Scan 316
The American History and Encyclopedia of Music, 1910
10 lines. Read by computer on 15 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1monic tones, are readily and effectively drawn from the instrument. In general its range of expression is very wide and it is one of the most prominent instruments in the orchestra. A familiar example of the use of the cello in a melody is in the bass solo, "Be not afraid," from Mendelssohn's Elijah. Its use in pizzicato is illustrated in Hérold's Le Pré aux Clercs.
3VIOLONE — Bowed Strings. Europe. See contrabass.
5VIOLONE, CONTRABASS VIOL — Bowed Strings. Europe. The largest of the chest of viols and the only one to survive to the present time, when it appears as the contra or double bass. Its name came from its doubling of the part of the viola da gamba. See viol.
7VIRGINAL — Plucked Strings. Europe. This instrument was so named from the fact that it was the fashion for young girls to play upon it, and not in honor of Queen Elizabeth, as was so long the popular impression. The name was given in England to an instrument identical with the spinet. Hipkins declares that the name was limited to the keyboard instrument with a jack and one string to each note. Attached to the end of the key-lever was a jack or wooden upright. This jack was a centered tongue of holly held in its place usually by a bristle spring placed behind it. The spring was occasionally of steel. A pin or small piece of crow quill projected perpendicularly from the tongue. When the key-lever was depressed the jack would rise and the pin would cause the string to vibrate. As soon as the finger was removed from the key, the jack would resume its position and a piece of cloth fastened to the jack just beyond the quill would come in contact with the string and damp it.
9At first virginals were played on tables and were trapezoidal in shape, allowing only room for the length of the strings. Later, an oblong case was introduced and it is claimed and generally accepted that the name spinet was applied from the fact that John Spinitus, a Venetian (1503), was the first to make use of the new shape.
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