About Fiddles
Fiddle is an ancient stringed musical instrument whose gradual development has resulted in a family of modern stringed instruments such as violin, viola and cello.
It evolved sometime in the 10th century from an Arabic instrument called rebab through a Byzantine lyre.
In the Middle Ages, it was one of the most widespread musical instruments, used to accompany singing and instrumental playing. Due to the great expansion and absence of standards, medieval fiddles had a number of shapes, tunings, and probably design approaches too. Unfortunately, iconographic documents do not allow an assessment of whether the instruments were glued or hollowed or the possible use of the sound post. When playing, medieval fiddles were not just held under the performer’s chins, but were often leaned against their chests, as is sometimes seen in folk music nowadays.
Unless otherwise requested, my instruments are basically historical violins or violas: so they have the same scale and tuning, and there is a sound post inside the instrument. The price of the instrument does not include the price of the strings, as it can be considerable for the violin and the demands of the musicians vary.
Encyklopedie Brittanica
Pavel Kurfürst, Hudební nástroje, Praha 2002
