Scan 17
The violin & its story : or the history & construction of the violin, 1905
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 3. See the scan on archive.org.
1the bow. Such conjectures possess, however, no historical value, for in the old writers no trace can be found of the Greeks using any instrument which could be likened to our own stringed instruments. Attempts have been made to find in the "plectrum" the origin of our wooden bow, and, indeed some dictionaries give the meaning of "plectrum" as "the bow of a musical instrument"; but this betrays a confusion of ideas as to the true meanings of words. Greek statues and bas-reliefs, as also the paintings upon their pottery, give us plenty of representations of the "plectrum," but it is easily discerned to be a little piece of wood or ivory held in the hand of the player, fitted with a hook, with which he gripped or struck the strings. Greek and Roman sculpture and painting show us no single example of anything at all resembling a bow.
3On the other hand, India would appear to have been the cradle of stringed instruments, and it is now generally accepted that these were brought over originally from Asia to Europe. It is also known that India contains the most ancient monuments of a very advanced civilisation, and it is certain that the inhabitants of that land have for thousands of years maintained the status quo of their peculiar culture. Precisely on these grounds the musical instruments there discovered establish their character of primitive originality, and the simplicity of contrivance shown in those instruments leaves no doubt possible as to the origin of bowed instruments. Fétis gives an interesting description of the "Ravanastron," the oldest and most widely used instrument of its species in India, somewhat as follows:—
5The Ravanastron consists of a hollow box or cup of sycamore wood, eleven centimetres long and five centimetres wide. Upon one side of this box is stretched a piece of broad-scaled boa-skin, the position of which causes it to act as a sound-board or resonance table. To one end of the box is fixed a piece of wood fifty-five centimetres long, bored at its upper end with two holes. This piece of wood serves as the neck of the instrument, the two strings being fastened to pegs fitted into the two holes at the end of
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