Fig. 193.—Three-stringed Crout of the Ninth Century. From a Miniature.
Fig. 194.—King David playing on a Rote. From a Painted Window of the Thirteenth Century. (Chapel of the Virgin, Cathedral of Troyes.)
In the earliest rotes ([Fig. 194]), those made in the thirteenth century, there is an evident intention of combining the two modes of playing on the strings—rubbing with a bow and touching with the fingers. The box, which was not hollowed out and rounded at the two ends, was much deeper at the lower end, where the strings commenced, than higher up, near the pegs, where these strings are sounded open under the action of the finger, which reaches them through an aperture; the bow acting on them near the string-bridge in front of the sounding-holes. It must have been difficult to touch with the bow one string alone, but it should be remarked that the harmonic ideal of this instrument consisted in forming accords by consonances of thirds, fifths, and eighths. The rote was soon developed into a new instrument, assuming the form that our violoncellos have almost exactly retained. The box was increased in size, the handle was lengthened beyond the body of the instrument, the number of strings was reduced to three or four, stretched over a bridge, and the sounding-holes were made in the shape of a crescent. From this time the rote acquired a special character it had not lost even in the sixteenth century, when it became the bass-viol. This was its true destination. The size of the instrument dictated the manner in which it was held, either on the knees or on the ground between the legs ([Fig. 195]).
Fig. 195.—German Musicians playing on the Violin and Bass-Viol. Drawn and Engraved by J. Amman.
The vielle or viole, which had no affinity except in shape with the vielle (hurdy-gurdy) of the present day, was at first a small rote held by the performer against his chin or his breast, in much the same way as the violin is now used ([Fig. 196]). The box, which was at first conical and convex, became gradually oval in shape, and the handle remained short and wide. It was, perhaps, this handle which terminated in a kind of ornamental scroll in the shape of a violet (viola), that originated the name of the instrument. The viole, just as the rote, formed the accompaniment obligato of certain songs; and among the jugglers who played upon it good performers were rare (Figs. [197], [198]). Improvements in the vielle came for the most part from Italy, where the co-operation of a number of skilful lute-players was the means of gradually forming the violin. Even before the famous Dnifloprugar, born in the Italian Tyrol, had hit upon the model of his admirable violins, the handle of the vielle had been lengthened,
