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35 albums · 1932–2024

The violin, from Cremona to the world

· 1 min read · by 1001 Albums

Paganini's violin, the Cannone by Guarneri del Gesù, hanging in its case
Violins in lit cases in the Museo del Violino in CremonaA decorated Stradivarius violin lying in a case in the Royal Palace of Madrid
Il Cannone, Paganini's Guarneri del Gesù of 1743, in Genoa. Photo: Alessandro.di, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Violins on show in the Museo del Violino, Cremona. Photo: Monica Rondoni, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · A Stradivarius of the Royal Palace, Madrid. Photo: Σπάρτακος, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The violin took its modern form in northern Italy in the sixteenth century, and Cremona became the home of its great makers: Andrea Amati, Antonio Stradivari and the Guarneri family. Corelli, Vivaldi, Tartini and Paganini wrote much of its early music.

The list has two strands. One is Italy's players: Salvatore Accardo's Paganini, Uto Ughi, Giuliano Carmignola, Fabio Biondi with Europa Galante, and I Musici. The other is the records the instrument is known by: Kreisler, Heifetz, Menuhin's Elgar, Oistrakh, Grumiaux, Perlman, Kremer, Mutter and Kopatchinskaja, with Stéphane Grappelli and Jean-Luc Ponty in jazz and Taraf de Haïdouks for the village fiddle.

The list has 35 records from 1932 to 2024. About 41 hours of music, 4 days of a few records each.

What it sounds like

Gavotte en rondeau from Bach's Partita No. 3 for violin aloneVicond, violin

Recording: Vicond, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

By genre

World 51%Classical 44%Jazz 4%Other 1%
  • World 51%
  • Classical 44%
  • Jazz 4%
  • Other 1%

The genres named most: violin, classical, jazz, folk, world.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 14 countries: Italy 12, Germany 4, United States 4, United Kingdom 3, Austria 2 and 9 more. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1930s

The 1940s

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Instruments first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.

29 albums · 1976–2024

The kora of Mali, the harp-lute of the jeli

· 1 min read

The kora is the harp-lute of the jeli, the griots of Mali, Guinea, Senegal and the Gambia: 21 strings over a large calabash covered in cowhide, played with the thumbs and forefingers of both hands.

World 89%Blues 3%Classical 3%Other 5%
  • World 89%
  • Blues 3%
  • Classical 3%
  • Other 5%

Read and see the list