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JAZZ The earliest references to Jazz performance using the violin as a solo instrument are documented during the first decades of the 20th century. The first great jazz violinist was Joe Venuti who is best known for his work with guitarist Eddie Lang during the 1920s . Since that time there have been many superb improvising violinists including Stéphane Grappelli , Stuff Smith , Ray Perry , Ray Nance , Claude "Fiddler" Williams , Leroy Jenkins , Billy Bang , Mat Maneri , Malcolm Goldstein , and others. CLASSICAL MUSIC Since the Baroque era the violin ( Baroque Violin ) has been one of the most important of all instruments in Classical Music , for several reasons. The tone of the violin stands out above other instruments, making it appropriate for playing a melody line. In the hands of a good player, the violin is extremely agile, and can execute rapid and difficult sequences of notes. Indeed, the violin seems to lend itself to virtuosity more than any other instrument (its only possible rival is the Piano ), and top violinists have amazed their audiences with their wizardry since the 17th century. The violin is also considered a very expressive instrument, which is often felt to approximate the human voice. This may be due to the possibility of vibrato and of slight expressive adjustments in pitch and timbre. Many leading composers have contributed to the Violin Concerto and Violin Sonata repertories. Violins make up a large part of an Orchestra , and are usually divided into two sections, known as the first and second violins. Composers often assign the melody to the first violins (who are often given more technically difficult music), while second violins play harmony, accompaniment patterns or the melody an octave lower than the first violins. A String Quartet similarly has parts for first and second violins, as well as a Viola part, and a bass instrument, such as the Cello or, rarely, the Bass . POPULAR MUSIC While the violin has had very little usage in Rock music compared to its brethren the Guitar and Bass Guitar , it is being increasingly absorbed into mainstream pop. Independent artists such as Final Fantasy and Andrew Bird have increased interest as well, creating a subcategory of Indie Rock that some have termed "violindie". The violin is also used in mainstream pop acts like Vanessa Mae , Bond , Miri Ben-Ari , Yellowcard , Nigel Kennedy , and Dave Matthews Band with Boyd Tinsley and Jean-Luc Ponty ; U2 also frequently uses the violin, especially the Electric Violin . The violin is also a part of the huge phenomenon called Cello Rock . The hugely popular Motown recordings of the 60's and 70's relied heavily on strings as part of the trademark Texture . Earlier genres of pop music, at least those separate from the Rock 'n' Roll movement, tended to make use of fairly traditional Orchestra s, sometimes large ones; examples include the American "Crooners" such as Bing Crosby. Though bowed strings were heavily popular and relied upon in almost all types of music genre recordings in the 60's and 70's, disco music, which surged aggressively onto the music scene in the early to mid 1970's, also relied heavily upon strings within its compositions; in fact, almost all disco/dance music of that era incorporated the use of strings within its compositions and arrangements. After the sudden decline of disco began in the late 70's and early 80's, the use of strings not only dwindled in disco music, but ceased in almost all types of popular music during that time and more so immediately after disco's death. The 1980's saw an insurgence of electronic music mimicking strings with little or no use of traditional strings in music compositions. Now strings are making a comeback in pop music. Indian and Arabic pop music is filled with the sound of violins, both soloists and ensembles. FOLK MUSIC Like many other instruments of classical music, the violin descends from remote ancestors, cruder in form, that were used for Folk Music . Following a stage of intensive development in the late Renaissance, largely in Italy, the violin had improved (in volume, tone, and agility), to the point that it not only became a very important instrument in art music, but proved highly appealing to folk musicians as well. As a folk instrument, the violin ultimately spread very widely, sometimes displacing earlier bowed instruments, and Ethnomusicologists have observed its use in many locations throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas. In many traditions of Folk Music , the tunes are not written but are memorized by successive generations of musicians and passed on in both informal and formal contexts. FIDDLE When played as a folk instrument, the violin is ordinarily referred to in English as a fiddle. One very slight difference between "fiddles" and ordinary violins may be seen in American (e.g., s, and often makes Triple Stop s possible, allowing one to play Chord s. Some musicians like to explain that the technical difference between a violin and a fiddle is the bridge. Most classical violinists prefer rounded bridges that allow them to more easily articulate the notes which have better clarity. Some fiddlers prefer flatter bridges that allow the playing of double notes and shuffles used in certain fiddle styles. In construction, they are both the same identical instrument. In practice, most instruments are constructed with a rounded bridge to better accommodate the shape of the fingerboard and some fiddlers will have their bridges modified to be a little flatter. However, as a violin's bridge is relatively easy to replace, modifying the bridge does not permanently make a violin into a fiddle. Various clichés describe the difference: "The violin sings, the fiddle dances." or "A fiddle is a violin with attitude." As might be expected from the differences between classical and folk music, violinists tend to be formally trained and fiddlers tend to be informally trained, although crossing over is not uncommon. There is quite often a single fiddle playing in any given venue. Twin fiddling is represented in some North American, Scandinavian and Donegal styles. A Scandinavian spelmanslag often contains a collection of traditional fiddlers all playing together. By contrast, violins often play in sections, since sound reinforcement (before electronic amplification) was only possible by adding instruments. The Italian '' Ripieno '' may be translated as "filling" (or "stuffing" in the culinary sense) since many instruments "fill out" the sound. In the very late 20th century, a few artists have successfully attempted a reconstruction of the Scottish tradition of violin and "big fiddle," or cello. Notable recorded examples include Amelia Kaminski and Christine Hanson's Bonnie Lasses and Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas' Fire and Grace . Historically, the word ''fiddle'' also referred to a predecessor of today's violin. Like the violin, it tended to have 4 strings, but came in a variety of shapes and sizes. Another series of instruments which contributed to the development of the modern fiddle was the Viol , which was played while held between the legs, and has a fretted fingerboard. Fiddle styles To a greater extent than classical Violin playing, Fiddle Playing is characterized by a huge variety of ethnic or Folk Music traditions, each of which has its own distinctive sound, including, but not limited to:
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SEE ALSO List Of Violinists List Of Fiddlers Hungarian fiddling - Beata Salamon http://metabeja.googlepage.com |
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