THEHISTORY OF MUSIC LIBRARY |
THE VIOLIN ITS FAMOUS MAKERS AND THEIR IMITATORS BY GEORGE HART
CONTENTS
SECTION
I.—THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE VIOLIN.
SECTION II.—THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE VIOLIN. ITALIAN AND OTHER STRINGS. SECTION
III.—THE ITALIAN SCHOOL. THE ITALIAN VARNISH. THE ITALIAN
MAKERS .
SECTION
IV.—THE FRENCH SCHOOL AND MAKERS.
SECTION
V.—THE GERMAN SCHOOL AND MAKERS
SECTION
VI.—THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND MAKERS
SECTION
VII.—THE VIOLIN AND ITS VOTARIES. SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF
THE VIOLIN
SECTION
VIII.—ANECDOTES AND MISCELLANEA CONNECTED WITH THE VIOLIN.
"To perfect that wonder of travel—the locomotive—has perhaps not required the expenditure of more mental strength and application, than to perfect that wonder of music—the Violin." W. E. GLADSTONE.
SECTION I The Early History of the Violin 1. The early history of the Violin
is involved in obscurity, and in consequence, much diversity of
opinion exists with regard to it. The chief object of the writer
of these pages is to throw light upon the instrument in its perfected
state. It is, therefore, unnecessary to enter at great length upon
the vexed question of its origin. The increased research attendant
upon the development of musical history generally could hardly fail
to discover facts of more or less importance relative to the origin
of instruments played with a bow; but although our knowledge in
this direction is both deeper and wider, the light shed upon the
subject has not served to dissipate the darkness attending it. Certain
parts have been illumined, and conclusions of more or less worth
have been drawn therefrom; for the rest, all remains more hopelessly
obscured and doubtful than the identity of the "Man in the
Iron Mask" or the writer of the "Letters of Junius." It is satisfactory to know that
the most valuable and interesting part of our subject is comparatively
free from that doubt and tradition which necessarily attaches to
the portion belonging to the Dark or Middle Ages. When we reflect
that Music—as we understand it—is a modern art, and that all instruments
of the Viol and Fiddle type, as far as the end of the fifteenth
century, were rude if not barbarous, it can scarcely excite surprise
that our interest should with difficulty be awakened in subtle questions
pertaining to the archæology of bowed instruments. The views taken of the early
history of the leading instrument have not been more multiform than
remote. The Violin has been made to figure in history sacred and
profane, and in lore classic and barbaric. That an instrument which
is at once the most perfect and the most difficult, and withal the
most beautiful and the most strangely interesting, should have been
thus glorified, hardly admits of wonder. Enthusiasm is a noble passion,
when tempered with reason. It cannot be said, however, that the
necessity of this qualification has been invariably recognised by
enthusiastic inquirers into the history of instruments played with
a bow. We have a curious instance of its non-recognition in a treatise
on the Viol, written by a distinguished old French Violist named
Jean Rousseau. The author, bent upon going to the root of his subject,
begins with the Creation, and speaks of Adam as a Violist. Perhaps
Rousseau based his belief in the existence of Fiddling at this early
period of the world's history on the words "and his brother's
name was Jubal; from him descended the Flute players and Fiddlers,"
as rendered by Luther. The parts Orpheus and Apollo
have been made to play in infantile Fiddle history have necessarily
been dependent upon the licence and the imagination of the sculptor
and the medallist. Inferences of antiquity, however, have been drawn
from such representations. Tracings of a bow among the sculpture
of the ancients have been sought for in vain: no piece is known
upon which a bow is distinguishable. A century since, an important
discovery was thought to have been made by musical antiquarians
in the Grand Duke's Tribuna at Florence, wherein was a small figure
of Apollo playing on a kind of Violin with something of the nature
of a bow. Inquiry, however, made it clear that the figure belonged
to modern art. Orpheus has been represented holding a Violin in
one hand and a bow in the other; inquiry again showed that the Violin
and the bow were added by the restorer of the statue. The views held by musical historians
regarding the origin of the Violin may be described by the terms
Asiatic and Scandinavian. The Eastern view, it need scarcely be
said, is the most prolonged, exceeding some five thousand years
along the vista of time, where little else is discoverable but what
is visionary, mythical, and unsubstantial. It is related—traditionally
of course—that some three thousand years before our era there lived
a King of Ceylon named Ravanon, who invented a four-stringed instrument
played with a bow, and which was named after the inventor "the
Ravanastron." If it were possible to identify the instrument
of that name, now known to the Hindoos, as identical with that of
King Ravanon—as M. Sonnerat declares it to be—the Eastern view of
our subject would be singularly clear and defined. A declaration,
however, resting on tradition, necessarily makes the gathering of
evidence in support of it a task both dubious and difficult. It is said that Sanscrit scholars
have met with names for the bow in Sanscrit writings dating back
nearly two thousand years. If this information could be supplemented
by reliable monumental evidence of the existence of a bow of some
rude kind among the nations of the East about the commencement of
the Christian era, its value would necessarily be complete. In the
absence of such evidence we are left in doubt as to what was intended
to be understood by the reported references to a bow in ancient
Sanscrit literature. The difficulty of understanding what Greek
and Roman authors meant, in reference to the same subject, must
be greatly intensified in the works of ancient Eastern writers. The inquiry is simplified from
the point of view of a Violinist if we reject all bow-progenitors
but those which have been strung with fibre, silk, hair, or other material,
the properties of which would permit of the production of sustained
sounds. Implements less developed belong to a separate order of
sound-producing contrivances, namely plectra, and may be described
as permitting strumming by striking in place of twanging or twitching
the strings. The imperfect knowledge we have of instruments of the
Fiddle kind in Europe, belonging to a period many centuries later
than that we are now considering, points to their having been struck
or strummed, and not bowed with a view to the sounds being sustained. The oldest known representation
of a contrivance or instrument upon which a string is stretched
with a peg to adjust its tension, is probably that described by
Dr. Burney as having been seen by him at Rome on an Egyptian obelisk.
In a notice of Claudius Ptolemeus, an Egyptian, who wrote upon harmonic
sounds about the middle of the second century, we have an illustration
of an instrument of a similar character to that found on the obelisk
above noticed. In all probability neither of these contrivances
was intended to be used as a musical instrument further than for
scientific purposes, as a means of testing the tension of strings
and the division of the scale: in short, they were monochords and
dichords. In following the Eastern branch
of our subject, it is necessary to refer to the suggested Arabian
origin of the Ribeca of the Italians and the Rebec of the French—a
little bowed instrument, shaped like the half of a pear, and having
therefore something of the character of the mandoline. We have early
mention of this particular view of Violin history among the valuable
and interesting manuscript notes of Sir John Hawkins. The author
states that the Rebab was taken to Spain by the Moors, "from
whence it passed to Italy, and obtained the appellation of Ribeca."
He also refers to a work entitled "Shaw's Travels," in
which mention is made of the Rebeb or Rebab as an instrument common
in the East in the eighteenth century. It is, however, upon turning
to the dissertation on the invention and improvement of stringed
instruments by John Gunn, published in 1793, that we first find
a lucid account of Eastern influence in connection with bowed instruments.
The author refers to the monochord as the invention of the Arabians:
he then says, "The early acquaintance which it is probable
the Egyptians had of the science and practice of music, was the
source whence the Arabians might derive their knowledge. There is
a remarkable correspondence between the dichord of the Egyptians
and an instrument of the like number of strings of the Arabians.
This instrument was played with a bow, and was probably introduced
into Europe by the Arabians of Spain, and well known from the Middle
Ages down to the last century by the name of the Rebec; it had probably,
on its first introduction, only two strings, as it still has among
the Moors, and soon after had the number increased to three. Dr.
Shaw, who had seen it, calls it a Violin with three strings, which
is played on with a bow, and called by the Moors Rebebb." In
passing it may be said that the translators of the Bible, historians,
painters, and poets have in many instances contributed greatly to
the confusion attending the history of bowed instruments from their
inability to correctly name and depict corded instruments. About
a century after the publication of Dr. Shaw's "Travels in the
East," appeared Lane's "Modern Egypt," wherein reference
is made to an instrument named Rebab. It is described as being made
partly of parchment, and mounted with one or two strings, played
on with a bow. These instruments appear to be identical. We do not
usually look to the East for progressiveness, and would therefore
not expect to discover much difference between a Rebab of the nineteenth
century and one of the eighth century. In taking this view we may
therefore assume that the existing Rebab has nearly all in common
with its Eastern namesake of the eighth century. The rude and gross
character of the instrument is remarkable, and renders any connection
between it and the Rebec of Europe in the Middle Ages somewhat difficult
to realise. Having no certain knowledge of the form of the ancient
Rebab, our views regarding its connection with the Rebec must necessarily
be speculative, and mainly dependent upon the etymological thread
which is drawn between the words Rebec and Rebab. It is worthy of
notice in relation to the opinion held by Sir John Hawkins and many
other musical historians as to a bowed instrument of the Fiddle
kind having been introduced into Spain from the East in the eighth
century, that we possess no certain evidence of bowed instrument
cultivation in Spain between the eighth and twelfth centuries, whilst
we have proof of the use of bowed instruments both in Germany and
in England within that period. The evidence we have of the use of
a description of Viol at that time, from the carvings on the Portico
della Gloria of the Church of Santiago da Compostella, does not
carry conviction that a bow was used, since none is represented. That the Spanish were influenced
by their Moorish conquerors with regard to music, minstrelsy, and
dancing is certain. The origin of such movements as the Saraband,
the Morisca (or Morris dance), and the Chaconne, has been traced
to the East. That such dances should have been accompanied by instruments
of Eastern origin of the Lute kind may be assumed. Both in Spain
and southern France accompanying instruments struck with plectra
or twanged with the fingers were adopted at a very early period,
and the people of those parts attained to a high state of proficiency—so
much so indeed as to have rendered the cultivation of this description
of music a national characteristic with them in the use of such
instruments. The usage of the bow, however, does not appear to have
been cultivated sufficiently, if at all, to leave its traces in
history, until about the twelfth century, when the Troubadours sought
the aid of the Trouvères and Jongleurs. The Trouvères were minstrel
poets belonging to Northern France. The Jongleurs entertained their
patrons with jests and arch sayings, and were often joined by the
Gigeours of Germany, to accompany their lays with their Geigen and
kindred instruments. The foregoing remarks point to
the absence of reliable evidence of the existence of a bow—worthy
of the name from the point of view of a Violinist—among the Asiatic
nations in the early centuries of our era. The Ravanastron of India,
the Rebab of Arabia, and other stringed instruments used by the
Persians and the Chinese, hardly admit of being looked upon as links
in the genealogical Fiddle chain. Whatever the shape and use of
ancient Eastern instruments—having something in common with the
European Violin—may have been, the slight apparent affinity is accidental,
and no real relationship exists between the European and the Asiatic
Fiddle. 2. The survey of the early history
of bowed instruments in the North of Europe necessarily discovers
a broader field of ostensible data than is possible to be found
in the Asiatic view of the subject. Tradition, accompanied by its
attendant uncertainties, gives place to facts recorded in illuminated
manuscripts of the Middle Ages, on sculptured stone, on engraved
brasses, in the lay of the minstrel, in the song of the poet, and,
finally, in the works of the painter and of the musician. The information
obtainable from these several sources is often of the slightest
kind, and admits of little else than a rude historical outline being
drawn. The varied character of the evidence, however, serves in
some instances to counterbalance the lack of detail. Enquiry into the history of any
science seldom fails to make us acquainted with men whose views
and opinions were formulated prior to the production of well-digested
evidence in favour of their premises—a condition of things resulting
oftentimes in their judgments being post-dated, and their names
in consequence severed from them; in short— "Elder times have worn the
same, Though new ones get the name." In relation to our subject, the
Hon. Roger North, Attorney-General to King James the Second, occupies
a position of the kind described. In his work entitled "Memoirs
of Music," written in the early part of the eighteenth century,
we have the ingenious author's views as to the source from whence
sprung the progenitor of the long line of Fiddle and Viol. His treatment
of the subject displays a truly commendable amount of skill and
judgment, and more so when we consider the limited sources of information
at his disposal in comparison with those at the service of subsequent
musical authors. He says, "There is no hint where the Viol
kind came first in use." "But as to the invention which
is so perfectly novel as not to have been heard of before Augustulus,
the last of the Roman Emperors, I cannot but esteem it perfectly
Gothic." "I suppose that at first it was like its native
country, rude and gross, and at the early importation it was of
the lesser kind which they called Viola da Bracchia, and since the
Violin." He concludes by expressing his belief that the Hebrews
did not sound their "lutes and guitars with the scratch of
an horse-tail bow." These opinions of Roger North are for the
most part identical with those held by well-known promoters of the
Northern view of our subject. About fifty years
later than the date of North's "Memoirs of Music" appeared
the famous work of Martinus Gerbertus, entitled, "De Cantu
et Musicâ Sacrâ." Among the valuable manuscripts referred to
by the author is one which supplies the earliest known representation
of a bow instrument of the Fiddle kind, and which may be accepted
as a description of German Fiddle. The date of this particular manuscript
has been ascribed by M. Fétis to the ninth century. It may possibly
have belonged to an earlier period. The instrument was described
in the manuscript of St. Blasius as a Lyre. Gerbertus rightly observes
that it has only one string, and is more like a Cheli. He quotes
writers of different epochs relative to the
meaning of the word Lyre as used by them, the tendency of his remarks
apparently being to establish a connection between the German Fiddle
named a Lyre in the manuscript and the Rebec. The representation
we have of the instrument certainly conveys the idea of its having
been a progenitor of the Rebec of the French, the Ribeca of the
Italians, and the Fithele and the Geige of the Germans. The mention
of an instrument of the kind in a German manuscript, discovered
in an ancient German monastery, together with the record being dated
by Gerbertus as not far removed from the sixth century, lends much
weight to the opinion of Roger North with regard to the part played
by the Teutonic race in the early history of bowed instruments.
It is now necessary to refer
to the well-known representation of a Saxon Fiddle contained in
the Cottonian manuscripts in the British Museum. Strutt, in his
"Sports and Pastimes," supplies us with a copy of the
illustration, which is that of a juggler throwing balls and knives
to the accompaniment of an instrument of the Fiddle kind. Strutt
ascribes the manuscript to the tenth century. The form of this Fiddle
is in advance of that supplied in the St. Blasius manuscript, there
being four strings, but there is no bridge indicated, and, had there
been, it would not have evidenced a Saxon knowledge of tuning the
strings to given intervals, and playing upon each string. The little
light which has been thrown on the condition of instrumental music
at the time renders it doubtful whether any bowed instrument was
used, other than for the purpose of rendering a rude extemporaneous
accompaniment to the voice or the dance. The chief authorities upon ancient
minstrelsy agree that the Saxon's love of music was cultivated for
centuries with ardour by his Saxon ancestors; it would therefore
be reasonable to believe that his knowledge of rude Fiddles was
derived from the land of his forefathers, and not from any instrument
he discovered in Britain. The similarity of the
instrument of the St. Blasius manuscript and of that in the hands
of the Saxon Gleeman in the Cottonian manuscript is evidence of
Teutonic origin. It is, moreover, strengthened by the fact of the
use of the word Fithele by the Anglo-Saxons for nearly two centuries
after the Norman Conquest, which name was adopted with but little
variation by the whole of the Teutonic race. In Germany the word
was used as late as the twelfth century. About this period the word
Geige appears to have been applied in Germany to designate a Fiddle.
It is described as an improved Rebec, and strung with three strings.
The use of the word Geige in Germany instead of Fithele in the twelfth
century, is worthy of attention as bearing upon Teutonic origin.
The earliest information we have of the use of the Geige in France
is in connection with the Jongleurs. The Geige was popular in France
until the fifteenth century, when, as M. Lacroix says, it disappeared,
leaving its name "as the designation of a joyous dance, which
for a considerable period was enlivened by the sound of the instrument."
The word Geige, I am inclined to think, is important as furnishing
evidence of historical value in relation to the ancestry of the
Violin. Lacroix believes that Germany created the Geige; other authorities
are of opinion that it originated among the people of Provence.
The former view is supported by the strongest evidence. Some inquirers
derive the word Geige from the French and Italian words for leg
of mutton. Wigand, however, supposes it to be derived from the old
northern word Geiga, meaning trembling, or from Gigel,
to quiver. If we consider the nature and character of the instrument,
this view of the derivation of the word appears both ingenious and
correct. Roger North shrewdly conjectured that the "rude and
gross" Gothic Fiddle "used to stir up the vulgar to dancing,
or perhaps to solemnise their idolatrous sacrifices." In the
Dark Ages dancing may have been regarded as bi-pedal trembling.
I have remarked in another place, "In the early ages of mankind
dancing or jigging must have been done to the sound of the voice,
next to that of the pipe, and, when the bow was discovered, to that
of a stringed instrument which was named the Geige from its primary
association with dancing." The evidence we have of the use
to which the leading instrument was put in the days of its adolescence
is indicative of its having grown up among dancers, jugglers, and
buffoons. In Germany its players gave fame and name to a distinct
class of itinerant minstrels named the Gigeours, who were often
associated with the Jongleurs in their perambulations. In France,
from the days of the Jongleurs to those of Henry IV., and later
to those of Louis XIV., the instrument was wedded to the dance.
In England to the time of Charles II. it was in the hands of the
Fiddler, who accompanied the jig, the hornpipe, the round, and the
North Country frisk. In pursuing the course of our
subject, our inquiries have hitherto been mainly concerned with
the leading instrument in a barbarous and semi-barbarous state.
We now reach what may be termed the transition stage of the question.
The information relative to the appearance of the Geige, or Violin
tuned in fifths, is of the slenderest kind. To obtain evidence of
much worth it is necessary to reflect upon the condition of instrumental
music about the sixteenth century, together with the form and character
of bowed instruments belonging to the same period. The manners and
customs of peoples have also to be considered. We have hitherto
found the Geige or Fiddle among minstrels and itinerant musicians
in countries where music and minstrelsy had become an institution
with the people. The instrument was rude and gross, and its office
was to play extemporaneous accompaniments, with considerable licence.
At length domestic music began to be zealously cultivated in Germany
and the Low Countries, to which important circumstance the rapid
development of stringed instruments is traceable. Viols of various
kinds supported the voices, and an important manufacture of such
instruments took root in Nuremberg and other German cities. In following
the history of the Madrigal much light is thrown upon that of the
Viol, to which it is necessary to give attention in order to follow
in some degree the development of the Violin. The condition of music in Italy
previous to the time when the father of the Madrigal, Adrian Willaert,
followed in the steps of his countrymen and made Italy his home,
presents a great contrast to the state of the art in Germany and
the Netherlands about the same period. The love of music in these
countries had been growing among the people from the days of their
minstrel poets and their wandering musicians. In Italy minstrelsy
received but little attention or encouragement. The effect of this
was probably felt when that extraordinary love of culture and admiration
for art manifested itself amid the courts of her princes, about
the middle of the fifteenth century. The love of melody then, as
now, was deeply rooted in the nature of her people. Musical composition,
however, of a high order, and able executants, were to be found
elsewhere, and in Flanders in particular, and there the principal
music and musicians were sought by the Italian dilettanti.
To this fortuitous combination of melody and musical learning we
owe the greatest achievements in the art of music. Upon it was raised
the work of Palestrina, Scarlatti, and Corelli, which their distinguished
followers utilised with such judgment and effect. The progress and
development of the Madrigal in Italy may be said to have been co-equal
with that of the Viol, for which its music served, and to which
the Italians gave the same beauty of form and exquisite refinement.
The ingenuity and skilfulness of the early German Viol makers was
not less speedily recognised by the Italians than was the learning
and power manifested by the Flemish motet writers. The work of the
Italians with regard to both the Madrigal and the Viol was artistic
in the highest degree, and such as could alone have been accomplished
by men nourished on the teachings of the Renaissance, and surrounded
by its chief glories. There is evidence of German influence
over the Italian Viol manufacture at the end of the fifteenth century,
in the German-sounding names of makers located in Italy, and likewise
in the character and construction of the oldest Italian Viols: notably,
there is the crescent-shaped sound-hole common to the German Grosse-Geige
and Klein-Geige. The most ancient Viols in existence are those by
Hieronymus Brensius of Bologna, two of which are in the Museum of
the Academy of Music at Bologna, and a third is in my possession.
They have labels printed in Roman letters, and doubtless belong
to the end of the fifteenth century. These instruments serve to
illustrate the condition of the art of Viol-making in Italy at that
period. They are rude in form and workmanship, and present a marked
contrast to the high artistic work associated with the Italians
in other branches of industry. This rudeness is indicative of this
particular manufacture being of recent importation, and of its having
been received from Germany, and partly perhaps from the Low Countries,
where instrumental music was cultivated chiefly by the people, in
which case utility would naturally have priority of design and workmanship.
With the introduction of Viols, in connection with the Madrigal,
into the palaces of Italy, together with their increased use in
connection with the service of the Church, a demand speedily arose
for instruments of elegant design and finished workmanship, in keeping
with the high standard raised by Italian artists in every direction.
The work on the Viol by Silvestro Ganassi, published at Venice in
1543, furnishes us with ample proof of the advance made by the Italians
in Viol-making since Brensius worked. We see from a representation
of a Viol in the above-mentioned work that the sound-holes are better
formed, the scroll is artistically designed, and the whole harmonious.
These steps towards perfection were mounted by Duiffoprugcar and
Gasparo da Salò, both of whom rapidly developed the art. With Gasparo
da Salò, or a contemporary, was witnessed the rejection of the crescent-formed
sound-hole, and the adoption of that which has held its own for
upwards of three centuries. The sound-holes of the Amati and of
Stradivari are but those of Gasparo and his contemporaries, marked
with their own individuality. All Viols until about 1520 were furnished
with pieces of gut tied round the neck and fingerboard to mark the
divisions of the scale—in short, were fretted. From the work of
Ganassi we learn that the use of these divisions was optional, thus
supplying us with authentic information of considerable value with
regard to the gradual emancipation of this class of instrument from
frets, and foreshadowing the union of the Geige or Fiddle with the
Viol. Passing to the question of form given by the Italians, early
in the sixteenth century, to Viols, we find the Violono or Bass
Viol with its upper and lower sides, middle bouts, belly, and sound-holes
almost identical with those of the Tenor Viols, the chief difference
being in the back of the latter, which is modelled, whilst the former
is flat. This was the form given to the Violono by Gasparo da Salò,
and which has been changed in the upper portion of the body of the
instrument, to permit of modern passages being executed with greater
facility. The original finger-board was short, and generally fretted.
The number of strings was five or more, and not as we now string
them with three or four. It will be seen that this form of instrument
gives us what Mr. Charles Reade describes as the invention of Italy,
namely "the four corners." The same author in speaking
of the order of invention remarks that he is puzzled "to time
the Violono, or as we childishly call it (after its known descendant)
the Double Bass. If I were so presumptuous as to trust to my eye
alone, I should say it was the first of them all." With this
opinion I entirely agree, and I am also in unison with Mr. Reade
in believing that the large Viola (played on or between the knees)
was the next creation, the design of which was that of the Violono
or Double Bass already referred to. The next and most important
step was in all probability to make the common Geige or three-stringed
Fiddle of the same shape as these Tenor and Contralto Viols, thus
handing to us the present-shaped Violin. In the MS. notes of Lancetti,
reference is made to a three-stringed Violin in the collection of
Count Cozio di Salabue, which throws some light upon the question
as to three-stringed Violins, of the form of the Italian Viola,
having been made prior to the introduction of those with four strings
tuned in fifths. The instrument to which Lancetti refers was dated
1546, and was attributed to Andrea Amati. Until the beginning of
the present century, this instrument remained in its original condition,
when it was altered by the Brothers Mantegazza of Milan into a Violin
with four strings. Mention of this curious and valuable fact furnishes
us with the sole record of a three-stringed Violin having been in
existence during the nineteenth century, and also supplies the link
needful to connect the old type of Fiddle with the perfect instrument
of the great Italian makers. When or where the four-stringed Violin
tuned in fifths first appeared in Italy is a question the answer
to which must ever remain buried in the past. It may have seen the
light in Mantua, Bologna, or Brescia. The last-mentioned town is
usually associated with its advent, and to Gasparo da Salò is given
the credit of its authorship. CONTENTS SECTION
II.—THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE VIOLIN. ITALIAN AND OTHER STRINGS.
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