Violin Essay

In my physics research paper, I will be discussing the mechanics of the violin, but first some history. The oldest relative of the violin was a lira which was held standing up and had a bow to create sound. This was one of the first string instruments. As the Byzantine Empire expanded it brought it’s values and instruments with them and mixing the cultures of Europe with theirs. Over the next centuries, Europe developed two different types of fiddles that had originally branched off the lira. The most common was known to be more square-shaped and held in between the arms which were called the lira da braccio, which eventually evolved to the fiddle/violin. The other was more enlarged and was held between the thighs and was called the lira da gamba which more closely represented a cello. On the other side of the world, the evolution of the earliest examples of a bowed instrument and of a bow itself goes all the way back to the eleventh century, almost a century before the byzantine empire. And In recent discoveries the earliest “reference” to the fiddle was found in Ireland and was dated to the seventh century, and it was either bowed or plucked and had three to eight strings. This is highly significant because it shows that the precepts of violin originated from many different parts of the world.

At first the lira de braccio was not as popular and was overtaken by the lira de gamba. The lira de braccio(violin) was considered low status and was not given full attention until the Baroque period came. Composers and players like Vivaldi, Monteverdi, and J.S Bach developed elaborate concerts and operas including violins and thus the status of it grew. As time moved on, the lira de braccio (violin) began to evolve to be able to produ...

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...ing an octave above. The trick is that frequency determines the pitch of the note, the lower the frequency the lower the note. Frequency is the ratio of the speed of the wave to the length of the wave(f = v/λ), and in the violin’s case finding the frequency is used by this equation. This equation shows how the force, mass, and the length of the string relate to each other and how the violin string being held down at 2 ends by the bridge and the pegs create a transverse wave that would travel between the points. So when trying to create a harmonic or cause the wavelength to go faster creating a higher note, I can do one of the three things while keeping the others constant: increase the tension, increase the length of the string, or decrease the mass of the string. The (m/L) is also written with the Greek letter mu, and represents the linear density of the string.