Scan 103
Researches into the early history of the violin family, 1883
14 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 93. See the scan on archive.org.
1from Spain, as appears to have been the case with the "morris-dance," or Moorish dance; indeed, the derivation of ribible from rebel suggests this.
3Again, the ribus, in the following example, is probably the rebec:—
5"The Houlate" (Scotland, 1450):—
7 The rote and the recordour, the ribus, the rift.
9W. Dauney ("Ancient Scottish Melodies," Edinburgh, 1838, p. 95), who admits his inability to define the ribus and the rift, gives some interesting account of the rebec, remarking that it was very common in Scotland during the sixteenth century; and in proof of his assertion he cites the following passage from Brantome's "Dames Illustres," where the author describes Queen Mary's reception by her Scotch subjects at Holyrood House, on her arrival from France. Brantome accompanied her, and was no doubt an eyewitness of the scene: "Estant logée en bas en l'Abbaye de l'Islebourg, vindrent sous la fenestre cinq ou six cents marauts de la ville, luy donner aubade de meschants violons et petits rebeccs, dont il n'y en faute en ce pays là; et se mirent à chanter pseaumes, tant mal chantez et si mal accordez, que rien plus. He! quelle musique, et quel repos pour sa nuit!" ("After she had been settled in the lower storey of the Abbey of Isleburgh, there appeared under her window about five or six hundred low fellows of the town to give her a serenade, with miserable violins and small rebeccs, of which there is no lack in that country; and they began to sing psalms, so badly executed, and so wretchedly in harmony, that nothing could be worse. Alas! what music, and what a rest for that night!")
11Furthermore W. Dauney remarks: "A tabaret, a luyte and a rebecc constituted the musical establishment of the Earl of Northumberland, in the reign of Henry VIII.; and in the list of the household bands of Edward VI. and Elizabeth provision is made for a rebecke one or two in number, distinct from the vyalls, who were a more numerous body consisting of eight performers."
13The following examples require no further comment:—
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