Scan 33
The violin & its story : or the history & construction of the violin, 1905
14 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 19. See the scan on archive.org.
1was struck off by lightning, and twenty-four people were killed.*
3But the surest proof that at this period the art of handling the fiddle and the bow was held in great repute, is to be found in our great national epic,† the "Nibelungenlied," which originated about 1210. The poet here describes one of his noblest characters in the bold and jovial Volker of Alzei, who used the sword as freely as he used the fiddle-bow. In this poem Gunther tells Hagen that "the tones of the player resounded through the hall," and that "his fiddle-bow was of red steel." He then calls the king's attention to the beauty of the music, which he says is worth all the king's silver and gold; and, says he, "his fiddle-bow pierces through steel and iron when it falls on helmet and shield."
5The forming of an orchestra, which reliable published accounts show to have originated about the beginning of this same thirteenth century, is traceable from a passage in Ulrich of Lichtenstein's "Frauendienst." When Ulrich, in the spring of 1228, undertook his adventurous journey to the Neuburg Tournament, he had in his train two mounted players on the sackbut, a "flute-blower" who also played a drum,‡ and "two fiddlers," who, Ulrich tells us, "played a merry walking tune," i.e., a "march."
7In the times of the Minnesingers music fell on better days. The players upon instruments had then ample
9* This old chronicle is quoted by Abele to show that respectable people, as well as wandering vagabonds and minstrels, played on musical instruments. The event was probably recorded by the Brunswickers themselves as a signal mark of the judgments of heaven falling on the frocked fiddler for encouraging dancing and such like levities.—Translator.
11† That is, the great epic of the German people.—Translator.
13‡ This flute-blower perhaps played the "Pan's pipes" and played his drum at the same time, as we remember in our youthful days the proprietor of the Punch and Judy show used to do to gather a crowd round him. He always stuck his pipes into his waistcoat, moved his head round according to the pipes he wished to blow into, and tootled while he drummed, he being the entire "band" of the establishment.—Translator.
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