Many of the villages also have mixed population hence this style of string ensemble with the contr is equally representative of both the Romanian and Hungarian tradition in this region. Discover the best of Violinist.com in these collections of editor Laurie Niles' exclusive interviews. Broadstrokes - not just fiddling about at the edges! The first extant written use of the Italian term violino occurs in 1538, when "violini Milanesi" (Milanese violinists) were brought to Nice when negotiating the conclusion of a war. The earlier forerunners of the violin such as the rebec, Slavic gusle or eastern kemene are found in all Romanias neighbours, but not in the existing traditional music of Romania. History of the violin - Wikipedia Stroh conceived of it as a new and improved form of violin, a new departure from the centuries-old design that relied on a resonating corpus, says Kolkowski, who is also a senior research associate at the Science Museum, London. Instruments like the Stroh violin and other types of horn-violin remain a curiosity; they are quite rare in the orchestra. In the case of a Romanian horn fiddle a repurposed phonograph reproducer provides the diaphragm and a sawedoff trumpet horn provides the horn. page 28, Catechism of Musical History: History of musical instruments and history of tone-systems and notation page 27, The history of the violin, and other instruments played on with the bow from the remotest times to the present by Sandys, William, 1792-1874; Forster, Simon Andrew, 1801-1870, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/569200/stringed-instrument, "If it ain't baroque: the violin through time", Violin - History and Repertory to 1600 - (v) Authenticity and Surviving instruments, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_the_violin&oldid=1151903016. By Karen Peterson | From the May-June 2021 issue of Strings magazine. Stroh violin - Wikipedia They are known as cel or gordon. In Encyclopdia Britannica. plus shipping. [17], The earliest documentary evidence for a violin is in the records of the treasury of Savoy, which paid for "trompettes et vyollons de Verceil", that is to say, "trumpets and violins from Vercelli", the town where Ferrari painted his Madonna of the Orange Tree. He was at the time living in London, and his invention revolutionized the classical violin and the nascent music-recording industry at the dawn of the 20th century. Wooden violins recorded poorly with the early acoustic-mechanical recording method, and the Stroh violin improved this by producing a fuller, louder sound. In contrast to the mute violin, this instrument sounds rather loud. [21] One of the most famous and certainly the most pristine is the Messiah Stradivarius (also known as the 'Salabue') made by Antonio Stradivari in 1716 and very little played, perhaps almost never and in an as new state. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Other names are vioar cu pilnie (funnel violin), vioar-corn (horn violin). In construction, about the only thing reminiscent of a violin is the sound. The sound is carried through a tube to the horn which protrudes from the violin to a long horn which wraps around the shoulder. Rachel Holmen. Often mistaken for Stroh and interchangeably known as being Stroh-viols, phono-fiddles, horn-violins or trumpet-violins, these other instruments have slipped into comparative obscurity. It was built through the 20th century. * including VAT Their sound was too open and wafting. The horn-violin is harder to play than a normal violin because the reaction of the bow on the strings is less flexible, and the instrument's weight is less evenly distributed. These instruments are still played by the Romanians of Bihor who continue to make them in the villages and call them vioar cu goarn (violin with horn). Stroh Violin | Deltaviolin This was the solution to a problem that vexed early recording artists: the sound of stringed instruments was difficult to capture. (LogOut/ In Bihor the instruments are usually constructed from old, no longer usedtrumpets. Horn Violin Google Arts & Culture Over the centuries that followed, Europe continued to have two distinct types of bowed instruments: one, relatively square-shaped, held in the arms, known with the Italian term lira da braccio (meaning 'viol for the arm') family; the other, with sloping shoulders and held between the knees, known with the Italian term lira da gamba (or viola da gamba, meaning 'viol for the leg') group. I built myfiddle based on photographs kicking around the web, so I cant guarantee that its 100% authentic. Price . Forget everything youve read about the Stroh violin, if youve read anything at all about this curious-looking instrument with a horn attached to its slimmed-down body. Although slightly different in design, the Stroh violins remained popular amongst Roma musicians in the Bihar region of Romania where these instruments assimilated into the local traditional music. Traditions in Romania > Traditional music > Violins > Vioar cu goarn - Stroh violin; Vioar cu goarn - Stroh violin. The Stroh violin was an expensive instrument; in 1911 it was offered by the London dealers Barnes & Mullins for nine guineas (9.45, then equal to $37.80) or twelve guineas (12.60 / $50.40) at a time when a reasonable factory violin could be had for two guineas. Broad strokes - not just fiddling about at the edges! Heres what I learned: The Romanian horn fiddle isvery similar in design to a stroh violin. Classical violinists Jan Kubelik, Carl Flesch, and Eugne Ysae recorded with them. The bass bar of nearly all old instruments was made heavier to allow a greater string tension. The Romanian Stroh violin used amplification like that of a gramophone to boost the volume. Other conventional instruments are used in the work as well as a choir of children's voices.[7]. Back to Back: In What Ways Do Instruments with 1- and 2-Piece Backs Actually Differ? In some areas the strings were hit with a stick to give a more percussive sound for fast dances. Horn Violin - Asociatia Folclor Fara Frontiere - Google Arts & Culture This is considered the old style compared with later developments in central Transylvania. I first saw one of these a few weeks ago, in an archived workshop video from Fiddle Hell April 2021 online. The instrument is named after its German designer, Johannes Matthias Augustus Stroh, who patented it in 1899. As long as regular violins recorded poorly . It is now located in the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford. Here's a free Kontakt instrument, The Stroh Violin. It's a metal violin The name Stroviol refers to a violin, but other instruments have been modified with the amplification device, including the viola, cello, double bass, ukulele, mandolin, and guitar. Ours of course is a pimped up version with a double trumpet. It's used by street performers and folk musicians around the world, particularly Romania and Europe in general. The fingerboard was made a little longer to be able to play even the highest notes (in the 19th century). Figuring out the design was tricky because Id never seen one in person before, and the images online are mostly low resolution or hard to read. Since the resonator of the sound canal is much smaller than in the case of the Stroh violins, these instruments have a heavier, even more biting sound. Violins from Around the World: Part One We are all familiar with the Western violin, but what about violins from other cultures? By the late 1920s, the Stroh was seemingly on its way out, but fast-forward to the 1970s and it reappears, this time as the vioar cu goarn (violin with horn) played then and now by Roma violinists from the Bihor region along Romanias border with Hungary. The violin has 70 parts, 72 if top and bottom plates are each made from two pieces of wood. After thinking on it for a while it seemed like the vibrations of the strings go back-and-forth, in line with the motion of the bow. View cart for details. When I pluck one of the strings with a downward motion the sound is weak and muted. - Instead of the usual tuning pegs made of softwood, which are relatively quickly fixed in the head of the violin and can no longer be moved, we use machined tuners made in Holland. The first clear record of a violin-like instrument comes from paintings by Gaudenzio Ferrari. Aleks Kolkowski is a friend and colleague, says Rose. Check out these violins from around the world. Palliser also played Stroh violin on a Tom Hickox album[5] and live with Bitter Ruin. This effectively extended the first concept to now use a conical resonator with corrugations at its edge, allowing a more 'rigid' diaphragm. [10] Rhlmann, J said that the Indian instrument was not proved in question to be either old or original or primitive and that he believed that the bow originated independently in different places [11], The Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih (d. 911) of the 9th century was the first to cite the bowed Byzantine lyra as a typical instrument of the Byzantines and equivalent to the rabb used in the Islamic Empires of that time. In 10 Violins, he plays a contemporary Stroh from an instrument maker living on the border between Thailand and Myanmar., Compared to the real thing, he says, the sound is a little abrasive and the auxiliary ear-horn doesnt function that well.. On 4 May 1899, Stroh applied for a UK patent, GB9418 titled Improvements in Violins and other Stringed Instruments which was accepted on 24 March 1900. The Stroh violin was an expensive instrument: in 1911 it was offered by the London dealers Barnes & Mullins for nine guineas (9.45, then equal to $37.80) or twelve guineas (12.60/$50.40) at a time when a reasonable factory violin could be had for two guineas. The Romanian horn-violin is similar to the Stroh violin. . It was built through the 20th century. Amateurs or small workshops could easily build it and, perhaps for that reason, many variants exist in Eastern Europe.