Fiddle: Barbados musical intrument

A fiddle can be any cowed string musical instrument such as the violin. It is also an informal term for the instrument used by most players in all genres. Fiddling means various styles of music.

Common difference between the violin and the fiddle reflect the distinction in the instruments used in the playing of the folk and classical music. Meanwhile, it is still common for classically trained violinist to play the folk music and in the modern day the fiddle players are classically trained.

The medieval fiddle was discovered in the 10^th century in Europe deriving from the Byzantine lira which is a bowed instrument of the Byzantine Empire and the ancestor of most European Bowed musical instruments. The bowed lira had its first reference documented in the 9^th century by the Persian geographer ‘Ibn Khurradadhbih’ in his lexicographical discussion of musical instruments where he cited the lira as a representative instrument of the Byzantines and equivalent to the rabab that is used in the Islamic Empires. Lira extended widely westward to Europe. In the 11^th and the 12^th centuries, European writers use the term fiddle and lira alternatively when referring to bowed instruments. And over the centuries, Europe has continued to have two clearly different types of fiddles; one squared-shape and held in the arms known as the “lira da braccio” and the other with sloping shoulders and held between the knees was known as the “lira da gamba.”

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The history of fiddle is still unknown, the Germanic fiddle assumingly came from the same early romance word as the violin or it may be natively Germanic. A native Germanic fiddle’s ancestor could even be the ancestor of the early romance form of the violin. Though historically, the fiddle is the descendant of the today’s violin, and like the violin, it has four strings but they came in so many sizes and shapes. Another musical instrument which contributed to the development of the fiddle is the viols which of the same family with the violin and are held between the legs and played vertically and have four fretted fingerboard.

The Hungarian, Slovenian and the Romanian fiddle players are always accompanied by a three-stringed variant of the viola which is known as the kontra and by the double bass with the cimbalom and the clarinet being less standard yet still common additions to a band. Also in Hungary, a three-stringed viola that differs slightly with a flat bridge that is called the kontra or háromhúros brácsa forms part of a traditional rhythm section part in Hungarian folk music. The flat bridge permits for three-string chords to be played. A three-stringed-double-bass variant is also in use.