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Violin
 The violin is probably the best known and most widely distributed instrument in the world.It evolved during the Renaissance from earlier bowed instruments such as the medieval fiddle; the lira da braccio - an Italian 16th centuary offshoot, and the rebec.The violin has a fretless fingerboard. Its strings are hitched to tuning pegs and to a tailpiece passing over a bridge held in place by the pressure of the strings. This bridge transmits the vibration of the strings to the soundboard which is usually made of pine and acts as an amplifier for the sound. Within the soundboard, wedged between the violin front and back underneath the bridge is the sound post that also picks up the strings vibrations and transmits them to the instrument's back contributing to the characteristic sound of the violin. The belly is supported by the bass bar, a narrow wood bar which runs lengthwise and tapers into the belly.The violins tone was recognised early, particualrly in Italy, its birthplace, where the earliest makers - Gasparo da Salo, Andrea Amati and Giovanni Paolo Maggini - had settled upon its average proportions before the end of the 16th centuary. While there have been few modifactions to the basic shape of the violin some changes were necessary to adapt it to its changing musical functions. Antonio Stradivari designed a shallower violin to give a more virile tone and in the 19th centuary, with the advent of large auditoriums and the violin virtuoso, the violin underwent its last changes in design. The bridge was heightened, the sound post and bass bar were thickened, and the body became flatter. The neck was angled back, giving greater pressure of the strings on the bridge. The result was a stronger, more brilliant tone in place of the delicate, intimate tone of the violin of the 18th century.The earliest violins were used for popular and dance music. During the 17th century it replaced the viol as the primary stringed instrument in chamber music. The Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi included violins in the orchestra of his opera Orfeo (first performed in 1607). In France the king's orchestra, les 24 violons du roi, was organized in 1626. Arcangelo Corelli, a virtuoso violinist, was among the earliest composers to contribute to the new music for the violin, as did Antonio Vivaldi, J.S. Bach, and the violinist Giuseppe Tartini. Most major composers from the 18th century on wrote solo music for the violin, among them Mozart, Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Edvard Grieg, Paul Hindemith, Arnold Schoenberg, and Alban Berg. Such virtuosos as Francesco Geminiani, Niccolò Paganini, Joseph Joachim, Fritz Kreisler, David Oistrakh, Yehudi Menuhin, and Isaac Stern stimulated the composition of fine violin music. The violin was assimilated into the art music of the Middle East and South India and, as the fiddle, is played in the folk music of many countries. The tenor violin, known from the 16th century through the 18th century, was midway in size between the viola and cello. It was tuned F-c-g-d'. "Tenor violin" also occasionally referred to the viola.
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