Basic information, structure Viola or violin viola is a stringed, bowed musical instrument of the same structure as a violin, but somewhat larger in size, which is why it sounds in a lower register. Viola names in other languages: viola (Italian); viola (English); alto (French); bratsche (German); alttoviulu (Finnish). The viola strings are tuned a fifth below the violin strings and an octave above the cello strings.

Basic information, origin Apkhyartsa or Apkhyartsa is a stringed musical instrument, one of the main folk musical instruments of the Abkhaz-Adyghe peoples. The name "apkh'artsa" in its origin is associated with the military life of the people and goes back to the word "apkh'artsaga", which translated into Russian means "that by which one is encouraged to go forward." Abkhazians use singing accompanied by apkhartsa as a healing remedy. Under

Basic information Arpeggione (Italian arpeggione) or guitar-cello, guitar of love is a stringed bowed musical instrument. It is close to the cello in size and method of sound production, but, like the guitar, it has six strings and frets on the neck. The German name for the arpeggione is Liebes-Guitarre, the French name is Guitarre d’amour. Origin, history The Arpeggione was designed in 1823 by the Viennese master Johann Georg Stauffer; a little

Basic information, origin Banhu is a Chinese stringed musical instrument, a type of huqin. The traditional banhu was used primarily as an accompanying instrument in northern Chinese musical drama, northern and southern Chinese operas, or as a solo instrument and in ensembles. In the 20th century, the banhu began to be used as an orchestral instrument. There are three types of banhu - high, medium and

Basic information, history, types of viols Viola (Italian viola) is an ancient stringed musical instrument of various types. Viols form a family of ancient stringed bowed musical instruments with frets on the fingerboard. Violas developed from the Spanish vihuela. Viols were widely used in church, court and folk music. In the 16th-18th centuries, the tenor instrument became especially widespread as a solo, ensemble and orchestral instrument.

Basic information Viola d'amore (Italian viola d'amore - viola of love) is an ancient stringed musical instrument of the viol family. The viola d'amore was widely used from the end of the 17th to the beginning of the 19th century, then gave way to the viola and cello. Interest in the viola d'amore was revived at the beginning of the 20th century. The instrument has six or seven strings, on the earliest models -

Basic information Viola da gamba (Italian viola da gamba - foot viol) is an ancient stringed musical instrument of the viol family, close in size and range to the modern cello. The viola da gamba was played sitting down, holding the instrument between the legs or resting it sideways on the thigh - hence the name. Of the entire viol family, the viola da gamba is the longest of all instruments.

Basic information, structure, playing The cello is a stringed musical instrument of the bass and tenor register, known since the first half of the 16th century. The cello is widely used as a solo instrument, a group of cellos is used in string and symphony orchestras, the cello is an obligatory participant in a string quartet, in which it is the lowest sounding instrument, and is also often used in other compositions

Basic information Gadulka is a Bulgarian folk stringed musical instrument used to accompany dances or songs and has a special soft harmonic sound. Origin, history The origin of the gadulka is associated with the Persian kamancha, Arab rebab and medieval European rebek. The shape of the body and sound holes of the gadulka is very similar to the so-called armudi kemenche (also known as the Constantinople lyre,

Basic information Gidzhak (gydzhak) is a stringed musical instrument of the peoples of Central Asia (Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turkmen). Gijak has a spherical body and is made of pumpkin, large nut, wood or other materials. Covered in leather. The number of gijak strings is variable, most often - three. The tuning of a three-string gijak is fourth, usually es1, as1, des2 (E-flat, A-flat of the first octave, D-flat of the second octave).

Basic information Gudok is a bowed string musical instrument. The most common whistle was in the 17th-19th centuries among buffoons. The horn has a hollowed-out wooden body, usually oval or pear-shaped, and a flat soundboard with sound holes. The neck of the buzzer has a short neck without frets holding 3 or 4 strings. You can play the buzzer by installing it

Basic information Jouhikko (youhikannel, jouhikantele) is an ancient Finnish stringed musical instrument. Similar to the 4-string Estonian hiyukannel. Jouhikko has a hollowed out birch body in a boat-shaped or other shaped shape, covered with a spruce or pine soundboard with resonator holes, and a side cutout that forms the handle. There are usually 2-4 strings. As a rule, the strings are hair or gut. The tuning of the jouhikko is quart or quart-fifth. During

Basic information Kemenche is a folk stringed musical instrument, akin to the Arabic rebab, medieval European rebec, French pochette, and Bulgarian gadulka. Pronunciation options and synonyms: kemendzhe, kemendzhesi, kemencha, kemancha, kyamancha, kemendzes, kementsia, keman, lira, pontiac lira. Video: Kemenche on video + sound Thanks to these videos you can get acquainted with the instrument, watch a real game on it, listen to it

Basic information Kobyz is a Kazakh national stringed musical instrument. The kobyz does not have a top board and consists of a hollowed-out, bubble-covered hemisphere, with a handle attached to it at the top and an outlet at the bottom to secure the stand. The strings tied to the kobyz, two in number, are woven from horse hair. They play the kobyz, squeezing it in their knees (like a cello),

Basic information The double bass is the largest stringed musical instrument, combining the features of the violin family and the viol family. The modern double bass has four strings, although double basses of the 17th and 18th centuries may have had three strings. The double bass has a thick, hoarse, but somewhat dull timbre, which is why it is rarely used as a solo instrument. Its main area of ​​application is a symphony orchestra,

Basic information Morin khuur is a stringed musical instrument of Mongolian origin. Morin khuur is widespread in Mongolia, regionally in northern China (primarily the Inner Mongolia region) and Russia (in Buryatia, Tuva, Irkutsk region and Trans-Baikal Territory). In China, the morin khuur is called matouqin, which means “horse-headed instrument.” Origin, history One of the Mongolian legends attributes

Basics The Nyckelharpa is a traditional Swedish bowed string instrument that has several modifications as it has evolved over more than 600 years. In Swedish, "nyckel" means key. The word "harpa" usually refers to stringed instruments like the guitar or violin. The nyckelharpa is sometimes called the "Swedish keyboard violin". The very first evidence of the use of nykelharpa is considered to be an image of two musicians playing this instrument,

Basic information, structure Rabanastre is an Indian stringed musical instrument, related to the Chinese erhu and distantly to the Mongolian morin khuur. Rabanastre has a small cylindrical wooden body, covered with a leather soundboard (most often made of snakeskin). A long neck in the form of a wooden rod passes through the body, with pegs attached near the upper end of it. The rabanastrum has two strings. Usually the strings are silk

Basic information Rebab is a stringed musical instrument of Arabic origin. The word "rebab" in Arabic means combining short sounds into one long one. The body of the rebab is wooden, flat or convex, trapezoidal or heart-shaped, with small notches on the sides. The sides are made of wood or coconut, the soundboards are made of leather (from the intestines of a buffalo or the bladder of other animals). The neck is long,

Basic information, structure, origin Rebek is an ancient stringed musical instrument. The rebek consists of a pear-shaped wooden body (without shells). The upper tapering part of the body of which passes directly into the neck. There are 2 resonator holes in the soundboard. The rebec has 3 strings that are tuned in fifths. Rebec appeared in Western European countries around the 12th century. Applied until the 3rd quarter

Basic information The violin is a high-register stringed musical instrument. Violins have a leading place among bowed strings - the most important part of a modern symphony orchestra. Perhaps no other instrument has such a combination of beauty, expressiveness of sound and technical agility. In an orchestra, the violin performs various and multifaceted functions. Very often violins, due to their exceptional melodiousness, are used for

- one of those instruments that belong to the vast family of violins. The violin is a high-register bowed stringed musical instrument. It is of folk origin, acquired its modern appearance in the sixteenth century, and became widespread in the seventeenth century. It has four strings tuned in fifths. The violin's timbre is thick in the low register, soft in the middle and brilliant in the upper. Rebek came to Europe from the Middle East. The rebec is much older than the violin, having been known already in the twelfth century. Rebec (French rebec, Latin rebeca, rubeba; goes back to Arabic rabāb) is an ancient bowed string instrument that influenced the formation of instruments of the entire violin family. The exact origin is unknown, perhaps in the late Middle Ages the rebec was brought to Spain by the Arabs, or the Arabs became acquainted with it after the conquest of Spain. The peak of popularity for this instrument occurred in the Middle Ages, as well as during the Renaissance.

At first, the rebec was a folk instrument, not a court instrument, used by jugglers, minstrels and other traveling musicians. Later it was also used in church and secular court music. Moreover, the rebeck sounded not only at social receptions, but also at village holidays. It is also a church instrument, an invariable companion to many religious rituals. Since the fifteenth century, the rebec has been used only in folk music playing.

Externally, the rebeck looks like an elongated violin. It does not have those sharp bends that are inherent in the body of a violin. In this case, the smoothness of the lines is important. The rebeck has a pear-shaped wooden body, the upper tapering part of which goes directly into the neck. The body contains strings with a stand, as well as resonating holes. The frets and tuning pegs are located on the neck. The neck is crowned with an original curl, which is the hallmark of the Rebec. Two or three strings of the instrument are tuned in fifths. The instrument is played with a bow, which is moved along the strings. It is important to note that the use of the bow in playing stringed instruments supposedly originated in Asia in the ninth century and spread through Byzantium and Muslim countries throughout Western Europe in the tenth to twelfth centuries. Rebek is one of the first instruments on which it became customary to play with a bow...

Cymbals is a stringed musical instrument. It is a trapezoidal soundboard with stretched strings. The adjective “hammer” means that the instrument must be played using two wooden mallets of a special curved shape. Hammer dulcimers are common in Eastern European countries such as Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia. A similar instrument is also found in China, India and other Asian countries.

The ancestors of cymbals were known about six thousand years ago. And the first images of simple percussion chordophones (rather, theoretically reminiscent of today's cymbals) were preserved on an ancient Sumerian monument - a fragment of a vase from the late 4th - early 3rd millennium BC. e., which depicts a procession of musicians with five- and seven-string instruments.

Another dulcimer-like instrument can be seen on a bas-relief from the era of the First Babylonian Dynasty (9th century BC). It depicts a musician striking with sticks a seven-string instrument, a wooden structure with an attached bow on which strings of varying lengths are stretched. The bas-relief of the royal palace of the Assyrian state (7th century BC) depicts musicians accompanying the procession to the temple of the goddess Imitar. Attached to the body of one of them was a nine-stringed instrument, which archaeologists later called a “triganon” due to its triangular shape. Sound production on it was carried out by striking sticks. In fact, this instrument was a primitive cymbal, which spread in the East and over time acquired the shape of a regular trapezoid...

A plucked string musical instrument, a type of lute.
The lute is an ancient plucked string musical instrument with frets on the neck and an oval body. The lute family is quite large, including not only well-known instruments, but also quite rare ones, such as the bouzouki. The origin of the bouzouki has not been established for certain. According to one version, bouzouki comes from the ancient Greek cithara (lyre), according to another - from the Turkish saz (bozuk-saz). The instrument is also known as “baglama”, common in Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Ireland and, in a slightly modified form, in Turkey.

The classic bouzouki has four double metal strings (archaic - baglama - 3 double). The bouzouki family also includes the baglamazaki, a tiny bouzouki with three double strings. His high, gentle sound, as part of a classical Greek orchestra or solo, accompanies the sirtaki and hasapiko dances.

The history of the bouzouki is very interesting. In Greece, the instrument was considered illegal for a long time; music for bouzouki was prohibited and did not go beyond taverns, where criminal elements usually gathered. The revival of this instrument began in the sixties of the twentieth century, thanks to the outstanding Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis...

History of performing arts

TUTORIAL

for fourth year students

specialty "Instrumental performance" specialization "orchestral string instruments"

Compiled by Kalinina V.N.

From the compiler: the textbook covers the historical period from the origins of string instruments to the middle of the 19th century.

1. Historical development of string instruments.

2. Outstanding violin makers and schools of violin makers.

3. History of bow formation.

4. Renaissance. The flourishing of violin art in Western Europe.

5. Italian violin art of the 17th-18th centuries, first half. XIX century.

6. French violin art of the 17th-18th centuries, first half. XIX century.

7. Violin art of Germany XVII-XVIII centuries, first half. XIX century.

8. Chamber and instrumental creativity of I.S. Bach. Sonatas and partitas for solo violin.

9. Mannheim School.

10. Chamber-instrumental creativity of composers of the Vienna Classical School.

11. Formation and development of genres of chamber instrumental music.

12. Violin art in Russia from folk origins to the middle of the 19th century.

Appendix: sounds of ancient string instruments (video).

Historical development of bowed string instruments

Information on the history of bowed instruments is not very rich and detailed. From the history of India, Iran and other countries, one can glean some information about the existence of these instruments over two thousand years ago. It can be assumed that the first stringed instruments appeared among the eastern peoples. The oldest of them, apparently, was ravanastron .

The idea of ​​delighting the ear by rubbing hair from a horse's tail against dried, twisted and stretched animal intestines arose in time immemorial. The invention of the first string-bowed instrument is attributed to the Indian (according to another version, Ceylonese) king Ravana, who lived about five thousand years ago - this is probably why the distant ancestor of the violin was called the ravanastron. It consisted of an empty cylinder made of mulberry wood, one side of which was covered with the skin of a broad-scaled water boa constrictor. A stick attached to this body served as a neck and neck, and at its upper end there were holes for two pegs. The strings were made from gazelle intestines, and the bow, curved in an arc, was made from bamboo wood. (Ravanastron has been preserved to this day by wandering Buddhist monks).

Erhu

Currently, the Chinese folk instrument erhu is very popular - a Chinese violin, which in its design is very close to the ancient ravanastron.

Erhu- an ancient Chinese stringed musical instrument, an unusual two-stringed violin with metal strings. While playing the erhu, the musician pulls the bow string with the fingers of his right hand. The bow itself is fixed between two strings, forming a single whole with the erhu.

Kamancha

Very similar to the Ravanastron, but a more advanced instrument kamancha. Kamanche, Kamancha, is an ethnic (Persian, Iran) stringed bowed instrument of the 15th century. "Kemancha" translated from Persian means "small bowed instrument." Distributed in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Dagestan, as well as in the countries of the Middle East. The length of the classic kemancha is 40-41 cm, width 14-15 cm. The body is made in the shape of a pear cut lengthwise. The oval head of the instrument, as well as the neck and body, are made from a single piece of wood, sometimes from coconut. The deck is made of thin snakeskin, fish skin or bull bladder. Bow-shaped bow with horsehair. The performer holds the instrument vertically and plays while sitting, resting the long metal leg of the instrument on the floor or knee.

Classic kemancha. Keman (was common in Armenia).

A girl playing the kamanche. Miniature 1662

There are various theories about the origin of the violin: from bowed instruments brought by the Arabs in the 8th century. to Western European countries; from Central Asian, Caucasian instruments, from bowed instruments of Scandinavian and Baltic countries, from medieval moles, jigs, bowed lyre .

Bowed lyre

Mentions of the bowed lyre were found in works on music dating back to the 9th century.

The most common version of the origin of the violin is from medieval instruments such as fidel And Rebecca. Fidels begin to appear in Europe in the 10th century: one type of instrument, apparently coming from Byzantium, ends up in Spain at this time. It was this type, usually pear-shaped and neckless, with one to five strings, that became the main bowed instrument, appearing under various names - fidel, viela (in Romanesque countries) - in medieval Europe. The second type, long and narrow, called rebec, probably of Arabic origin, appeared in Europe in the 11th century and persisted in various forms for about six centuries. . In Western Europe, both forms of holding the instrument, a gamba and a braccio, were common.

Fidel Fidel

Fidel and Rebec did not yet look at all like an elegant violin, these short, fat men with a thick neck and a pot-bellied body. The fidel was pear-shaped, spade-shaped or oval, about 50 cm long, and had an exceptional variety of body shapes and number of strings. The classic type of fiddle had a guitar-shaped body, two resonant holes in the shape of brackets, a fretless neck, a plank head with straight pegs perpendicular to it, and five strings tuned in fourths and fifths.

Rebeck was similar to him with his pear-shaped body, so he was sometimes also called fidel. They had from 2 to 5 strings. The name rebek, from the Arabic rebab or rabab, gave it away. It is clear that the instrument appeared in Europe as a result of contacts with the Arabs that began in the 8th century, well, at least during the Crusades. The name fidel, coming from the Latin fides - string, did not say anything about its origin, but the fact that it was especially loved by minstrels and jugglers, traveling professional musicians of medieval Europe, whose type of creativity and way of life developed under the influence of the East, also spoke of its Eastern origin and Fidel. These oriental instruments were so loved in Europe that in the 10th-15th centuries neither folk, church, nor court musicians could do without them.

The characteristic features of the rebeck were a mandolin-shaped body that directly merges into the neck, and a tuning box with transverse pegs. The frets on the neck were missing.

Classic rebeck

The rebeck usually had three strings; the fifth tuning of the rebeck - G, D, A - was established even before the appearance of the violin. They played the rebeck, usually holding it in a horizontal position.

At the turn of the 14th – 15th centuries, one can state the earlier stratification of fide-shaped instruments and the identification of two clearly defined lines in its development. One of them, associated with the practice of folk musicians whose social status was low and powerless, led to the violin; the other, which was common in court and castle practice and was in contact with the lute, led to the formation of the viol family.

David Teniers the Younger. Duet. Giovanni Bellini. Altar detail

(rebek) Church of St. Zacharias, Venice 1505

In the XIV century. Two directions in the development of the fiddle are clearly outlined, which led in the 15th century to the formation of the family of viols and the family of bowed lyres.

Viola (Italian viola) - an ancient stringed bowed musical instrument of various types. Viols form a family of ancient stringed bowed musical instruments with frets on the fingerboard. Violas developed from the Spanish vihuela. Among stringed instruments, members of the viol family ruled throughout Europe from the 15th to the 17th centuries, although they appeared much earlier. At the beginning of the 11th century, viols are depicted in visual arts and mentioned in literature. The origin of viols is unclear; it is probably the end of the 10th century, when the bow was recognized in Europe. Viols were widely used in church, court and folk music.

The viol family (illustration from the treatise of Michael Praetorius Syntagma musicum)

Compared to violins, the viol was longer and lighter, and as a result produced a less intense sound. Unlike the violin, the viol did not have a characteristic shape. Some instruments had flat backs and sloping shoulders, some had curved backs and fuller shapes. All these instruments in the vast majority of cases had six strings. The strings on the viols were placed very close to each other, the neck was divided by frets - transverse metal saddles, and the stand had a very slight convexity. Ancient viols were basically reduced to four main types in imitation of a vocal quartet, they were presented in four voices, that is, in the viol orchestra they were assigned four completely independent voices or parts. All other varieties of viols (and there were quite a few of them) differed from each other in size, sonority, number of strings or appearance, but they were never permanent participants in the bowed orchestra.

Violas

At the turn of the 15th – 16th centuries, viols were divided into two groups: a gamba and a braccio. (Later, instruments of the “foot” type of holding were called viols). By the 17th century, there were dozens of types of viols: treble (soprano), high treble (soprano), small alto, alto, large bass, double bass viol (violone), tenor - viola, cant - viola, viol d'amore, viola da bardone ( baritone), viola – bastrada, etc.

From the 17th century, viols began to lose their importance and began to be replaced by the violin family. Viola da gamba and viol d'amore (viola of love) held on a little longer.

Karl Friedrich Abel.

Viola da gamba (italian. viola da gamba - foot viola) is an ancient stringed musical instrument of the viol family, similar in size and range to the modern cello. The viola da gamba was played sitting down, holding the instrument between the legs or resting it sideways on the thigh - hence the name. Of the entire viol family, the viola da gamba retained its significance the longest of all instruments; many works by the most important authors of the mid-18th century were written for it. However, already at the end of the century these parts were performed on the cello. (Goethe called Karl Friedrich Abel the last gamba virtuoso).

The displacement of the viol family by the violin family took place gradually and the viol da gamba, corresponding in size, competed with the cello for the longest time, but by the end of the 18th century it also lost its significance (only to return to concert halls more than a hundred years later thanks to authentic performers, starting with Christian Döbereiner ).

Viol d'amore

Viol d'Amour- the last representative of the bowed viol family - first appeared in the second half of the 17th century in England. In appearance, it does not differ from other viols: a flat bottom, sloping shoulders, quarto-tert tuning, but the viol d'amour is held not in the “a gamba” way, like all other viols, but on the shoulder, like a violin.

A characteristic feature of the instrument are the under-neck strings - they are called resonant or sympathetic. They are not played, but they vibrate and resonate in

time of performance on the main strings and thereby give the sound of Viol d'Amour a peculiar mystery.

Viol d'amore

In appearance, the viol d'amour is perhaps the most beautiful of all bowed instruments. The shape of the body is exceptionally elegant, especially its “waist”, which follows the contours of the resonant holes in the form of fiery reeds made on the upper deck. The decorative decoration was the “Gothic rose” which was carved under the fingerboard on the top soundboard. A long box with many pegs, ending with a carved head, either a maiden or a blindfolded cupid, complemented the sophistication of the form. All this taken together allows us to speak of the ancient instrument as a true work of art.

In terms of size, the viol d'amour can be equated to a small viola, so it is most often played by violists, for whom mastering the ancient instrument is not very difficult. The instrument is very easy to play chords, arpeggios, various polyphonic combinations, harmonics.

Bowed lyre, which arose in Italy in the 16th-17th centuries. in appearance (the corners of the body, the convex bottom soundboard, the head in the shape of a curl) somewhat resembles a violin. There were several subtypes of the Italian lyre: lyre da braccio (soprano), lirone da braccio (alto), lyra da gamba (baritone), lirone perfetto (bass ), differing in the number of strings - from 5 to 10. In contrast to the families of viols and violins, lyres differed from each other not only in size, timbre and range, but also in a number of other characteristics, making the combination of these instruments into one family somewhat arbitrary.

In the process of development of the fiddle into the violin, the determining influence was exerted by lyres held a braccio (in the hands), that is, the lyre a braccio and the adjacent lyrone a braccio. The low lyres reflected the influences of the lute and viol. The early lyre a braccio differed from the fidel only in the number of strings. In addition to the five strings on the fingerboard, it had two more strings located outside the fingerboard, the so-called bourdons, used

for a kind of accompaniment in the form of sustained sounds. Already in the late fiddle one can see the use of the lower string as a bourdon. The lyre a braccio had a fretless neck. The fourth-fifth system of the fidel during its evolution into the lyre transforms into the fifth system.

Lyres a braccio

The tuning of the lyre a braccio completely coincided with the tuning of the modern violin and differed only in the doubling of “G” and the presence of bourdons. In the process of developing the lyre into a violin, one should note the appearance of first two and then four corners on the body, as well as the approximation of the shape of the soundboards and resonant holes to those of a violin. Lires were widely used in their homeland, Italy. They could be found among folk singers and storytellers and in academic musical circles. In the 16th century, lyres, especially the cello-sized lyre a gamba, were often used to accompany madrigals.

Yakov Dak.

(Musical life of the 16th century).

Only one viol escaped the common fate of viols being replaced by violins - the violone, or double bass viol. It gradually acquired some of the features of a violin, such as the number of strings and the absence of frets on the neck, while retaining, however, certain features of the old viol family, including a flat bottom, sloping shoulders and tuning. In addition, it is believed that the modern double bass combines a number of properties of the violin and viol families.

Modern double bass

Many facts point to the early development of folk bowed instruments among the Slavs, which indicates the unconditional connection of the violin with the folk instruments of the Slavs.

Polish mud hut Zlobzoki

In Poland, during archaeological excavations, two instruments were discovered: the first of them (2nd half of the 11th century) is two-stringed, similar in size and hollowed body to the later pochette (pocket violin); the second is almost twice as large in size. According to the assumption of the Polish scientist Z. Schulz, the second of the discovered instruments is the ancestor of one of the oldest instruments - the three-stringed mud huts , the body of which was hollowed out from a single piece of wood. The name "mazanka" comes from the ancient Polish word "mazanya" - which means to pull the bow along the strings. Ancient mud huts had a tuning box, were tuned in fifths and had no frets. Another type of ancient Polish bowed instruments included three- and four-stringed zloztsoki , hensle (or genslicks) . They were larger in size than huts, also tuned in fifths, and had a bright, open sound. Like the mud hut, the body of the zloztsoka, together with the neck and head, is made of one piece of wood. Four strings (old ones have three) are tuned like a violin. When played, these instruments were held on the shoulder or upper chest.

Somewhat later, in the 2nd half of the 15th century, the appearance of a folk instrument with the name violin . Its characteristic features are fifth scale and, presumably, four strings. Apparently the violin was the first Polish instrument to incorporate the characteristic features of different, but typically similar, bowed instruments. A similar name appeared in Russia in the 16th century (before that, the ancestor of the violin was called here creaking ).

Bulgarian gadulka

In Western Europe, both forms of holding the instrument were common: a gamba and a braccio . The same thing happened in Slavic countries: Bulgarian gadulka and Serbian gusla kept a gamba; Polish hensle – a braccio. These instruments penetrated into the Slavic lands from the Asian side. According to the theory of Kurt Sachs, a famous German instrument specialist, it was from the Balkan Slavs that Western Europe borrowed the instrument fidel (in Germanic countries) or viela (in Romanesque countries).

Bowed instruments in Rus' have been known since ancient times (10th – 11th centuries) and were mainly kept in the a gamba position. One of the oldest stringed bowed instruments in Rus' - close or bow . It is impossible to say exactly what kind of instrument this is, since it is mentioned only in folk songs. Not to confuse the name of the instrument with the modern meaning of this word; one of the first names of the bow was "beamer" , since the 16th century the name “bow” has been transferred to the bow.

Most likely smyk is a variety beep. There are numerous references to the beep in songs, chronicles, and ancient images. But the instrument itself was lost in folk musical practice. Only in the second half of the 20th century, during archaeological excavations in Novgorod, authentic copies of this instrument were discovered. The horn had a pear-shaped body with a flat bottom and a straight soundboard with resonator holes.

Ancient Russian folk instruments (beep)

There were three strings (usually guts). The two lower ones were tuned in unison or in intervals and provided a bourdon. A melody was played on the top string. When playing, the instrument was held vertically, resting on the knee. The sound was produced using a bow with horsehair, which was moved along three strings at once. Obviously there were beeps of different sizes, as reflected in the names: buzzer, buzzer, buzzer, buzzer.

The pre-classical type of violin in Slavic countries developed in the period from the second half of the 14th century to the end of the 15th century. The paintings of the early 16th century depict images of the first examples of a fully developed instrument. During this period, the most developed instrument was the Polish violin, whose fame spread throughout Europe. Folk instruments slowly disappeared from folk and professional practice. The viol coexists with the violin for the longest time. From the 15th to the mid-18th century, the viola family was widespread in a number of European countries, especially in Germany, England and France.

These were the main types of bowed instruments that coexisted in folk and professional practice in the era preceding the Renaissance. The rapid development of the pre-classical type violin was determined by several reasons: the high level of folk instrumental art, trends in sound and technical expressiveness, and skills in constructing instruments of various types. This predetermined the qualitative originality of the string instrumentation - the concentration of the most valuable features born in earlier eras.

The development and improvement of the violin followed the path of establishing classical proportions in its structure, selecting wood, searching for primer and varnish, the shape of the stand, lengthening the neck and neck, etc. The long journey from the primitive violin to its perfect examples was completed by the masters of the Italian classical school. Italy, with its well-established handicraft production of instruments and the presence of outstanding craftsmen, turned out to be the most capable of giving the violin a perfect classical form and developing the mass production of professional instruments for the developing professional art.