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George Hart. The Violin
The Violin
Table of Contents
PREFACE TO THE ENLARGED AND REVISED EDITION
PREFATORY NOTE BY THE EDITORS
THE VIOLIN
ITS FAMOUS MAKERS AND THEIR IMITATORS
SECTION I
The Early History of the Violin
SECTION II
The Construction of the Violin
SECTION III
Italian and other Strings
SECTION IV
The Italian School
SECTION V
The Italian Varnish
SECTION VI
Italian Makers
SECTION VII
The French School
SECTION VIII
French Makers
SECTION IX
The German School
SECTION X
German Makers
SECTION XI
The English School
SECTION XII
English Makers
SECTION XIII
The Violin and its Votaries
SECTION XIV
Sketch of the Progress of the Violin
SECTION XV
Anecdotes and Miscellanea connected with the Violin
INDEX
The Violin and its Music
GEORGE HART
THE VIOLIN AND ITS FAMOUS MAKERS
EDITION DE LUXE TIRÉE SUR PAPIER WHATMAN
LE VIOLON:
SES FAMEUX LUTHIERS ET LEURS IMITATEURS
GEORGE HART
Extrait du "Ménestrel."
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George Hart
Its Famous Makers and Their Imitators
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14 The ancient name of corded instruments of the Lute, Mandoline, and Guitar kinds. Tradition has it that the Nile, having overflowed Egypt, left on shore a dead Cheli (tortoise), the flesh of which being dried in the sun, nothing was left within the shell but nerves and cartilages, and these being braced and contracted were rendered sonorous. Mercury, in walking, struck his foot against the shell of the tortoise, and was delighted with the sound produced, which gave him the idea of a Lyre that he later constructed in the form of a tortoise, and strung with the dried sinews of dead animals. This account of the origin of Lutes, Fiddles, and catgut is classic and picturesque. Tradition and myth have played parts of much consequence in the work of civilisation: they have, however, at length fallen upon a critical and remarkably sceptical age, and rapidly fade and die under the inquisitorial torture of modern inquiry—a result at least to be expected from the contact of their own dreamy and delicate nature with unromantic matter. It is perhaps safer to refer the origin of the name Cheli or tortoise, as applied to corded instruments, to the fact of their having sound chambers, constructed with tortoise-shell, as was the case with the Greek Lyre, or to the circumstance of the bodies of the instruments being shaped like the tortoise. The Germans used the word Chelys to designate their Viols; and Christopher Simpson, in his famous treatise on the "Viol da Gamba," names it Chelys. The application of the word Chelys to bowed instruments is suggestive of their remote connection with the ancient Lyre.
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.
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