National Violin Day 

DECK: This day is celebrated each year on December 13 within different countries 

Celebrate this year’s National Violin Day by playing, listening, or learning violin music; viewing celebrated films such as The Red Violin, The Devil’s Violinist, and Soloist; or attending or watching concerts.

Organizations from around the world are acknowledging the day: “Today we celebrate the stringed instrument we all know and love - Happy National Violin Day!” The Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) posted on Facebook.

“Today is the perfect day to recognise the vast history, skill and transcendent sound of the violin. From tree, to Luthier, the hands of our Orchestra and the concert halls around the world, we celebrate the violin today and beyond!”

According to American musicologist and violinist, David D. Boyden, the earliest type of violin emerged no later than 1530 and most of its evolution can be traced through iconography of the time. 

Rather than originating from a single instrument form, the early violin was born from a combination of the best and most sonorous components of mainly the rebec, the Renaissance fiddle, and the lira da braccio, also a 16th-century Renaissance instrument.

It is believed that the first modern violin was made by Andrea Amati of Cremona, Italy. This first four-stringed instrument by Amati was dated 1555 and is the oldest surviving violin of his collection from around 1560. 

In 1560, Andrea was also the creator of an entire ensemble of stringed instruments, including 24 violins, for King Charles IX of France.

Some of the most-prized violins to this day were crafted by the houses of Amati, Guarneri, and Stradivarius.