The Violin

With a colorful history that spans 450 years, the violin has proven to be one of the world's most important and versatile instruments. This study of the violin, addressed to performing musicians, concertgoers, and music lovers in general, offers insightful, up-to-date essays on the instrument. Essays discuss beloved masterpieces from the violin's solo repertoire -including classic pieces of the Italian Baroque, and by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven- and the violin concerto in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as the evolution of performance styles and interpretation as documented in recordings. The volume also illustrates the broad cultural and geographic reach of the instrument, offering readers a taste of the traditional music of Argentina, Mexico, Norway, and India, in which the violin's participation is an essential and characteristic element. Other chapters are devoted to American fiddling and to the violin and violinists as metaphors in literature and the visual arts.

CONTENIDO:

List of illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements

Part One. An Instrument or a Metaphor?
1. Associations with Death and the Devil (Robert Riggs)
2. Violinists and Violins in Literature (Robert Riggs)

Part Two. Across the Centuries
3. The Violin in Italy during the Baroque Period (Peter Walls)
4. Bach and the Violin (Peter Wollny)
5. Mozart, Beethoven, and the Violin (Robert Riggs)
6. The Violin Concerto and Virtuosity in the Nineteenth Century (Robert Riggs)
7. The Violin Concerto in the Twentieth Century (Robert Riggs)
8. The Masters' Voice: Recordings as Documentation of Performance Practice (Eitan Ornoy)

Part Three. Across the Continents
9. The Peripatetic Violin (Chris Goertzen)
10. The Devil's Box No More: Fiddling in America (Chris Goertzen)

List of Contributors
Index