Scan 168
The American history and encyclopedia of music, 1908
6 lines. Read by computer on 11 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1and three silk overspun with silver. The body possesses a flat back, and in outline resembles a violin, the sides incurving similarly. Maple, ash, service, or cherry may be used in its construction, and the neck and finger-board, which is fretted, are of hard wood. The strings pass from an ebony bridge, near the lower part of the instrument, over a round sound-hole and along the neck to pegs at the extreme end. The guitar, which is in reality a Spanish instrument, displaced the English either. It is especially adapted to voice accompaniment, and its dreamy tones recommend it to the people of sunny Italy and Spain. Almaviva in Rossini's "Barber of Seville" uses it in his serenade to Rosina. In playing the little finger is allowed to rest upon the sound-board, while the thumb is employed with the bass strings, and the remaining fingers with the three higher strings.
3The guitar was at one time much more prominent than now, and Burney in Ree's Encyclopedia tells the following story: "About 1750 its (the guitar's) vogue was so great among all ranks of people, as nearly to break all the harpsichord and spinet makers. All the ladies disposed of their harpsichords at auction for one-third of their price, or exchanged them for guitars, till old Kirkman, the harpsichord maker, after almost ruining himself with buying in his instruments, for better times, purchased likewise some cheap guitars and made a present of several to girls in milliners' shops, and to ballad singers in the streets, whom he had taught to accompany themselves with a few chords and triplets, which soon made the ladies ashamed of their frivolous and vulgar taste and return to the harpsichord." He also says that during this reign of terror not a song was printed without its being transposed and set for the guitar.
5GUSLA, GUZLA — Bowed Strings. Servia and Bulgaria. An instrument having but a single string of gut or hair. The body is bowl-shaped, and is formed from a solid piece of wood hollowed out. The top is of parchment and the string is carried over a bridge near the foot of the instrument. A very crude horsehair bow is used in playing it.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.