Books › The arts and crafts book of the worshipful Guild of violin-makers of Markneukirchen, from the year 1677 to the year 1772, 1894 › scan 44
Scan 44
The arts and crafts book of the worshipful Guild of violin-makers of Markneukirchen, from the year 1677 to the year 1772, 1894
6 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. Printed page 36. See the scan on archive.org.
1took the lead in, and sounded the key-notes of, art and culture during the 17th and the first half of the 18th centuries, it was earlier understood how to blend harmoniously together different musical instruments. In the south of France, the cradle of the troubadours of chivalric times, German musicians and instrument-makers were at an even earlier date welcome arrivals, but they may very probably have wandered thither from Bavaria, the Tyrol and other south German countries.
3In the Museum of Musical History in Berlin may be seen a sort of bass instrument, called a "luther bass," but connoisseurs doubt whether this was made in Luther's time and not, as is more likely, put together some time later. Violin-making was, without doubt, earlier carried to perfection by the old Italian masters than by the Germans, as is proved by the Italian name "Viola," a name by which all similar string instruments were designated up to the middle of the 16th century, after which time the diminutive form "Violino" (little viol) was first generally adopted; the Italian masters certainly played a form of string quartet, earlier than we Germans, yet it is questionable whether the "Contrabass" (also called the "Big Bass Violin" or "Violone") held the same position then as it holds in the string quartet of the present day.
5The German musical author, Michael Praetorius, describes the different bow-instruments in the second volume of his work "Syntagma Musicæ" (which appeared in 1619) and distinguishes them only by the
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.