Are violin strings really made out of "catgut"?

looney_tunes

For many years, but not commonly now. But it doesn't come from cats! "Catgut is a type of cord that is prepared from the natural fibre in the walls of animal intestines. Usually sheep or goat intestines are used, but it is occasionally made from the intestines of a hog, horse, mule, pig or donkey. Although one could conceivably prepare catgut from cat intestines, the name neither implies nor derives from any association with cats. ... The word catgut may have been an abbreviation of the word "cattlegut". Alternatively, it may have derived by folk etymology from kitgut or kitstring -- the word kit, meaning fiddle, having at some point been confused with the word kit for little cat. According to legend, string makers of the 17th century deliberately misled people to believe that the strings were made of cat intestines in order to protect their industry, as any association with cats was superstitiously believed to be extremely bad luck, and to be avoided at all cost. ... For a long time, catgut was the most common material for the strings of harps, lutes, violins, and violas, as well as other stringed musical instruments, although most musical instruments produced today use strings with cores made of other materials, generally steel or synthetic. Gut strings are the natural choice for many classical and baroque string players, and catgut strings are still most commonly preferred in concert-tension pedal/grand and some lever harps because they give a richer, darker sound as well as withstanding high tension within low alto, tenor and high-bass ranges." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catgut Jul 01 10, 2:51 AM