Books › The music of the Bible : with an account of the development of modern musical instruments from ancient types, 1879 › scan 84
Scan 84
The music of the Bible : with an account of the development of modern musical instruments from ancient types, 1879
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 74. See the scan on archive.org.
1across a rounded open piece of wood or half a dried gourd. In its more elaborate form it was adjusted to the requirements of the compass of sounds to be produced by the strings, to their thickness, tension, and position; also by carefully selecting the finest specimens of wood for use, by giving consideration to its weight, closeness of fibre, &c., and finally, by determining the best model or "shape of the resonance-box." By innumerable experiments in such things, extending perhaps over thousands of years, we at last are in possession of an almost ideal type of violin, as turned out by the great Italian masters (Stradiuarius in particular), who have so perfected the construction of this instrument with relation to its requirements, that the most skilful of modern workmen can make no better effort than to imitate their models, without indulging in a hope of ever surpassing them in general excellence.
3The most primitive material used for strings was, probably, twisted grass; next in time, the guts of animals; lastly, wire or silk. String-instruments closely allied to two or more of the family-types depicted in the Plate are both numerous and interesting. The harp-lute, a favourite instrument at the close of the last century, good specimens of which may even now be often found in the shops of instrument-makers, possessed characteristics of both harp and lute, having certain strings passing over a fretted fingerboard, while others were open at the back. In the harpsichord, keys acted on little plectra which plucked the strings; what the ancient lyrists were compelled to do with their fingers assisted by a plectrum, is here done by the leverage of keys. In the pianoforte the hammers are no longer left in the hands of the player, but are also placed under the control of levers. The old German Streich-zither was a link between the guitar and fiddle; it was, as its name implies, a bowed-guitar. A similar transition is suggested by the old
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