterfly Lovers (Liang Zhu), China 1959 – the best-known Chinese violin concerto

Chamber music

String quartets by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert (“Death and the Maiden”), Mendelssohn, Brahms, Dvořák (the “American”), Debussy, Ravel, Bartók (six quartets), Janáček, Shostakovich (fifteen quartets), Britten and Ligeti; piano trios from Haydn to Shostakovich; violin sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Fauré, Franck, Debussy and Prokofiev; string quintets and sextets (Schubert’s C major D 956, Brahms, Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence).

Orchestra

Important audition excerpts for violin (required internationally): Mozart, Symphony no. 39 (finale); Beethoven, Symphonies nos 3 and 9; Mendelssohn, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scherzo); Schumann, Symphony no. 2 (Scherzo); Brahms, Symphony no. 4; Richard Strauss, Don Juan and Ein Heldenleben; Mahler, Symphonies nos 5 and 9. Leader’s solos are found in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Strauss’s Heldenleben, Saint-Saëns’s Danse macabre and Brahms’s First Symphony.

19The violin around the world

Hardly any European instrument has been taken up so successfully in other musical cultures. The instrument itself often stayed the same, while posture, tuning, ornamentation and role changed.

South India: the violin in Carnatic music

British military bands brought the violin to southern India around 1800. Baluswami Dikshitar (1786–1859), brother of the composer Muthuswami Dikshitar, is regarded as one of the first to introduce it into Carnatic music, and Vadivelu at the court of Travancore made it popular in the nineteenth century. Today the violin is the most important accompanying instrument in a Carnatic concert.

It is played seated on the floor: the scroll rests on the right foot and the body against the collarbone. That leaves the left hand entirely free for the characteristic gamakas – sliding and oscillating ornaments that are essential to the ragas. The tuning follows the singer’s tonic (sa), usually sa–pa–sa–pa (tonic–fifth–tonic–fifth). In concert the violinist follows the singer phrase by phrase and plays improvisations of their own (alapana, swarakalpana). Famous players: Lalgudi G. Jayaraman, M. S. Gopalakrishnan, T. N. Krishnan, L. Subramaniam (also in fusion and in concertos with Western orchestras), L. Shankar (double-necked violin), Kumaresh and Ganesh, and Jyotsna Srikanth. In North Indian (Hindustani) music the violin is rarer but established, through V. G. Jog and N. Rajam among others.

The Arab and Turkish world

In Arabic music the violin largely replaced the spike fiddle kamanja in the late nineteenth century and took over its name. It is often played on the knee or against the chest and frequently tuned G–D–G–D (a tuning associated with Sami al-Shawwa, 1889–1965, the “prince of the violin”). Maqam music calls for quarter tones, such as the “neutral” third in maqam rast or bayati; ornamentation and improvised introductions (taqasim) are central. The violin is a core member of the classical takht ensemble and of the large orchestras that accompanied Umm Kulthum and Mohammed Abdel Wahab. In Turkey (the keman) it plays a large part in classical art music and in Roma music; in Iran it was likewise taken into the classical tradition (the radif).

Ireland, Scotland and the British Isles

The fiddle is the main instrument of Irish dance music: reels, jigs, hornpipes, polkas and slow airs. Typical are ornaments such as cuts, rolls and cranns, little vibrato and a dance-like bow. Regional styles differ markedly (Sligo, Donegal, Clare, Sliabh Luachra). In Scotland the style is shaped by strathspeys with the “Scotch snap” (short–long), marches and slow airs; Niel Gow (1727–1807) and James Scott Skinner (1843–1927) are the historic figures. The Shetland fiddle forms a tradition of its own, influenced by Scandinavia. Modern players: Martin Hayes, Tommy Peoples, Frankie Gavin, Aly Bain, Alasdair Fraser.

Scandinavia

In Norway the hardingfele (Hardanger fiddle) appeared in the seventeenth century: a violin with four or five sympathetic strings under the fingerboard, a flatter bridge (for double stops and drones), a richly decorated body and more than twenty tunings. It accompanies dances such as the springar, halling and gangar. In Sweden the fiddle is central alongside the nyckelharpa (the polska tradition); Finland has the pelimanni tradition, with its festival at Kaustinen.

North America

American old-time music of the Appalachians, shaped by British, Irish and African American roots, often uses cross tunings (such as A–E–A–E). From it developed bluegrass (Bill Monroe, Kenny Baker, Stuart Duncan, Alison Krauss), western swing (Bob Wills) and country. Cajun fiddle (Louisiana) combines French songs with accordion accompaniment, and the Canadian fiddle traditions of Québec and Cape Breton (Natalie MacMaster) are strongly rhythmic and bound up with foot tapping (podorythmie). African American fiddlers shaped the dance music of the nineteenth century; today musicians such as Rhiannon Giddens are recovering that line.

Eastern Europe, klezmer and Roma music

The violin is the leading instrument in Roma music in Hungary, Romania and the Balkans. The primás (lead fiddler) directs the band, improvising and ornamenting with great virtuosity; forms such as the csárdás and verbunkos inspired Liszt, Brahms (the Hungarian Dances), Sarasate and Bartók. In Jewish klezmer music the fiddle (fidl) is the central melody instrument alongside the clarinet, with characteristic ornaments such as the krekhts (a sob). Romania has the Stroh violin (vioară cu goarnă), with a horn instead of a body.

Latin America

In Argentine tango the violin is part of the orquesta típica (with bandoneon, piano and double bass); techniques such as the chicharra (a scraping noise behind the bridge) and the látigo (a whip-like glissando) are typical. In Mexican mariachi, three to six violins usually form the melodic core. The Andean countries, Paraguay and Brazil (the forró rabeca) have fiddle traditions of their own.

East Asia

China, Japan and Korea took up European art music intensively in the twentieth century. The violin concerto The Butterfly Lovers (1959) combines a Western orchestra with melodies from Yue opera. Many of the most successful violinists in the world today come from East Asia (Midori, Sarah Chang, Kyung-wha Chung, Ning Feng, Ray Chen and Sayaka Shoji among them). Through the Suzuki method, Japan is also a centre of violin teaching. Related but quite distinct is the Chinese two-string fiddle erhu, whose bow passes between the strings.

Jazz, pop and film music

In jazz, Joe Venuti and Eddie South were among the pioneers; Stéphane Grappelli shaped European gypsy swing with Django Reinhardt in the Quintette du Hot Club de France (from 1934). Stuff Smith, Ray Nance (Duke Ellington), Jean-Luc Ponty (jazz rock, electric violin), Didier Lockwood, Zbigniew Seifert, Regina Carter and Mark Feldman widened the language. In rock and pop, bands such as the Electric Light Orchestra, Kansas and The Dirty Three use violins; Nigel Kennedy, Vanessa-Mae and Lindsey Stirling combine classical music and pop. In film music and studio production, string sections are everywhere; large studio orchestras in Los Angeles, London (Abbey Road, AIR), Prague and Budapest record film music every day.

20The electric violin and amplification

For loud surroundings there are three solutions: pickups (piezo in the bridge or under a bridge foot) on an acoustic violin, microphones (clip-on, or condenser microphones at a distance) and electric violins with a solid or skeletal body, often with five strings (adding a low C) or more. Electric violins need an amplifier or a mixing desk and can be treated with effects like an electric guitar. Well-known makers are Yamaha (the Silent Violin), Zeta, NS Design and Bridge.

21Leading violinists

Period	Names
17th/18th century	Biagio Marini, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi, Giuseppe Tartini, Jean-Marie Leclair, Johann Georg Pisendel
19th century	Giovanni Battista Viotti, Niccolò Paganini, Louis Spohr, Charles de Bériot, Henri Vieuxtemps, Henryk Wieniawski, Joseph Joachim, Pablo de Sarasate, Wilma Neruda, Eugène Ysaÿe
Early 20th century	Fritz Kreisler, Jacques Thibaud, George Enescu, Joseph Szigeti, Jascha Heifetz, Mischa Elman, Adolf Busch, Erica Morini
Mid-20th century	David Oistrakh, Nathan Milstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, Zino Francescatti, Henryk Szeryng, Arthur Grumiaux, Ginette Neveu, Leonid Kogan, Johanna Martzy
Late 20th century	Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Gidon Kremer, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Kyung-wha Chung, Salvatore Accardo, Viktoria Mullova, Shlomo Mintz, Christian Tetzlaff, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Maxim Vengerov, Midori
The present day	Hilary Hahn, Janine Jansen, Isabelle Faust, Julia Fischer, Leonidas Kavakos, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Lisa Batiashvili, Vilde Frang, Augustin Hadelich, Ray Chen, Nicola Benedetti, Daniel Lozakovich, María Dueñas
Historically informed performance	Reinhard Goebel, Sigiswald Kuijken, Andrew Manze, Rachel Podger, Giuliano Carmignola, Amandine Beyer, Fabio Biondi

22Competitions and training

Professional training takes place at conservatoires (bachelor’s and master’s degrees; Germany has around 24 state conservatoires). Early training is offered by music schools, centres for gifted young musicians and junior study programmes. Important international competitions are the Queen Elisabeth Competition (Brussels, founded in 1937 as the Ysaÿe Competition), the Premio Paganini (Genoa, since 1954), the International Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow, since 1958), the Jean Sibelius Competition (Helsinki), the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, the Joseph Joachim Competition (Hanover), the Menuhin Competition (for young violinists) and the ARD International Music Competition (Munich). In Germany, “Jugend musiziert” is the most important competition for young players.

23The market, values and instrument funds

The most expensive violins in the world are by Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesù. At a charity auction in 2011 the Stradivari “Lady Blunt” (1721) fetched around £9.8 million (about US$15.9 million); the Guarneri “Vieuxtemps” (1741) was sold privately in 2012 for a price of around US$16 million. Many such instruments belong to foundations, banks or states that lend them to soloists – the Nippon Music Foundation (Japan), the Stradivari Society (Chicago) or, in Germany, the Deutscher Musikinstrumentenfonds of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, which lends more than 200 valuable instruments to young talents.

24Sizes for children

Size	Body length (approx.)	Arm length* (approx.)	Age (guide)
1/32	200 mm	up to 38 cm	from 3 years
1/16	230 mm	38–42 cm	3–4
1/10	240 mm	42–44 cm	4–5
1/8	260 mm	44–47 cm	5–6
1/4	280 mm	47–51 cm	6–7
1/2	310 mm	51–56 cm	7–9
3/4	335 mm	56–60 cm	9–11
7/8	345 mm	60–61 cm	11–12, or small hands
4/4	356 mm	from about 61 cm	from about 11–12 years

*Measured from the neck to the middle of the palm with the left arm stretched out to the side. With the violin in playing position, the hand should be able to grasp the scroll comfortably.

25Buying, renting and costs

Category	Guide price (outfit with bow and case)	Notes
Renting a child’s violin	about €15–25 a month	often credited against a later purchase; changes of size included
Student outfit	about €400–1,200	workshop instruments, carefully set up
Advanced players	about €2,000–8,000	older trade instruments, workshop or master instruments
New master instruments	about €10,000–40,000	internationally recognised makers
Historic instruments	from a few tens of thousands of euros into the millions	expertise and provenance are decisive
Bow	carbon about €100–1,000; pernambuco about €300 to well over €50,000	nineteenth-century French master bows are especially sought after

26Care and maintenance

• After every session, remove rosin dust from the top, the strings and the bow stick with a soft cotton or microfibre cloth.
• Loosen the bow so that the hair is slack; never over-tighten the stick. Do not touch the hair with your fingers.
• Check the bridge: tuning pulls it towards the fingerboard, and its back should stand at right angles to the top. Correct a leaning bridge carefully, or take it to the workshop.
• Climate: relative humidity ideally 40–60 % and a steady temperature; do not leave the instrument by a radiator, in direct sun or in a hot car. Use a case humidifier in winter if necessary.
• Change strings one at a time, keep the pegs turning smoothly with peg paste, and lubricate the string grooves in the nut and bridge with graphite (a pencil).
• Workshop: an annual check; rehair the bow every 6 to 12 months with regular playing; a fallen soundpost, cracks and open seams should only be repaired by a violin maker – never glue them yourself.
• Travel: carry instruments as hand luggage, and take documentation for pernambuco bows and ivory parts (CITES).

27Learning the violin

Stage	Content
The first weeks	holding the instrument and the bow, pizzicato songs, bowing on open strings, distributing the bow, rhythm
Year 1	the finger patterns of the first position (D, A and G major), simple songs and duets, reading in the treble clef, détaché and legato
Years 2–3	further finger patterns and keys, the third position, first shifts, martelé, shaping dynamics, student concertos (Rieding, Küchler, Seitz), ensemble playing
Years 4–6	vibrato, the second to fifth positions, double stops, spiccato, Vivaldi in A minor, Bach in A minor, the Kayser and Wohlfahrt studies, orchestra
Advanced	all positions, the Kreutzer studies, three-octave scales, the Mozart and Haydn concertos, solo Bach, chamber music, competitions
Preparing for a degree course	the Paganini caprices, Romantic concertos (Mendelssohn, Bruch), orchestral excerpts, entrance auditions

28The violin at Cuxhaven Music School

We teach the violin to children from pre-school age, to teenagers and to adults – from the first pizzicato tune to preparation for competitions and entrance auditions. Our teachers help with choosing an instrument to borrow and the right size, and introduce students early to playing together in our string and chamber music groups. Anyone interested in folk, fiddle or jazz will find room for that in lessons too. Related instruments: the cello and the double bass.

29Frequently asked questions

Violin or fiddle – which is correct?

Both. “Violin” is the technical term, while “fiddle” is what the same instrument is called in folk music. German has the same pair in Violine and Geige.

At what age can you start the violin?

With the Suzuki method from about three, in conventional lessons usually from five or six. Adults can start at any age.

Why is the violin so difficult?

Because there are no frets and the bow and the left hand have entirely different jobs. In return the range of expression is enormous. With good teaching, the first tunes sound after a few weeks.

Does a Stradivari really sound better?

Stradivari instruments are masterpieces of craftsmanship. In double-blind tests, however, soloists and listeners could not reliably tell them from outstanding new instruments, and often preferred the new ones.

What is the difference between a violin and a viola?

The viola is larger (a body of about 38–43 cm), tuned a fifth lower (C3–G3–D4–A4) and written in the alto clef. Its sound is darker.

Which strings are the right ones?

For students, synthetic strings of medium tension (such as the Dominant type) are the standard. Steel strings suit small violins and folk playing; your teacher will advise according to the instrument and the sound you want.

How often does a bow need rehairing?

With daily playing about every 6 to 12 months, and at the latest when many hairs are missing or the bow no longer grips.

Can I play the violin left-handed?

Yes. Almost all left-handers play a normal violin, because both hands have demanding tasks. Mirror-built instruments are rare and make orchestral playing difficult.

How loud is practising for the neighbours?

A violin reaches about 80–95 dB close up. With a practice mute it becomes quiet enough that practising in a flat is generally no problem.

What is a set-up?

The fitting done by the violin maker: bridge, soundpost, nut, fingerboard, string height and strings. A good set-up often improves playability and sound more than a more expensive instrument would.

30Glossary

Purfling

The inlaid three-part strip of wood around the edge of the top and back.

Bass bar

A strip of wood under the bass side of the top.

Bariolage

Rapid alternation between an open and a stopped string.

Bow distribution

Planning how much bow to use for each note.

Con sordino

With the mute.

Détaché

A separate single stroke on the string.

Double stop

Playing on two strings at once.

f-holes

The sound holes in the top.

Fine tuner

A screw on the tailpiece for fine tuning.

Harmonic

An overtone produced by touching the string lightly.

Frog

The end of the bow that is held, with the tightening mechanism.

Gamaka

A sliding ornament in Indian music.

Finger pattern

The arrangement of whole tones and semitones between the fingers.

Hardingfele

The Norwegian fiddle with sympathetic strings.

Helmholtz motion

The stick-slip vibration of a bowed string.

Rosin

Resin for the bow hair.

Position

The place of the left hand on the fingerboard.

Legato

Slurred playing within one bow stroke.

String length

The vibrating length of the string.

Pernambuco

The Brazilian wood used for bow sticks (CITES-protected).

Portamento

An audible slide between two notes.

Primás

The lead fiddler of a Hungarian Roma band.

Tailpiece

Holds the strings at the lower end; often with fine tuners.

Sautillé

A fast bouncing stroke at the balance point of the bow.

Scroll

The carved end of the pegbox.

Scordatura

An altered tuning of the strings.

Spiccato

A controlled bouncing stroke.

Bridge

Transmits the vibration of the strings to the top.

Soundpost

The small spruce post between top and back.

Sul ponticello / sul tasto

Bowing at the bridge / over the fingerboard.

Tremolo

Very rapid repetition of a note with the bow.

Vibrato

A periodic fluctuation of pitch.

Wolf note

An unstable note caused by a body resonance.

Ribs

The sides of the body.

31Sources and further reading

• Leopold Mozart: Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule. Augsburg 1756 (facsimile, Bärenreiter).
• Carl Flesch: Die Kunst des Violinspiels, 2 vols. Berlin 1923/1928.
• Ivan Galamian: Principles of Violin Playing and Teaching. Prentice-Hall 1962.
• Walter Kolneder: Das Buch der Violine. Atlantis/Schott.
• David D. Boyden: The History of Violin Playing from its Origins to 1761. Oxford University Press 1965.
• Robin Stowell (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to the Violin. Cambridge University Press 1992.
• W. Henry Hill, Arthur F. Hill, Alfred E. Hill: Antonio Stradivari. His Life and Work. London 1902.
• Lothar Cremer: Physik der Geige. Hirzel, Stuttgart 1981.
• John C. Schelleng: “The bowed string and the player”. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 53 (1973).
• Claudia Fritz and others: “Player preferences among new and old violins”. PNAS 109 (2012); “Soloist evaluations of six Old Italian and six new violins”. PNAS 111 (2014).
• Shin’ichi Suzuki: Nurtured by Love. 1969.
• Amanda Weidman: Singing the Classical, Voicing the Modern. The Postcolonial Politics of Music in South India. Duke University Press 2006.
• Chris Goertzen: Fiddling for Norway. University of Chicago Press 1997.
• UNESCO: “Traditional violin craftsmanship in Cremona”, Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (2012).
• Article “Violine” in: Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (MGG); “Violin” in: Grove Music Online.

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Last updated: September 2026 · Musikpedia editorial team, Cuxhaven Music School