With a colorful history that spans 450 years, the violin has proven to be one of the world's most important and versatile instruments. Addressed to performing musicians, serious concertgoers, and collectors of recordings, The Violin offers insightful, up-to-date essays on a wide range of topics. Essays discuss beloved masterpieces from the violin's solo repertoire, with individual chapters on the Italian Baroque, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and the violin concerto in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as the evolution of performance styles and interpretation as documented in recordings. The volume also illustrates the broad cultural and geographic reach of the instrument, offering readers a taste of the traditional music of Argentina, Mexico, Norway, and India, in which the violin's participation is an essential and characteristic element. Other chapters are devoted to American fiddling and to the violin and violinists as metaphors in literature and the visual arts. CONTRIBUTORS: Chris Goertzen, Eitan Ornoy, Robert Riggs, Peter Walls, Peter Wollny. Table of Contents Associations with Death and the Devil - Robert Riggs Violinists and Violins in Literature - Robert Riggs The Violin in Italy during the Baroque Period - Peter Walls Bach and the Violin - Peter Wollny Mozart, Beethoven, and the Violin - Robert Riggs The Violin Concerto and Virtuosity in the Nineteenth Century - Robert Riggs The Violin Concerto in the Twentieth Century - Robert Riggs The Masters' Voice: Recordings as Documentation of Performance Practice - Eitan Ornoy The Peripatetic Violin - Chris Goertzen The Devil's Box No More: Fiddling in America - Chris Goertzen Notes on Contributors Index