Books › The history of the violin, and other instruments played on with the bow from …, 1864 › scan 25
Scan 25
The history of the violin, and other instruments played on with the bow from …, 1864
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1work, "De Cantu et Musicâ Sacrâ," mentions among the instruments of the Hebrews the viola, or chelys, and many other stringed instruments, but he makes no advance in identifying them; and as, amongst other instruments, he mentions the "spinettæ," the integrity of his list cannot much be depended on. He divides the instruments into three classes, and thus describes what he calls fidicina: "Secundi generis sunt omnia instrumenta quæ chordis seu nervis instructa, digitis vel pinnis vel etiam plectris in harmonicos motus artificiose incitantur, et sonum suavem reddunt; ut sunt, citharæ, testudines, theorbæ, nablia, harpæ, lyræ, viola seu chelys, sambucae, pectides, pandoræ, clavicymbala, clavichordæ, spinettæ, barbita, aliaque his similia, et omnis generis citharæ vulgo chitarre."
3The Eastern nations had, probably, from an early period stringed instruments, but principally of the lute or guitar class. There is no early record or representation of the use of the bow; and when it does appear, it may have had its origin from a more frequent intercourse with the Western and Northern countries. We do not, therefore, look for the introduction of the bow from the East, though we may be indebted remotely to the ancient Egyptians, as hereafter mentioned, for an instrument that, with some modification, may have afterwards become one of the earliest bowed instruments. The bowed instruments most in use in the Eastern countries were generally made of a cylinder of sycamore, or other suitable wood, or sometimes a cocoa-nut, hollowed out and polished, a prepared skin, or a slip of fine satin-wood, being placed over the cavity. The neck was very long and slender, and the strings two or three in number, with a bridge; the bow of bamboo and hair. Varieties of these are still in use in India, Persia, Arabia, China, and other coun-
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