violin or stroh violin

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The Stroh violin is also an instrument used in folk music of theBihor region of Romania. Famous musicians of this music style arefiddlers like Gheorghe Rada, singers like Florica Bradu, Florica Ungur,Florica Duma, Leontin Ciucur, Cornel Borza, Vasile Iova, Maria Haiduc,Viorica Flintasu, and renowned folk ensembles like "Crisana" or"Rapsozii Zarandului". In Buenos Aires (Argentina) back in the 1920s,Julio De Caro (renowned Tango orchestra director and violinist) used iton his live performances, and was called "violin corneta" (cornetviolin) by the locals

A few musicians, including , , and for the and , and Fabrice Martinez with continue to use the Stroh violin for its distinctive sound.

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Stroh violins are much louder than a standard wooden violin, and thedirectional projection of sound made the Stroh violin particularlyuseful in the early days of recording. As regular violins recorded poorly with the oldacoustic-mechanical recording method, Stroh violins were common (thoughby no means universal) in . After record companies switched to the new electric recording technology in the second half of the 1920s, Stroh violinsbecame less common. While the Stroh produces significantly more volume,it does this at the expense of tone, offering a sound that is harsherand more grating than a standard violin. On early records the Strohviolin can be recognized by its characteristically thin whining tone.

Description: A Stroh violin, or violinophone