Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/266

Rh 244 VIOLIN Sympa thetic strings. by the addition of a string tuned to double bass A, thus Seven-stringed Marais, a French virtuoso, is usually credited Xi, )1 ll la with this improvement ; and this extended com- V ia 1 1 1 Dei. 1 g: pass is recognized in the classical viola da gamba ^rz^S^rz writings of Sebastian Bach and De Caix ^- d Hervelois. The result, however, was not uni versally satisfactory, for Abel used the six-stringed instru ment ; and the seven strings never came into general use in England, where the viola da gamba was more generally employed and survived longer than elsewhere. The want of positive power, which is the weakness of the viol and ultimately drove it from the field, must have been early noticed on a comparison of its delicate ton-es with the harsher notes of the rebec. Hardly had the viol appeared, when makers cast about for means of augmenting its tone. One way of doing this was by additional strings in unisons, fifths, and octaves, a device Avhich had been already employed in the small fiddles of the Middle Ages, and is identical in principle with the augmentation of diapason tone on the organ by means of other registers. The double or treble strung viol, in various sizes, was known as the lyre (Italian, accordo) ; but this multiplica tion of strings proceeds on a false principle, for each ad ditional string diminishes the resonance of the box, and at the same time hardens the tone and increases the task of the player. More ingenious and successful was the in vention of sympathetic metal strings, usually steel, laid under the finger-board, as close as possible to the belly, and speaking by consonance with the notes produced on the bowed strings. From this resonance by sympathy the viol thus strung acquired the general name of viola d amore. The original viola da gamba when so strung came to be called the viola bastarda ; the seven-stringed bass, with an elaborately perfected sympathetic apparatus, was well known in the 18th century by the name of the bordone or baritone, and was a favourite instrument with musical epi cures. Instruments made on this principle are found in all sizes ; even kits are met with having sympathetic strings (sordino d amore). Violins with sympathetic strings (usually five) are more rare ; the viola d amore chiefly used was of tenor size and compass. Originally tuned as to its bowed strings like the pure tenor viol, an additional string was given it, and the so-called &quot; harp-way &quot; tuning adopted, thus viola d Amore, viola d Amore, The sympathetic strings were at- pegs driven in- block, passed lower part of the flat tunin sharp tuning^ tac]led through the bridge, or over a low bridge of ^^8=^ SiiESjEE: their own &amp;gt; as near as possible - = = to the surface of the belly, under the fingerboard, and were strained to pitch either by means of additional pegs, or, better, by wrest-pins driven into the sides of the peg box and tuned by a key. Originally six, seven, or eight sympathetic strings were used, which were tuned to the diatonic scale of the piece in per formance. Later, a chromatic set of twelve strings was employed ; and instruments are met with having a double set (24) of chromatic strings, two for each semitone in the scale. With thirty-one strings to be kept in perfect tune, the task of the player must have been arduous indeed ; and it is not strange that instruments so elaborate and troublesome were abandoned. In a moist climate like that of Great Britain it is practically impossible to keep a viola d amore in playing order, the steel strings being in most of their length covered by the fingerboard and out of reach, while the slightest rust impairs the resonance, and much rust renders the instrument completely useless. The improvements which were to develop an ultimate bowed instrument for permanent musical use proceeded in the opposite direction to the lyre and viola d amore : they consisted in increasing yet more the resonance of the box, by making it lighter and more symmetrical and by string ing it more lightly, instead of more heavily. This was really falling back on primitive principles, for the hints were certainly derived from old extant specimens of the crowd and the geige. Existing pictures prove that the oval and the circular geige were made with nearly flat backs and bellies of correlative pattern ; and it was natural to seek to reproduce their more powerful tone in the viol by giving it shallower ribs and a back modelled like the belly, and by assimilating the top of the instrument, where the handle is added, to the bottom. This change at once transformed the box of the viol into that of the violin, and the transformation was completed by rejecting the lute tuning with its many strings and tuning the instru ment by fifths, as the geige and rebec had always been tuned. The tenor viol was apparently the first instrument in which the change was made, about the middle of the 16th century, and it was so successful that it was quickly applied to the treble and bass instruments. The question so often mooted, Who invented the violin ? may therefore be dismissed. The instrument was produced by applying to the viol certain principles borrowed from its smaller predecessors. It would be equally correct to say that it was produced by applying to the geige other princi ples borrowed from the viol. Tradition indicates one of the Tieffenbriickers, a German family whose members for more than a century were famous lute-makers in Venetia and Lombardy, as the inventor. The earliest instrument of the violin type known to the present writer is a tenor made by Fr. Linaroli of Bergamo, at Venice, in 1563 ; and the earliest makers whose authentic works have descended to us in considerable numbers are Gaspar da Salo and Maggini, both of Brescia. An important distinction should be mentioned which High divides violins into two classes, known respectively as the an ^ flat &quot; high &quot; and the &quot; flat &quot; model. On this subject much Las been said and written ; but it has not been discussed scien tifically, nor has the prevalence of one model over the other at different times and in different places been accounted for. It is understood that, while the flat model, which has now practically driven the high model from the field, yields a tone that is more powerful and travels further, the high model yields a tone which comes out more readily, and is softer and more flute-like, although less capable of light and shade. The high model is less convenient for the player, because when the instrument is rested on the clavicle the strings are at a greater altitude in relation to the right arm, which accordingly requires to be raised. Hence the high model has become less popular as the art of violin- playing has developed, and is undoubtedly less suitable to the elaborate system now in use. These remarks apply to instruments of pronounced high model ; for the distinction is in fact a matter of degree, and is purely mechanical in origin. The flattest models rise about twelve millimetres above the ribs, while the highest do not exceed twenty, and many of the best violins have an elevation between these limits. The object of the rise being to give just such a degree of resistance to the pressure of the bridge as will set the enclosed air in due vibration, and this de gree being approximately the same in all violins, the amount of elevation must obviously be relative to the strength and elasticity of the fibres of the belly. The more regular the shape of the box, that is, the flatter the model, the more perfect and the more completely blended will be the undulations of the mass of air within, and the more uniformly sonorous and musical the tone ; but owing to the pressure of the strings only strong and elastic wood can be used for this model. Wood of stiff and brittle fibre must be worked to a higher arch, or if used for the
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