The Stroh violin, also called the Stroviol, is a stringed musical instrument that uses a metal resonator and horn attached to its body to make the sound louder. The name Stroviol refers to a violin, but other instruments, such as the viola, cello, double bass, ukulele, mandolin, and guitar, have also been changed to include the amplification device. Johannes Matthias Augustus Stroh, an electrical engineer from Frankfurt, created the instrument in London in 1899.

Description

The Stroh violin has a horn at the end of the fingerboard to help send the sound to an audience or a recording horn. It also often has a smaller horn near the performer’s ear so they can hear the music more clearly.

The Stroh violin is much louder than a standard wooden violin. Its sound travels in a specific direction, which made it especially helpful during early sound recordings. Wooden violins did not record well using early sound recording methods, but the Stroh violin improved this by creating a fuller and louder sound.

Stroh violins were often used in music studios. However, they became less common after record companies began using new microphone technology in the second half of the 1920s.

Invention

On 4 May 1899, Stroh applied for a UK patent, GB9418, titled "Improvements in Violins and other Stringed Instruments." This patent was accepted on 24 March 1900. It described the use of a flat metal diaphragm (other materials were also mentioned) in the voice-box (reproducer) of a violin to help make the sound louder. On 16 February 1901, he applied for a second UK patent, GB3393, titled "Improvements in the Diaphragms of Phonographs, Musical Instruments, and analogous Sound-producing, Recording and Transmitting Contrivances." This patent was accepted on 14 December 1901. It expanded the first idea by using a conical resonator with corrugations at its edge, creating a more "rigid" diaphragm. Because he did not register his inventions in the USA, John Dopyera and Geo Beauchamp later obtained US patents for the tricone and single cone designs used in National brand instruments.

Usage

The Stroh violin was a costly instrument. In 1911, London dealers Barnes & Mullins sold it for nine guineas (£9.45, worth about $37.80) or twelve guineas (£12.60/$50.40). At that time, a typical factory-made violin could be purchased for two guineas. The Stroh violin was noted for being especially well-suited for performances in small theaters and music halls.

In the 1920s, Julio de Caro, a famous Tango orchestra director and violinist from Buenos Aires, used the Stroh violin during his live performances. Locals in Buenos Aires referred to it as "violín-corneta" (cornet violin).

The Stroh violin appears in Uirapuru, a musical composition (1917–1934) by Heitor Villa-Lobos.

Many musicians continue to use the Stroh violin for its unique sound. These include Tom Waits, Carla Kihlstedt, Thomas Newman, Bat for Lashes, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, and Eric Gorfain. Shakira included a Stroh violin in her 2010/11 The Sun Comes Out World Tour, with multi-instrumentalist Una Palliser playing it on some songs. Palliser also played the Stroh violin on a Tom Hickox album and during live performances with Bitter Ruin. Pinky Weitzman plays the Stroh violin with various New York experimental ensembles, including her own project (Not Waving but Drowning), as well as with Flare, LD & the New Criticism, and in the onstage ensemble for Stephin Merritt’s My Life as a Fairy Tale. Andy Stein of Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks Orchestra regularly plays the Stroh violin. The band They Might Be Giants used a Stroh violin in their song "I Can Hear You," recorded on a wax cylinder at the Edison Laboratory.

Composer Mauricio Kagel used reconstructed Stroh violins, violas, cellos, and double-basses in his work 1898 (composed 1972–1973). Kagel discovered a photograph from 1910 showing a small instrumental group in a recording studio that included three Stroh violins. Inspired by the instrument, he searched for an example and worked with the Darmstadt violin maker Franz-Ernst Peschke to create a copy of the instrument. They adapted the pickup system so that existing violin bodies could be used as a base. In 1973, Kagel received a Stroh cello from Karl Schlamminger, who had purchased it from a Baghdad music dealer in 1920. Other traditional instruments and a choir of children’s voices were also used in the work.

Similar designs

Other makers created similar designs, such as Howson, which made brass-horned instruments that played music. These included single-stringed phonofiddles and four-stringed phono ukuleles. The violinophone was made in Prague in the early 1900s. This instrument has a thin sheet placed vertically inside a violin-shaped body under the bridge. A tube carries the sound from the sheet to a horn that extends from the violin and wraps around the player’s shoulder. This instrument amplifies sound through metal parts, such as a resonator and horns, instead of a wooden sound box like on a regular violin.

In the 1920s, Willy Tiebel in Markneukirchen, Germany, made copies of the Stroh violin. The Stroh violin is closely related to other horned violins that use a mica sheet to help create sound, known as phonofiddles. Today, many types of horn-violin instruments exist, especially in the Balkans.

Romanian horn-violin

The Romanian horn-violin is similar to the Stroh violin. It was made during the 20th century. It has the same length as the Stroh violin, but its horn is narrower and makes the sound more focused. The instrument's design uses a part made of tungsten from a gramophone.

The vibrations from the strings and bridge travel through a thin rod to the membrane of the gramophone part. The membrane changes these vibrations into sound waves, which are made louder by the horn or beaker. The horn-violin is harder to play than a regular violin because the bow moves less easily across the strings, and the instrument's weight is not balanced evenly. This causes discomfort when holding it.

The instrument is still used in Romanian folk music for playing horas and doinas. It blends well with the sound of the pan-flute. It is usually played only sometimes because of its unique tone. Instruments like the Stroh violin and other horn-violins are rare in orchestras and remain mostly interesting curiosities.

The horn-violin is especially used in the folk music of the Bihor region in Romania. Famous musicians who play this style include fiddler Gheorghe Rada, singers Florica Bradu, Florica Ungur, Florica Duma, Leontin Ciucur, Cornel Borza, Vasile Iova, Maria Haiduc, Viorica Flintașu, and well-known folk ensembles Crișana or Rapsozii Zarandului.

• Romanian horn-violin and its bow
• The diaphragm of an old gramophone acts as the part that receives vibrations and turns them into sound waves in the horn.