Violin

Constitution of the instrument

A violin is composed of three units: cords, the case of resonance, and the handle. Its length is variable. A violin of maximum size is called a whole , and is intended to the violonists having reached their adult size; it is generally 59 cm long, of the button at the end of the head. There exists a scale nonproportional length of the violins: the 7/8ème (less current, but existant.sa size lies between that of the entirety and that of the 3/4) the three-quarter make 56 cm; half , 53 cm; come then the quarters (48 cm), the eighth (44 cm), and the sixteenth (37 cm), the latter being intended to the very young violonists (in general, 3 years).

Cords

The cords, four, are the part of the violin put in vibration and which produces the sound.

For very a long period, the cords were in pure bowel and only the cord of ground was surrounded by a wire of money or Cuivre (it known as “was spun on bowel”). The bowel employed is not Chat like wants it a very popular idea. This error for example is included in the humorous definition of the violin given by Ambrose Bierce in its Dictionnaire of the Devil of 1911: “Violin: instrument intended to tickle the ears of the man by the friction of the tail of a horse on the bowels of a cat”.

The error could come from a too literal comprehension of catgut , cord of bowel used in surgery. Actually, one employs to manufacture the cords in bowel the median tunic of the Small intestine of the Mouton, whose fibers are resistant. Several wire obtained by cutting in the direction length are twisted together, and the median tunic is so fine that the small intestines from four to five sheep are necessary to make approximately twenty-five cords of the .

A cord of bowel must be in all its cylindrical length, of the same diameter, rubber band, of a regular flexibility and transparent color. A thickening or an irregular density of the structure of material prevents an agreement completely right. The accuracy of a cord is evaluated on the regularity of the diameter only if it is of regular density, this last condition being filled only for the cords of good quality.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the cord of semi was replaced by a steel wire, because it too often broke. Later, one also provided with a rolling up of Aluminum the cords of the and D , whose core is in bowel or synthetic matter. This last solution is now privileged (except for the old Musique): it is less sensitive to the dissension; it is not also demanding during manufacture, and can thus be realized in an industrial way. One also uses many the spun low cords with steel core, which produce a clear sonority but dries. To more easily grant steel the cords, much more sensitive to the tension, were developed special mechanisms with screw, fixed at the rope-maker, the Tendeur S, small fine serrated rollers.

If all the cords had the same diameter, the tension should decrease for the low cords. The distribution of the pressure on the table would be then irregular and the sonority of the low cords unsatisfactory because of the weakness of resonance. This is why the cords have different diameters, but an almost equal tension. One more strongly tightens the cord the semi one, which rests on the right foot of the rest in order to confer a sound volume and a glare to him increased. A violin of the Stradivarius type weighs between 355 G and 365 G very included/understood; the table, 55 G, and the bottom, 90 G, must resist, via the fish-plates, with the tension of the cords equal to 27 kilograms. As in the case of the violin the pressure transmitted to the table is worth 0,140 kg per kg of tension, one finds a pressure exerted on the table being worth 3,78 kg.

The case of resonance

The function of the case of Résonance is to amplify the sound caused by the vibration of the cords.

The higher face of a violin is called Sounding board. Made (generally) of two pieces of spruce stuck in the direction length, it is bent and bored of two openings in forms of ƒ , the hearing, which have the role to release the vibrations coming from the case of resonance. The face lower, commonly called the “back” or the “bottom”, is made of a maple part, or two parts stuck together in the direction length. It is also bent but often to a lesser extent. On the edges of the two faces, one distinguishes a double black line enclosing a of the same line color than the table (white before varnishing): nets.

The maple sides, called fish-plate S, join together the sounding board and the bottom in order to form a box which forms the Caisse of resonance. On the level of the rest, the sides of the violin are in form of C (in hollow towards the interior): these are the notches, of which the goal is to allow the passage of the bow. The small points at their ends name the miters.

Inside the violin, one finds the heart and the bars of harmony, which play a crucial role in the transmission of the vibrations of the cords and in the strength vis-a-vis to the pressure that the cords exert.

It is in the case of resonance that one finds the label mentioning the name of the Luthier manufacturer and the year of manufacture.

The handle

It makes it possible to obtain the good length of cords, to adjust the tension of those and authorizes the play of the violonist.

It is about a maple part finished by the head, decorated with an ornament in the shape of spiral, the Volute. In the construction industry baroque and traditional, until about 1800, the handle of the violin was adjusted against the cleat and was nailed with him. Now it is wedged and stuck in the higher cleat. On the head, ankles are laterally fixed in order to control the tension of the cords. Easily recognizable by its black color, a long plate of ebony, the touches, nonhooped, is stuck on the handle. The key is finished on the level of the head of the violin by the Sillet, small part out of ebony which acts as guide for the cords.

The assembly

The rest is a small plank carved in maple sycamore placed perpendicular to the sounding board between hearing and which provides two functions. It maintains the cords in an arched configuration (the cords are not in the same plan), allowing that each one can be rubbed separately. It also has an influence on the sonority of the violin, because it communicates the vibrations of the cords to the Sounding board.

The four cords can be granted to the level of the head thanks to the ankles; the base of the violin, the Tendeur S allow a finer agreement. These tensioners are attached to the rope-maker, part black in ebony fixed at the case by a button.

The cords, of most serious with acutest, are in the following way granted to the Quinte: ground, D, the and semi . To listen to the open strings; to listen how a désaccordé violin is granted. One can however grant the violin differently to obtain an effect, the Scordatura.

Formerly one indicated respectively under the names of chantarelle and bumblebee the cords of semi and ground . One finds of it the trace in the translation of the method of Leopold Mozart for example. Currently, one notes the cords of I with IV, the first cord being that of semi .

Yehudi Menuhin known as of the cords: The cord of the ground , most serious, causes a sonority rich, major, and inspires a feeling of nobility. The cord of D is characterized by its character more impassioned, sharper. The cord of the opens and opens out in space. Most brilliant and more extravertie of the four is the cord of semi .

Play

Right hand

usual Play: Legato (dependant). The violonist rubs the cords with the bow and does not differentiate each note; the play is very fluid. Ideally one does not distinguish with the ear from difference between thorough and drawn . These two words come to name the two phases of a return ticket of the bow: drawn when one goes from the heel towards the point, and thorough the reverse.
Staccato passage : it is a succession of hammered (to strike with repeated blows). One can make Staccato in the same blow of bow, or by alternating drawn and thorough with each note.
Hammered : blocking of the bow after a more or less long amount of time which makes it possible to cut the sound and thus to detach each note. To the attack, the bow is stuck to the cord, then one reduces the pressure brutally, releasing the bow, and one plays with the speed of the bow; at point (or any other place where one decided to stop the note), the bow rests on the cord with only one pressure of the index.
Jumps . The shape of the rod of the bow, slightly curved, gives to the play the possibility of many jumps:

Rebound : when the bow rebounds on the cord several times in a blow of bow, it is a rebound. The speed of a rebound is variable, according to the point of launching (towards the point, a fast rebound is obtained) and according to the height of the rebound.
Saltato , is hopped . The bow, placed at the medium, is naturally put to hop (to be briefly lost the contact with the cord) as soon as one alternates rather quickly drawn and thorough , and with a rather low pressure of the index.
Spiccato : in the first third or the second quarter of the bow, it is a question of making jump the bow by a movement of return ticket of the wrist (and not of the whole arm), which must remain very flexible.

Double cords , agreements. The bow can be placed on two close cords, and one can play two different parts simultaneously. The violonist also can, while pressing a little more on the bow, to put three cords almost in the same plan and to almost play an agreement of 3 notes in the same moment. For the agreements of four cords, that is perfectly unrealizable, and one arpeggio the agreement, i.e. one plays two double cords after ( ground - D , followed at the same time the - semi at the same time). Alternatives to put up itself to the style with the part take place sometimes, particularly for the agreements in the pieces baroques.
Pinching . With the Pizzicato, the violonist grips the cords with the right hand. This technique is generally used for the accompaniments or the parts of Jazz.
Placement. One can place the bow at various places, in particular

halfway between the rest and touches it (usual);
close it rest, to gain in power and body;
almost on the rest ( sul ponticello ), for a sound very whistling, feverish, very acute, sometimes weak;
on the key ( sul tasto ), for a its distance and distant, sometimes qualified white .

Collar legno : in fact any more the hairs are in contact with the cord, but wood of the bow. The effect obtained by then rubbing the cord having only little interest (the sound is almost unperceivable), it more often acts to strike the cord, to obtain a remarkable percussif aspect. This technique in particular remained famous thanks to the part Mars , resulting from the Planets, Holst.
Variegations . It is a question of passing quickly from a cord to its neighbor. One can then play of the notes at very high intervals; the variegation on the cords ground - D - - mid- mid- it - D - ground is very usual.
Tremor . Very fast redoubling (without measured rate/rhythm) of a note. Its execution generally takes place, for questions of facility, towards the point and only with the wrist (and not all the arm).

Left hand

usual Play : the fingers of the left hand come to press the cord on the key so as to shorten the length of this one. The length, with the tension, determines the height of the note. Note: as the inch is not used for another thing that to hold the handle, one calls first finger the index, and so on up to 4 only.
Unhafted . Essential technique, it consists in moving the left hand along the handle, which makes it possible to play of the acuter notes on the same cord. It is this sytème which makes it possible the violin to add two octaves to its already established extent of two octaves and two tons. The distances to be traversed by the left hand are codified by a system of positions.
Vibrato . The vibrato is carried out by the movement of the wrist and that of the end of the finger, of before behind, on the cord. The height of the note is thus modified, descending in-on this side normal value from the note then tonic. The speed and the amplitude of the vibrato are selected so that the character of the piece is best reflected; these two elements are independent and one can thus create several alternatives with various combinations of speed and amplitude. The usual maximum amplitude in classical music is much lower than the semitone.
Trilles and batteries : these techniques consist of the very fast alternation of two separate notes of intervals going from the second minor one (semitone) until the increased quad (six semitones). They are practiced by leaving the finger of the basic note supported on the handle, while the other finger supports and is rectified, in a cyclic way, more or less quickly, on the high note. The distinction between trille and battery is done according to the interval (lower or higher than the tone).
Harmonic S . Sometimes, one slightly poses a finger in a precise place of the cord, without supporting, so as to block certain modes of vibration: by putting the finger in the middle of the cord for example, one removes for example the fundamental mode, and one then hears especially the first harmonic, a octave higher than the note obtained on this open string. These notes are called harmonics and have enough flutées sonorities.
Double cords . The violonist gradually learns how to separately order each finger and with precision, until connecting different notes on two cords, or to place his four fingers at the same time each one on a cord and to change them the positions several times after. It is a particularly demanding exercise of accuracy.
Pizz left hand . It is a question of gripping the cord with the fingers of the left hand. Thus, one grips with the 4th finger if one plays with 3rd, with 3rd if one plays with 2nd, and so on, the bow being used if one plays with the 4th finger (thus playing the part of the “additional finger”). Frequently used in purple passages (ex: 24 {{E}} Caprice of Niccolò Paganini).
Glissando : the finger slips along the cord while exerting a pressure above. The effect in is very characteristic, and can be done on an extent of approximately two octaves, low register with acute, or conversely. One finds of them brilliances examples at Ravel, for figurative effects (wind, cries of birds).
harmonic Glissando : as its name indicates it, mixture of two techniques, which consite to make slip the finger on the cord without exerting pressure. The finger effleure in turn natural harmonics of the cord and the false harmonics , whistling, indistinct and thin. Ravel also employs it to imitate birds, but the example more seizing of this mode of play is the introduction of the ballet the Bird of fire of Stravinsky, this one writing it for all the cords.

Accessories of play

The mentonnière and the cushion are two parts being able to be added or be removed freely violin, and whose function is to facilitate the adaptation of the body to the shape of the fish-plates.

The cushion is placed under the violin, and thus avoids with the Clavicule undergoing too hard the contact of the edges of the violin.

The mentonnière places herself on the violin, on the left of the rope-maker, or spanning it, and as its name indicates it, one places the chin there. She makes it possible to avoid massively putting the sweat of the violonist in contact with the table, damaging varnish then. Louis Spohr seems to have been one of the first to use it, in 1819. The accessory was at its beginnings rather coarse, being established in the cleat with a wood screw. He was largely criticized, as being “a mushroom which would have pushed on the edge of the violin”, or being considered to be awkward, ridiculous, increasing without reason the height of the fish-plates, preventing from forming a unit with the instrument, modifying the sound of the violin… Tolbecque considered in the years 1900 qu ' it had been necessary 70 years so that the use is spread, and that it was now completely adopted. It is however inaccurate, the instrumentalists of traditional music (for example in Musique cajun) often play the violin posed against the top of the chest, and thus do not need mentonnière. As for the Tziganes, they often play the hitches the violin in the air, the table rocking of horizontal with the vertical (the axis of the violin preserves its usual orientation).

The silencing device is placed on the rest. Its goal is to decrease the sound intensity of the violin by restricting the vibrations transmitted by the rest to the case of resonance. There are several kinds: simple a Clothes pin; a small piece of rubber posed on the rest enters the cords of D and the ; more broad band, entirely recovering the top of the rest, the ground to the semi ; a metal model.

coarse size or average: Saw S, chisels…
small size: Chisel S (small blades of 5 and 1 mm of broad, pointed and fixed), Gouge S, Plane S, Penknife S, scrapers (or scrapers), File S…
measurement: outside caliper, scriber for the nets (in order to preserve a distance fixes between those)
tightening, at the time of the joining of parts: cramps, grip-bars, béquettes…
various: iron to be folded and material of heating, point with heart, Pinceau, paper Abrasif (standard sandpaper), pencil, square…

Wood used are:

the common spruce, of the the Swiss Tyrol or , with spaced rectilinear fibers of a mm, for the table, the bar, the heart, backing-plates, cleats and corners.
the maple sycamore, of Bohemia, Dalmatie or Hungary, cut “on direction”, for the bottom, the fish-plates and the handle.
the ebony of the Mauritius for the key, the rope-maker and the sillet.
the Purple wood for the ankles and the button.

The maple was selected because it is not too heavy, and it is hard and elastic at the same time. The Poplar or the Ash, used by the former Italian violin makers, was isolated because too soft and giving hollow sounds and in-inside. Tolbecque criticizes to him also the old funds in poplar.

Wood must be out-of-date before being used, in a rather hot place and safe from moisture, wind and dust.

Stages of manufacture

For pouvoir to reproduce a model de violin, the violin maker manufactures moulds and models: for the contour of the table, the hearing, the thickness of the vault, the head.

The table and the bottom are formed; generally the table consists of two parts in order to ensure a symmetry of the widths of fibers on both sides of the central axis for reasons of sonority, while the bottom can be of one or two parts according to the arbitrary choice of the violin maker. The tables and funds in two parts are obtained starting from a piece split into two. The violin maker traces an outline of the shape of the vault and determines exact contours of the table and the bottom.

. The white part can be in Houx, Buis or Charme. They are in certain non-existent cases, and do not appear whereas the sites dug of the two black nets; finally, in the least advanced state of completion, they are only painted with the Indian ink.

Then the violin maker digs the bottom with the Rabot and the Gouge and places 7 blocks (small pieces of wood) on this one on the level of the joint (if there is one of them), in order to consolidate it. It gives to the bottom its final contour.

The same stage of digging takes place on the table and hearing are bored. The bar is then placée ; it is about a long piece of wood, placed under the table on the level of the left foot of the rest. It is used to help the violin to vibrate, and to resist the important pressure exerted by the cords.

For the assembly of the bottom and table, to form a Case of resonance, one builds of them the vertical edges which are the fish-plates. Contrary to the table, the orientation of fibers of wood has only one decorative role here. The fish-plates are curved with hot iron. Then one assemble them on a form by means of small parts of support which will contribute to the rigidity of the case of résonance : cleats, corners, backing-plates.

The handle and the key are the last large parts to be realized. The delicate stage of the design of the handle is the size of the volute, because the model used is difficult to apply to the part because of the relief (the volute “goes up” at the same time as it “turns”). One digs the chevillier, part where the cords pass, between the sillet and the ankles; in certain cases, it was even dug entirely, without that having of another incidence only esthetic. One cuts the key, broad 25 mm on the level of the sillet, 45 side rest, and round like the rest.

Then comes the total assembly: one sticks the bottom on the fish-plates then, after having withdrawn the form, one fixes the table ; finally one wedges the handle in the body of the violin while forcing a little and one sticks it. One then fixes the key at the handle with some drops of adhesive, so that it holds time to conceive the sillet (that one also only fixes him very slightly) and to cut the handle properly. Then one makes jump key and sillet : the instrument is finished in white . One carries out the gluing, i.e. one coats the violin of an underlayer preventing varnish from penetrating in the pores of wood. This underlayer can be containing Gélatine, of oil, egg white… The violin can now be varnished.

The varnish has an esthetic role and a role of protection against moisture due to sweat and the ambient air, whose Hygrométrie is variable. Several varnish receipts exist: with alcohol, with the linseed oil, the fatty gasoline (Mailand process), Propolis… the technique consists of a variable mixture of solvent and Laque S, Spirits of turpentine, resins, gums and dyes, which one applies in successive layers to the violin, and which one polishes (from where the interest to remove the key, in order to be able to polish varnish located under his site).

The violin maker resticks the key then, cuts and places the ankles, then the button. Then the size comes and poses heart, located in width at the level of the right foot of the rest, and in length with 3 mm behind of this one. The violin maker varnishes the handle with a varnish little coloured and more resistant to frictions of the hand and sweat. Lastly, it recuts the rest gross provided by the manufacturer and places at the same time it as it installs the cords. The violin is now finished, and do not remain any more to make but adjustments of sonority.

Remarks

The varnish can have various colors, extremely variable from one case to another following to them dyes used, wear and the patina. Thus, it can go from the yellow gilded for Amati to the brown red of Bergonzi while passing by orange dark for the Stradivarius or the brown tern of the bottom-of-the-range instruments of the German school of the 19th century.

The influence of varnished on sonority was bitterly discussed. The receipt used by the school of Casement bolt having been lost, and the violin makers seeking the causes of the quality of the violins resulting from this one, it was supposed that the varnish played a fundamental role as for the sonority of the violin. It is now allowed that the varnish cannot modify the stamp of the violin considerably; it influences only its aspect and its resistance to time. It is noted however that excellent varnished cannot improve the stamp of a bad violin, but that a bad varnish can depreciate that of a good violin.

The influence of wood used was also studied. Being component largely majority instrument vis-a-vis varnish, its role seemed to have to be also dominating. Many assumptions were erected scaffolding, certain energy until supposing that the wood of the violins came from the frame of cathedrals or castles, which would have given him an exceptional age. Lloyd Burckle and Henri Grissino-Mayer have as for them makes the assumption that the wood used by the large Italian Masters came the twenty years preceding at least added minimum of Maunder itself. This minimum of Maunder is one period of intense cold which took place in Europe; with the twenty previous years, that corresponds to the period 1625 - 1715. According to the two authors, this cold would have caused a slowed down growth of the trees, conferring to them a density of rings of growth per high unit of length. But this assumption was also rejected because of the times of drying probably adopted by the Italian violin makers, and the authors recognize themselves that no treatment particular (drying, storage or varnished) forever identified as causes certain supériorité.^,

Joseph Nagyvary and his team analyzed the wood of five instruments (from of which a Stradivarius and Guarnerius) dating among 1717 and 1840. “In two of the supposed instruments being of the wonders of acoustics, wood was treated by chemicals”, according to Nagyvary: hemicellulose molecules were broken following the oxidation caused by a pesticide. According to the researcher, wood would have been boiled in chemically treated water, the aim of protection the instrument against the worms and the moulds. Modifying the structure of wood, this operation would thus have had unexpected repercussions. But the oxidising agent employed remains unknown.

The time necessary with the manufacture of a violin is delicate to estimate, because it depends on the experiment of the craftsman. It is considered that an experienced craftsman manufactures a violin into 30 to 45 days, wood being already dry. The stage longest to realize is varnishing, because each many layer is applied only after drying of the preceding one, but there can be up to thirty successive applications.

The price of a violin is very variable. Thus, a violin of factory manufactured in China in the years 1980, sold with mentonnière and case, cost less than 1000 frank. With exact opposite, the old violins of the large Italian violin makers reach considerable sums at the time of auctions. The last recorded record returns to a Guarnerius del Gesù of 1742 which was played by Yehudi Menuhin and which was sold the October 29th 1999 with Zurich with more than 2,6 million dollars. There exists a happy medium; Menuhin proposes for example like good violins the productions of the Spanish stringed-instrument trade of the 18th century or those of the Czech stringed-instrument trade .

The violin through the ages

Origin and birth of the violin

The violin is born in north from Italy, at the beginning of the 16th century. It seems that the first violin makers to manufacture violins borrowed characteristics from three existing instruments: the Rebec, of use since the 10th century (itself derived from the Rebab of the Arab music), the Hurdy-gurdy and the Will read da braccio. The first mention of the violin which one has trace is the note of December 17th 1523, in a register of the general Treasury of Savoy, for the payment of the services of the “trumpets and vyollons of Verceil”. One of the first explicit descriptions of the instrument and its agreement in fifths appears in the musical Epitomé of Philibert Jambe of Iron, published with Lyon in 1556. Philibert Jambe of iron writes that the sound of the violin is “much hard”, and that it is necessary to prefer the viol to him, instrument of the “gentilz men marchantz and other people of Vertuz”.

The oldest violin known to have four cords (as the modern violin that we know), was built in 1555 by Andrea Amati. The violin is spread quickly through the Europe, at the same time like instrument of street, popular, and like appreciated instrument of the nobility: thus, the king of France Charles IX order in Amati 24 violins in 1560.

The oldest violin which reached us is resulting from the ordering of Charles IX and bears his name. It was manufactured with Crémone about 1560.

End of the Rebirth at the traditional period

In France

In 1630, Pierre Trichet written, in her Treated musical instruments that “the violins are mainly intended for the dances, balls, ballets, masquarades, serenades, dawn serenades, festivals and all pastimes merry, having been judged more appropriate to these kinds of pastime than any other instrument”. The opinion of Trichet is not isolated at the beginning of the 17th century: at its beginnings, the violin is regarded as yelling and right being good to dance. In fact, France of the XVIIe research plus sonorities intimists suitable for the individual expression that spectacular effects of the virtuosos and his brilliance of the violin. However, it already began its conquest of the musical world in Italy as of the years 1600.

However, under the influence of first virtuosos such as Balthasar de Beaujoyeux, arrived at the Court of France in 1555 the violin is an increasing success which will lead it to supplant viola da gamba gradually. In 1585 is published Circé or the ballet of Royne , first partition never printed having a part specifically written for the violin. The establishment of the violin in France continues with creation in 1626 of the Twenty-four Violins of the King, and especially thanks to the influence of the type-setter and Italian violonist Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632 - 1687).

Italy: first golden age of virtuosity

It is nevertheless in Italy that the violin makes its fastest great strides and most spectacular. The virtuosity of the Italian violonists is exploited at the beginning of the period baroque by Claudio Monteverdi, which uses of tremor and pizzicato in its operas, of which one of most known for its use of the violin is Orfeo (1607). It should be waited several decades before virtuosos such as Heinrich von Biber (1644 - 1704) complete out of Italy a degree of control virtuoso such as that developed by the Italian Masters.

The second part of the XVIIe century sees the domination of the school of Bologna which produces musicians such as Arcangelo Corelli, its pupil Francesco Geminiani, or Giovanni Battista Vitali, and sees being born from the forms such as the Sonate and the Concerto grosso. It is with Crémone, close to Bologna that Nicolo Amati, Andrea Guarneri and especially Antonio Stradivarius brings the violin to its current form and produces specimens of a very great quality, so much so that the Stradivarius and, to a lesser extent Guarnerius, are always today the most expensive violins and most required. Among the virtuosos having had a Stradivarius, let us quote Niccolò Paganini, Joseph Joachim, David Oïstrakh or Jascha Heifetz (which played also Guarnerius).

Later, during the XVIIIe century, it is in Venice, with Antonio Vivaldi, in Rome with Pietro Locatelli or Padoue with Giuseppe Tartini that the technique and the repertory of the violin develop most appreciably. Four Seasons for violin and orchestra, of Vivaldi, or the sonata Trille of the Devil of Tartini, always hold a choice place in the repertory of the violin.

The XVIIIe century

Germanic countries

The traditional period sees the emergence of a Germanic school of violin influenced by the Italians who from now on acquired a sufficient notoriety to make rounds in all Europe. Johann Georg Pisendel (1687 - 1755) voyage enters the court of Italian Dresden and its Masters Giuseppe Torelli and Vivaldi. In fact works for solo violin of Pisendel would have influenced Bach to write its Sonates and partitas for violin alone (BWV 1001 to 1006), which exaltent the polyphonic capacities of the violin: each sonata includes/understands a running away with four votes for violin alone, and the Partita for violin alone n° 2 includes celebrates it Chaconne. The type-setters virtuosos of the school of Mannheim, Johann Stamitz (1717 - 1757), Carl Stamitz (1745 - 1801) and Christian Cannabich (1731 - 1798) like their contemporary Leopold Mozart (1719 - 1787), are all of the violonists of reputation, exerting well beyond the borders germaniques.
A little later, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791), type-setter and violonist virtuoso, writing of many sonatas for violin and keyboard, five concertos for violin (Kv 207,211,216,218,219) and the symphonia concertante (Kv 364).

France of the classicism

In 1740, Louis the White publishes a treaty to defend the viol against the companies of the violin and claims of the violoncello , sign that still in the middle of the XVIIIe century, the quarrel between the partisans of the two families of instruments did not become exhausted. Simon McVeigh notes that the resistance of the French relates to more the Italian music, in adequacy with the French esthetics of then, that a simple problem of instrument. However, the presence of violonists virtuosos such as Jean-Marie Leclair (1697 - 1764) in the French musical landscape of then lets perceive the permeability which acquired in one half-century the French music with the Italian influences. The reserves White end It up being swept, with the abandonment at the end of the 18th century of the viol.

Another abandonment going back to this time reinforces the role of the violin, this time in Orchestre: the Basse continues disappearing little by little as from 1770, the First violin, member of the most important group of the orchestra, supplants it with the direction. Thus until the end of the 19th century, by including even Pierre Monteux and Charles Munch, almost all the leaders French are violonists, and that until Jules Pasdeloup and Edouard Colonne (at his beginnings), they direct with the bow.

In the last decades of the century, Paris became a cosmopolitan center for the violonists, accommodating not only famous Mozart but also several virtuosos, in particular the Chevalier of Saint-George or Giovanni Battista Viotti, which occurs with the Concert of sacred music as of 1782. Through its 32 concertos for violin and thanks to its technical control, in particular of the bow, Viotti the art of the violin for the decades influences durably to come.

The romantic period

Paganini or the golden age of virtuosity

Whereas the French school of violin was to conquer an increasingly prominent place during the whole of the XIXe century, grace in particular to the foundation of the Conservatoire of Paris, in 1795, it is still the Italian school which provides to the world of the violin of then, in the person of the virtuoso Niccolò Paganini (1782 - 1840), one of its more remarkable talents. Publication of its 24 Whims for solo violin, opus 1, and of its concertos for violin, mark a decisive projection in the virtuosos possibilities of the instrument, preparing this one with the blazing repertory of the 19th century, by in particular introducing Pizzicati of the left hand, blows of bows in rebounds, double harmonic cords… This is why Paganini represents in imaginary romantic “quasi diabolic transcendent virtuosity”. Its only known pupil, Camillo Sivori (1815 - 1894) and Antonio Bazzini (1818 - 1897) were to continue the work of the Master, but one can affirm that the brilliant career of Paganini marks the end of the Italian university of violin.

The foundation of the free Belgian school

The beginning of the XIXe century had sees emergence in France of a generation of brilliant violonists largely influenced by Viotti. Among its pupils and disciples, Pierre Grinds (1774 - 1830), Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766 - 1831) and the Belgian Charles-Auguste de Bériot (1802 - 1870) know the glory of international careers; they teach with the Conservatoire of Paris and leave an important teaching equipment, very much used thereafter: 24 whims of Grinds, 42 studies of Kreutzer, concertos of Bériot… The middle-class company of the 19th century wants to be diverted thanks to the music, but also to learn it; it is thus the instigator of these methods and studies for violin of the Franco-Belgian school.

Among the pupils of Bériot, Henri Vieuxtemps (1820 - 1881) written an abundant violonistic literature (its concertos and parts of virtuosities are still largely present at the repertory today). Vieuxtemps has itself as a pupil Eugene Ysaÿe (1858 - 1931), type-setter of six sonatas for violin, opus 27. All these violonists significantly make evolve/move the technique of the violin and the interpretation of the repertory. In parallel, to share Camille Saint-Saëns and Edouard Lalo, the French romantic type-setters bring only little of philosopher's stones of bravery to the violin, leaving to the Germanic type-setters the care to write the great concertos of the repertory.

The advent of the great romantic repertory

The XIXe century, in Germany, is the time of foundation of the great repertory of the violin. The German type-setters write four of the most famous concertos for the instrument, all always very played at present:

Ludwig van Beethoven, concerto in major D COp 61;
max Bruch, concerto in minor ground COp 26
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, concerto n° 2 as a semi minor COp 64;
Johannes Brahms, concerto in major D COp 77.

One can also underline the composition of the 10 sonatas for violin of Beethoven, of which Spring and the Sonate in Kreutzer .

Out of Germany, Piotr Ilitch Tchaïkovski composes in 1878 its concerto for violin in major D, Antonín Dvořák, in 1879, its concerto in minor COp 53 (B108). Pablo de Sarasate, famous virtuoso, writes several purple passages, emphasizing its brilliant technique; among them, the Imagination in concert on topics of Carmen, Zigeunerweisen or Habanera.

The XXe century

August 1st The 20th century continues the consolidation of the place of the violin within the classical music. Although new styles appear, and that the futuristic avant-garde rejects the “old instruments”, of many type-setters add their violonistic contribution to the repertory. The century opens with the concerto in minor D, COp 47 of Jean Sibelius, going back to 1903. It continues with Sergeï Prokofiev and its Concerto n°1 in major D (1916) and n°2 in minor ground (1935), Georges Enesco and its Sonate " in the popular character roumain" (1926) or Maurice Ravel and his Sonata for violin and piano (1922-27) like Gypsy (1924). The large violonist Fritz Kreisler writes many parts for his instrument, in particular his Praeludium and Allegro , which it allots a time to Gaetano Pugnani, its Liebesleid and Liebesfreud , the Chinese Tambourin , the Caprice Viennese …

Which the to use?

The 20th century is also the moment when one fixes the height of the la3 , or tuning fork. This one varied considerably during time: for example, in Paris, it was in 404 Hertz under Louis XIV but is assembled up to an extreme value of 457 Hz under the Second Empire. In 1939, a commission at this meeting in London, fixes the absolute height of the tuning fork at 440 Hz; because of the Second world war, it is the International Conference of London which ratifies this decision in 1953. The fluctuations then the rise of the the with 440 Hz have important consequences on the string instruments. Indeed, to obtain a higher tuning fork, it is not the thickness of the cord which is modified but the tension. The pressure exerted on the table thus strongly varies during time. The rise of the la3 compared to that of the Stradivari time involves a reinforcement of the stopping old instruments for better resisting the increased pressure exerted by the cords.

But 1953, year of the unification of the the , is also the year signing the return of the play on Violon baroque (and thus the use of a la3 low), with the formation of the Concentus Musicus Wien by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, the pioneer of the kind. The installations of the Collegium Aureum (1962) follow, of the Small Band (1972), of the Academy off Ancient Music (1973)… The instrumentalists baroques re-use violins of assembly baroque which were not modified, or of the copies according to models; according to the cases, they add to it the cord S in bowel, the convex bow…

The violin throughout the world

India

The violin is also largely played in the Indian Musique, as well in the Musique Hindustani as in the carnatic Musique. Certainly been essential by colonists, it became a genuine traditional instrument over there also, it is used so much in solo, is accompanied by a percussion (Tablâ or Mridangam), that in accompaniment of the singers or dancers. It is also an instrument which is often in the Indian houses.

One plays about it however in a particular way. The agreement is in C - ground - C - ground (its - Pa - its - Pa) and it there forever of mentonnière. The instrument is held with back, the head resting on ankle of the musician sitting as a tailor, and the back cleat resting on the chest, leaving thus maintained, the free left hand to carry out the so frequent Glissando S in this music. One plays all there the possible Râga S.

The principal violonists are: Dr. L. Subramaniam, V.G. Jog, and Dr. NR. Rajan. The brother of the first, Shankar (not to be confused with Ravi Shankar), is also a violonist recognized in the World music.

Ireland

In Ireland, the instrument names Fiddle and is played by a Fiddler.

Kevin Burke, Irish musician having taken part in particular in the group The Bothy Band.

Tziganes

Roby Lakatos

Various folklores

He is played by a Violoniste, in modern classical music or, and by a Violoneux in traditional music of center-France and Quebec.

Jean-François Vrod, fiddler having taken part in particular in Coffee-Coals.
Jean Carignan, regarded as one of the large traditional fiddlers

The Jazz and the Rock'n'roll

The violin is present at the beginning of the history of the Jazz, sometimes since one finds it in orchestras of Jazz New-Orleans. It is however Joe Venuti, considered as “the father of the violin jazz” which made emerge this instrument as a soloist, in particular by its duets with the guitarist Eddie Lang in years 1920/1930.

In France, one of the pioneers of the violin in the jazz is Stephan Grappelli which showed truly that the violin could swinger, and became an undeniable reference. “The violin made with him an entry crashing to pieces in the universe of the jazz. The contribution of Grappelli is absolutely single in the history of the jazz as in the history of the violin. ” In spite of success and the influence which Grappelli exerted, the importance of the violin in the jazz however remained rather minor. Some musicians of origin Tzigane use it naturally, for example Elek Bacsik, or more recently Florin Niculescu, which gains a nice success revivalist , and is posed of heir to Stephan Grappelli

Certain musicians of the Free jazz make a déstructurante use of it, such as for example Ornette Coleman, which not having real technique on the instrument, uses it like means of instability. No5el Akchoté uses it way bruitist or for his possibilities of long glissandi.

In the years 1970 and with the appearance of the Jazz-rock'n'roll, Jean-Luc Ponty will have a very great business success by using an amplified violin, and various sound effects, then a electric Violon. Type-setters like John McLaughlin, Frank Zappa, largely contributed to widen the use of this instrument.

Although marginal compared to the traditional instruments of the jazz like the Saxophone or the Trumpet, there exists today of many instrumentalists of talents, like Didier Lockwood, Regina Carter…

More recently, the contemporary jazz also seized the instrument, and uses it in a manner much nearer of traditional and Modern music, by using its capacities of melody expressivity, and its wide possibilities of Techniques of play, in particular the Harmoniques. One can quote Dominique Pifarély, Mark Feldman, Régis Huby…

Maintenance

Servicing carried out by the violonist

Before playing, one puts Colophane on the bow. However, while playing, this one is detached from the bow in the form of a fine white dust, which settles on the sounding board, between the rest and the key. For having played, it is thus necessary to clean the zone with a dry cotton or silk rag. The site of the rosin dust is a good indicator of the total placement of the bow. The play is incorrect when one plays too much on the key, which is difficult to see without mirror when one carries out a piece, but very simple to note thanks to the site of the rosin dust.

Because of the hearing, the interior of the case of resonance of the violin communicates with the surrounding air: dust between thus freely in the instrument. It is thus necessary regularly to clean the interior of the case by introducing there some grains of Riz. When the violin is agitated, the grains make agglomerate dust out of sheep which arise then easily by hearing.

The wood of the violin fears the changes of temperature and rate of moisture. It is impossible to dry the violin if the water content increases (the powder sachets drying are inappropriate), but the contrary operation is realizable thanks to humidifiers to place in the box of the instrument (small bottle of water pierced with holes) or directly in the case of resonance (perforated plastic tube containing of the sponge which one soaked with water). It is advised to maintain the violin at a temperature ranging between 16 and 20°C, and ata water content between 40 and 65%.

The metal cords are prone to at the same time mechanical wear (friction of the fingers, particularly because of unhafted) and chemical (kind of rust, because of the Sueur) due to the play. They should be cleaned, they and touches it, of the grease left by the sweat of the fingers, by using alcohol or Eau de Cologne. They should also be changed regularly, the cord of semi being touched more because of its low diameter, the cord of ground being on the contrary rather resistant to the problem. A cord of semi is thus changed every month when one plays a few hours daily, while a ground can hold three months before deterioration is really sensitive to the ear. Indeed, a worn cord becomes difficult to grant to the others, pretense to sound always false when one plays about it in neutral; it is a late, posterior sign with the “threshold” of really suitable wear, and requiring the immediate change of the cord. A cord largely too worn can “claquer”, i.e. to abruptly break (for example under the effect of heat, of a too abrupt blow of bow…).

One preserves a violin in a box whose form and material can vary. This box contains necessarily the violin, the bow, the cushion, rosin, a soft rag for the maintenance and of the cords of replacement. It can also contain, according to the cases, the partitions, other bows, a metronome, a hygrometer, a humidifier, chalk for the maintenance of the ankles, a silencing device…

Repairs made by the violin maker

Derived instruments: descendants of the violin

The violin had several descendants, that they are instruments designed from a point of view of improvement of the sound, or that they are innovations intended to use new materials and techniques.

The Savart violin

Felix Savart developed at the 19th century a violin with case of trapezoidal resonance, equipped with rectilinear hearing. The shape of the case was justified by the obstacle with the propagation of the sound which the shape in vault of the table represented, while the purpose of that of hearing was to restrict the loss of surface caused by the shape of these openings in ƒ on the level of those, evaluated with a third. Tolbecque judges that this violin resembled only one “vulgar bellows of kitchen”, and that “unfortunately, with the point of view of the sound, was not to be better succeeded”. A specimen is preserved by it at the Polytechnic school Palaiseau.

The violin of Chanot

The violin proposed by François Chanot in 1819, if it preserved more the total shape of the instrument, was also extremely different from the model. The table and bottom did not have any angle on the level of the notches, hearing were slits of constant width which followed the edges of the table, the head was turned over in order to facilitate the installation of the second cord, and the cords did not stick any more to the rope-maker but directly in the table. This last point had as a consequence the wrenching of the table, and after criticisms extremely eulogistic as for the sonority, compared with that of a Stradivarius, and as for the price (hundred ecus), the instrument was not adopted massively.

The violin of Suleau

Suleau left the observation that to increase the sound volume of the violin, had to be increased vibrating surface. Not being able neither too to widen the case, neither to appronfondir it inordinately, nor to modify its length because of the practices of the violonists, it decided to dig furrows, directed perpendicularly within the meaning of the fibers, while maintaining a thickness of constant table, which gave to the table seen profile the aspect of a succession of regular waves. The sound results not being with the height of its waitings, it tried to put the furrows in the same direction as fibers of wood, but without success.

The Stroh violin

Augustus Stroh conceived and patented in 1899 a violin without table, thus described: The rest is placed so as to transmit the lightest vibrations to a lever; this lever is itself in communication with an aluminum diaphragm, nonplain. This diaphragm is the principal part of the violin; it is him which gives to the sound the force necessary; it is fixed by two rubber bearings at the frame of the violin. Close to the diaphragm opens a metal house which is used to reinforce the sons. Qualified at its beginnings of “future king of the orchestra”, the violin Stroh was used some time for the phonographic recordings, its power solving the problem of the not very sensitive microphones. Its use then probably did not cease being restricted, since testimonys about it, beyond the first years, are rare, and one does not have data making it possible to evaluate how much specimens are currently played.

The Tolbecque violin

Auguste Tolbecque explains in his work that it manufactured a violin whose hearing are located on the fish-plates, on the level of the notches, this always in optics to avoid losing a third of the surface of the table on the level of the rest. However, one does not lay out of more than data as for his use.

Electric violins

In second half of the 20th century was developed the violin with full table and electric amplification, according to the same principle as the Electric guitar with full body invented in 1942. It is in particular used by Catherine Lara.

Later developments: new materials

About the years 1990, violins in Carbon fiber were developed with a considerable advantage: their price relatively low. They are used generally only as violins of study because although musicians had chosen them for the concerts for their qualities of power, clearness and intelligibility, they find them with long tedious, because of a “flat” sound, always same whatever the nuance of play, without expressivity. These violins are easily recognizable thanks to their black table which comprises a fine dark squaring.

In 2002, the firm Yamaha presents its Silent range, where one finds inter alia violins known as quiet (less sound is more exact) because private of Caisse of resonance. Amplification is ensured by an electronic sytème, to which one added a preamplifier. The obstruction is slightly tiny room in thickness and width thanks to dismountable arches, this last point being much more obvious on the Contrebasse S of the range, which can make 10 cm broad once partially dismounted. The violins of this range cost approximately 760 €.

Gildas Bellego developed a formed violin of a table in spruce and a bottom and fish-plates out of polyethylene and carbon fiber, the case being without angles at the level of the table and melts as in the Chanot violin, but also on the level of the joints bottom-fish-plates and fish-plate-tables. The moulding of this wide bottom decreasing the number of parts to be assembled to 15, the price also falls, with 2000 €.

Lastly, American firm QRS built “Virtuoso Violin”, a violin which plays only the partitions with the format MIDDAY, thanks to a mechanical system for the bow and an electromagnetic system for the determination height of the notes.

The cortical representation of the fingers of the left hand in a violonist, obtained by Imagery by functional magnetic resonance, watch an increase in the cortical zone activated by stimuli of this finger. The size of the zone of the cortex devoted to auricular becomes similar to that of the inch, which is not the case of the not-violonist. However, these modifications, related to the training, vary according to the age of acquisition: the enlarging of this zone is more important at the individuals having begun the practice of the violin before the 13 years age; this surface reaches its maximum in the artists who began the violin before the five years age; according to some, it remains however important at those having started later whereas others consider that those which began the training after 7 years do not present significant differences with not-musicians.

The effect of the increase in size of the zone of sensory representation of the left hand is an increased dexterity: the violonist is able to place his fingers in positions different all the tenth or twentieth from second, with a precision of some tenth of millimetre, when the not-violonist the place all the quarters or half seconds and with a precision of a millimetre. The experienced violonist is able to correct the accuracy of a note in a tenth of a second, with the quarter tone; he can, in a fast movement, to play 12 notes at the second, he anticipates them then at least 700 milliseconds.

Disorders

The syndrome of the cubital gutter occurs when there is compression of the cubital Nerf, either at the time of its passage in the gutter between the Olécrane and the épitrochlée , or when it passes in the front armlever proximal enchased in the cubital channel between muscular structures and Ligament surfaces. The elbow most likely to be reached about it is the elbow of the arm which holds the handle of the violin. However, the elbow of the arm holding the bow can also be reached of this syndrome because of the repetitive movements of inflection and extension. In both cases, the symptoms are the same ones: pains in the front armlever, the fourth and fifth fingers, feeling of numbness of these zones and weakness at the time of the movements.

The musician reached of a dystonie of function does not manage any more to control the movement of one or several fingers: according to the definition of Raoul Tubiana, it undergoes “momentary contractions muscular, involuntary, nonpainful, involving an incoordination of its movements, only at the time of a musical passage determined good, disorders which persist in spite of the effort that it makes to correct them. ” In general, functional recovery with a technical high level is only exceptional, and the total cure is not possible.

The tendinitises particular to the violonist touch the bungee cords or flexor fingers, the external part of the elbow, or shoulders it. Those are characterized, primarily, by a pain along the way of the tendon concerned.

The syndrome of compression vasculo-highly-strung person (or Syndrome of the carpel tunnel) causes swarmings on the level of the fingers and a lack of digital sensitivity. The carpel tunnel, sheaths located in the interior face of the hand, contains the flexor tendons of the fingers and the nerve which enables them to be sensitive.

One can also see neurites painful of the digital nerves due to a mechanical irritation. Total disorders of the hand are to be feared, and their current causes are the bad positions, an intensive practice, a change of technique, a hygiene of insufficient life and the anxiety.

See too

violin

Internal bonds

List of famous violonists of 1600 to our days
French School of the violin
First violin and Second violin
String quartet
String instrument
Orchestra

External bonds

Site on the violin
Site on the instrument

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