How did the violin originate?

Answer 1

It would have been around 1585 when the violin pattern started to really develop. After that, it became kind of standardized. And it really took off during the Baroque era. The Baroque era started somewhere around 1600. In the very last part of the 1500's, the violin started to emerge. At the time, the instrument most like it was the viol but the violin was still very different. (Currently, the viol is now what one would call the Viola de Gamba.) Instruments in the viol family were more sleek, and plaintive and soft. Then somebody invented an instrument that became more brilliant, with a brighter sound. No one actually knows who invented the first violin, but there were a few people experimenting with patterns to make it. Then, at the beginning of the Baroque era, two things happened: Opera and the violin family took off. Through the Baroque era, they become more and more and more popular. This was called the Golden Period for violin making. It was Stradivari's time, and with that, high quality violins were being sold, so composers wrote a lot of music for the violin. Bach, Handel, Corelli, and so many Baroque composers that we don't even know about wrote music for the violin. Most people have never heard of so many composers that have awesome Classical Music. One of the first great violin makers was Amati. I actually had a teacher who owned an Amati.