Books › Grove's dictionary of music and musicians;, 1904 › scan 334
Scan 334
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians;, 1904
16 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1possibly, but not probably, at one time derived from the cat, but now manufactured out of the entrails of the sheep. The Tenor and Violoncello, it will be observed, are octaves to each other. A smaller Bass, intermediate between the Tenor and the Violoncello, and in compass an octave below the Violin, whence the name 'Octave Fiddle,' sometimes applied to it, was in use in the 18th century, but has long been abandoned. A Violoncello of smaller dimensions, but of identical pitch with the ordinary Violoncello, and chiefly used for solo playing, appears to be the same instrument which L. Mozart, in his Violin School, calls the 'Handbass,'1 and Boccherini the 'Alto Violoncello.' Boccherini intimates on the title-page of his Quintets that the first Violoncello part, which extends over the whole compass of the ordinary instrument, may be played on the Alto Violoncello.
3The 'Violino piccolo' of Bach, which Leopold Mozart (1756) describes as obsolete in his time, was a three-quarter Violin (Quart-geige), tuned a minor third above the Violin.
5The invention of a smaller Violoncello with five strings, tuned as at (a), and thus combining the scales of the Violoncello and the Octave Fiddle, is ascribed to J. S. Bach. It was called Viola Pomposa, but never came into general use. It appears, in fact, to have been merely a reproduction of an old form of the Violoncello, which is mentioned by L. Mozart as obsolete. [See p. 285a.]
7The musical development which followed closely on the general employment of the Violin family throughout Europe is treated elsewhere. [See VIOLIN-PLAYING.] Extraordinary as this development has been, it has produced no constructive changes in the instrument, and only the slightest modifications. The increased use of the upper shifts has indeed necessitated a trifling increase in the length of the neck, or handle, while the sound-post, bridge, and bass-bar are larger and more substantial than those formerly in use. It might probably be further shown that the strings were smaller and less tense, and lay closer to the finger-board, and that the tone of the fiddle was consequently somewhat feebler, thinner, and more easily yielded. In other respects the fiddle family remain very much as they came from the hands of their first makers three centuries ago.
9The reason of the concentration of fiddle-making at Cremona is not at first sight apparent. The explanation is that Cremona was in the 16th century a famous musical centre. This is partly due to the fact that the Cremonese is the richest agricultural district of Lombardy, and was mainly in the hands of the monasteries of the city and neighbourhood. These wealthy foundations vied with each other in the splendour of their churches and daily services, and furnished constant employment to painters, composers, and instrument-makers. The celebrity of Cremona as a school of music and painting was shared with Bologna; but its principal rival in fiddle-making was Brescia, where Gasparo da Salo, the two Zanettos, Giovita Rodiani, and Maggini, made instruments from about 1580 to 1640. The characteristics of these makers, who compose what is sometimes called the Brescian School, are in fact shared by Andreas Amati, the earliest known maker of Cremona. To speak of a 'Brescian School' is misleading: it would be more correct to class their fiddles generally as early Italian. The model of these early Italian violins is generally high, though the pattern is attenuated: the middle bouts are shallow; the f-holes are narrow and set high, and terminate abruptly in a circle like that of the crescent sound-hole. The scroll is long, straight, and ungraceful. The violins are generally too small; the tenors are always too large, though their tone is deep and powerful. Violoncellos of this school are not met with. The substantial excellence of the makers of Brescia is proved by the fact that the larger violins of Maggini, and the Double Basses of Gasparo da Salo are still valued for practical use. De Bériot played on a Maggini Violin; and Vuillaume's copies of this maker once enjoyed a high reputation among French orchestra players for their rich and powerful tone.
11The reputation of the Cremona violins is mainly due to the brothers Antonio and Giro-lamo Amati2 (Antonius et Hieronymus), who were sons of Andrew Amati, and contemporaries of Maggini. [See AMATI.] The idea of treating the violin as a work of art as well as a tone-producing machine existed before their time: but so far the artistic impulse had produced only superficial decoration in the form of painting or inlaying. The brothers Amati, following unconsciously the fundamental law of art-manufacture that decoration should be founded on construction, reduced the outlines and surfaces of the instrument to regular and harmonious curves, and rendered the latter more acceptable to the eye by a varnish developing and deepening the natural beauty of the material. Nor did they neglect those mechanical conditions of sonority which are the soul of the work. Their wood is of fine quality, and the disposition of the thicknesses, blocks, and linings, leaves little to be desired. Those who came after them, Nicholas Amati, Stradivari, and Joseph Guarnieri (del Gesù), augmented the tone of the instrument. But for mere sweetness of tone, and artistic beauty of design, the brothers Antonius and Hieronymus even yet remain unsurpassed. The illustration (Fig.
131 In Austrian dialect 'Bassel' became 'Bassetl,' and even 'Pasedel.' See Nohl's Beethoven, III, note 244. So, too, 'Bratsche' was corrupted into Prätzel. (Engel, Musical Myths, 160.)
152 Amatus is originally a Christian name, identical with Aimé which in the feminine form survives in French and English (Almée, Amy). The correct family name is 'de'Amati' (De Amatis).
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.