ABSTRACT

While it is now generally accepted that the violin originated in northern Italy in the early 1500s, was built in different sizes to be played in consorts, was used for dance music,1 and that it was (at least during the first hundred years of its existence) mostly associated with professional musicians of low social rank,2 many significant details of this history still await further investigation. For example, regional diversities in violin making, repertoires and performance traditions (particularly in northern Europe), as well as the emergence of new repertoires as the consequence of cultural transfer and exchange,3 are all in need of clarification.