The Amadeus book of the violin: construction, history, and music

Part one : The instrument

Tone production

Violin making : the wood

Bow making

Manual work and machines

String making

Violin maintenance : repair

Part two : The history of the violin

The prehistory

String instruments in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Europe

The violin's early history

Musical developments in the fifteenth century

Viola da gamba and viola da bracchio

The origin of the violin

The violin in the early sixteenth century

The rise of the Amati family ; Cremona becomes the center of violin making

Gasparo da Salò and the early Brescia school

Violin making in the seventeenth century ; the Cremona school from Nicolò III Aamati to Antonio Stradivari

Violin making in seventeenth-century Brescia

Italian seventeenth-century violin makers outside Brescia and Cremona

National schools in Europe before 1700 ; Jacob Stainer

Italian violin making in the eighteenth century ; Antonius Stradivarius and Josephus Guarnerius del Gesù

The decline of Italian violin making during the second half of the eighteenth century

The "secret" of the old Italian luthiers

The old Italian varnish

Eighteenth-century violin making outside Italy

The industrialization of violin making

Violin collectors and dealers

Violin making and the development of the natural sciences

Violin making since 1800

Violin making as a hobby

The history and making of violin bows

List of bow makers

Summary and projections.

Part three : Performance, pedagogy, and composition

Violin Playing and Teaching in the Sixteenth Century

Early Seventeenth-Century Developments

Monteverdi and the Violin

Biagio Marini

Forms of Seventeenth-Century Violin Music

Farina and Virtuoso Playing

Standardization of the Orchestra ; Categories and formal design in orchestral music

Chamber Music and Orchestral Music before Corelli

Germany and Austria in the Seventeenth Century

France and England in the Seventeenth Century

Corelli and Violin Music at the End of the Seventeenth Century

Seventeenth-Century Violin Instruction Books

Torelli and the Beginnings of the Solo Concerto

Antonio Vivaldi and the Solo Concerto

The Origin of the Solo Cadenza

Italian Violin Playing after Vivaldi ; Geminiani, Somis, Veracim, Locatelli

Johann Sebastian Bach's Compositions for Violin

The "Bach" Bow

Instruction Books from the First Half of the Eighteenth Century

Mid-Century Style Changes ; Johann Stamitz ; Giuseppe Tartini

The Classic Solo Concerto

Mozart's Compositions for Violin

The Origins of the String Quartet ' Quartets by Haydn and Mozart

Orchestra Playing in the Eighteenth Century ; The classical symphony

Instruction Books, 1750-1800

The Etude's Origin

The Development of Violin Playing in the Principal Countries of Europe during the Eighteenth Century

The Founding of the Paris Conservatoire ; The beginnings of modern music education

Beethoven's Compositions for Violin

Traveling Virtuosos

Nicole Paganini

Nineteenth-Century Violin Playing

Nineteenth-Century Violin Music

Nineteenth-Century Violin Pedagogy ; Teaching as a science

Instructional Works

Otakar Ševčík, or The Perfect Method

The Violinist's Physical and Mental Health ; Twentieth-century problems

Fritz Kreisler and Modern Violin Playing ; Vibrato

Fingering

Violin Music since 1900

Violin Pedagogy since 1900

Great Twentieth-Century Violinists : Virtuosi

Great Twentieth-Century Violinists : Virtuose

String Quartets

Into the Twenty-first Century.