Violin

The violin is the highest-pitched member of the modern bowed string family and one of the main instruments of Western classical music. It became central to solo, chamber, and orchestral repertoire from the Baroque period onward. Its bright tone and agility also made it important in folk traditions, film music, jazz, and experimental performance.

45 articles related to Violin:

Violin

Méditation from Thaïs: Massenet's intermezzo as the best violin encore

Méditation is one of the best-known orchestral works by the Romantic-era composer Jules Massenet which appears as an...
Violin

Larks' Tongues in Aspic: the classic theme behind best prog-album opener

Larks' Tongues in Aspic is a pentalogy of instrumental suites recorded by several generations of musicians for the...
Violin

The art of Carnatic violin by Lalgudi Jayaraman

Lalgudi Jayaraman was an Indian violinist whose impeccable performing technique, coupled with his deep understanding of...
Violin

Zigeunerweisen: folk tunes meet the Csardas dance in Pablo de Sarasate's most popular work

Zigeunerweisen is one of the best-known violin works based on Hungarian folk melodies and Romani music motifs as... 1 comment
Violin

Edouard Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole brought to life by the best violinists of the 20th century

Symphonie Espagnole is an iconic work by the French composer Edouard Lalo, which is believed to have launched the...
SITAR

Bhatkhande: the man who canonized music theory that introduced Indian classics to the West

Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande was an Indian sitarist and major musicologist who, in the early 20th century, developed a...
Violin

Ernest Chausson as the first promoter of nascent impressionism

Ernest Chausson was a composer who, despite his rather humble body of work, still played a crucial role in the history...
Band

Bird In The Belly: the dark side of old British ballads re-imagined in polyphonic folk songs

Bird in the Belly is an English folk band that draws their inspiration through collecting little known or forgotten...
Violin

Devil's Trill Sonata: Giuseppe Tartini was unable to recreate Lucifer's music played in his dream

Despite its ominous title, the Devil's Trill Sonata is a gentle and peaceful Baroque piece for solo violin accompanied...
Violin

A spice of Italy, delivered to London by Nicola Matteis, edged out the French dance fashion from violin music

One of the first pieces of evidence of Italian invasion during the Baroque period in England is Ayrs for the Violin—the...
Koto

Michio Miyagi & Renée Chemet: near century-old collaboration of koto and violin linking Japanese traditions with Western classic

In the first half of the 20th century, many Asian composers sought a way to represent their cultures on the global scene...
PIANO

Beethoven's famous piano trio carried the genre to the Romantic era

Compositions written for a group of three instruments where the leading piano is usually accompanied by a violin and... 2 comments
Violin

Ma Sicong sentenced to exile after seeking Chinese harmony for his violin

One of the most gifted Chinese violinists, Ma Sicong endured a challenging fate when he was forced to flee the Cultural...
ORCHESTRA

The perfect union of Italian and French styles by Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre

Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre (née Elisabeth Jacquet) was one of the first female composers known to history, as...
Erhu

The renaissance of Chinese Erhu fiddle led by Liu Tianhua

Made from exotic woods and snakeskin, the erhu fiddle is the most common ethnic instrument used in both orchestral and...
Ravanahatha

The Ravanahatha: from Hela civilization to the primary instrument of Rajasthani folk

The ravanahatha (also known as ravanhatta or rawanhattha) is an ancient stringed musical instrument that is suggested to... 1 comment
Recorder

Fiery dances of Marco Uccellini from Forlimpopoli

Forlimpopoli is a tiny Italian town located on the Romagna plain, at the foot of the Apennines. Founded by Romans in the...
Violin

The fifth string of the Maihar school lead violin

For more than a century, the tiny town of Maihar—now the de facto cradle of the Indian Classical—has been breathing with... 1 comment
ORCHESTRA

Amsterdam's free spirit for the Italian virtuoso

Pietro Locatelli (1695—1764), Italian violinist and composer, was one of the first great violinists who practiced...
Violin

Only 18 sonatas survived to be the only proof of the maestro's life

Giovanni Battista Fontana was a composer and violinist in the early Baroque period. Unfortunately, only a couple of...
Collaboration

Literary recital for fiddle and harmonium with British flavour

A rare duo that brings together two of Britain's foremost folk and jazz artists was formed by a Scottish fiddler Aidan...
Violin

150 composers contributed to La Folia through the centuries

La Folia is one of the most revered melodies in music history. Originating as a late fifteenth-century Portuguese dance...
FILM

Instrumental simplicity of the quiet piano drama Breathe In

In the intimate story of a foreign exchange student who causes a deep and devastating rift in a close-knit upstate New...
Violin

Belated appreciation for the history-making Florence Price

The modern rediscovery of the little-known African-American composer Florence Price only began in 2009, when a large...
Violin

Scottish fiddle tradition elevated by guitar ornamentation

Duncan Chisholm is a contemporary Scottish fiddle composer whose interpretations of traditional Highland music are...
ORCHESTRA

Romeo and Juliet eclipsed by the tragic beauty of Chinese Butterfly Lovers

The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto is one of the best known classical orchestra pieces in China, though a vast...
FILM

Hero's colors come alive with silk violin strings

Hero, an undeniable martial-arts classic, is an epic collaboration between Zhang Yimou, perhaps the biggest name in...
Violin

Sweet little waltz from a traveling Swedish fiddler

Early Swedish music was primarily characterized by ballads and kulning, songs typically sung by women for the purpose of...
VIOLA

Indecent Ciaconne dance came from the New World and swept Europe off its feet

Chaconne or Ciaconne is a fiery dance popularized in Spain in 17th century which later gave birth to a new musical form...
FIDDLE

The jig dance tradition: five centuries old and still counting

Jig is a folk dance that became popular in Scotland and northern England in the 16th century and in Ireland in the 18th...

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