Some of the earliest illustrations of violins are shown here. They come come from the first encyclopaedia of music, compiled by Michael Praetorius in 1619 and called "Syntagma Musicum"
During the Renaissance period the rnain string instruments used
were the viols. As the sound of the viol was rather qulet it was
mainly played in small domestic musical gatherings, rather than
at festive pageants where wind instruments would dominate. With
the arrival of the modern theatre at the beginning of the Baroque
Period (around 1600) much of the most fashionable music had to
fill the large theatre auditoriums. In the same way as the solo
voice with orchestral support became the most prominent part of
the musical sound-world of the opera-house, so too a solo instrumentalist
with accompaniment of other instruments became the most most prominent
part of the sound-world of the concert-house. This new form -
the CONCERTO - enabled the more flexible expressive potential
of the new violin to come into its own. By the 168Os the old viol
had virtually become extinct as a musical instrument. One exception
was the bass viol, which, slightly adapted, is the double-bass
of the modern orchestra or jazz-band. All other modern orchestral
stringed instruments are related to the violins developed in the
17th Century.
The differences between the viol and the violin:
Viol
This illustration from 1659 comes from a book of viol music called
"The Division-violist" by Christopher
Simpson. In England and France viols stayed popular a little
longer than in Italy. Notice how the "viola da gamba"
shown here is held between the legs with no other support. "Gamba"
is Italian for "leg".
Violin
This illustration shows 3 different angles of a single violin
by Antonio Stradivari, made in Cremona in 1683. Notice the beautiful
decorative detail of fine craftsmanship. This violin can be viewed
in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, but many Stradivari violins
are played by leading violinists around the world even today.
The bigger sound was not the only important aspect of the
new instrument. The player was now able to switch rapidly between
the high and the low notes due to the more curved bridge and to
the greater mobility of the bow: the higher tension meant the
bow needed only to touch the strings lightly to sound and the
exaggerated waist cuts gave the bow a greater field of movement.
The 4 strings made it easier to combine melodic playing with patterned
chords - a new and very significant feature of Baroque music.
Some of the many types of viol, the precursor
of the violin, as illustrated in Michael Praetorius' "Syntagma
Musicum" of 1619.