Scan 39
Researches into the early history of the violin family, 1883
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 29. See the scan on archive.org.
1others are touched with a bow. It is much on the same principle with the violin, of which, perhaps, it is the prototype, and the term is now indiscriminately used for both."
3Likewise Edward Jones, in his "Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards" (London, 1794), remarks that the crwth derived its name from "its protuberant or bellying form." If this was the case, its back must have been originally convex, and the crwth of the eighteenth century, of which some specimens have been preserved, does not represent exactly the original shape of the instrument. In fact, the convex body must have constituted the chief feature of the crwth, if it derived its name therefrom. Also R. A. Armstrong ("Gaelic Dictionary," London, 1825) supports this conjecture by defining the original meaning of cruít as "a hump on the back," and cruitear as "a hump-backed person." No doubt the flat back was later adopted, when it became the fashion to use the bow to four of the strings instead of twanging them, and when it was found more convenient to place the instrument on a table instead of holding it in the hand.
5Notwithstanding this innovation, the crwth bears a striking resemblance to the oriental lyre, which before our Christian era was a favourite instrument with the Egyptians, Greeks, and several other eastern nations. A comparison of the crwth with the ancient lyre depicted here, which is copied from an Egyptian painting, will probably convince the reader that the two instruments are almost identical in outward appearance, the only noteworthy difference being the addition of a finger-board in the crwth; and this construction is explicable as a comparatively modern contrivance. The
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