violin is a stringed instrument, usually with four strings tuned in fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, including viola and cello.
The violin is sometimes informally called a fiddle, regardless of the type of music played on him. The violin of the word comes from the Latin Middle Vitulo, ie stringed instrument;. This word is also believed that the origin of the Germanic "fiddle" The violin, while it has ancient origins, acquired most of its modern features of 16th-century Italy, with some modifications that occur in ages 18 and 19. Violinists and collectors around the award of the instruments made Gasparo da Salò by Giovanni Paolo Maggini and, Stradivari, Guarneri and Amati families of 16 to the 18th century in Cremona and Brescia and Jacob Stainer in Austria. A large number of instruments have come from the hands of "lesser" manufacturers, as well as the even larger number of commercial mass production of "trade violins" from cottage industries in places such as Saxony, Bohemia, and Mirecourt. Many of these commercial instruments were sold before Sears, Roebuck and Co. and other mass merchants.
A person who makes or repairs violins is called a luthier, or simply a violin maker. The parts of a violin are usually made of different types of wood (although electric violins can not be made of wood at all, because their sound can not rely on specific acoustic characteristics of the construction of the instrument) and is usually hung the gut, nylon or other synthetic materials or steel chain.
Someone who plays the violin is called a violinist or a fiddler. The violin produces sound by drawing a bow across one or more strings (which can be stopped by the fingers of the other party to produce a wide range of tones), by plucking the strings (with either hand) or a variety of other techniques. The violin is played by musicians in a wide variety of musical genres, including baroque, classical, jazz, popular music and rock and roll. The violin has come to be played in many non-Western musical cultures around the world.
