Its appearance and sound is oh-so familiar, but what’s the story behind the violin? Here’s some background to this most sweet and noble of musical instruments. The violin was essentially the result of amalgamating instruments like the fiddle and the rebec. Both were early bowed string instruments that were less finessed and a little more difficult to handle; neither made as sweet a sound as is possible with the violin.

The violin’s design makes it a far more agile, versatile instrument, capable of imitating the emotional resonance of the human voice. It even has body parts like a human – a neck, ribs and back. The most famous of the early violin makers was Andrea Amati and his descendents continued to make them well into the 17th century. Actually, his grandson Nicola Amati passed everything he was taught on to a young artisan named Antonio Stradiveri – of ‘Stradivarius’ fame.