I.—INTRODUCTORY AND EARLY ENGLISH.
The origin of the violin is always a very interesting subject for study. It is one upon which many great writers have devoted much time and thought, but as they arrive at varying conclusions, and in some cases opposite opinions, the result is to leave the mind of the student in a state of conjecture and speculation.
In tracing the development of certain species of stringed instruments the arguments of some authorities often appear pretty conclusive, but generally we are confronted with such a mass of contradictory assertions, that we can only treat the theories put forward as approximate. The professor, teacher and matured student approaching this subject, of course do so with great profit, as they are better able to accept or reject whatever may be said concerning the ancestry of the violin family, than is the young beginner.
For those who desire a more extended knowledge of the rise and progress of the violin family a large field of literature is open. As a preparatory the author recommends Otto’s “Treatise on the Structure and Preservation of the Violin” (W. Reeves, London), which contains much valuable and interesting information on the subject.
Now, there can be little doubt but that the simplest form of stringed instrument (played with a bow) was conceived from the idea of a stretched string fixed at two points, vibration being excited by means of a jagged stick. The earliest known instrument of this species, according to M. Fétis (a great historical writer on the subject) is the ravanastron, stated to have been invented by an ancient King of Ceylon, called Ravana, some five or six thousand years ago. It consisted of a cylinder of sycamore wood, hollowed out from one end to the other. “This cylinder is about 4⅜ inches long, and has a diameter of 2 inches. Over one end is stretched a piece of boa skin, with large scales, which forms the belly or sound-board. The cylinder is crossed from side to side—at one-third of its length, next the sound-board—by a rod or shank of deal, which serves as a neck, of the length of 22 inches, rounded on its under part, but flat on the top, and slightly inclined backwards. The head of this neck is pierced with two holes for the pegs, half an inch in diameter; not in the side, but in the plane of the sound-board. Two large pegs, 4 inches in length, shaped hexagonally at the top, and rounded at the ends which go into the holes, serve to tighten two strings made of the intestines of the gazelle, which are fixed to a strap of serpent skin attached to the lower extremity of the rod or shank. A little bridge ¾ of an inch long, cut sloping on the top, but flat on the part which rests on the sound-board, and worked out rectangularly in this part, so as to form two separate feet, supports the strings. As to the bow, it is formed of a small bamboo, of which the upper portion is slightly curved, and the lower (nearly) straight. A hole is made in the head of the bow, at the first knot, for fixing a hank of hair, which is strained and fixed at the other end, by binding a very flexible rush string twenty times round it.”
Such is this most primitive bow instrument, slight modifications of which still exist in Eastern countries. The Chinese and Japanese fiddles one often sees now in music-shops are not at all unlike the ancient ravanastron. That India appears to have given birth to bow instruments, and to have made them known to other parts of Asia, Egypt and afterwards to Europe, no conjecture is needed, for the instruments themselves exist, and still preserve the characteristics of their native originality.
We will now pass over a few thousand years during which time stringed instruments of great variety and of every conceivable shape had been invented and improved upon in different countries of the world, their gradual development (brought about, no doubt, more by circumstances existing at various periods than by any real aim towards artistic achievement) giving birth to the various families of stringed instruments in use at the present day, e.g., the violin family, the harp, guitar, mandoline and pianoforte.
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In tracing the progress of the violin (which the author will endeavour to do in connection with its music and performers) it is necessary to content ourselves with a more definite standpoint, therefore, we will commence with a period when the viol or fiddle family came upon the scene, the immediate precursor of the violin; the viol, in fact, is not inaptly termed the grandfather of the violin.
The great distinctive feature between a viol and the present violin family, is that instead of F sound-holes, viols had C holes. Some had sound-holes in the shape of what are known as “flaming sword” holes. They carried five or six strings, sometimes more, and the finger-board was mounted with frets, for (as was then thought) the more certain means of stopping the notes in perfect tune, an idea which, to modern violinists, involves an absurdity.
Viols are known to have been in use as early as the fifteenth century (some writers go back to the thirteenth, but these early ones partook more of the nature and shape of the guitar than of the subsequent viol). The viol continued in use up to the beginning of the reign of Charles I, and was one of the most popular instruments in its time. There were generally four in use, viz., treble, alto, tenor and bass, and occupied in some respects the position now held by our violin, tenor, ’cello and double bass. To an ordinary observer there is little difference in appearance between the shape of a treble viol and the earliest violin, so that a considerable latitude of doubt may be allowed to exist as to the finality of the former and the adoption of the latter; but certain it is that the violin of the time became to be appreciated to such an extraordinary degree, that the principal viol and lute makers towards the end of the sixteenth century set about making violins in the place of viols. Whether the idea of this change was dictated by the caprice of novelty, or whether any special demand arose for an instrument of more extended compass by reason of the advancement made in the musical compositions of the time, it is difficult to determine with certainty. It is significant, however, that at this period of the advancement of the violin, the musical influence of Tallis (the founder of English church music), and of Bird, his illustrious pupil, was manifesting itself throughout this country, and in Italy the music of Palestrina exercised a similar influence.
In the year 1662 appeared the first work printed in England containing any reference to the violin. It was written by one John Playford, and is entitled “A Brief Introduction to the Skill of Musick,” wherein is the following relating to the violin:
“The treble violin is a cheerful and sprightly instrument, and much practised of late, some by book, and some without; which of these two is the best way, may easily be resolved. First, to learn to play by rote or ear, without book, is the way never to play more than what he can guess by seeing and hearing another play, which may soon be forgotten, but, on the contrary, he which learns and practices by book, according to the rules of musick, fails not after he comes to be perfect under these rules, which guide him to play more than ever he was taught or heard, and also to play his part in concert, the which the other will never be capable of, unless he hath this usual guide.
“These rules of music are in a plain method, as it shows in the first six chapters of this book, the which being perfectly understood, viz., the notes of the scale or gamut, which directs the places of all notes, flat and sharp, by which are pricked all lessons and tunes on the five lines, thus distinguishing of the several parts by their cliffs, as the treble, tenor, and basse. Lastly, the names of the notes, their quantities, proportions, and rests, according to the rule of keeping time, etc. There then remains two things to be instructed in, how the violin is strung and tuned, and secondly, to give you directions for the stopping the several notes, both flat and sharp, in their right places. Then, first observe that this cannot be expressed in words unless on the neck or finger-board of the violin there be set five or six frets, as is on the viol. This, though it be not usual, yet it is the best and easiest way for a beginner, for by it he has a certain rule to direct him to stop all his notes in exact tune, which those that do learn without seldom attain so good an ear to stop all notes in perfect tune. Therefore, for the better understanding of these following examples, I shall assign to those six frets on the finger-board of your violin six letters of the alphabet in their order” (here follow examples), after which he says:
“These few rules (and the help of an able master to instruct thee in the true fingering, and the several graces and flourishes that are necessary to be learnt by such as desire to be exquisite hereon), will in a short time make thee an able proficient.”
These quaint instructions would hardly suffice to meet the requirements of modern violin playing, but it is interesting to observe the rules and precepts laid down for the student’s guidance over two hundred years ago. Observe also the recommendation of frets for accuracy in stopping the notes.
The viol, however, was not destined to die a sudden death, at any rate, in this country. The soft wailing tone of the viol still found many admirers, principally amongst amateurs, who regarded the violin in the nature of an interloper. Their cause too was vindicated by one Thomas Mace, who, curious to relate, was born in the same year as John Playford (1613). This worthy lived in Cambridge, and in 1676 published a work entitled “Musick’s Monument, or a Remembrancer of the best practical music both Divine and Civil that has ever been known to be in the world,” certainly a most ambitious title and one that does not in the least suffer on its comparison with the precepts contained in the book. He was one of the clerks of Trinity College, Cambridge, and seemed to have acquired considerable knowledge of matters musical. Under whom he was educated, or by what means he became possessed of so much skill as to be able to furnish matter for the above work, he has nowhere informed us. We may collect from it that he was enthusiastically fond of music, and of a devout and serious disposition, though cheerful and good humoured.
His knowledge of music seems to have been confined to the practice of the lute (his favourite instrument) and the viol. The third part of this work is devoted chiefly to the viol, and in this he censures the abuse of music in the number of bass and treble instruments in the concerts of his time, in which he says, it was not unusual to have but one small weak-sounding bass viol to two or three “scoulding violins.” This disproportion he seeks to remedy by the observance of the following instructions. He says:
“Your best provision (and most compleat) will be a good chest of viols six in number, viz., 2 basses, 2 tenors, and 2 trebles. All truly and proportionably suited. Of such, there are no better in the world than those of Aldred, Jay, Smith (yet the highest in esteem are), Bolles and Ross (one bass of Bolles I have known valued at £100).
“These were old, but we have now very excellent good workmen who (no doubt) can work as well as those if they be so well paid for their work as they were, yet we chiefly value old instruments before new, for by experience they are found to be far the best. The reason for which I can no further dive into than to say, I apprehend that by extream age the wood (and those other adjuncts) glew, parchment, paper, lynings of cloath (as some use), but above all the vernish. These are all so very much (by time) dryed. Linefied, made gentle, rarified, or (to say better even) agefied, so that that stiffness, stubbornness, or clunginess, which is natural to such bodies are so debilitated and made plyable, that the pores of the wood have a more and free liberty to move, stir, or secretly vibrate, by which means the air (which is the life of all things both animate and inanimate), has a more free and easy recourse to pass and repass, and whether I have hit upon the right cause I know not, but sure I am that age adds goodness to instruments, therefore they have the advantage of all our late workmen.
“Now suppose you cannot procure an entire chest of viols suitable, etc. Then thus. Endeavour to pick up (here or there) so many excellent good odd ones as near suiting as you can (every way), viz., both for shape, wood, colour, etc., but especially for size. And to be exact in that take this certain rule, viz., let your bass be larger, then your trebles must be just as short again in the string, viz., from bridge to nut, as are your basses, because they should stand 8 notes higher than the basses. Therefore, as short again (for the middle of every string is an 8th) the tenors (in the string) just so long as from the bridge to F fret because they stand a 4th higher.
“Let this suffice to put you into a complete order for viols.”
We have given the above quotation in extenso without breaking in with any comment, in order that the student may better understand the peculiar phraseology used by this ancient authority. The student will observe that old instruments were equally valued in those days as in these, and this too was at a period anterior to the fame of the great Stradivarius, whose grand period commenced with the opening of the eighteenth century.[1]
There appears to be a general consensus of opinion favouring the theory that Gaspar da Salo, the founder of the Brescian school of violin makers, who probably worked from 1560 to 1610, was the first to make violins in their present shape. Be this as it may, no mention is made of any of his instruments having found their way into this country at this period, nor is he mentioned in any way in connection with the adoption of the violin in this country, the probability is that our own viol and lute makers commenced a school of their own, although nothing definite seems to be known as to who they were. One thing, however, seems certain, the early English violin makers were far behind the Italians in point of workmanship. The English model was large and clumsy, while that of Italy left hardly any room for improvement.
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The derivation of the word fiddle[2] appears to be wrapt in obscurity, and must in no way be taken as coeval with the term violin. According to Strutt, the antiquary (who wrote a very interesting work last century on the sports and pastimes of the early English), the name of fiddler was applied to the minstrels or itinerant musicians of the fourteenth century. Chaucer, in his “Canterbury Tales,” mentions the term in connection with “The Clerke of Oxenforde.”
For him was lever han at his beddes head
A Twenty Bokys clothyd in blacke or rede
Of Aristotel and hys philosophie
Than robys riche or fidel or sautrie.
In the “Vision of Pierce the Ploughman,” we read “not to fare as a Fydeler or a Frier to seke Feastes.”
It would appear that as time went on, these wandering minstrels or fiddlers sunk very much in popular estimation, and were held in very low esteem, so much so, that in the reign of Elizabeth was passed an Act entitled “An Act for the punishment of rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars,”[3] and amongst the malefactors amenable under this Act were included “‘Wandering Minstrels’ (other than players of interludes belonging to any Barron of the realm, or any other honourable personage of greater degree if authorised to play under the hand and seal of arms of such Baron, or personage”) the penalty being “such pain and punishment as by this Act is in that behalf appointed.”
We hear of the itinerant musician again in an ordinance from Oliver Cromwell dated 1656, during his protectorship, which prohibited “all persons commonly called fidlers or minstrels” from “playing, fidling and making music in any inn, alehouse or tavern,” and also from “proffering themselves, or desiring or intreating any one to hear them play or make music in the places aforesaid.”
The great moralist, Owen Feltham, in his “Resolves,” 1631, also touches upon the subject. Under his remarks on music we read: “It is a kind of disparagement to bee a cunning fiddler. It argues his neglect of better employment and that he hath spent much time upon a thing unnecessarie. Hence it hath been counted ill for great ones to sing and play like an arted musician, Philip asked Alexander if hee was not ashamed that he ‘sang so artfully.’” In the “Westminster Magazine” for February, 1775, is an article entitled “Fiddling Defended,” as follows:
“Some people are unreasonably severe against Fiddlers, but surely there is no absurdity in attracting the eyes of the fair in displaying a white hand, a ring, a ruffle, or sleeve to advantage. Who can blame the performer who is successful enough to fiddle himself into a good fortune? Whatever the rigid and austere may think, the approbation of the ladies is no small spur to a proficiency in music as well as in many other sciences. It is highly probable that Achilles (though the blind bard is silent upon this head) would not have strummed his harp with so much glee if the ears of Deidamia and Brifeis had not been tickled by it.—A FIDDLER.”
Peacham, in his description of a “Compleat Gentleman,” published 1634, addresses his readers thus: “I desire no more in you than to sing your part sure and at first sight, and withall to play the same upon your violl or the exercise of the lute privately to yourselfe”—and in another place he observes: “King Henry the eighth could not onely sing his part sure but of himselfe compose a service of foure five and sixe parts”—and we are told that Queen Elizabeth was a tolerable performer on the virginals (the precursor of the pianoforte) and also the violin.
The next source from which any historic information concerning the fiddle is obtained is from the writings of one Anthony Wood, of Oxford, who, although not a professional player, was an enthusiastic amateur whose opinion was not to be despised.
This worthy in his life written by himself in the year 1654 gives an amusing account of a musical escapade which it may not be out of place here to repeat, as the work is rather scarce and difficult of access. It throws an interesting light on the state of music at that period. He says:
“Having by this time got some musical acquaintance, a frolick by all meanes must be taken by us; and what should it be, but to disguise ourselves in poore habits, and like contry fidlers scrape for our livings? Faringdon Fair this yeare was the place designed to go to: And all of us (five in number) lodging in a house in the Middle Rew in Magd. parish,—belonging to one Gregory a Chandler, wee sate out very early the next morning, and calling first on Mr. Th. Latton’s house at Kingston Baképuze, wee bid him good morrow by 2 or 3 tunes. He came in the hall among us, listened to our musick, gave us money, and ordered drink to (be) carried to us. After wee had done with him, wee retired to the In standing on the road going to Farringdon, dined there, and after dinner wee were entertain’d by some of the neighbours, who danc’d (as I remember) on the Green, gave us some money and victualls, and I think wee returned very late that evening to Oxon. The names of those in this exploit were, myself and Will Bull before mentioned, who played on the Violins, Edm. Gregorie, B.A., and gent. com. of Mert. Coll. who play’d on the bass viol, John Nap of Trinity on the citerne, and George Mason, of the said Coll. on another wyer instrument, but could do nothing. Soon after we took a voyage northward, called at Hampton Poyle, played at Mr. Wests’ house, had some money, but more drink. Afterwards we went (I think) to Kidlington, got something there, returned in the evening, and certain soldiers overtaking us, they by force, made us play in the open field, and then left us without giving a penny.
“Most of my companions would afterwards glory in this, but I was ashamed, and could never endure to hear of it.”
He goes on to relate that by 1656 he “had a genuine skill in musick, and frequented the weekly meetings of musitians in the house of Will Ellis, late Organist of St. Johns Coll., situated and being in a house, opposite to that place whereon the Theatre was built.” Here he gives a list of the company who met and performed their parts on lutes and viols. The music masters were: “Will Ellis, Batchelor of Musick, and owner of the house, who always played his part either on the organ or virginal:—Dr. John Wilson, the public professor, the best at the lute in all England. He sometimes play’d on the lute, but mostly presided (directed) the consort.—Curteys, a lutenist, lately ejected from some choire or cathedral church. Thomas Jackson, a bass violist.... Ed. Low, Organist lately of Christ Church. He play’d only on the organ; so when he played on that instrument Mr. Ellis would take up the counter-tenor viol, if any person were wanting to perform that part. Gervace Littleton ... a violist; he was afterwards a singing man of St. Johns Coll. Will Glexney, who had belonged to a choire before the warr ... he played well upon the bass-viol, and sometimes sung his part.... Proctor, a young man and a new comer. John Parker, one of the university musitians. But Mr. Low, a proud man, could not endure any common musitians to come to the meeting, much less to play among them. Of this kind I must rank John Haselwood, an apothecary, a starch’d formal clister-pipe, who usually played on the bass-viol, and sometimes on the counter-tenor. He was very conceited of his skill (though he had but little of it) and therefore would be ever and anon ready to take up a viol before his betters, which being observed by all, they usually called him ‘Handlewood.’ The rest were but beginners.
“Proctor died soon after this time, he had been bred up for Mr. John Jenkyns, the mirrour and wonder of his age for musick, was excellent for the lyra-viol, and division-viol, good at the treble-viol, and treble-violin, and all comprehended in a man of three or four and twenty years of age. He was much admired at the meetings, and exceedingly pitied by all the facultie for his loss.”
“A. W. was now advised to entertain one Will James, a dancing master, to instruct him on the violin, who by some was accounted excellent on that instrument, and the rather, because it was said that he had obtained his knowledge in dancing and musick in France. He spent, in all, half a yeare with him, and gained some improvement from him; yet at length he found him not a compleat master of his facultie, as Griffith and Parker were not; and, to say the truth, there was no complete master in Oxon for that instrument, because it had not hitherto been used in consort among gentlemen, only by common musitians, who played but two parts. The gentlemen in private meetings, which A. W. frequented, played three, four, and five parts with viols, as treble-viol, tenor, counter tenor, and bass, with an Organ, virginal or harpsicon joyn’d with them; and they esteemed a violin to be an instrument only belonging to a common fiddler, and could not endure that it should come among them, for feare of making their meetings to be vaine and fiddling. But before the restoration of King Charles II, and especially after, viols began to be out of fashion, and only violins used, as treble-violin, tenor, and bass violin; and the King, according to the French mode, would have 24 violins playing before him while he was at meales, as being more airie and brisk than viols.”
Under the year 1658 he informs us that: “Tho. Baltzar, a Lubecker borne, and the most famous artist for the violin that the world had yet produced, was now in Oxon. And this day (July 24th), A. W. was with him and Mr. Ed. Low at the Meeting house of Will Ellis. A. W. did then and there, to his very great astonishment, heare him play on the violin. He then saw him run up his fingers to the end of the finger-board of the violin, and run them back insensibly, and all in alacrity and in very good tune, which he nor any in England saw the like before. A. W. entertained him and Mr. Low with what the house could then afford, and afterwards he invited them to the tavern; but they being engag’d to goe to other company, he could no more heare him play or see him play at that time. Afterwards he came to one of the weekly meetings, at Mr. Ellis’s House, and he played to the wonder of all the auditory; and exercising his fingers and instrument several wayes to the utmost of his power. Wilson, thereupon, the public professor (the greatest judge of musick that ever was) did, after his humoursome way stoope downe to Baltzar’s feet to see whether he had a huff (hoof) on, that is to say, to see whether he was a devil or not, because he acted beyond the parts of man.”
“About this time it was, that Dr. John Wilkins, warden of Wadham Coll., the greatest curioso of his time, invited him and some of the musitians to his lodgings in that Coll. purposely to have a consort, and to see and heare him play. The instruments and books were carried thither, but none could be persuaded there to play against him in consort on the violin.
“At length the company perceiving A. W. standing behind in a corner, neare the dore, they haled him in among them, and play, forsooth he must, against him. Whereupon he being not able to avoid it, took up a violin and behaved himself as poor Troylus did against Achilles. He was abashed at it, yet honour he got by playing with and against such a grand master as Baltzar was.”
“Mr. Davis Mell was accounted hitherto the best for the violin in England, as I have before told you, but after Baltzar came into England, and showed his most wonderful parts on that instrument, Mell was not so admired, yet he played sweeter, was a well bred gentleman, and not given to excessive drinking as Baltzar was.”
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Baltzar occupies a twofold prominence, he was one of the earliest German performers, and the first to give any real impetus towards the popularity of the violin in this country. He is also stated to have been the first to introduce the practice of “shifting.”
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During the reign of Charles I, and also during the Cromwellian usurpation, music was practically at a standstill. Instrumental music in churches was prohibited, and the theatres were soon after shut up. Indeed, as a previous historian of the art has observed, “nothing but syllabic and unisonous psalmody was authorised or even permitted in the Church. Organs were taken down; organists and choirmen reduced to beggary, and the art of music, and indeed all arts but those of killing, canting, and hypocracy, discountenanced, if not prescribed. The only demand made for the fiddle was in the performance of low class music as an accompaniment to the bacchanalian orgies, in favour during this profligate period.”
However, with the restoration of Charles II, came the restoration of music in this country. The musical taste of this monarch having been formed in France during his sojourn there, he was naturally anxious to introduce the French style into this country, and as we have seen from the writings of A. Wood, he emulated the French King, Louis XIV, by employing a band of twenty-four violins. From this period, and with this impetus, the epoch of violin playing in England may be said to date.
The leader of this band of twenty-four violins was Baltzar; he was succeeded by John Banister, who was really the first English violinist of any note.
Pepys, in his Diary, under date February 20, 1667, says: “They talk how the King’s violin Banister is made. That a Frenchman (Louis Grabu) is come to be chief of some part of the King’s music.”
It is worthy of notice that Banister was sent abroad by Charles II in order to study music and acquire the French taste, and so fit himself for the leadership of the King’s band, which post, however, he soon lost for asserting in the King’s hearing that the English violinists were superior to those of France, which probably accounts for the note made by Pepys in his Diary.
Banister must have been a very enthusiastic musician, for he was the first who publicly advertised concerts in this country.
The following advertisement is extracted from the “London Gazette,” under date Monday, December 30, 1672.
“These are to give notice, that at Mr. John Bannister’s House (now called the Music School) over against the George Tavern in White Fryers, this present Monday, will be musick performed by excellent Masters, beginning precisely at 4 of the Clock in the afternoon, and every afternoon, for the future precisely at the same hour.”
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We have now arrived at the close of the seventeenth century, by which time the supremacy of the violin was established not only in England, but in all countries where culture and the fine arts march hand in hand.
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Before bringing this notice to a close, let us glance briefly at the artistic activity prevailing during the early part of the eighteenth century.
In his workshop at Cremona would be found the great violin maker, Antonius Stradivarius, producing those inimitable instruments which have rendered him so famous. We find Corelli at the head of the first school of violinists at Rome (of which he was the founder), turning out pupils destined to shed lustre into whatever country they carried their art, and writing those immortal sonatas, that will ever retain their high character as examples of tonal purity, and with Boccherini, laying the foundation of chamber music.
In 1714 the arrival in England of Geminiani and Veracini, the great Italian violinists, contributed to make the violin more popular as well as to advance the practice of execution. They also supplied the performers on that instrument with compositions far superior to any they had possessed prior to their arrival.
The establishment of Italian opera in England served to raise up a host of violinists, who were not slow in availing themselves of the facilities afforded them for studying under the great Italian masters continually visiting this country. The result has been, that England at the present day is able to point with pride to some of the most notable performers on the violin, as belonging to her ranks.