Scan 47
The Violin & Its Story: Or the History & Construction of the Violin, 1905
11 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Viol de Bracio, or Violino da brazzo, otherwise the Geige,* is called by the common folk a "fiddle," and thence de bracio, because it is held on the arm."
3The scarcity of Prætorius's book is our only reason for placing these brief extracts before the reader. In addition to the above, Prætorius describes the "great lyre," the "little lyre," and the "trumscheit," all which tend to show that in the few years which intervened between Agricola and Prætorius the art of the lutemaker must have made tremendous strides to be able so richly to endow the family of bowed instruments.
5But the violin of Prætorius's day could have possessed but little of the noble tone-character which soon after placed it in front of all other instruments. The reason of this is to be found not so much in the faults of the proportions of the instrument, or in the defects of its construction, as in the low pitch of the tuning of that day, the quality of the strings, and the unskilfulness of the players, who preferred to display their art on the lute.
7So much in general on the state of the lutemaker's art, and relatively of music itself, in Germany at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The very fact that the actual name of the violin came from Italy, would appear at the first glance to imply that in that country the art of constructing bowed instruments had existed for a longer period and been brought to a higher state of development. This may or may not have been the case; but it is certain that, even in our own day, the people of our country† display a weakness for borrowing, without any necessity for doing so, foreign names and notions; and it is quite possible that, owing to the great number of Italian artists present at the courts of German princes, Italian names for German inventions and German productions were readily incorporated in the current speech and literature. Proofs that the violin had been further
9* "Geige" is German for violin or fiddle.—Translator.
10† That is, Germany.—Translator.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.