LinuxMusicians

hello,

The complete list of violins shape type of instruments in an orchsetra consist of the following?

violon-cello
double-bass
cello
violin
viola

Is this all? Why violin and viola look exactly the same? They only differ in their playing range.

thanks.

from high to low, the string group in the orchestra or string-quartet (plus bass)

Violin
Second Violin
Viola
Cello
Doublebass / Contrabass

Violin, Viola and Cello look the same, only the size is different.
Naturally 1st and 2nd violin are the same instruments, the viola is bigger (no standard size. There are slightly bigger ones than violins and real bigger ones for bigger humans because they get difficult to hold on your shoulder). Cello is the largest one so it has to be played in the upright position.

Doublebass is not a violin-type instrument but a Viola da Gamba type, which has different strings, tuning and is built differently. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viol

Wikipedia is a very good and accurate source for these basic instrument questions. There are books about instruments but they are mostly obsolete. (I don't mean books about instrumentation, which is a guide how to use and to combine them).

Small violin
Violin
Big violin
Really big violin
Huge violin

There's also octobass.