Books › The history of the violin, and other instruments played on with the bow from the remotest times to the present. Also, an account of the principal makers, English and foreign, with numerous illustrations, 1864 › scan 30
Scan 30
The history of the violin, and other instruments played on with the bow from the remotest times to the present. Also, an account of the principal makers, English and foreign, with numerous illustrations, 1864
13 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. Printed page 10. See the scan on archive.org.
1vocalist to sing it, when, although every precaution was taken, and he was plunged up to the neck in the river Jumna, the flames burst out and destroyed him. A female singer was more happy, for in a time of famine from want of rain, she sung the rain-producing raga, and seasonable showers followed and revived the parched rice crops.
3Many have seen the anecdote given by Olaus Magnus, of Eric, king of Denmark, who was excited to madness by the performance of a celebrated musician. First he produced grief, then joy, and then fury, to such an extent that Eric destroyed some of those who endeavoured to restrain him. We can only say that we have seen this account in the work of Olaus, and that Kircher believed it. However, he also believed the story of the magic piper of Hammelin, who in the year 460, in revenge at not being paid for piping away the mice of the place, piped away all the boys from four to twelve years of age, and disappeared with them in the side of a hill. Verstegan says the year was 1376, and that the boys were 130 in number, of whom one who was lame escaped by lagging behind. Kircher must be right, for he had seen the hill and a picture representing the fact.
5The fancy of the music of the spheres is not confined to India—
7"The music of the spheres,
8So loud it deafens mortal ears,
9As wise philosophers have thought,
10And that's the cause we hear it not."—Hudibras.
12The celebrated astronomer Kepler, had a fanciful notion about this music of the spheres, making Mercury the treble, Venus and the Earth the counter-tenors, Mars the tenor, and Jupiter and Saturn the basses. If he had lived to this time, he might have established a very imposing choir with the numerous additional planets.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.