Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 4.djvu/287

VIOLIN. the bridge; and the action of the bridge depends upon the soundpost. The soundpost is a slender cylindrical block, fixed at both ends, performing the double function of transmitting certain vibrations from the belly to the back and of making a firm base for one foot of the bridge. The bridge is a true reed; its treble foot is rigid, and rests on that part of the belly which is made rigid by the soundpost. Its bass foot rests on that part of the belly which has a free vibration, augmented and regulated by the bass bar: and it is through this foot that the vibration of the strings is communicated to the belly, and thereby to the mass of air in the fiddle. The treble foot of the bridge is therefore the centre of vibration: the vibrational impulse is communicated by the bass foot alone, and undulates round the treble foot in circles, its intensity being modified by the thicknesses and curves of the belly and by the incisions called the soundholes.

The steps by which this instrument, at once so simple and so complex, has been produced, are easily traced: its intermediate forms can be studied in artistic monuments, and some of them even still exist. Old stringed instruments have generally died hard: and very primitive ones have maintained their place side by side with the improved ones founded upon them. Thus the Marine Trumpet, which is the oldest bowed instrument, and represents the earliest development of the Monochord, long continued in use concurrently with instruments of a more advanced kind, and is not yet quite obsolete. [See .] A Guitar-shaped Violin, which is directly descended from the Fidel of the Troubadours, has been made and used in all ages. Similarly the Rebec long continued in use side by side with the violin. The Viola da Gamba has never been completely effaced by the Violoncello. But perhaps the most singular survival of all is the Welsh Crwth, which is simply the small lyre, as introduced by the Romans into Celtic Britain, adapted by some slight modifications for use as a bowed instrument. In tracing the history of stringed instruments it is necessary to beware of assuming that the same name always designates the same instrument. 'Violino' and 'Violon,' for instance, were at first commonly employed to denote the Tenor. [See .] 'Violoncello' is literally the 'little violone' or bass viol. The Violone itself, as its augmentative termination implies, was a 'big Viola,' and originally designated the Bass Viol. When the Double Bass-Viol became common, the name was transferred to this larger instrument. It then became necessary to find a new name for the small Bass, and hence the diminutive name 'Violoncello.' When our modern Violoncello, which is properly the 'Bass Violin,' came into use, the original name and the functions of this small Violone were transferred together to the new instrument, which still retains them. 'Vielle,' now appropriated to the hurdy-gurdy, denoted in the 13th century the instrument which we have called the Guitar-Fiddle. 'Fiddle,' 'Crwth,' 'Geige,' and 'Ribeca,' all now frequently employed in various languages to designate the modern violin, are properly the names of distinct instruments, all now obsolete. 'Lyre' has been employed at different times to designate all sorts of bowed instruments. 'Viola,' which seems to have been the original Provençal name of the guitar-fiddle, and afterwards designated Viols of all sizes, is now appropriated to the Tenor Violin. But it is needless to multiply instances. No rational account of the development of instruments can be obtained from the use of names. For this purpose we must examine the instruments themselves when they exist: when they have perished we must have recourse to artistic representations, which, however imperfect, are all we have to rely on before about 1550, a century later than the earliest development of bowed instruments as a class by themselves. For, although the fittings of the two classes differed, it was not until the 15th century that any constructive difference was effected between plucked and bowed instruments. In that century the discovery seems to have been made that an arched back and a flat belly were best for the plucked class, and a flat back and arched belly with inwardly curving bouts for the bowed class; and hence the lute and the viol. A higher bridge, supported by a soundpost, in the bowed class, completed the separation. Both however were strung alike: and down to the time of Bach the same music often served for both, and was played with identical stringing and fingering.

It is curious that both the pianoforte and the violin owe their origin to the monochord. Familiarity with the monochord might have early suggested that by stopping the strings of the lyre upon a fingerboard the number of strings necessary to the latter instrument might be diminished by two-thirds, the tuning facilitated, and the compass extended. But before any improvement in this direction was ever made, the monochord itself had been developed into other instruments by the application of the bow and the wheel. The monochord consisted of an oblong box, at each end of which was fixed a triangular nut. A peg at the tail end of the box served to attach the string: at the other end the string was strained tight, at first by weights, by changing which the tension and pitch of the string were altered at pleasure, afterwards by a screw. Beneath the string were marked those combinations of the aliquot parts of the string which yielded the diatonic scale. The belly was pierced with soundholes near the tail; a moveable block or bridge somewhat higher than the nuts served to cut off so much of the string as was necessary to produce the desired note. This moveable bridge has survived in all bowed instruments, though its position is never changed; and it will serve to the end of time to connect them with their original.