World Fiddle Day – May 15, 2027

History of World Fiddle Day

The medieval fiddle began to show up in 10th-century Europe, deriving from an earlier instrument of similar build and purpose from the Byzantine era known as the ‘lira.’ The lira was a bowed string instrument of the Byzantine Empire and it is regarded as the ancestor of most European bowed instruments.

The first known recorded reference of the fiddle to the ancient bowed lira is in a piece of literature from 900 A.D. by the Persian geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih, where he cited the lira (‘lūrā’ in Arabic) as a typical instrument of the Byzantines and equivalent to the ‘rabāb,’ an early variant of the fiddle played in the Islamic Empires.

The lira became notoriously popular across Europe such that during the 11th and 12th centuries, there were European writers who used the terms ‘fiddle’ and ‘lira’ interchangeably in reference to bowed instruments.

Over the centuries, Europe continued to have two different types of fiddles of which one is more or less square-shaped, held in the arms, and became known as the ‘viola da braccio,’ which translates to ‘arm viol’ and later evolved into the violin. The other type of fiddle which is handled by placing the neck on the player’s shoulders, who holds the lower part of the instrument between their knees, was the ‘viola da gamba,’ translating to ‘leg viol.’ The elegant gamba was an important instrument during the Renaissance but would eventually be replaced by the louder (and originally less aristocratic) ‘viola da braccio’ family.