Books › The story of the violin, 1904 › scan 52
Scan 52
The story of the violin, 1904
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Old Nations
3thin and unexciting, plaintive sounds of a bowed instrument.
5In Egypt, again, music lay mostly in the hands of women of the upper classes, and this fact almost speaks for itself. Considering what in our own days even old Spohr thought of women playing the violin, there was no room in Egyptian parlours for a ravanastron or omerti. A harp or a lyre was a different thing. Not only was its use sanctioned by religious tradition from time immemorial, but the way of handling it was natural, graceful, inviting to the Egyptian maiden. It could be played in walking, standing, or lounging, and pretty hands and rings and rounded arms could be displayed (and when did woman ever despise such means of attraction?). Lastly and above all, the bright, tinkling tones of their twanged instruments suited admirably the ears and musical tastes of these bright, light-hearted Southerners, just as they do yet in most Oriental countries.
7It is first and last the idiosyncrasies of a people, nurtured by custom and tradition, which will give the direction to its musical activities. How much had religious sanction to do with the employment of musical instruments in those ancient days? Music and religion were inseparable. We find the proof of that in the records of all ancient nations. Every instrument which was not conformable, assimilable to the cult, not sanctioned by tradition, had to be rejected, cast out sooner or later. What place could a primitive bowed instru-
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