This is the edited text of the Klopsteg Lecture delivered to the Summer Meeting of the AAPT on August 13, 1992. It sketches the current state of knowledge about the violin—at least as seen by the author—in two parts, PhysicsoftheBowedString and TheViolinasaRadiatorofSound, punctuated by a number of ‘‘meditations’’ about the nature of scientific knowledge.  

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