Program notes
The documentary series, Une histoire de la musique à travers ses instruments (A History of Music Through its Instruments), takes a look at the history of the instruments used in Western music. Here, you can find out more about the violin.
There are traces of primitive violins, called bow lutes, in different shapes and sizes in Africa, Asia and Europe: from primitive fiddles to string instruments in Mali and in Ethiopia, violins with three strings in Turkey and Persia, and even curious violins used by the American Indian Apaches, the body of which is made from a hollowed-out cactus. The manufacturing of the modern violin developed thanks to the famous luthiers Garneri, Amati and Stradivari in Italy in the sixteenth century. The composers Paganini, Tartini and Vivaldi gave it its acclaim.