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Scan 60
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.
1Music in the First Centuries A.D.
3pagate under Rome's auspices the only true and perfect art of Christian singing. At the same time, in the seclusion of the newly-founded cloisters, men began to wrestle with the theoretical problems of the new art—viz., to lay the foundations of polyphonic writing, that pearl of great price for which they had vainly searched in the musical legacy of the Greeks.
5But while thus it fared comparatively well with singing and musical theory—both lying at the warm bosom of a Church which, in times, convulsed with changes, stood firm and grew ever more powerful—instrumental music — poor Cinderella!—was not so fortunate. The very fact that almost nothing is known about her in the early centuries of the Christian era, and very little in succeeding ones, is proof of her miserable condition compared to that of her two sisters of the art. Did instruments exist? Of course, Greek and Roman instruments endured well into the later Middle Ages. The new Christian art, however, being essentially vocal in its nature and import—while we may presume that this or that Biblical instrument like the harp, the psalter, etc., continued an honourable existence, if not in connection with religious ceremonies, at least in the better Christian homes1—the majority of instruments, those former companions at pagan feasts and revelries, were very likely shunned at first by the Christians, and then gradually
71 We must also mention the organ, which from the ninth century was employed in the churches to accompany the singing, and the monochord, which served for teaching purposes.
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