The True History of the Violin

There were times when a violin was an integral part of Russian wedding. In general, only performers playing bowed instruments were called musicians, and playing the violin or playing of an instrumental ensemble including violin was called music itself... Other performers were called - trumpeters, lyre player, litavrschiks, etc., but they were not considered as musicians... Why do only rare specialists remember about this nowadays?

History is irrelevant to Science. Periodically, it is rewritten for one or other occasion, and even without it at all ... A responsible person talking about the past will not assert some things peremptory, even if we are talking about the events happened fifty years ago. What is the use of talking about the Middle Ages times or more earlier period? Evidence remained to our days allow people to interpret a lot of variants. Respectable historians should begin each provision of their works with the following words "I think..." "It can be supposed..." or "There is a hypothesis...", etc. For some reason they do not often write it . Moreover, there is always something that keeps a professional historian from being absolute professional, it may be "class consciousness", "political correctness", his personal priority and so on and so forth.

As a result of said above, I propose to draw attention to certain facts and inferences and I hope they will help to change views about the history of the violin still generally accepted but not indisputable anywise. Touching this topic even very erudite violinists talk about plenty of different countries (Italy, Greece, India, China, etc.), but not only about Russia, most of them believe absolutely that the violin came to us as a result of "mutation" had been existed in the beginning of the XVI century in Italy among instruments- ancestors and afterwards it was developed to perfect condition by great Italian masters.

Let's look at a mural on the north tower of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev in early XI century. There is a skomorokh (russian minstrel) who is playing the instrument, which indeed could be the ancestor of the violin. In western European countries at that time musicians played only plucked string instruments and wind ones. Pay attention to the straight bow and violin pressed to shoulder. Before nobody played in a such way in any world culture. The fiddle rested on musician's knees, it was held vertically, but nowhere and never somebody had held it in a such way how modern violinists and Russian skomorokh on an ancient fresco were doing it. It should be stressed that the earliest pictures of similar kind violin with bow in Italy belong to the XVI century. Before there had been used an arc-shaped bow. Moreover, the ancient Russian grandparents of the violin had had quint tuning which also speaks in their favor.

Slavic peoples had many similar musical instruments- smyk, gudok, skrypel, skrypitsa etc. Where did they suddenly disappear? Why their disappearance preceded appearance of the violin in Italy? What is the reason that Russian balalaika and bayan which had appeared only in the XVIII century were suddenly regarded the only Russian folk instrument?

Beginning in the late XV century, the Orthodox Church began a serious struggle against the skomorokhs (although before that period playing musical instruments had not been approved either). The victory in that struggle was won in 1648 by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich who issued the decree which stated: "And where reappear domras, sournas, gudoks and harias, as well all sorts of demons humming vessels, all they must be taken out of and broken in order to eliminate demonic playing and vessels must be burnt." Skomorokhs had to seek refuge in other countries, Russian grand violins did not appear in historical documents, because they had been excluded from the life of powerful people remaining in the use only by ordinary people. This was a difficult period. Certainly one can regret that the church leaders instead of fighting against paganism started to fight against musical instruments which indeed can be used to glorify God. It depends on the fact what is in the musician's mind. However, it is all relative. In the Western Europe at that time Inquisition was acting fiercely and burning people at the stake but not musical instruments.

However, the violin improved by the Italian masters soon returned to the place from where it originated. Since the second half of XVIII century in Russia there was aroused a galaxy of brilliant virtuoso violinists. Handoshkin, Rachinsky, Semenov, Polyakov, Lyvov, Dmitriev-Svechin, Shchepin, Afanasiev and others who were known far beyond Russia.

If you want to examine this subject in detail, I would recommend you to read:

I. Yampolsky - Russian Violin Art: Essays and Materials. - M., 1951
G. Anfilov - Opponents Stradivarius - Magazine "Knowledge - force", #2, 1961

And the Internet can present a lot of interesting things to dig. Just move...