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An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925
20 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 2. See the scan on archive.org.
1is not met with in France until about the thirteenth century, when it is alluded to in Aymeric de Peyrat's lines:
3 Quidam rebecam arcuabant
4 Muliebrem vocem confrigentes
6It is probable that the instrument was in use long before that period, however, though I can advance no historical proof to that effect."
8Up to the fifteenth century it was described, in particular, by the words rebelle, rubèbe, and it is only beginning with this epoch that the name rebec¹ was definitely adopted to the exclusion of all others. In 1483, we find the instrument thus designated in the accounts of King Charles VIII of France.² In connection with a voyage made by the king in September of that year, there was given, following his order, "35 sols to a poor witless man who played the rebec."
10In the year 1490, we find in the accounts of King Charles VIII the following entry: "Paid to Raymond Monnet, a rebec-player"; and, listed from 1523 to 1535, the name "Lancelot Levasseur, rebec-player in ordinary to the King"; and, in the year 1559, that of "Jehan Cavalier, rebec-player to the King." In England the rebec was one of the instruments of the royal band, "the state band of Henry VIII (1526) consisting of fifteen trumpets, three lutes, three rebecks, three taborets, a harp, two viols, four drums, a fife and ten sackbuts."
12The rebec was an instrument with a hard, nasal tone, and was used to play for dancing. Bride and groom proceeded to church to the sound of rebec and tambourin.
14It was so well known that it even supplied a malicious popular allusion, "Dry as a rebec." In "Florinde," a comedy which was very successful in its day—it may be found in the Adrien de Montluc's Comédie des proverbes—there is a description of the swashbuckling Captain Fierrabras, whom Florinde's father has chosen to be her husband, against her wish. She says, "As to his face, it is but so-so; and above all he is as delicate and blond as a twice-washed prune; and as to his purse, it is none too well garnished; in that respect he is as dry as a rebec."
16On March 27, 1628, an ordinance was issued by the Civil Lieutenant of Paris forbidding all musicians to play in taverns (cabarets) and places of ill repute, all high, low or other kinds of violins, but only the rebec.
18¹ Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita, mentions among the instruments used by the Spaniards during the Middle Ages, "the screeching rabé with its high notes," and somewhat later, "the rabé of the Moors." The "screeching rabé" is evidently nothing else than our own rebec, "hard and dry." As to the Moorish rabé, there can be no doubt as to its being the Arabian rabeb. This word rabé has held its own in Spain through the centuries, for even to this day, in certain villages of Catalonia, the violin is called the rabaquet by the people. See Mariano-Fuertes, Historia de la Musica Española, Madrid, 1855.
19² See "Les Comptes de l'argenterie du roy Charles VIII," Arch. Nat.
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