Books › The violin and its music, 1881 › scan 74
Scan 74
The violin and its music, 1881
7 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 52. See the scan on archive.org.
1in Languedoc and the adjacent provinces than in that which gave the language its name, and these provinces are nearer Spain, which was the last place where the Goths figured as a power in Western Europe. During the dominion of the Goths the Latin language lost much of its original character and degenerated to the Romance, three different dialects of which were spoken in Spain as early as the beginning of the eighth century.* Here, then, we appear to have a link to connect the Romance of Spain with that of Provence, which taken in conjunction with Voltaire's remark as to most of the music heard in France before the time of Louis the Fourteenth (Francis I.?) having been that of Spain,† strengthens greatly my belief that the Viol associated with the Troubadours of Provence came from the Viol-germ carried to Spain by the Goths.
3Whatever may have been the condition of music in France prior to the time of the Troubadours, to those minstrels rightly belongs the opening page in all notices of French musical progress. Nay, more, they are entitled to primary notice in the history of the music of Western Europe, since it was they—paradoxical though it may seem—who gave melody to music. The scraping of Viols, the jargon blowings of huntsmens' horns and shepherds' pipes, the crude twangings of minstrels' harps and primitive lutes, was hushed as the music of the Troubadours arose.
5* Longfellow's "Spanish Language and Poetry."
6† "Age of Louis XIV."
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