• LIST The first musical instruments invented by man are certainly percussion instruments, followed by wind instruments. The last, because of their more delicate elaboration, are the string instruments:first the struck string instruments, then those with strings bowed. Of these, the most versatile and widespread is the violin. Its crucial role in the orchestra (it is the first violin who takes charge of the preparation and the tuning before the arrival of the conductor) and its function as a soloist instrument as well as a chamber instrument give it a noble rank in the within the different families of instruments. The secrets of the Amati family Its high-pitched sound is reminiscent of many traditional instruments present in many cultures. Bowed bowed instruments do not seem to have existed before the Middle Ages. These are known under the generic name of fiddle, representations of which date from before the year one thousand. Like pastoral rebecs, fiddles or viole da braccio accompany singing or speaking voice and dance music. At the end of the Middle Ages, the musician placed them on the chest, shoulder or thigh. But it's not about violins yet. Around 1520, we can already glimpse the precursors of the violin in northern Italy, a country that continued this practice over the following centuries. Brescia won during this transition, but the city of Cremona quickly stole the show. It is indeed the Cremonese Andrea Amati (1510-1577) who defines the violin as an instrument with four strings, tuned to the fifth and played with a bow. The strings are tuned using a peg box and are stretched over the neck and the soundboard with curved faces and two soundholes in the shape of an "f". The secret of the wood species used, their drying, their varnishing and their assembly pass from generation to generation in the Amati family, from Andrea to his sons Antonio and Girolamo, and from the latter to his son Nicolò, who is in turn the master of the two most famous luthiers of the 18 th century:Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù and Antonio Stradivari, known as “Stradivarius”. Melody and harmony At the same time, technical progress allows the strings to better resist tension and thus amplify their sound while reducing the weight of the violin. At the same time, the bow is also perfected. This makes the violin the favorite instrument of art music, but also of popular music, thanks to its deep timbre and its ability to interpret both a melody (a succession of notes) and a harmony (the playing of several notes at the same time). In France, the violin met with success from the middle of the 16th th century. But it was especially in the 17 th century that he triumphed, notably under the influence of Lully, a composer and violinist of Italian origin in the service of Louis XIV. Thus, the violin becomes an indispensable instrument in the hands of a palace musician as well as in those of a vagrant. Timeline 1523 A register of the General Treasury of Savoy attests to the payment for the services of the trumpets and vyollons of Verceil .1546 Making of the first three-stringed violin by Andrea Amati.1681 Arcangelo Corelli publishes the first work for violin as we know it today.1702 Antonio Stradivari makes the violin of the Cuarteto Palatino, kept at the Royal Palace in Madrid.
