The Violin (photo) (audio)

Introduced during the sixteenth century, the violin family rivaled and eventually replaced the viol family of instruments. Today, the violin family - made up of the violin, viola, violoncello (commonly called the cello) and double bass - is an important part of the orchestral and symphonic emsembles.

The violin family instruments had a more stronger, more tenser sound due to it's stronger and heavier strings than the viols. The neck was much longer on these instruments. The violin, viola and cello have four strings, each a fifths apart in pitch. The double bass has four strings, each a fourth apart in pitch.

By the late sixteenth century, the form of the instruments were standardized. Each

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instrument is characterized by the f hole, from where the sound comes forth from. During the eighteenth century, the violin was modified - the bridge (the wood arch that lifts the strings from the fingerboard) was slightly arched and lifted. The tension of the strings was intensified and the neck was slightly angled and became longer.

At first, the violin family of instruments used the same bow that the viol family did. During the eighteenth century, it was slightly shortened. By the late eighteenth century, the modern bow had been perfected by a Frenchman, François Tourte.

The finest instruments were created in Cremona, Italy.

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This was the home of Antonio Strativari who created the finest, and now the most expensive violins in the world. Today, many other types of violins are copied from Strativari's original style.

The four most well known instruments are not the only instruments that descended from the violin. The pochette, which is a smaller and higher (an octave) is used mostly for dancing. Though not used today, the violino piccolo, tuned a fourth above the normal violin, and the tenor violin, tuned a fifth below the ordinary viola, were popular during the seventeenth and eighteenth century.