History of the violin

The violin, viola, and cello were first made in the early 16th century, in Italy. The earliest evidence for their existence is in paintings by Gaudenzio Ferrari from the 1530s, though Ferrari's instruments had only three strings. The Academie musicale, a treatise written in 1556 by Philibert Jambe de Fer, gives a clear description of the violin family much as we know it today.
Violins are likely to have been developed from a number of other string instruments of the 15th and 16th centuries, including the vielle, rebec, and lira da braccio. The history of bowed string instruments in Europe goes back to the 9th century with the Byzantine lira .
Since their invention, instruments in the violin family have seen a number of changes. The overall pattern for the instrument was set in the 17th century by luthiers like the prolific Amati family, Jakob Stainer of the Tyrol, and Antonio Stradivari, with many makers at the time and since following their templates.
Early history
The two earliest bowed instruments are the ravanastron and the omerti found in India and made of a hollowed cylinder of sycamore wood. They were played in the manner of a cello. Also in China, another two-stringed bowed instrument was the erhu.
The direct ancestor of all European bowed instruments is the Arabic rebab , which developed into the Byzantine lyra by the 9th century and later the European rebec. In Welsh, the equivalent were the three- and six-strings crwths .
The Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih of the 9th century was the first to cite the bowed Byzantine lyra as a typical instrument of the Byzantines and equivalent to the rabāb used in the Islamic Empires of that time. The Byzantine lyra spread through Europe westward and in the 11th and 12th centuries European writers use the terms fiddle and lira interchangeably when referring to bowed instruments . In the meantime rabāb was introduced to the Western Europe possibly through the Iberian Peninsula and both bowed instruments spread widely throughout Europe giving birth to various European bowed instruments. During the Renaissance, the rebec came in different sizes and pitches: soprano, tenor, and bass. The smaller versions of the instrument were known in Italy as ribecchino and in France as rubechette.

[@shanthageorge7413]

Thank you. Very helpful information.

[@charlie.msagofficialchannel]

The violin is one of the hardest instruments to play.

[@kokeskokeskokes]

Not really. Pipe organ, cimbalone, guitar at high level, drums, viola, oboe... Piano as well, to me at least.

[@kokeskokeskokes]

Leonardo da Vinci of course, who else. We know well how prolific inventor he was, he is known to have been a luthier early in his career and he was also the best musician at the court of Sforza.

[@bobblowhard8823]

Why does the narrator sound like a computer bot?

[@InarusLynx]

Because it is

[@whatabouttheearth]

He's healing his voice after getting over a case of strep throat after someone spilled soda into his cpu

[@glenncbjones]

Ugh! The low rent “budget-bot” voice, added to the “middle school history class” plodding journalism of the “script” and the “Hanna-Barbera” cartoon background loop approach to all of the usual “stock”photos and illustrations, make a genuine “sow’s ear” out of a potential “silk purse” of a great subject matter… … conversely… A LIVE human voice, male or female, but just perhaps especially with an engaging female as our narrator, preferably with some onscreen presence, coupled with some varied swatches of classical music (most of which is in the public domain!), mixed to supply intros and segues with hints of grandeur and then just dropping to “background” levels to define the appropriate eras and periodic elemental and instrumental evolutionary modifications, would have gone a very long way towards taking this from being a mild exercise in expository torture, to being a useful reference in regard to the actual history of “the world’s most versatile instrument,” as it was so very correctly described by David Schoenbaum in his wonderful overview of the instrument! And to add fuel to the “bonfire” of this post’s seriously deficient “vanities,” their is no mention of FRANCE, and it’s major contributions to the evolution of the modern violin, from Francois Tourte’s quite marvelous bows to the lengthening and “pitching” of violin necks “in the Paris fashion” (which was most certainly the genius of the great Nicholas Lupot!), to the recognition by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume and others, of the strengths (and weaknesses!) of the great Italian makers! And what about Tarisio, and the Hills, and virtually endless other elements? I’d give this egregious disservice to the subject matter a “D-,” and I think that’s being generous! If you are really interested in this fascinating subject, obtain a copy of David Schoenbaum’s book, it’s not really especially expensive,but it’s also borrowable from your local library (if the “red hats” haven’t burned all the books yet!). The book is quite thorough, although it’s a bit of a roller coaster ride, often jumping 50 years to three or four centuries within any given chapter, and indeed, also sometimes within a single paragraph! Information worth your honest pursuit, whether for fun or profit or both! “Recuerdos a todos!” Glenn Jones (From the “Tyrol” of the heart!)…

[@whatabouttheearth]

Who is France?

[@glenncbjones]

@@whatabouttheearth France is that country in the EU that lies across the English Channel from the UK, kind of wedged between Spain and Germany, but also abutting Belgium and a little bit of Italy. The capitol of France is called Paris, surely you’ve heard of it. I hope that this helps. Happy Holidays! - Glenn Jones

[@johnskrovoza]

crap video. Insulting that this company thinks they are getting away with producing something informative. If someone spent as much as ten minutes they might have been able to at least match the images with the "spoken" content.