Four Strings?
Today I was questioned why violins only have four strings.
Guitars have six strings, electric violins can sometimes have five strings, but why do simple violins only have four strings.
Any thoughts on this?
Replies (10)
There have been exceptions, but, rather like the results of the theory of evolution, they didn't survive. Most gambas were 5-6 strings, with sympathetic strings under, sometimes.
In the 19th century, there was the arpeggione, a 5-string violin/viola hybrid (Schubert's Sonata would be MUCH easier with that fifth string...).
Some makers do build 5-string violins (with the 'c' included) but they've not caught on for classical.
i thought you were asking about courses - paired strings - like on a mandolin. recently, i put some 14" viola strings on my 4/4 violin and found the "C" next to useless - no tone at all. tuning in 5ths has been a boon for me - so many possibilities in a relatively confined space.
The earliest violins had only three strings.
I bet the earliest "violin" (if it could be called that) had one string, like the erhu.
The answer is that 3 strings is too few, and 5 are too many. Actually, 5 strings would have put too many notes off the staff.
Because it's hard to play with your left thumb. J
The balalaika has three courses.
The erhu has 2 courses
The viol has 5 or 6 courses (sometimes 7)
The pardessus de viole had 6, and later 5 courses, and is the same size and range as the fiddle--and was used to play violin parts.
5 string violins are not so unusual now; in fact they are on the rise. Whether they sound good or not, or are useful or not, is not a fixed thing. Depends on what you want.
For the past several years I have been playing Irish and English folk fiddle music, nearly all of which dates back before the 20th century and even to the 16th/17th, and it is noticeable that the music rarely descends to the G-string, and if it does to any significant extent then that can be an indication that it is a relatively modern tune. One reason for this music concentrating on the three upper strings is that it is mainly dance music, sometimes played out of doors, and the medium/higher register is needed to get projection. A second reason is that other melody instruments involved such as whistles and flutes often have a lower limit at D or C. A third possible reason is that Irish and English folk dance music is monophonic and can be played (and should be, imo) perfectly well without the addition of lower voices or harmonies.
There are acoustic and stylistic reasons, too. For example, viol music often called for two or more notes to be played simultaneously. With five or six strings, the arc of the viol bridge is shallower, and by using a bow underhand with a slack grip, playing multiple notes was possible. Violins did not play this kind of music, so a more pronounced bridge arch was desirable.
Viols were all played vertically, even the smallest ones, so the width of the neck wasn't much of a problem. Using the rather awkward hold with the left hand of the modern violin neck, you'll really get a sense of why classical players wanted a slender neck.
Also, instruments of the violin family often sound better with four strings than they do with five. There are some lengthy acoustical theories as to why this is the case, but I won't go into them here because it makes my brain hurt.
It all comes down to the rule that the number of strings must equal the number of letters in the instrument's name:
guitar: 6 letters, 6 strings
banjo: 5
mandolin: 8
bass: 4
Violin... uh, spell it F-I-D-L.
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July 29, 2011 at 02:18 PM ·
i believe an acoustic instrument cant have too wide a range in pitch and sound good in all registers. it doesnt matter on electric instruments as long as the amplifiers do the job.
a guitar has more strings and the strings are tuned in smaller intervals so that it enables playing multiple strings at once which we dont do on bowed string instruemnts.
a violin, which has less strings, actually covers a wider range than a guitar(even 24 fretted ones)