 The fifteenth century saw a rise in the popularity of the gamba family of instruments. The viol da gamba (gamba being Italian for leg) was held when seated like a cello between the legs. The viola da braccia was held on the arm. Both of them had "frets", rather like the guitar, which allowed the player to produce accurate notes.
These early forerunners of the violin are still produced by specialist historical instrument makers, and there is great interest in playing the music which was popular at that time. The music of this period had a very "pure" quality as the notes were so precise, and the technique of playing these instruments was quite different from the modern way of playing.
Later, the viola da braccia was held under the chin, lost its frets had a make over in style and construction and emerged into a modern-day violin. |
No-one knows when the first human being had the idea of stretching a string across something and then vibrating it to create a sound. It could have been a chance discovery by early man making bows for hunting. The sound made by a plucked string would have been very "thin" and quiet unless the string was in contact with a hollow object, such as a gourd or dried vegetable-casing. Then, the air inside the hollow would vibrate and amplify the sound, giving it a fuller character and making it louder.
The next stage was to add more strings, each one sounding different notes. The Lyre had several strings stretched on a frame made of wood. It also had a sound-box, a hollow space to amplify the sound of the strings. The harp is a development of the lyre, and an early example is shown left, from Ur and played about 4500 years ago. It wasn't until around 500 years ago that people had the idea of playing the strings with a bow, rather than plucking them. Bowing the strings gives long, sustained notes rather than the short ones you get with plucked strings. The other advantage of bowing the strings is that it's possible to vary the dynamics - in other words, notes which get louder or softer while you hear them, rather than starting loud and dying quickly, which is the only choice you have with the harp.
popular instrument was the "bum fiddle", which was an inflated pig's bladder held tightly against a straight stick with a string, which was bowed. There wasn't a fingerboard as such, so the notes were varied by pressing against the string to tighten it. It had a rough, unmusical sound and the notes weren't particularly easy to control.