Whether you adore Country pickin’ on the fiddle or Stravinsky compositions in the concert hall, violins have a sound easily adaptable to a variety of musical genres. Violins haven’t always looked the same since their heyday during the 16th Century, but the violin has a recognizable tone and appearance. Violins are some of the most valued instruments and they have sold for millions of dollars at auction. National Violin Day on December 13th recognizes the impact and cultural contributions of a most versatile instrument.
if Charlie was #Homeschooling still we would have studied the #violin today but he has graduated which doesn’t stop me from listening to music with violins in it. I have a question for you what song do you listen to that uses the violin I can plan for David and I today?
National Violin Day Activities
- National Violin Day gives us permission to indulge ourself with anything violin-related. People would like to suggest you making National Violin Day a cinema night and kick off your “violin-a-thon” with every movie you can think of that revolves around violins. We’re going to get you started with three movies including “The Red Violin,” “The Devil’s Violinist,” and “Soloist.” Before you ask I haven’t seen any of these #movies. Have you?
- National Violin Day encourages you to pack your iPod with an endless supply of violin tracks. Hop from genre to genre, starting out with Paganini compositions and ending up with your favorite bluegrass songs. Invite some friends, cook some food and there you go.
- National Violin Day is your time to finally fulfill a lifelong fantasy. if you want to play the violin sign up for lessons. But while you’re learning, be a good neighbor and pass out earplugs to your friends and family and don’t forget the neighbors.
Things To Remember About Violins
- Fictional detective Sherlock Holmes played the violin as a way to fight stress.
- There’s evidence that Turks and Mongolian horsemen from inner Asia were the world’s earliest fiddlers, playing a double-stringed upright instrument made with a horsehair bow and strings which also featured a horse’s head at the neck.
- If you’re trying to lose weight, you can burn 170 calories per hour playing the violin. I might need to start playing to help kick off the weight I want to lose. Would you want to join me?
- Prior to the 1600s, violins were used to accompany choruses; it wasn’t until later that compositions highlighted their solo musical virtuosity.
- In the past, it was said that the strings were made of ‘Catgut,’ which makes people think of Cats but the word came from ‘Cattle gut’ because the strings were actually made from the cleaned intestines of Cattle or Sheep, which were being harvested for food. That just sounds nasty but thank the LORD no Cattle or Sheep were harmed for the sole purpose of making a violin.
Why People Love National Violin Day
- The burning question among aficionados on National Violin Day is whether or not violins and fiddles are the same. By and large, they are, with the sole difference being that a fiddle can have a fifth string, unlike most violins, which only have four strings.
- Country music fiddlers further differentiate that the fifth string is plucked and not bowed. Both instruments are usually made from either Maple or Spruce Woods that give the instrument a beautiful finish and the hairs on the bow are made from the hair from a horse’s tail again, no horses are harmed in making a violin or fiddle bow.
- Violins date as far back as the Persian Byzantine era of the ninth century.
- Violins didn’t look like modern violins, of course, but they were stringed. There were also variations including the Arabic Rebac, the Medieval Fiddle, and other kinds of portable stringed instruments.
- Unfortunately for the violin, prior to the 16th Century, musicians who played them were considered low-class and not able to play music in prestigious courts or palatial homes.
- This impression may have changed when professional violinists in the Italian town of Brescia, a center of violin-making, petitioned the government to consider their trade more highly so as not to be associated with “base, vile, and crude” music of more common musicians.
- The Europeans prized violins. One way of expressing the violins stature was to include them in paintings in Churches and Palaces.
- During the Baroque artistic period, violins started popping up everywhere in paintings. After all, how could you have a decent celestial choir without violins? It’s why you can see early European portraiture depicting Cherubs and Gods playfully holding or caressing violins.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
