Books › Chats on violins, 1905 › scan 47
Scan 47
Chats on violins, 1905
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1acquire the art of the vielle, and hey presto! 'tis all the fashion.
3Beside the many amateurs of this instrument there were also professional artists who gained great reputations. Two notable virtuosi were Laroze and Janot, and a woman player called Fanchon reached a high pinnacle of fame which she was unfortunately unable to keep owing to her degraded tastes. A very successful play was written about her called "Fanchon la Vielleuse." In this the heroine, unlike the living Fanchon, was a highly virtuous girl who played the vielle, and married a delightful colonel.
5In 1773 a further development of the vielle was made by Louvet, who was a professor of the instrument. He constructed a vielle which he strung with twelve metal strings, and called it the violin-vielle. But long before this the vielle was back in the hands of beggars and Savoyard boys, and neither love nor science could save it or bring it back to its former grandeur. Plenty of hurdy-gurdys still exist and some of the very small ones are most beautifully ornamented, but the tone is so scratchy and noisy that no ears accustomed to the sound of a fiddle can listen to it with any pleasure.
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