Books › The M. Steinert collection of keyed and stringed instruments. With various treatises on the history of these instruments .., 1893 › scan 150
Scan 150
The M. Steinert collection of keyed and stringed instruments. With various treatises on the history of these instruments .., 1893
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 146. See the scan on archive.org.
1was written for this instrument. This family of viols has become extinct at the present time, and their place has been usurped by our favorite string quartett, the violin, the viola, the violoncello and the contrabass. The violin, whose difference of construction from the viol family has been hereinbefore described, first appeared in Italy in the middle of the 16th century. It completely revolutionized the art of fiddle making, first causing the disappearance of the Discant Viol, then the Tenore, and last of all the Bass Viol. The Double Bass alone survives. The substitution of the violin for the viol is due, as formerly stated, to its louder tone. The violin model was finally adopted for the tenor and bass during the last century. Since Stradivari, (1680–1730) the models for bowed instruments have scarcely changed at all to the present date.
3The violin is now about 300 years in existence. It is the only musical instrument that has remained unchanged throughout the modern musical history. The lute, the universal companion of bowed instruments up to a century and a half ago, has disappeared as completely as the spinet and harpsichord. Wind instruments have been completely revolutionized, but the violin has remained the same for three hundred years, and will probably remain so while music exists. Numberless attempts have been made to improve it, but they all have been abandoned. Almost every structural alteration that could be thought of has been tried at some time and dismissed. The whole design of the fiddle has been gradually settled in strict accordance with the requirements of tone and execution. The development of this instrument at once so simple and complex can be easily traced. Its primitive forms can be beheld in early monuments. Old stringed instruments have gradually died hard, and very primitive ones have maintained their place alongside of improved ones founded on their principle. Thus the Marine Trumpet, one of the oldest bowed instruments, and representing the earliest development of the monochord, continued in use for a long time concurrently
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.