Baroque violin
Baroque violins have become relatively common in recent decades thanks to historically informed performance, with violinists returning to older models of instrument to achieve an authentic sound.
The differences between a Baroque violin and a modern instrument include the size and nature of the neck, fingerboard, bridge, bass bar, and tailpiece.
"Renaissance violins" of this period are of a wide variety of sizes, from small pochettes through descant, treble and tenor instruments, as a consort.
[4] The bridge in turn is shaped differently, with less mass and greater flexibility in the upper half, owing to the high placement of its "eyes"—holes on either side.
Baroque bows generally look straight or bent slightly outwards in the middle, with an elegant "swan-bill" pointed head.
By contrast, a modern bow is made from pernambuco and has a marked inwards bend, particularly when the hair is relaxed, and has a "hatchet" head at right-angles to the stick.
Italian music of the first half of the 18th century, for instance the work of Arcangelo Corelli, was played with a longer bow better suited to long, singing notes.
It was in response to this continued desire for longer, more legato playing that the inward curve was introduced in the mid 18th-century, and the modern bow derives from designs made by François Tourte in the later 18th century.
Because this style had fallen out of use long before recording technology was invented, modern performers rely heavily on documentary evidence to recreate a Baroque-style technique.
Chin-rests and shoulder-rests are not used – the chin rest which is universally used on a modern violin was not invented until the early 19th century, though Abbe Fils used some kind of device for a similar purpose.
(In contrast, modern technique usually has the violin firmly wedged between shoulder and chin, maintaining its position even when the left hand is absent).
They choose their moments for shifting carefully, using open strings and points of articulation in the music where changes of position in the left hand can be made inaudibly.
To perform it, you must press the Finger strongly upon the String of the Instrument, and move the Wrist in and out slowly and equally [...] when it is made on short Notes, it only contributes to make their Sound more agreeable; and for this Reason it should be made use of as often as possible.Composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote vibrato should be used "in all contexts where the length of note permits" Even authors critical of the use of constant vibrato acknowledged that this was common practice.
For example, Robert Bremner writes: Many gentlemen players on bow instruments are so exceeding fond of the tremolo, that they apply it wherever they possibly can.
[10] It is now generally acknowledged that vibrato was more widely used in the Baroque, not exclusively for ornamentation, but that the extent to which it was used varied significantly by region, individual taste, and rapidly changing fashion.
The down-bow is naturally stronger than the up thanks to the action of gravity, and this tendency is even more true with a Baroque bow, which is stiff towards the bottom and middle and weak towards the tip.
In Romantic and later violin playing, this natural tendency is evened out as much as possible with the aim of producing clear melodic phrases.
Tartini advised a correspondent to practice playing semiquavers as demisemiquavers followed by a rest, gradually building up the tempo but maintaining the separation between notes.
Researchers in historically informed performance also find relevant insights in correspondence of musicians at the time, and also manuals aimed at players of other instruments.
The fingerboard is shorter which is typical of a baroque instrument and tunes to CGDA as would a modern viola but has a deeper, more richer sound altogether unique in itself.
One interesting type of old German pattern made by Grunwald has the body similar in size to the modern violin but with the fingerboard an inch and a half longer than today's standard.
