In the days of Shakespeare there would be a fiddle player on stage. This was the fiddle player that the crowd would see. However, sometimes strings would break. So there would be a second person behind the curtain, offstage who played just as well as the person on stage. When the person on stage would break a string, he would continue on as if he were playing while the second fiddler would actually be what the crowd was hearing. No one ever saw or knew or applauded the second fiddler! So this is where that term came from.
The lead fiddle player in an orchestra received recognition and attention, so if you played second fiddle - the back-up, or supporting fiddle - you were out of the spotlight and received little attention. The phrase second fiddle is usually used when a person is feeling inferior, or when someone else is receiving all the credit while he/she is unrecognized.
It means to come in behind someone else, as if they were the first fiddle in the orchestra and you were the second one. The second fiddle in an orchestra supports the first one and plays harmony for them - someone who is playing second fiddle supports the other person and backs them up.
Second Fiddle - To an Old Guitar - was created in 1964-04.
A fiddle and a violin are the same physical instrument. The only difference is how the instrument is played. For example, Classical music is played on a violin. Country and folk music is played on a fiddle.
Nonsense. Unproductive use of time. Unnecessary, thought, speech, action, etc.
The viola is sometimes called a fiddle although whoever does is inaccurate, because the violin may be considered a fiddle if played in what i like to call "playing in a fiddle fashion. Please note that you can still fiddle on the viola since it is a technique but the viola itself is not called a fiddle.
It means to come in behind someone else, as if they were the first fiddle in the orchestra and you were the second one. The second fiddle in an orchestra supports the first one and plays harmony for them - someone who is playing second fiddle supports the other person and backs them up.
In Christopher Fry's The Lady's Not For Burning, Justice Tappercoom says "The whole thing's a lot of amphigourious, stultiloquential fiddle-faddle."
Second Fiddle - To an Old Guitar - was created in 1964-04.
Second Fiddle - 2011 was released on: USA: 4 August 2011 (video premiere)
The cast of Second Fiddle - 2013 includes: Samuel Vassallo as Bass Boy
The cast of Second Fiddle - 1932 includes: Leo Carrillo Albert Conti
Second Fiddle - 1939 is rated/received certificates of: Finland:S Sweden:Btl USA:Approved (PCA #5217)
Boone - 1983 Second Fiddle 1-5 was released on: USA: 1983
Second Fiddle - 2013 was released on: USA: 30 March 2013 (Los Angeles Student Media Festival)
Second Fiddle - 1923 was released on: USA: 14 January 1923 USA: 10 March 2001 (Cinefest)
It depends how the statement is intended.If you want a straight literal translation, i.e. a person is playing the second fiddle (as opposed to the first or third fiddle that are there), He's playing second fiddle is translated "il joue second violon" in French.If you wish to translate the English idiom "playing second fiddle" referring to having a subordinate position to some leader, there is no direct French translation. You can say "jouer un rôlesecondaire" or "jouer les seconds rôles" for the same meaning.
Hawaiian Eye - 1959 Second Fiddle 1-25 was released on: USA: 23 March 1960