Scan 106
Researches into the early history of the violin family, 1883
14 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 96. See the scan on archive.org.
1instance, kniegeige, the viola-da-gamba; liebesgeige, the viola d'amore; discantgeige, the violin; armgeige or altgeige, the viola-di-braccio, &c. In fact, at the present day, the violin is very usually called geige by the Germans. We have here, again, a remarkable example, showing the transmission of the designation of one musical instrument to another. I have already drawn attention to these frequent changes as occasioning one of the chief difficulties in tracing accurately the history of certain instruments which are now highly popular with us.
3The word geige does not occur in the German language, as far as is known, until about the year 1200. At that time it was, in Middle High German, called gîge.
5Wolfram von Eschenbach ("Parcival;" thirteenth century): "Ern ist Gîge noch din Rotte."
7Gottfried von Strassburg ("Tristan;" thirteenth century): "Ir Gîge unde ir Rotte."
9Almost all our musical writers state, as if it were a well-ascertained fact, that the German word geige is derived from guige of the French ménétriers, or minstrels, who, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, had a sort of rebec which they called by that name, and which, according to some commentators, resembled in outward appearance the shank of a goat or ram, called gigot, or guigua; and hence the origin of all the similar words occurring in different European languages. These commentators have, however, neglected to prove that the old French word guige, designating a sort of rebec or fiddle, occurs before the thirteenth century, or that it is earlier than the Middle High German gîge.
11Others point to the Low German gigel, "to make an up-and-down motion;" but this word, if it alludes to the movement of the fiddle-bow, may have been derived from the substantive geige, designating the musical instrument.
13Again, some scholars suppose the German word to have been derived from the Norse, or ancient Scandinavian, geiga, "to tremble," as the fiddle-bow is often drawn over the strings with a short and quick motion. This conjecture appears to be in some measure supported by a remark made
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