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 is another way to refer to a violin, but other instruments, such as the viola, cello, double bass, ukulele, mandolin, and guitar, have also been changed to include this amplification device. Johannes Matthias Augustus Stroh, an engineer from Frankfurt, invented the instrument in London in 1899.

Description

The Stroh violin has a horn at the end of the fingerboard to send sound to an audience or a recording device. It also often has a smaller horn that the performer places near their ear to hear the music more clearly.

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

Stroh violins were widely used in recording studios. However, they became less common after record companies began using electric microphones for recordings in the late 1920s.

Invention

On May 4, 1899, Stroh applied for a UK patent numbered GB9418, titled "Improvements in Violins and other Stringed Instruments." This patent was accepted on March 24, 1900. It described the use of a flat metal diaphragm (other materials were also mentioned) in the voice-box (reproducer) of a violin to mechanically amplify the sound. On February 16, 1901, he applied for a second UK patent, numbered GB3393, titled "Improvements in the Diaphragms of Phonographs, Musical Instruments, and analogous Sound-producing, Recording and Transmitting Contrivances." This patent was accepted on December 14, 1901. It expanded the first idea by introducing a conical resonator with corrugations at its edge, creating a more "rigid" diaphragm. His failure to register these inventions in the USA allowed John Dopyera and Geo Beauchamp to later obtain 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, equal to $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 as 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 referred to it as "violín-corneta" (cornet violin).

A Stroh violin was used in Uirapuru, a musical composition (1917–1934) by Heitor Villa-Lobos.

Many musicians, including Tom Waits, Carla Kihlstedt, Thomas Newman, Bat for Lashes, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, and Eric Gorfain, continue to use the Stroh violin for its unique sound. 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 performed the Stroh violin on a Tom Hickox album and with the band Bitter Ruin. Pinky Weitzman plays the Stroh violin for various New York experimental ensembles, including her own project (Not Waving but Drowning), as well as 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 image, he searched for an example of the instrument. He created a copy of the pictured Stroh violin with the help of violin maker Franz-Ernst Peschke from Darmstadt, modifying the pickup system to use existing violin bodies as a base. In 1973, Kagel received a Stroh cello from Karl Schlamminger, who had purchased it from a Baghdad music dealer in 1920. The work also includes other traditional instruments and a choir of children’s voices.

Similar designs

Other makers created similar designs, such as Howson, which made brass-horned phono instruments, including single-stringed phonofiddles and four-stringed phono ukuleles. The violinophone was made in Prague in the early 20th century. This instrument has a thin sheet mounted vertically inside a violin body under the bridge. Sound travels through a tube to a horn that extends from the violin and wraps around the shoulder. The violinophone uses metal parts to amplify sound instead of a wooden sound box found on a standard violin.

Willy Tiebel in Markneukirchen, Germany, made copies of the Stroh violin in the 1920s. The Stroh violin is closely related to other horned violins that use a thin sheet that vibrates, known as phonofiddles. Today, many types of horn-violins 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 travel in a specific direction. The instrument’s design uses a part of a gramophone made of tungsten.

The vibrations from the strings and bridge move through a thin rod to a special membrane inside the gramophone part. This membrane changes the vibrations into sound waves, which are then made louder by the horn or beaker. The horn-violin is harder to play than a regular violin because the bow does not move as easily on 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 to play songs called horas and doinas. It works well with the sound of the pan-flute. It is not used often because its tone is not as common. Instruments like the Stroh violin and other horn-violins are rare in orchestras and are mostly seen as curiosities.

The horn-violin is especially used in the Bihor region of 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 groups like 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.