Books › The violin and its music, 1881 › scan 28
Scan 28
The violin and its music, 1881
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 6. See the scan on archive.org.
1small consequence, since they were but different tribes of the same common Teutonic stock, and spoke only different dialects of the same Gothic language.
3All bowed instruments down to the eleventh or twelfth centuries must have been of the rudest kind. It was not until minstrelsy, which the Northmen introduced, became greatly extended and varied in its character, that attention was bestowed upon bowed instruments. That the Spanish Violars and the Troubadours of Provence* contributed in some measure towards the advancement of instrumental music is possible enough, but the chief work appears to have been accomplished in Germany, where Grimm tells us "Far back towards the thirteenth century, until which time nothing but the long-drawn strains of old heroic poems had been sung and heard, a wondrous throng of tones and melodies resounds at once, as if arising from the earth. From afar we fancy we hear the same key-note, but, if we come nearer, no tune is like another. One strives to
5* Macaulay has written of "The region where the beautiful language of the Oc was spoken, that country, singularly favoured by nature, was in the twelfth century, the most flourishing and civilised portion of Western Europe. It was in nowise a part of France. It had a distinct political existence, a distinct national character, distinct usages, and a distinct speech. The soil was fruitful and well-cultivated; and amidst the corn-fields and vineyards rose many rich cities, each of which contained a miniature of an imperial court. It was there that the spirit of chivalry first laid aside its terrors, first took a humane and graceful form, first appeared as the inseparable associate of art and literature." "Essays" Vol. III. p. 107.
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