Books › The Violin and its Music, 1881 › scan 42
Scan 42
The Violin and its Music, 1881
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 22. See the scan on archive.org.
1we have Pietro Dardelli making Viols at the end of the fifteenth century* at Mantua. That Dardelli was undoubtedly Italian his name sufficiently shows. At Brescia, a little later, Gaspard di Salo was making Viols. That he made a Violin in 1566 is shown from an instrument sold at Milan in 1807 bearing that date. Andreas Amati made also Violins at Cremona about the same period. Turning to the music of the Italians we have the fact that Gabrielli published at Venice, in 1587, Church madrigals, on the title-page of which the Violin is mentioned. I do not think it is possible to cite earlier reliable evidence of Italian Viol and Violin making, or of Italian music adapted to the leading instrument, than that given above. The manufacture of bowed instruments of a superior kind clearly took root in Italy about the commencement of the sixteenth century. That this manufacture had its rise in the music of the Italians, I am unable to believe. In following the course of musical progress in Italy, the indirect evidence of German Violin creation becomes more valuable. If we seek for the chief cause of the early growth of the Italian Viol manufacture, we shall find it in the madrigal; the question naturally follows, "Where was this species of composition nursed during its infancy?" We answer—"In the Netherlands."
3Upon turning to the musical records of the Low
5* The Italians made Viols much earlier, but Dardelli seems to have been the first maker of instruments worthy of the name.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.