About the Violin The violin is a bowed string instrument with
four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and
highest-pitched member of the violin family of string
instruments, which also includes the viola and cello. A person
who plays the violin is called a violinist or fiddler, and a
person who makes or repairs them is called a luthier, or simply
a violin maker. A violin is sometimes informally called a
fiddle, regardless of the type of music played on it. The word
"violin" comes to us through the Romance languages from the
Middle Latin word vitula, meaning "stringed instrument"; this
word may also be the source of the Germanic "fiddle". The modern
European violin evolved from various bowed stringed instruments
which were brought from the Middle East. Most likely the first
makers of violins borrowed from three types of current
instruments: the rebec, in use since the 10th century (itself
derived from the Arabic rebab), the Renaissance fiddle, and the
lira da braccio. One of the earliest explic