Scan 55
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators, 1909
6 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 19. See the scan on archive.org.
1strongest evidence. Some inquirers derive the word Geige from the French and Italian words for leg of mutton.¹ Wigand, however, supposes it to be derived from the old northern word Geiga, meaning trembling, or from Gigel, to quiver. If we consider the nature and character of the instrument, this view of the derivation of the word appears both ingenious and correct. Roger North shrewdly conjectured that the "rude and gross" Gothic Fiddle "used to stir up the vulgar to dancing, or perhaps to solemnise their idolatrous sacrifices." In the Dark Ages dancing may have been regarded as bi-pedal trembling. I have remarked in another place,² "In the early ages of mankind dancing or jigging must have been done to the sound of the voice, next to that of the pipe, and, when the bow was discovered, to that of a stringed instrument which was named the Geige from its primary association with dancing." The evidence we have
3¹ "Almost all our musical writers state, as if it were a well-ascertained fact, that the German word Geige is derived from the Gigue of the French Minstrels, who, during the 13th and 14th centuries, had a sort of Rebec which they called by that name, and which, according to some commentators, resembled in outward appearance the shank of a goat or ram, called Gigot, and hence the origin of all the similar words occurring in different European languages. These commentators have, however, neglected to prove that the old French word Gigue occurs before the 13th century, or that it is earlier than the Middle High German Gige." —Engel's "Researches into the History of the Violin Family."
5² "The Violin and its Music," 1881, page 19.
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