Scan 111
Researches into the early history of the violin family, 1883
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 101. See the scan on archive.org.
1has ever been much in use. The highest string most likely was ordinarily tuned in the interval of a fourth above the second string, thus:—
3At all events, this arrangement is more in conformity with those generally to be found on the stringed instruments of the Arabs; and indications are not wanting as to this having been a common arrangement also on the European instruments obtained from the Arabs.
5Thus—to notice only one example—the lute, when it became popular in Europe, had ordinarily only eight strings, tuned in four pairs, producing the following tones—
7Subsequently a fifth tone was added at the top, thus—
9The highest of these five intervals (generally produced by a single string, and sometimes by a pair of strings tuned in unison) was called in French the chanterelle, and in German the quinte. The latter designation is still used for the highest string on the violin, and is generally supposed to have been adopted from the circumstance that the E string is tuned a fifth higher than the A string. This supposition is, however, erroneous. The term is derived from the fifth and highest string on the old lute; it was always retained with reference to the accordatura of the lute, even when, in the course of time, a greater number of strings came to be used on the instrument than the number indicated in the present notation. Now, I think I shall be able to convince the reader that the arrangement of the intervals produced by the open strings of our mediæval instruments played with a bow was generally similar to that of the lute. It was, in fact, more or less adhered to, until the violin came into use.
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