Books › The violin: some account of that leading instrument, and its most eminent professors, from its earliest date to the present time;, 1878 › scan 26
Scan 26
The violin: some account of that leading instrument, and its most eminent professors, from its earliest date to the present time;, 1878
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1generis," unless he would rashly prefer illustrious illegitimacy, and be styled the base violin.*
3If we were disposed, in England proper, to get up a claim for the first local habitation afforded to the violin, we might put together a much better case for the instrument that was familiar to the Anglo-Saxon gleemen, as early as the 10th century, than can be shown in behalf of the candidate just dismissed. We could produce an individual that should display a far better face, and should appear with, at least, no great disgrace to the Fiddle Family, though bearing about him none of the refinements of fashion. It may be as well to exhibit him at once:—
5* M. Cartier, Musicien de la Chapelle du Roi, announced for publication, several years ago, an "Essai Historique sur le Violon, et sur les progrès de l'Art Musical, depuis le moyen age." This announcement was accompanied by the following observations: — An Historical Essay upon the Violin may, at first sight, appear to many to possess but little interest. They will not readily believe that it is capable of exciting their liveliest curiosity, and of presenting an object of real utility, inasmuch as an attempt will be made to lead the mind from the mere mechanism of the art to a moral and scientific view of the subject, and to a consideration how far the beau idéal of music is indebted to the violin. The author proves that this instrument was unknown to the ancients, and derives its origin from the Druids of Gaul, from whom it afterwards passed to the bards of Scotland—that, from this obscure beginning, it made its way through the dark ages, with slow but certain success, till the beginning of the 17th century, when it attained the first rank among instruments."—(Harmonicon, 1827.) I have not been able to discover whether this promised treatise has yet seen the light. The idea of tracing the instrument to the Druids of Gaul seems more romantic than rational; but it would be something gained for la gloire de la France, could such a theory be substantiated.
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