Short neck violin
The short-necked violin is a variant of the violin that was used in folk music in southwestern Bohemia and Egerland until the end of the 19th century.
The short neck violin has a shorter neck than the full violin and a higher pitch. The bridge was often positioned very close to the also shortened fingerboard and also flattened so that two to three strings could be bowed at the same time. Due to the normal size body, a high volume could be achieved with a high basic mood. It was used exclusively as a partner instrument to the Bohemian bagpipes , hence the frequent designation as "bagpipe" or "bagpipe". Their task was to accompany the melody that was being played on the bagpipe in the sixth or sometimes even the octave above.
It was tuned as follows: The lowest string was tuned in unison with the tonic of the bagpipe pipe, the other strings each in ascending thirds. For a short-necked violin that plays with a bagpipe in Bb, whose chanter has the tonic on b ', the tuning is: b' d '' f '' a ''. This mood also made it possible to play in parallel thirds.
Another possibility (among about 30 different variants) were quart intervals. In this case the highest melody string was tuned an octave above the fundamental note of the bagpipe. Quint intervals are rarely used, the latter were often used by players who originally played the classical violin and then switched to the short-necked violin. Usually the tuning was then (similar to the violino piccolo) b f 'c' 'g' ', but it could even go up to b' f sharp '' c sharp '' 'g sharp' ''.
The choice of smaller intervals than fifths is not only explained by the easier harmonic play, but also by the fact that the players can play a more precise part with the sometimes extremely shortened lengths - often the bridge was moved towards the fingerboard or the saddle was moved Reaching at fifth intervals would have been impossible.
The popular high tuning of the bagpipes (tonic mostly between d '' and e '') led to extremely high tuning of the short neck violins, which made them very suitable for a noisy environment. This also explains terms such as “howler violin” or “smart violin”. With the beginning of the 20th century and the resulting changes in musical taste, the short-necked violin was replaced by the conventional violin.
Georg Philipp Telemann describes in his biography the making of contemporary bagpipers and high-pitched violins together:
“When the court went to Plesse, an Upper Silesian, Promnitzian class lordship, for six months, I got to know Polish and Hanakian music in its true barbaric beauty there as well as in Krakow. It consisted of common taverns, of a violin strapped around the body, tuned a third higher than usual, and thus able to shout over half a dozen others; from a Polish buck; from a fifth trombone, and from a shelf. But the shelf remained away in more handsome places; but the first two were reinforced: as I once found 36 goats and 8th violins together. It is hard to believe what kind of whimsical ideas Bockpfeiffer and violinists have when they fantasize so often the dancers are resting. An attentive one could snatch thoughts of them for a lifetime in eight days. "
literature
- Pavel Kurfürst: The short-necked violin: A study of instruments and construction. Verlag Das Musikinstrument Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-920112-70-9 .
- Pavel Kurfürst: The peasant fiddle: string instruments and folk musicians in the Iglauer Sprachinsel. Elwert, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-7708-1063-5 .
- Daniela Urbancová: Egerland folk musicians with bagpipes and short-necked violin. A contribution to the musical customs of the Egerland. Edition Bärenreiter, Prague 2002, ISBN 80-86385-13-2 .