Fiddle (redirected from played second fiddle)

fiddle

1. a violin played as a folk instrument

2. Nautical a small railing around the top of a table to prevent objects from falling off it in bad weather

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Fiddle 

a stringed instrument, played with a bow. The fiddle was used from the eighth to the mid-14th century in Western Europe by itinerant musicians. In German-speaking countries the term “Fiedel” is analogous to the “vielle” or “viola” of Romance languages. The fiddle was spade-shaped, pear-shaped, or guitar-shaped, the last-mentioned being the classic type. Initially, its body had two flat sounding boards, square upper bouts, two semicircular soundholes, a fingerboard without frets, and a flat pegbox with perpendicularly placed tuning pegs. The fiddle had one to five strings, which were tuned in fourths or fifths (seeSTRINGED INSTRUMENT, BOWED).

REFERENCE

Struve, B. A. Protsess formirovaniia viol i skripok. Moscow, 1959. Pages 37–55.