Books › The violin and its music, 1881 › scan 61
Scan 61
The violin and its music, 1881
4 lines. Read by computer on 8 September 2026. Printed page 41. See the scan on archive.org.
1Madrigal, when for the sake of variety the singers ceased singing their Madrigal parts, and performed them on their Viols. But this most interesting innovation on the part of the Viol of taking to itself the music of Nature's organ, must surely have been brought about by successive steps in the instrument's development, which are no longer visible; and I see nothing unreasonable in believing that these early steps were taken in the Low Countries, long prior to the time when the Madrigal was taken to Italy. That a Viol-playing people like that of the Netherlands of the fifteenth century, the originators of scientific domestic music, the creators of the true Madrigal, should have carried their music and their Viols to Italy without having previously contributed in some measure to that knowledge which enabled the Italians to perfect the family of the Viol, is difficult to realise.
3Towards the close of the fifteenth century commenced that departure of Netherland musicians to Italy, the full effects of which was to fall upon the Musical Art in after ages. These men carried with them the accumulated work of two centuries, ripe for the reception of that adornment which was then being bestowed upon painting and other arts by born Italians, or aliens under the influence of Italy's climate, its people, and surroundings. Their art had been scientifically developed in the Netherlands to a degree to which no other nation could in any way lay claim. It had reached to its
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