Plaque in memory of the work of Johann Sebastian Bach in Köthen. Photo by Ralf Lotys
Plaque in memory of the work of Johann Sebastian Bach in Köthen. Photo by Ralf Lotys
With antecedents shared by numerous cultures reaching back to humankind’s earliest and most primitive music, the modern violin appeared in a sleepy Northern Italian town in the mid-sixteenth century, creating one of the great miracles of Western art. In the opening Encounter of the summer, Escher String Quartet violinist Aaron Boyd traces the violin’s history from its hazy origins to its apogee at the hands of Antonio Stradivari, Antonio Vivaldi, and J. S. Bach, examining the creative synergy between the instrument’s earliest performers and composers.