Scan 75
Researches into the early history of the violin family, 1883
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 65. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE CHROTTA.
3If the reader has had the patience to follow these researches thus far, I think I shall now be able to convince him that there is no foundation for the assertion, made by almost all our musical historians, that the chrotta mentioned by Venantius Fortunatus was played with a bow. It must be borne in mind that the stanza which alludes to it dates from the second half of the sixth century. Forkel ("Geschichte der Musik," Vol. ii., p. 117) spells the name of the instrument without an "h," Crotta; and so do some other writers, who may have consulted him. But the hint thrown out by them that crotta may be a corruption of the Greek kithara seems too bold to be seriously entertained. Ferdinand Wolf ("Ueber die Lais, Sequenzen und Leiche," p. 58), after having quoted the stanza containing the words "Chrotta Britanna canat," adds the suggestive information: "A manuscript in the Vatican has 'Rotta Britanna canat.'" This fact certainly affords a strong additional evidence in support of the opinion that chrotta and rotte designated originally the same instrument.
5Perhaps undue importance has been given to those lines of Venantius Fortunatus by some musical historians in their attempts to trace the origin of the violin. At all events, it is advisable not to ignore an observation on this question made by Fétis ("Histoire Générale de la Musique," Vol. iv., p. 494) and here translated from the French:—
7"We can place only a limited confidence in the writers of the early uncivilised centuries, and of the middle ages, as
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