Books › The violin and its music, 1881 › scan 53
Scan 53
The violin and its music, 1881
8 lines. Read by computer on 10 September 2026. Printed page 33. See the scan on archive.org.
1THE VIOL IN THE NETHERLANDS.
3boast of an orchestra—composed of a Harp, a Flute, a Viol, and a Trumpet.* Mention of these instruments at this early date is interesting, without staying to enquire whether their tones were ever heard in combination. That this refers to a branch of an Association of Rhetoric seems clear, and it is in these branches we are interested as bearing upon the progress of Music at this period, since to their influence is traceable the extended cultivation of the Art among the Netherlanders during the next century. From these Chambers emanated the multifarious arrangements for the conduct of the city processions and entertainments in the management of which the Netherlanders were unequalled, causing them to become the instructors of other nations in these matters. In their plays and pageants, instrumental music was introduced. At first it was doubtless of a rude description. Those instruments fitted to make the most noise were selected, such as the Bagpipes, and other wind mediums of sound; but in course of time, as their pageantry became artistic, these were supplemented or replaced by others, among which were bowed instruments of the kind common in Germany, which was a large Bass instrument suited for sustaining the fundamental harmonies. This Bass Viol I cannot but regard as the parent of those ushered into existence with the Motett and Madrigal.
5It is unnecessary in these pages to trace the
7* Lavoix Fils, "Histoire de l'Instrumentation," Paris, 1878.
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