Violin Notation
Micol Cohn
The body not only gives the violin its characteristic appearance but also determines the sound quality as it is the instrument's resonator.The neck plays an important role in playing technique and is about 13 cm long and angled slightly back from the body. The circumference is the same along its entire length which makes it easier for the left hand to slide up and down to different positions).The head, with the pegbox and scroll, is a continuation of the neck. The pegs, which are used to adjust the tension of the strings, are found in the four peg holes in the pegbox: the instrument is tuned by turning the pegs. The head is rounded off by the scroll.
The fingerboard extends beyond the neck over the body and is important for intonation. The length of the fingerboard determines how far the range extends upward. The strings are stretched above and parallel to the fingerboard.
To make the belly a wedge is cut out of a piece of spruce and split down the middle to form two symmetrical parts. These are then glued together so that the older wood - where the rings are closer together - are in the middle. This flat piece of wood is planed to a thickness of about 3 mm in the middle and progessively thinner toward the edges to form a vault. The F-holes that are cut into the belly help it to vibrate near the bridge and improve the projection of sound from the body's interior. The back is made in a similar way, either from one or two pieces of maple. The curved ribs join the belly to the back and consist of the upper bout, middle bout and lower bout. The body is given added stability by the top block, lower block and four corner blocks inside. The edges of the belly and back are inlaid with pearwood or ebony to strengthen the joins; this inlay is called purfling. There has been a lot of discussion regarding the effect that varnishing the body has on the sound; what is certain is that it offers the body protection against changes in temperature and humidity.
The head and neck are carved from a single piece of maple. The neck is firmly dovetailed with the top block and is about 13 cm long. The fingerboard is solid ebony, joined to the neck and projecting over the belly. Older fingerboards, from around 1700, were only about 20 cm long and therefore rather shorter than today's 27 cm. The strings are parallel to the fingerboard.
The lowest string is the G string which is usually made of gut and wound with silver or copper wire. The D and A strings are made either of gut or plastic and are aluminum-wound, the E string is normally made of steel. So that the tension of the four strings is more or less equal, which is very important for the projection of the sound, strings with different diameters or gauges are used. The E string is pulled a little tighter than the others in order to achieve the brilliance required of it.
The bridge is positioned between the F-holes and is made of maple, 30 mm high and 40 mm wide. The pressure of the strings presses it against the belly. The bridge transmits the vibrations of the strings to the belly via two small feet. Even the smallest changes to height, thickness, shape or position on the belly influence the sound. Earlier models were much more robust than today's.
The bass bar is a 28 cm long and 5 mm wide piece of wood (maple or fir) glued lengthwise on the inside of the belly under the left foot of the bridge (G string) and transmits the vibrations of the bridge's left foot, the low notes, to the belly.
The mute (sordino) can be made of a wide variety of materials: wood, rubber, plastic, leather or brass. It is placed on the bridge and has the effect of reducing the projection of the higher partials with a frequency of over 2000 hertz. As a result, the brightness and loudness of the sound is reduced.
The chin rest, which is made of wood or plastic, and the shoulder rest, made of fabric, support the instrument in such a way as to allow the violinist's left hand greater freedom of movement and prevent the shoulder from damping the vibrations.
Scaling refers to the violin's proportions, i.e. the ratio of the distance between the nut and the neck bracket to the distance between neck bracket and bridge on the one hand and the vibrating string on the other.
Today a ratio of 2:3 between neck and belly is regarded as the ideal. The term, however, also refers to the overall size of the instrument: standard-sized violins are referred to as 4/4 violins, smaller models with scaling of 7/8 are made for players with smaller hands; for children, the scaling can be reduced to 1/16. This has the advantage of reducing the distances on the fingerboard while maintaining the tuning, making it easier for smaller hands to play.
The bow is an inwardly curved wooden rod with horsehair (approx. 150-250 hairs) stretched between the two ends, the point and the frog. The tension of the hairs can be adjusted with a screw on the frog. The center of gravity is about 25 cm above the frog. The bow is 74 cm long, the length of the bowstroke somewhat shorter.
Vibrations are produced by the bowing movement of the bow's horsehair on the strings. This friction increases the temperature of the rosin applied to the horsehair, which ensures that the bow remains in contact with the string until the string's elasticity causes it to spring back, whereupon the bow intercepts the motion and exerts new force on the string. The repeated back-and-forth movement of the bow provides the energy necessary for the vibration of the string.
The ideal bow pressure depends on the speed of bowing; too little pressure results in a weak fundamental note with whistling partials, too much causes rasping partials. Greater bow pressure naturally results in a louder volume. The point at which the bow makes contact with the string varies between the bridge and the fingerboard: the sound is loudest at the bridge and decreases in volume the further away from the bridge the bow moves.
The playing of stringed instruments (on which the strings are vibrated by a bow) probably originated in Central Asia in the 9th century AD, although it may well have developed independently on several continents. What is certain is that the plucking of strings is the older technique. In Europe the first bowed stringed instruments took two forms, reliable evidence for which exists from the 10th century.
One of these early instruments, the rebec (rubebe, lira, gigue), originated in Spain and was descended from the Arabian rabab. It was a pear-shaped instrument with one, two or three strings. Its body and neck were carved from a single piece of wood and it had neither ribs nor frets. The neck was on a level with the body and had side pegs. A flat table was glued to the upper side and above this was the fingerboard. Instruments with three strings were tuned to fifths (G3, D4, A4). The rebec was related to the lyre, a popular instrument that originated in Byzantium. Both instruments are basically of the same type and were played in the standing position, supported either by the chest or the shoulder.
The second early form of stringed instrument is the fiddle (Latin fidicula, French vielle), which was popular throughout Europe and existed in a wide variety of forms and types. The fiddle had between one and six strings, a flat, oval soundbox which was made of several pieces of wood joined by interlocking, i.e. with ribs, small concavities in the sides and a raised neck. The table was slightly vaulted, frets were rare. A characteristic of the fiddle was the round hole in the middle which later evolved into two crescent-shaped slits. Its great popularity in the Middle Ages was due chiefly to its wide range and agility. The instrument was usually supported on the left shoulder and played in accompaniment to the musician's singing. Drone strings were fairly common. Mirroring certain aspects of the violin's development, which began later, the fiddle retained its popularity until the 16th century, and indeed is still found in various forms in popular cultures today.
Before the end of the 15th century the combining of the characteristics of medieval stringed instruments led to the emergence of two distinct instrument families, which exhibited markedly differing construction, playing technique, function and sound: the viola da gamba (Ital. gamba = foot), which was held between the knees, and the viola da braccio (Ital. braccio = arm), which was held at shoulder height by the left arm.
The viola da gamba or viol featured unusually high ribs, a vaulted table, a flat back and C- or f-shaped sound holes. The neck extended out of the body, the fingerboard had seven frets and the five to seven strings lay across a rather flat bridge which meant that the bow could play more than two adjacent strings at once. The instrument's dark and mellow timbre made it ideal for chordal playing.
The body of the viola da braccio, on the other hand, had lower ribs, a rounded back, f-holes, a fretless fingerboard, a neck raised from the body with a scroll and four strings across a curved bridge, which meant that they could be bowed individually. A deep indentation in the middle of the body made bowing of the outer strings easier. The timbre of viola da braccio instruments was brighter and more powerful and was especially suited to the carrying of melody lines.
The violin's popularity led to the emergence of the most famous schools of violin-making: The Cremonese School was led by Amati's sons until Nicola Amati (1596-1684). The Brescian School produced master craftsmen such as Gasparo da Sal (1540-1609) and his pupil Giovanni Paolo Maggini (1580-1632). The Cremonese School continued with Nicola Amati's pupil Andrea Guarnieri (1626-1698) and later Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737), who was presumably a pupil of Guarnieri's. Antonio Stradivari, who made around one thousand instruments during his career of which 600 are said to be still in existence, is still regarded as the apogee of the art of violin-making. Despite repeated attempts, which continue today and make use of the most modern technology, it has proved impossible to reproduce the sheer brilliance of timbre of a Stradivarius. The dimensions of Stradivari's model were accepted as definitive by later generations.
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