Lori Watson plays Tain in the Rain on a Stroh violin (MIMEd 4533) from c1919.

Описание: The Stroh violin was developed at the dawn of the recording age by Augustus Stroh (1828–1914). Born in Frankfurt, Germany and settling in London in 1851, Stroh was an electrical engineer who specialised in acoustics and the telegraph. This strange-looking instrument, which Stroh developed between 1899 and 1901, was specifically designed so that the phonograph, the recording technology of the day, would be able to pick up the sound of the violin. Stroh’s violin does not have a traditional wooden body. Instead, the instrument used a round, flexible metal membrane as a resonator and a large aluminium horn to project the sound directly into the recording horn of the phonograph. The second, smaller horn allowed the musician to hear their own performance better. These instruments were quickly adopted in recording studios and a whole violin family was developed, as were mandolins, guitars and banjos. The instruments became obsolete in the second half of the 1920s with the adoption of electric microphone recording, but they continue to be popular with jazz and folk musicians today.

Lori Watson is an award-winning performer and Lecturer in Scottish Ethnology, part of the Celtic and Scottish Studies Department at The University of Edinburgh. She has become a leading interpreter of Scottish folk music and Scots song and her skills as a performer, composer, researcher and educator are widely recognised. Learn more at http://loriwatson.net/ & www.facebook.com/traditionalartsperformance