Books › The Violin and its Music, 1881 › scan 184
Scan 184
The Violin and its Music, 1881
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 160. See the scan on archive.org.
1and his Madrigal, is the opinion I have formed after tracing the course taken by both instruments and music at this date. Very shortly after the madrigal appeared in Italy, the Viol manufacture—which had been chiefly carried on at Mantua, and consisted in reproducing Viols of the class common among Germans and Lowlanders—gave way to the Viols wholly of Italian design. The original of this type of instrument appears to have been the large Italian Double Bass, in which we see clearly the curves afterwards common to the Violin family of instruments. In the upper, lower, and middle bouts,* we observe the lines which have been retained for nearly four centuries. It is rare to see an Italian Double Bass with the upper sides shaped as here indicated, but they were all made so unquestionably, and were altered to the shape we now see them when frets were dispensed with, and the higher positions of the instrument began to be used. In the sound-hole again we discover evidence of new ideas. No longer is its back turned to the bridge—as seen in the Viol da Gamba to the end of its days—but it faces that important member of the body with an air of grace and ease. Neither is it cut like that of the Viol da Gamba, simply as a hole for the emission of sound, regardless of the shape and manner of setting having considerable influence on the quality of tone. It was shaped with a singular power of elegance, utility, and design: a combination
3* Sides.
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