Musical Offerings, Spring2024

Musical Offerings ⦁ 2024 ⦁ Volume 15 ⦁ Number 1 23 Musical Offerings 15, no. 1 (2024): 23–36. ISSN 2330-8206 (print); ISSN 2167-3799 (online) © 2024, Marion Joyce Johnson, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Violin Intonation: The Connection between the Violin’s Tuning System and Performance Marion Joyce Johnson Cedarville University ne of the most versatile instruments across all musical genres is the modern violin. It is an instrumental staple in music spanning composers from Haydn to popular and rock artists today. An instrument with wide dynamic range and expression, the violin is used effectively in accompaniment, ensemble music, chamber music, and solo music. A significant aspect of the violin is its tuning system. The manner in which strings are tuned, the placement of the fingers, and the modifications to standard tuning all play a vital role in understanding this complex instrument. The tuning and temperament of the early violin family impacted the violin’s use in both ensemble and solo musical settings during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The violin, in its modern form, first appeared in the fifteenth century. The exact date in which the first violin was created is difficult to determine with precision; however, there are a few clear instances of the instrument's beginnings. For example, in Martin Agricola’s Musica instrumentalis deudsch, written in 1529, a “fretless instrument tuned in fifths” is referenced, and a woodcut of this said instrument, resembling a violin, is included. Paintings and engravings by Gaudenzio Ferrari and Pierre Woeriot display an instrument of similar characteristics.1 Woeriot’s engraving portrays the luthier Gaspard Duiffoprugcar with an instrument that very closely resembles the modern violin.2 The modern violin is tuned in fifths, with, from bottom to top, G, D, A, and E strings. There are no frets on this instrument, and it is bowed. The viol da gamba, an ancestor of the violin, is similar in stature, except that it is set on one’s knee while performing, while the violin is placed on the 1 Schoenbaum, 15. 2 Straeten, 35–36. o

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