Relevence of the Violin in Contemporary Music

Hello there.......

The violin is a classical instrument, invented in the 1500's and perfected in the 1700's by Antonio Stradivarius, and has been used with great skill for solo and ensemble music ever since.  In the olden days people waxed poetical over the lyrical properties of the violin, calling it the closest instrument to the human voice.  This was in part due to the fact that the range of notes for the violin is similar to that of the voice, but mostly due to the fact that, like the cello, the bow can produce a sustained note that can be altered as it is played, for greater expression. 

People still admire the violin, although its role has changed a little over the years.  In the old days, as well as performing in high-brow concert halls, and around the gypsy camp-fires, popular violin music was a common feature of music-hall classics, the forerunner of our modern pop music.  In other words it was used for more light-hearted entertainment as well as the more formal works we have come to associate it with.  And this to me presents a problem.  We have consigned the violin to the highest of artistic pedestals, where it languishes in concert-halls, unheard except for the elite, or else played by a few crusty folk guys in the corner of some pub somewhere...... so where's the quality violin playing being enjoyed by regular folks??  "Nigal Kennedy!" I hear you say, "Venessa May!"  But who has really heard of these people, apart from their appearence on tv documentaries from time to time, apart from classical music buffs.  Almost no-one in my experience. 

In the 40's and 50's we had the great Stefan Grappeli to regale us with popular jazz standards of the time, whipped up to a ferocious level by his extreme virtuosic level of swing improvisation and technical ability (he was educated at the Paris Con), but now jazz is not a popular idiom anymore. I say it's time to take the violin into the scary world of main-stream music and try to bring it back into the light, so how can we do this?

First of all, it's almost impossible to create something completely new, and if you look at most genres you can see they have their roots in the past.  Therefore all we need to do is to perhaps blend a couple of different genres together to create a new one!  Say.......a classical gypsy violin style with something ultra-modern like.....dub-step!?  The two styles are not so far apart as one would suppose.  The gypsy styles are created for dancing and atmosphere, and this is easily brought across into modern dance music, and indeed there is quite a movement toward this in eastern europe. 

So.  The answer is to blend styles together, and for this one needs to find a hip young dub-step producer from Bristol, give him some mp3's of your music and form a collaborative duo - which happened for me about a year ago, with fine results I might add.  If you would like to have a little listen to our music you can find it at www.myspace.com/innamorati

Cheers,

Alex.