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 45
Scan 45
The arts and crafts book of the worshipful Guild of violin-makers of Markneukirchen, from the year 1677 to the year 1772, 1894
5 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. Printed page 37. See the scan on archive.org.
1manner in which they were played; thus:—
21. Viole da gambe, which are held between the legs; and 2, Viole da Braccio, which are held on the arm; the latter are also called "little Polish Violins." The big viola di gamba (contrabasso di gamba, with six strings) did not find much favour on account of the incompleteness of its tuning-mechanism; otherwise, he is of opinion that it matters little how one tunes one's violin or viola, so long as it is tuned to pitch, and the player can perform on it well. It would be clearly seen that even our modern four-stringed bass only gradually attained an enhanced importance, when we consider that for a long time even the four-stringed violin, invented by Tieffenbrugger, and improved upon by his Italian followers, was played upon, tuned to very varying keys, and that till 1680 one played only up to the A above the cleff, later rising to the C or Ut, and that real virtuosity, as we understand the term today, only began with Locatelli in the middle of the 18th century.
4So long as there was no specifically developed string-orchestra music in Germany, at least as long as the real string quartet had not found a wide field, the bass was perhaps a desirable but still not indispensable instrument, and it certainly required a series of progressive stages of development before the bass was recognised as a concert instrument independent of the violin—before it reached such popularity that without the accompaniment of the violin it was played in village music supported only by the bagpipe. In later times its use and importance
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