Musical styles

Classical music

Since the Baroque era, the violin has been one of the most important of all instruments in classical music, for several reasons. The tone of the violin stands out above other instruments, making it appropriate for playing a melody line. In the hands of a good player, the violin is extremely agile, and can execute rapid and difficult sequences of notes.
Violins make up a large part of an orchestra, and are usually divided into two sections, known as the first and second violins. Composers often assign the melody to the first violins, while second violins play harmony, accompaniment patterns or the melody an octave lower than the first violins. A string quartet similarly has parts for first and second violins, as well as a viola part, and a bass instrument, such as the cello or, rarely, the double bass.
Continuous pitch instruments such as violin family instruments have the ability to play any pitch within their range, which, in the hands of great players, leads to wonderful range of harmonic colouring, making it possible for the instruments to be very expressive.[neutrality disputed] This ability is at its finest in the string quartet literature[neutrality disputed] where seamless changes from key to key and chord to chord create a kind of perfect harmonic world where even thirds ring with full resonance.[dubious – discuss].

Jazz

The earliest references to jazz performance using the violin as a solo instrument are documented during the first decades of the 20th century. The first great jazz violinist was Joe Venuti who is best known for his work with guitarist Eddie Lang during the 1920s. Since that time there have been many superb improvising violinists including Stéphane Grappelli, Stuff Smith, Regina Carter, Johnny Frigo, John Blake and Jean-Luc Ponty. While not primarily jazz violinists, Darol Anger and Mark O'Connor have spent significant parts of their careers playing jazz.
Violins also appear in ensembles supplying orchestral backgrounds to many jazz recordings.

Popular music

Up to the 1970s, most types of popular music used bowed strings. The hugely popular Motown recordings of the 1960s and 1970s relied heavily on strings as part of their trademark texture. Earlier genres of pop music, at least those separate from the rock and roll movement, tended to make use of fairly traditional orchestras, sometimes large ones; examples include the American "Crooners" such as Bing Crosby. This carried through into 1970s disco music such as "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor and "Love's Theme" by Love Unlimited Orchestra.
The rise of electronically created music in the 1980s saw a decline in their use, as synthesized string sections took their place. However, while the violin has very little usage in rock music, it has some history in progressive rock (e.g. The Electric Light Orchestra, King Crimson, Kansas) and has a stronger place in modern fusion bands, notably The Corrs. The fiddle has also always been a part of British folk-rock music, as exemplified by the likes of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span.
The popularity of crossover music beginning in the last years of the 20th century has brought the violin back into the popular music arena, with both electric and acoustic violins being used by popular bands. Dave Matthews Band features violinist Boyd Tinsley. The Flock featured violinist Jerry Goodman who later joined the jazz-rock fusion band, The Mahavishnu Orchestra. Yellowcard featured the instrument with a role equal to the guitar in many of their songs. Smashing Pumpkins are well-known for their violin-based sections. James' Saul Davies, who is also a guitarist, was enlisted by the band as a violinist. For their first three albums and related singles, the British group No-Man made extensive use of electric and acoustic solo violin as played by band member Ben Coleman (who played violin exclusively).
Independent artists such as Owen Pallett and Andrew Bird have also spurred increased interest in the instrument. Indie bands have often embraced new and unusual arrangements, allowing them more freedom to feature the violin than their mainstream brethren. It has been used in the post-rock genre by bands such as Sigur Rós, Zox, Broken Social Scene, and A Silver Mt. Zion.

The electric violin has even been used by bands like The Crüxshadows within the context of keyboard based music. Indian and Arabic pop music is filled with the sound of violins, both soloists and ensembles.

Indian classical music

The violin is a very important part of South Indian classical music (Karnatic music). It is believed to have been introduced to the South Indian tradition by Baluswamy Dikshitar. Though primarily used as an accompaniment instrument, the violin has become popular as a solo instrument in the orchestration. Popular film composers such as Ilaiyaraaja have used the violin extensively in film music scoring. This type of music was often played on a harmonic scale.

Folk music and fiddling

Like many other instruments used in classical music, the violin descends from remote ancestors that were used for folk music. Following a stage of intensive development in the late Renaissance, largely in Italy, the violin had improved (in volume, tone, and agility), to the point that it not only became a very important instrument in art music, but proved highly appealing to folk musicians as well, ultimately spreading very widely, sometimes displacing earlier bowed instruments. Ethnomusicologists have observed its widespread use in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
In many traditions of folk music, the tunes are not written but are memorized by successive generations of musicians and passed on, in what is known as the oral tradition.