Violin (diminutive from viol), the smallest but most important of the stringed musical instruments played with the bow. Like other bow-instruments now in use, it consists of a wooden sonorous chest, formed of two slightly arched surfaces, known as the back and belly, united by sides or ribs, and with a curve or hollow on each side in the middle of the length; a neck or fingerboard attached to the chest; and strings, fastened at one end to the belly by a tailpiece or projection of wood, and at the other to turning-pins at the head or extremity of the neck, by which they can be tightened or loosened at pleasure. The strings thus passing over the belly are raised up from it by a bridge, which is supported in the interior by the sound-post; and on the belly there are two sound-holes opposite each other, of a form resembling the letter f, or rather the long f. The sounds are produced by drawing a bow across the strings, the upper surface of the bridge being convexly curved, so as to enable the bow to be drawn along each string separately, without coming in contact with the rest. The modern violin has four strings of gut, the lowest covered with fine silvered copper wire, or sometimes, in the best instruments, with silver or even gold wire. These strings are tuned in fifths, the highest or first string sounding E on the fourth space of the treble clef, and the other three the A, D, and G in succession below. The bow, made of horsehair, is held in the right hand, and the sounds of each string, other than the open notes, are obtained by stopping—i.e. pressing it with the finger against the fingerboard at certain distances, thus shortening the vibrating portion, and raising the pitch of the sound. Very high notes are produced by the Harmonics (q.v.) of the string, which, instead of being pressed against the fingerboard, is touched lightly, the sound resulting from the vibration being not, as in ordinary cases, of the part of the string between the point of stopping and the bridge, but of a harmonic section of it. A peculiar modification of tone is produced by the application of the mute, or sordino, a little instrument placed on the bridge. A violin or other bow-instrument is occasionally played pizzicato—i.e. with the fingers, as a harp or guitar. The compass of the violin is about three octaves and a half, from G below the treble clef to C above the fifth ledger-line above it, with all the intermediate chromatic intervals; but the highest notes are apt to be harsh and squeaking. Great players command a few notes higher, chiefly by harmonics. Though chiefly an instrument of melody, it is to a limited extent capable of harmony by double stops—two notes may be struck together, and three or four notes may be played in arpeggio. No instrument can compare with the violin in power of expression and execution. It has an unlimited command over a very wide range of sounds, to which any degree of piano and forte, of staccato and legato, can be imparted. In orchestral music there are always two different violin parts known as first and second violin (see ORCHESTRA); and the same is generally the case when the violin is used in concerted music, the usual arrangement of stringed quartett music being for two violins, viola, and violoncello.
The origin of the violin has been variously traced. The generally accepted view derives it from the one-stringed Ravanastron, the simplest of the numerous oriental stringed instruments played with a bow, which is traditionally the invention of Ravana, king of Ceylon, 5000 B.C., and is still played by Buddhist begging monks. From India these instruments of varied form found their way, through Persia, Arabia, and Spain, to the rest of Europe about the close of the 11th century. The French Rebeck, resembling the oriental Rebab, is the type of them, and from it sprang the Viol (q.v.), the immediate precursor of the violin. Another account derives the violin from the classic lyre, as well as the Crwth of the Welsh, which was latterly played with a bow. It is not impossible that both theories may be correct. The bow has not been conclusively accounted for, being variously supposed to have been primarily a military bow, a plectrum, and a second monochord lute applied to the first. The earliest violins seem to have been those of Gasparo di Salò in Lombardy (c. 1560), followed by the rest of the makers called the Brescian school, including Maggini and the Zanettos. In the 16th and 17th centuries the family of the Amati (q.v.) at Cremona, including Andrew, his sons Jerome and Antonio, and Nicolo, son to Jerome, produced violins the wonder of succeeding times, whose tone and quality more recent makers have in vain sought to equal. Antonio Stradivari (1649-1737), also of Cremona, pupil of Nicolo, if possible surpassed the Amati, and for a time the repute of Cremona was kept up by the families of the Guarneri and Ruggieri. Next to the Cremonese violins, in the estimation of connoisseurs, stand those of the Tyrolese makers, Jakob Stainer (1621-83), and Matthias Klotz and his sons. Villaume of Paris is the most celebrated modern maker. Experience has shown that the minutest details of form and proportion, and the material of which each separate part is made, are matters of vital importance to the quality of the violin. The great makers seem by a succession of delicate experiments and observations to have attained to acoustical qualities of high perfection, which their careful workmanship and extreme dexterity enabled them in all cases unfailingly to reproduce. The prices of the best violins of Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesù range from £200 to £500, but several have exceeded the latter figure; one was sold at Stuttgart a few years since at the fancy price of £2050. The cost of the raw materials of a violin, comprising seventy different parts, has been estimated at about 4s. 6d.
Two great schools of violin-playing originated in Italy—that of Corelli (q.v., 1653-1713), to which belong by direct tradition Joachim and Sarasate, and that of Tartini (q.v., 1692-1770). Among other players of note of different schools may be mentioned Lully (1633-87), Paganini (1784-1840), Spohr (1784-1859), August Wilhelmj (born 1845), Laub (1832-75), Ole Bull (1810-80), Henri Wieniawski (1835-80), and Mme. Normann Neruda (Lady Hallé, born 1840).
The violin has a whole literature of its own, of which a bibliography was compiled in 1892 by Mr E. Heron-Allen. See his Violin-making (1885), C. Engel's Researches into the Early History of the Violin Family (1883), G. Hart, The Violin: its famous Makers and their Imitators (1873; new ed. 1887), G. Dubourg, The Violin (1878), J. Broadhouse, The Violin: its Construction practically considered (1892), Dr Phipson's Biographies of Eminent Violinists (1877), the foreign works of Ruhlmann and Fétis, and Mr E. G. Payne's articles in Grove's Dictionary and in the Encyclopædia Britannica.