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Scan 361
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians;, 1904
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 305. See the scan on archive.org.
1the character of the viol. The new pattern, at first adopted for the smaller instruments, gradually extended itself to the larger ones. But viol-shaped tenors continued to be made long after this form had been abandoned for the 'treble' viol, and the violin had taken its place: bass-viols were made still later; and the viol double-bass, with its flat back and tuning by fourths, is even yet in use.
31. EARLY ENGLISH SCHOOL (1650–1700). An independent school of violin-makers naturally arose in London by the application of the traditions of viol-making to the construction of instruments of the violin type. Connoisseurs have traced certain resemblances between these early fiddles and contemporary instruments made on the continent. But the total result of an examination of these works entitles them, in the opinion of Mr. Payne, to rank as a distinct school. The present writer is unable to follow Mr. Payne in this matter, never having seen a violin of any of the early makers which he has cited that can be regarded otherwise than as a more or less accurate copy of instruments which, by the time they worked, must have reached these makers from the continent. Jacob Rayman, who dates from Blackman Street and the Bell Yard, Southwark (1641–48), Christopher Wise (1656), Edward Pemberton (1660), and Thomas Urquhart (1660), are famous names among these early makers. Their instruments, though frequently of rude ungeometrical pattern, are very often of remarkably fine and accurate workmanship, and are usually covered with a fine varnish, and have a tone of good quality. Edward Pamphilon (1680–90), who lived on London Bridge, became famous, though at his best his instruments were never equal to those of Urquhart. His instruments still preserve a high reputation, and we know of an instance of one of his instruments of the rougher type being sold as a Gasparo da Salo. It has been stated that Pamphilon's instruments were of the 'Brescian School,' but nothing is more certain than that they were made when the last of the Amatis was an ancient man, and when the geometrical pattern was going out of fashion in Italy itself. Like those of Joseph Guarnerius, the works of Pamphilon are outlined directly by hand, without the intervention of a model or pattern. They are always of stiff and graceless outline; sometimes they show curves of bold and free design, and are wrought out with scrupulous care and delicacy. In his more artistic moments, Pamphilon was fond of finishing the sound-holes with a drawn-out curl, resembling the volute of a scroll; and the bottom curve of the sound-hole runs out at something like a right angle to the axis of the fiddle. The heads are too small, a fault which is shared by all the old English makers from Rayman to Banks, who early came under the baleful influence of Stainer and the German school instead of following the Italian models that were available to their hands: they are, however, artistically shaped, and often deeply scooped in the volute. The works of Pamphilon are covered with fine yellow oil varnish, which presents a most attractive appearance. They are not difficult to be met with. The tenors are small, but of a good tenor tone. No Pamphilon violoncello is known to exist. The bass-viol, with flat back, was still in fashion. Barak Norman (1688–1740), a maker of eminence, greatly the superior of Pamphilon, followed the Italians in extending the violin type to the bass instrument, and producing the violoncello. It is evident from his works that he had seen foreign instruments. His early years were chiefly employed in the construction of viols; and his first productions of the violin kind have much in common with those of all his predecessors. Gradually he produced tenors and violoncellos of the new model, on most of which his monogram, elaborately wrought, is to be found. Norman became about 1715 a partner with Nathaniel Cross at the 'Bass Viol' in St. Paul's Churchyard. His works are always in request among connoisseurs. Contemporary with Norman also was Daniel Parker (1700–30) who was one of the most successful and early copyists of the Stradivarius model. That the Early English school had its offshoots in the country is proved by the works of Thomas Baker of Oxford (1720). None of these makers were influenced by the pattern of Stainer, which ultimately displaced the old English type of violin, as completely as the violin had displaced the viol.
52. SCHOOL OF STAINER-COPYISTS (1700–50). The bright and easily produced tones yielded by the Stainer model, soon made it popular in England, and the London makers vied with each other in reproducing it. The first and best of the Stainer-copyists is Peter Wamsley, of the Golden Harp in Piccadilly (1710–34). The workmanship of Wamsley varies: like most of his successors, he made instruments of three or four qualities, probably at prices to correspond. The finer specimens of his work, well finished, and covered with a certain thick and brilliant red varnish, which he could make when he pleased, do high credit to the London school. He did not despise viol-making; nor, on the other hand, did he confine himself to the imitation of Stainer. Both he and Thomas Barrett, of the Harp and Crown in Piccadilly (1710–30) tried their hands at free imitations of Stradivarius. John Hare (1720–1726) did the same. Barrett was a more mechanical workman than Wamsley, and used a thin yellow varnish. Between 1730 and 1770 the majority of the violins produced in England were imitations of Stainer, somewhat larger, and covered with a thin greyish yellow varnish: one or two makers only used better
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