Much like the Voynich manuscript, the Baghdad battery and babies, we don’t exactly know where violins come from. That’s not to say that violins just appeared out of the 16th-century ether playing folksy melancholy, but rather that there isn’t an exact when or who that can be credited with inventing it all alone. The creation of the violin seems to be developmental; it’s an instrument that was perfected over time.
Bowed string instruments have been around for centuries, and in Europe at the beginning of the 16th century there were three in particular that were destined to influence the shape of violins to come: the lira da braccio, the rebec and the medieval fiddle.
Lira da Braccio
Several instruments carry the name lira, like those of the Byzantine and Cretan varieties. In the case of the lira da braccio, the “braccio” refers to “arm,” indicating how the instrument is held — as opposed to the lira da gamba, which is held in position with assistance from the legs. Like a modern violin, the strings of the lira da braccio was tuned in fourths. But unlike the violin, there were several limitations with the instrument. It was mainly used for chordal accompaniment — no soaring melodies yet — and even then its construction rendered certain chord inversions unplayable. It was, however, associated with mythology and celestial deities, which might explain why Greco-Roman gods and lonely angels can be seen in paintings of the period shredding on it.
Rebec
If you’re going to talk about the rebec, you need to talk about the Arab rebab, which most likely arrived in Europe via traders from the Middle East. Interestingly, Grove notes that bowing instruments weren’t considered all that acceptable in the higher social circles of Asia, but it was a completely different story in Europe. We know that the rebec was employed in the court of King Henry VIII, in the performance of sacred music and among bands of traveling minstrels. Seriously, Europeans loved it. Typically, the rebec was carved out from a singular piece of wood that tapered at one end, giving the appearance of a neck running straight into the body. The number of strings on them wasn’t standardized either — sometimes there was one, and at other times there were five. The most popular configuration seemed to be three, perfectly in the middle.
Medieval Fiddle
The origins of the medieval fiddle are hard to identify because “fiddle” was used as a generic term for a bowed instruments for several centuries throughout the medieval period and the Renaissance. And if that wasn’t confusing enough, “fiddle” was eventually used to refer to a particular type of instrument family. But here’s a solid way to define it as a separate bowed instrument from, say, the rebec. Medieval fiddles had a flat back, as opposed to the pear-shaped back of rebecs; and they had a very clearly defined body and fingerboard, where the rebec was made from a single piece of wood.
The violin burst onto the scene in northern Italy in the 16th century, but it wasn’t the orchestral powerhouse that we know today. Back then, it was used to accompany vocal music and to provide music for dancing. It also wasn’t considered particularly classy. French composer Philibert Jambe de Fer provides the oldest surviving description of a four-string, all-fifths-tuned violin in music history. He notes that not many people played the violin, save “those who make a living from it through their labor.” In contrast was the viol, an instrument for “gentlemen, merchants and other virtuous people to pass their time.” Early professional violinists did not take kindly to this attitude. In the Italian town of Brescia, one of the cradles of violin invention, a group of violinists petitioned the government to consider their trade one of beauty and skill — and not to be associated with the “base, vile and crude” music of inexperienced musicians.
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There are a few notable names we can associate with the violin before it’s ascent to orchestral dominance. First, there’s Giovanni Battista Jacomelli, a Brescian violinist who was one of the earliest virtuosos of the instrument. And we’ve got Biagio Marini and Giovanni Battista Fontana who made names for themselves as composers for the violin, as well as being violinists themselves.
Fortunes began to turn when France’s King Louis XIII founded the creatively named Les Vingt-quatre Violons du Roi (The 24 Violins of the King), a most Royal French orchestra; the English court during the reign of King Charles II adopted a similar setup. All that lavish royal exposure helped to boost the profile and status of the instrument, and it became quite clear that the violin would be around to stay — although this also helped to render other bowed instruments like the rebec and lira obsolete.
If there’s anything to really take away from all of this, it’s that even something as magnificent and wonderful sounding as the violin went through an awkward phase, too. Seriously, when’s the last time you saw a pro with an Armani hookup playing a lira da braccio?