Books › Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883 › scan 197
Scan 197
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
2 lines. Read by computer on 30 September 2026. Printed page 183. See the scan on archive.org.
1figure of a man playing with a bow upon an instrument having three strings. There are, besides these, one or two sculptured decorations on churches, and illustrations in other manuscripts of later date, representing bridged instruments played at the shoulder with a bow. Coeval with these shoulder instruments, the crwth appears to have been in use. It is, indeed, proved that it was known, at least by name, in Europe before the sixth century, from an allusion to it by Fortunat, Bishop of Poitiers, who was born in 530, and who sings, "The Roman praised thee on the lyre, and the barbarian on the harp and Breton crouth (chrotta)." That it existed in Wales before the tenth century seems equally certain from the code of laws enacted for the guidance of his subjects by Howell Dda, a King of Cambria, who reigned from 904 to 948. Among the regulations for his musicians is the following: "Those upon whom their master may have conferred the title of Musicus Primarius shall receive from him an instrument of music. The first a harp, the second a crwth, the third a bagpipe." One of the laws seems to bear very hardly on the artists: "If the King asks him to sing, he shall sing once; if for a nobleman, three times; if for a commoner, until he is exhausted." The earliest illustrations of the crouth represent it as a three-stringed instrument with a bridge, but no tail-piece. There is one sculptured among the external ornaments of Melrose Abbey, and this class of instrument, with additions to its strings, maintained its sway in Wales as late as the year 1711, when a gentleman named Daines Barrington heard and saw John Morgan playing it. It was subsequently exhibited to the Archæological
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