The violin is acoustically, functionally and aesthetically so excellent a design that it has survived with only minor modifications for over four centuries, despite the very different musical demands made of it during that period. Its apparent simplicity is deceptive. It is made of about 70 different parts, and even the slightest alteration in any of these will affect the whole. So it needs a master craftsman's skill to produce an instrument worthy of a great player. Bassbar shaped from a separate piece of spruce and glued to the underside of the belly. It supports the downward pressure of the strings and bridge, and distributes the vibrations over the top plate Top nut stops the strings at the head end so that their sounding length runs between this and the bridge Scroll the style of carving is often very personal in this ornamental feature Pegs adjust the tension of the strings. It is essential that their tapered shaft fits as accurately as possible so they do not slip or stick. Fingerboard made of very hard wood like ebony to withstand wear, with a carefully calculated lateral and longitudinal curve. Top plate the curved shape is carved from a solid piece of wood, not molded or pressed into shape. The thickness varies between about 24mm to 30mm and should be tailored to the acoustic properties of a particular piece of wood. The structure of spruce is particularly suitable for communicating the strings' vibrations to air in the resonating chamber of the soundbox. Ribs usually made from the same piece of maple as the back plate and bent into shape. Their depth increases from about 28mm near the neck to about 32mm at the bottom of the instrument. "C" bouts the narrow waist of the violin allows the player to bow the top and bottom strings with ease. F-holes their size, shape and position are crucial to the sound of an instrument. They reduce the stiffness of the platform on which the bridge is placed, and turn the soundbox into a Helmholtz resonator. Back plate either in one piece or two joined down the center. Like the top plate it is carved into its strong, arched shape with gradations of thickness from about 26 to 45mm. The grain runs longitudinally, but the wood usually shows a strong horizontal figure or "flame". The purfling or inlay which is traditionally incrusted into the edge of violins and various other stringed instruments has a twofold function. Most importantly perhaps, it protects the thin, fragile edges from continual wear through years of constant use and damage. Because it is inlayed to approximately half the thickness of the edge it prevents the further continuation of cracks that often begin at the vulnerable end grain of the plates and tends to hinder the process of edge wear due to contact with the fingers and hands of the player. Perhaps equally important is the aesthetic function of the purfling. The contours of the outline of the plates are enhanced by a visual trick, that makes the appearance of the shape of the instrument more prominent. The total look of the outline can be expressed in an infinite variation of modes by the proportions between the relative thickness of the whites and blacks to one another and to the distance from the edge. Endpin the tailgut is looped over this to hold the tailpiece, and the strings, firmly in position Chinrest many shapes and sizes are available to suit players' differing anatomies. Invented by Spohr in the early nineteenth century and so not used by many players of early music. Bridge holds the strings at the required height and distance apart and transmits their vibrations to the belly or soundboard of the instrument. The correct tapered thickness, open design and fit of its feet to curved top plate ensure optimum transmission of the sound.

The history of the violin is a succession of great players and great works spanning the whole development of Western music. Since it first sprang fully formed from Northern Italy during the 1500s, the instrument has undergone few changes; it hasn't needed them. The size and string tension is ideal for the hand, giving maximum potential for technical facility; on the viola for example, which is only slightly longer, violin-style pyrotechnics are virtually impossible. The bow gives the facility for rapidly repeated notes or sustained notes of any length, giving tremendous variety of expressive effects. And the sound quality can be exploited by sensitive players to give the same emotion as the human voice; it is an instrument "built for singing", as one player put it. So composers and players have been able for hundreds of years to concentrate on the music, unfettered by instrumental limitations, making the violin one of the most stable currencies of musical thought.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the country fiddler playing jigs and dances was already a familiar part of village life. But as organized music-making developed during and after the Renaissance, the versatile violin became an essential part of the orchestra, and composers like Monteverdi started using it prominently in the orchestra in the seventeenth century. Up till then the main instrumental family had been the viols, string instruments superficially similar to violins but unrelated in construction; but the bright tone of the violin and its potential for fast, accurate playing better suited the new music written in the early baroque period. In 1700 Archangelo Corelli wrote six "Church Sonatas" and six "Chamber Sonatas" for violin and small orchestra. This Op.5 set was an important summarization of the styles of the previous century and was played all over Europe. In the next few years, the distinction between "church" and "chamber" music styles disappeared.

Many violinist-composers such as Vivaldi, Tartini and Locatelli were writing increasingly complex violin music. Vivaldi's Four Seasons - actually part of a set of 12 violin concertos called The Trial between Harmony and Invention - were just as popular immediately after they were written in 1725 as they are today, although they fell into disuse between Vivaldi's death in 1741 and their revival as 'lift music' a few decades ago. Vivaldi himself was a gifted violinist who often stunned audiences by playing "impossible" music, and found the time to compose around 220 other violin concertos, many of then showing off his innovative harmonic and technical side.

Solo violin music had come a long way from rural dance tunes, and by the late 1600s composers such as Biber had been writing extended solo pieces for the instrument. J S Bach's six Sonatas and Partitas for violin, written in 1720, remain at one of the cornerstones of the solo repertoire, unsurpassed either in technical or artistic use of the instrument. The set is epic in scale, filling two CDs. They present supreme interpretational and technical difficulties: at some points not only double-stopping (playing two notes at the same time) is called for, but also treble- and even quadruple-stopping, which would use all four strings at the same time. Bach must have had a sequential, rather than simultaneous, effect in mind. This didn't stop one twentieth-century Danish maker from designing a special 'Bach bow' which could be relaxed by the player flicking a switch, so that the slackened hairs would fit around all four strings and thus play the multiple stoppings exactly as written. There is a formidable amount of music in the set: each partita or sonata is made up of several pieces, and the Second Partita ends with the famous Chaconne, nearly 15 minutes long just by itself, and substantial enough a piece of music to have been arranged as a piano piece by both Brahms and Busoni.

Violin technique was developing rapidly as the music demanded more of the player. Leopold Mozart, an Austrian violinist and composer, became a household name in European music circles after publishing an influential book on violin technique in 1756 ( the year that saw the birth of his son Wolfgang, who was to become quite a famous composer himself). The book, Versuch einer grundlichen Violinschule, is an important guide for modern performers who wish to play music of that period in a style authentic to that period ( it advises against overdoing vibrato, for example, one of the shibboleths of authentic playing).

Mozart junior - thanks to pressure form his father - played the violin to professional standard from an early age and wrote around 26 sonatas (violin plus keyboard) and five concertos, of which the last three have become standard concert items. (Any with numbers bigger than five are not by Mozart!). The most popular is the fifth, with its haunting slow introduction to the first movement, the beautiful Adagio, and elaborate Minuetto with the "alla turca" (Turkish-style") section which gave it the nickname the Turkish. And all written by a 19 year old!

Mozart's works were an inspiration for the young Beethoven and Schubert, fellow members of the "Viennese School". Beethoven, though a gifted pianist like Mozart, was not a good violinist: his playing was described as "dreadful" by his student Ries. But his violin writing took up where Mozart left off, increasing the technical demands on the player and, in his sonatas, stressing the partnership and interplay between the keyboard player and soloist. And Beethoven's Violin Concerto broke significant new ground.

As with many such works, though, Beethoven's Violin Concerto was not understood until well after his death. The premiere was given in 1806 by Franz Clement; between movements, Clement gave some light relief with a few violin tricks which included picking out melodies on one string and playing the instrument upside down! But Beethoven's original approach to the concerto, which was more of a symphony than an opportunity to display virtuosity, didn't impress the crowds, and the work was played just four times in the next 38 years. It was only when Joseph Joachim, a young Hungarian violinist who rapidly became the next greatest concerto player of his century, 'revived' the work in a performance conducted by Mendelssohn in 1844 that it became established.

Now, of course, the Beethoven concerto is one of the essentials of the repertoire, though it has continued to attract controversy. The cadenza in a concerto - the opportunity for the soloist to play a flashy and improvised section unaccompanied - had by the 1800s lost its improvisatory nature and become a prepared piece. The 'improvisation' that Joachim prepared is only one of many that have been written. The modern Russian composer Alfred Schnittke has written one which, bewilderingly for some purists, quotes the 'hook' lines of other violin concertos by Mendelssohn and Brahms among others - which weren't written for many decades after Beethoven's death. But perhaps the joke is meant to be on the purists: the flash, tongue-in-cheek nature of the Schnittke cadenza is probably more in keeping with the spirit of Clement's bizarre first performance.

After Beethoven's masterpiece, the big romantic violin concerto became a favorite form of concert-goers and composers. The 15 concertos of Louis Spohr are often thought of as being a bridge between those of Beethoven and Mendelssohn, whose Concerto took six years to write (ending in 1844). With its technical ingenuity, romantic brilliance (and many innovative structural ideas, such as the bridge between the Andante and finale, and the tying together of the first two movements) the Mendelssohn Concerto, premiered by Ferdinand David, became one of the best-known classical pieces ever written

Joachim must have had a pretty impressive CV. In addition to the Mendelssohn Concerto, he had major works written for him by Dvorak, Bruch, Brahms and Schumann, premiering many such works which have since become part of the music listener's staple diet. The warm Bruch Concerto No.1 (he wrote three) has become almost as popular as the Mendelssohn, probably due to the fact that it is almost obligatory coupled with it on recordings; the Schumann work - written when his mental health was deteriorating and his mind was growing tired - was a disappointment. Joachim kept on to the manuscript, refusing to publish it for fear of tarnishing the great man's reputation after his death.

There were no such problems with the Brahms Concerto. Joachim and Brahms corresponded during its composition and after its premiere in 1879, and Joachim advised the composer over some technical impossibilities in the piece. Brahms took only part of the violinist's advice, with the result that the work is ferociously difficult to play, though for sound musical reasons rather than ignorance on Brahm's part. Musically the work followed Beethoven's symphonic model, and is considered by some as the definitive Violin Concerto.

Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, written in 1878, is another difficult and popular work, but for sheer technical virtuosity, the solo caprices written by Nicolo Paganini in then early part of the nineteenth century remain some of the most testing pieces ever attempted. Paganini's playing technique was so astounding that it is said his body was refused burial in Nice on consecrated ground because of rumors that his powers had come from an unholy business deal. He was possibly the fastest and most virtuosic violinist that has ever lived: playing his Movemento Perpetuo he clocked in at 3:03 - a rate of over 12 notes per second, cited by the Guinness Book of Records as the fastest violin playing ever recorded.

Paganini used many innovative techniques in his playing and composition, such as use of harmonics and left-hand pizzicatos (plucking of the string), but it was another violinist-composer, Ernst, who was regarded by Joachim and others as the greatest of their generation. His Concerto is in some ways more difficult than Paganini, and his Variations on the Last Rose of Summer requires a left hand pizzacato line at the same time as a conventional melodic line, also played with the left hand.

The twentieth century has seen plenty of violin concertos joining the already great repertoire, and virtually every major composer has been inspired to write in the genre: Sibelius, Glazunov, Reger, Elgar, Bloch, Nielsen, Delius, Szymanowski, Schoenberg, Hindemith, Bartok, Walton, Britten, Berg, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Shostakovich... the list is endless, and often - because of the expressive nature of the violin - the works are very much bound up with the musical personality of the composers. Bartok's Second Concerto is recognized as one of the great masterpieces of the century, and has become a familiar part of the repertory despite its unusual technical problems and unfamiliar musical idiom. Shostakovich's First Concerto, written for David Oistrakh, lay completed but hidden in a drawer between 1948 and 1955 because it would have been dangerous for the composer to release such a brooding work in a political climate that demanded optimistic pro-Communist songs. Elgar's Concerto dreams poignantly for a lost world that possibly didn't exist outside the imagination; Ravel's sonatas for violin are often blusey in character; Berg's Concerto, despite being laughed at after its first performance for its unlistenably difficult idiom, has been established as a modern masterpiece, regarded now as warm and appealing. Schoenberg said his Concerto required six fingers to play; Khachaturian's underrated Concerto is a strong and irresistible piece, inspired by Armenian musical impulses; Walton's Concerto is lyrical and bitter-sweet; and was written for Jascha Heifetz who found it too easy and asked the composer to write a more challenging fast movement.

So violin players, particularly compared to other soloists, are unimaginably well-off in terms of repertoire. But if they want to play the masterworks on a master violin, such as a Stradivarius or a Guarneri, they need to be unimaginably well-off in terms of money too. A 1720 Strad named the Mendelssohn was bought on behalf of an anonymous player at Christie's in 1990 for £902,000 - the highest price ever publicly paid for an instrument. It is reckoned that some violins would fetch well over £1 million if they ever come onto the open market.

The craftmanship and technique needed to assemble the 70-odd parts of a violin have not really been bettered since the golden period between 1650 and 1750, when makers such as Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737, known as Stradivarius) Guiseppe Guarneri (1666-1710) Nicolo Amati (1596 -1684) and their families were all active in Cremona. Strads, Guarneris, Amatis and the like are certainly the best money can buy: players talk lovingly of the beautiful character and color of the sound, the evenness through the range; and the ease of playing: the music carries to the back of the hall with less effort. But the prices have become inflated because such violins are treated as objets d'art rather than working tools, and have become commodities bought and sold by investors.

Many makers have tried to emulate the conditions in which Stradivarius worked to produce violins like his. One maker in America used wood stored underwater to make the body - as he believes Stradivarius did in waterlogged Venice - and employed resin containing crushed amber. Tests reputedly showed a very favorable comparison of the tone produced by his violins with those of Strads.

But perhaps the reason why Stradivarius produced so many outstanding-quality violins is simpler. As Andreas Woywod, a violin maker and restorer at Biddulph's in London, points out, Stradivari had a very long working life: he was still making instruments when he died aged 94, having started 80 years earlier. So, with all the expertise he gained, there were almost bound to be some extraordinary examples out of the thousands of violins he must have made. Modern instruments are made in virtually the same way and with the same materials - but because wood is a natural substance, tiny variations in the grain and substance can make significant differences to the result - even two violins made from the same tree will sound slightly different.

Indeed, many modern violins come out very well in tests compared to their predecessors that cost up to a hundred times the price, and players talk of the recent renaissance in British violin making.

There have been a few changes to the violin over the years. As concert halls grew in size in the mid 1800s, string instruments needed to be brighter and project better, so the string tension was increased by tilting the fingerboard down. Gut strings were in use until 1700, when the G string was usually wound with wire to brighten the tone, and this century steel strings have become the norm.

But the differences between old and new instruments aren't really that great; the old Strads and Guarneris can be changed to the new shape with only minor modifications, and the player who wishes to play pre-1830 music in the authentic way has to adjust their playing style, rather than their technique.

There had been many outstanding violinists since Joachim opened up the repertoire in the last century. The "golden age" of playing between the 1930s and 1950s saw artists such as (in no particular order) Heifetz, Oistrakh, Szering, Ricci, Menuhin, Stern, Francescatti, Elman, Milstein, and Grumiaux. The traditional Russo-Jewish influence in violin playing has since been enriched by a variety of artists from other parts of the world. Clearly non-Semitic names such as Xue-Wei (from China) Kyung-Wha Chung (Korea) and Midori (Japan) are familiar to modern listeners. Chung and Midori, along with Lydia Mordkovitch, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Viktoria Mullova are continuing the female tradition of violinists set by virtuosos such as Jelly d'Aranyi, Ginette Neveu, Marie Hall and Ida Haendel.

Such is the breadth of the violin that it has even embraced "pop star" figures such as Nigel Kennedy in Britain and Joshua Bell in the US. Bell was promoted as the artist in the "world's first classical music pop video", playing Brahms's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, and Kennedy became a familiar figure in Britain through TV appearances ranging from performances of the Berg Violin Concerto to airing his football views on sports programs. Though many music listeners disapproved of his affected post-punk appearance and contrived sarf-landan accent, the general opinion among violin players of all ages was that the quality of his playing saved the situation from being distasteful hype, and if he could kindle excitement for the classics in a popular audience, even through a bit of media mischief, then so much the better. He gave up full-time classical playing and recording in 1992 to concentrate on personal projects in other musical areas, but hopefully he will be making more recordings.

After all, the violin is arguably the most expressive instrument, with a direct line to the heart as well as the head; a player needs in their personality the mixture of theory and experience of life, of the intellectual and the gypsy, to do what violin music does perhaps better than any other instrument: to express the ineffable.

The violin continues to win admirers all over the world. Today there are violin makers on every continent in the world. The number of violin players are in the millions. Master violin makers around the world are duplicating the craftmanship and quality like the old Italian masters of the Sixteenth Century. With almost 50 years of experience the makers of Primo Violins excel to those levels of excellence.