THE STRINGS FAMILY

The most distinctive feature of the orchestra is the string section. Woodwinds, brass, and percussion are present in concert bands (also known as "wind symphonies" and other designations containing "wind"), but the orchestra is set apart by the presence and sound of the strings. The strings typically make up the largest section by far. This includes — from highest to lowest — violins, violas, cellos, and basses.

Most numerous are the violins. Composers write separate parts for first and second violins. They can be considered the soprano and mezzo soprano voices of the orchestra.

The slightly larger violas, using the same analogy, are the altos. And, as in a vocal chorus, they get teased by the sopranos. «The conductor stopped the rehearsal to ask why a viola player was crying. She was upset because one of the bass players had turned one of her tuning pegs. She couldn't fix it because he wouldn't tell her which one he turned.»

The tenor voice is the cello, which is too large to be tucked under the chin and must be propped up on the floor by the seated cellist. Some would consider it the most beautiful sounding of the lower orchestral voices, beating out bass clarinet, trombone, et cetera. Saint-Saëns chose the cello to portray the elegant and graceful swan in his "Carnival Of The Animals."

Rounding out the range of voices is the bass, also called contrabass, double bass, string bass, upright bass, or acoustic bass. A specific designation is often chosen dependent on what it is being contrasted with, e.g. bass tuba or electric bass. Another name, bass viol, points out a distinction from the others in the section. It comes from the viol family rather than the violin family. The viols are visually different in that they have sloping shoulders rather than square shoulders. They are musically different in that the strings are tuned in fourths instead of fifths. Other than bass, viols are not in widespread use today.

sloping
square

One of the cool things about the strings is that you can make any specific instrument in a variety of sizes and still tune them all to the same pitches. This is because the pitch produced by a string is based on a combination of length, thickness, and tautness.

By the way, the strings are made from catgut, but catgut is not made from cats. It should be called sheepgut.

In most cases, the various sizes of a given stringed instrument are expressed in fractions, such as "a three-quarter-size cello." This doesn't make sense, because it's only about three inches shorter than a full-size! The exception is the viola, where the size of each is listed in inches. So it appears that the viola players are the smart ones after all.

Here's a full-size violin next to a 1/8th,
which you see is about 70% of its length.

 Here's that same 1/8th size by the neck of 3/4 bass,
which the most commonly used size in modern orchestras.
Actually, I do have a slightly smaller violin.
Unfortunately, I don't have a bow for it.

~ FURTHER READING ~

Well, I'm sitting listening to this symphony performance and reading the printed program.
I'm thinking "There are over a hundred musicians in this orchestra and a third of them play violin."

How hard can this be?

I'm thinking "There are also several playing viola which is done pretty much the same way.
You have to read alto clef instead of treble, but the posture, the hand position, the bowing:   Same!"

How hard can this be?

The Suzuki method teaches countless children to play violin by imitating the grownups instead of by reading.
I believe learning to read is important, but it is very impressive to hear these babies in diapers play tiny violins.

How hard can this be?

So, I take a year of lessons while in college. The instructor was a librarian, so I know he thinks like me.
Didn't get very far in a year. "Aller Anfang ist schwer" according to the Germans.* But seriously . . .

How hard can this be?

Subsequently, I play viola during the strings pedagogy class in college. A bunch of beginners having fun.
I take up the violin again thirty-five years later. Have a great instructor who is very enjoyable, so . . .

How hard can this be?

Today I get out my violin, rosin up the bow, tune the strings, and open the music for a Brahms piece. And I wonder,

How can it be this hard??

*This is literally translated "all beginning is hard."
It's probably more elegant to say "it's the first step that is difficult."

But shouldn't the plural of German be "Germen"?