Scan 262
A dictionary of old English music & musical instruments 1923, 1923
4 lines. Read by computer on 19 September 2026. Printed page 232. See the scan on archive.org.
1for the Bass-Viol, and two for the Cittern accompanied by Treble, Tenor, and Bass Viols. In this case also, I am of opinion that Holborne meant Treble and Tenor Viols when he spoke of "violins" on his title-page. Another work which shows a typical use of the Bass-Viol as an accompanying instrument, is John Dowland's Second Booke of Songs or Ayres … with Tablature for the Lute or Orpherian, with the Violl de Gamba (1600). At the end of the last Tudor reign a new figure of great importance in the history of the Viols rose above the musical horizon in the person of Alfonso Ferabosco II (born c. 1580). He was "an excellent composer for instrumental Musick" (Anthony Wood), and was one of the first to write music Lyraway (q.v.). His importance lies in the circumstance that he, more than any other one musician, laid the foundations for that English school of Gambists and writers for the instrument which, according to Maugars (one of its most celebrated foreign pupils), surpassed all others in the world.
3The question of the use of the modern violin in Tudor times is interesting and worthy of being cleared up. Carl Engel thinks that violins were used together with viols, lutes, etc., from the time of Elizabeth onwards; the Rev. F. W. Galpin says: "Violins, as distinct from Viols, had already been included in the King's music; and at the time of Henry the Eighth's death they were played by six Italians from Venice, Milan, and Cremona…" These two quotations are representative of many; and it may be well to consider a few pieces of evidence in opposition to these statements. For true violins to have been firmly established as orchestral instruments by the middle of the Sixteenth Century, would have made it necessary for the very earliest specimens to have been introduced. It is, I think, fairly well established that no instrument of the modern violin-family was made before the middle of the Sixteenth Century. It is, of course, quite possible, chronologically, for early examples to have been brought to England, especially when we remember how active was the correspondence between this country and Italy during the reign of Henry VIII. But to expect at least six violins to be accepted as an integral part of Henry's orchestra so early in the career of the new instrument is, I think, rather too much. When authenticated cases of their importation are recorded,
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.