Books › the history of the violin, 1864 › scan 190
Scan 190
the history of the violin, 1864
2 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 168. See the scan on archive.org.
1imagination he has allowed in the adjuncts of several of the ancient instruments. He includes many that are in Bonanni's work. The contre-basse, he says, is much larger than the violoncello, and is of three sorts. One with three strings, tuned according to his directions, G, D, A, beginning from the lower string; one with four strings, F, G, D, A, or G, D, G, C; and one with five strings, E flat, A, D, G, C, or F, A, D, F sharp, A. The quinte, or taille, or haute-contre de violon, was like our modern tenor, having four strings, and tuned a fifth below the violin. The viole d'amour was a viol with seven strings, larger than the violin, and of a softer tone. The par-dessus de viole was of the same sort, with five strings, and had frets, and was played on the knee. Several other sorts of violes are mentioned, but then out of use for a hundred years and more; as the viole de Bordone, with forty-four strings (there was the sambuca Lyncea, invented by Colonne, a Neapolitan, in the sixteenth century, which, it is said, had five hundred strings), viole batarde, viole d'amour with metal strings, and viole di braccio (from whence the German name bratsche, for the tenor); also five sorts of violes, or violettes, differing only in size; and the basse de viole, and le par-dessus, then still in use. He mentions the violon d'amour, then obsolete, as he says, which had four metal strings placed below the regular gut strings, and so tuned as to render the harmonics, but produced confusion. Also the viola alto, or quinte, which seems to have been like the quinte before named; it was sometimes called the violette, and Stamitz, the son of the distinguished musician of that name, was a fine performer on it. The description and fingering of the violoncello in his work were written by Nochet, a fine performer on the instrument at that time, and a pupil of Cervetto. Laborde also gives a figure of the poche, or sourdine, or kit.
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