Instrument
Violin
The smallest and highest-pitched of the bowed strings - and the orchestra's principal melodic voice.
The violin is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the string family, held under the chin and played with a bow drawn across four strings. Its combination of range, expressive flexibility, and carrying power has made it the orchestra's leading melodic voice for roughly four centuries - more music has been written specifically for the violin than for almost any other instrument.
How it's played
The violin's four strings are tuned a fifth apart - G, D, A, and E, from lowest to highest. The player changes pitch by pressing strings down with the fingers of the left hand. Unlike a guitar, the violin has no frets, so every note's tuning depends on exactly where a finger lands; that's part of what makes the instrument so hard to learn, and part of what makes it so expressive.
The right hand draws a bow strung with horsehair, coated in rosin so it grips the string and sets it vibrating. The vibration passes through the wooden bridge into the hollow body, which amplifies it. A few techniques come up constantly:
- Vibrato - a slight, rapid rocking of the left-hand finger that gives a sustained note its warmth.
- Pizzicato - plucking the strings instead of bowing them.
- Double stops - playing on two strings at once, to sound two notes together.
A fiddle and a violin are the same instrument: the difference is in the style of music played on it, not the instrument itself.
A short history
The instrument reached something close to its modern form in 16th-century Italy, where the Amati family of Cremona built some of the earliest surviving violins. Cremona remained the center of violin making, and the violins built there by Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri in the early-to-mid 18th century are still considered unmatched by many professional players, commanding enormous prices at auction and still in active use on concert stages today, over 300 years later.
Most of those old instruments have been quietly modified since: in the 19th century, makers lengthened and angled violin necks and fitted higher bridges so the instruments could project into larger concert halls, and today most players use synthetic or steel strings rather than the original gut.
The 19th century was also the age of the touring violin virtuoso. Niccolò Paganini's dazzling technique was so far beyond his contemporaries' that rumors spread he'd sold his soul to the devil - and his 24 Caprices are still a summit of violin technique.
In the orchestra and beyond
In an orchestra, violins are split into two sections - first violins and second violins - usually seated closest to the conductor, and typically carry the primary melody more often than any other section. A full symphony orchestra can have thirty or more violinists. The principal first violinist is the concertmaster (called the "leader" in Britain), who plays the orchestra's violin solos, leads the tuning, and acts as a link between the conductor and the players.
In a string quartet, two violins anchor the top of the texture above viola and cello, and the violin is also one of the most popular solo instruments for the concerto and the duo sonata.
Essential violin music
- Vivaldi - The Four Seasons (1725).
- Bach - Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, including the monumental Chaconne.
- Beethoven - Violin Concerto (1806).
- Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E Minor (1844).
- Brahms and Tchaikovsky - their violin concertos, both from 1878.
- Paganini - 24 Caprices.
Where to start listening: Vivaldi's The Four Seasons puts the violin in its most famous solo role; any Beethoven string quartet shows its ensemble voice. For the instrument at its most lyrical, try the slow movement of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto.