Years since, for Women in their Apparel to be so Pent up by the Straitness, and Stiffness of their Gown-Shoulder-Sleeves, that They could not so much as Scratch their Heads for the Necessary Remove of a Biting Louse; nor Elevate their Arms scarcely to feed themselves Handsomely; nor Carve a Dish of Meat at a Table, but their whole Body must needs Bend towards the Dish.”
And here we must leave Thomas Mace (who with all his oddities is a lovable and genuine writer) and pass on to the “scoulding” violin—to use his own phrase—an instrument he considered as only suitable for “any extraordinary Jolly or Jocund Consort-Occasion.”
The violin, which finally ousted the treble viol, seems indeed to have had a humble beginning in fairs and country revels: but six violins were included in Henry VIII.’s band, where they were played by Italian musicians. Violins did not rapidly make their way to popularity, and Playford (1660) describes these instruments—rather condescendingly—as “a cheerful and spritely instrument much practised of late.” He speaks, too, of a bass violin, i.e. the violoncello.
The chapter ends with a description of the tromba marina, which is not marine trumpet, but a curious elongated box-like instrument with a single string, which is sounded with a bow and wakens the harmony of the sympathetic strings within the body of the instrument. Mr Galpin’s instrument was discovered in an old farmhouse in Cheshire (Plate IV.).
Chapter vi. is chiefly devoted to the organistrum or
hurdy-gurdy (Plate V.). This is a stringed instrument which differs from the rest of its class by being sounded neither with fingers like the lute nor with a bow like the viol, but by means of a rotating wooden wheel. The melody string (or strings) is not stopped directly by the finger as in the violin, but by a series of keys manipulated by the performer, who need not necessarily possess a musical ear since the stopping is arranged for him. The Swedish nyckel-harpa—which I remember to have heard in Stockholm—is the only other instrument in which the strings are stopped by mechanical means. This instrument differs from the organistrum in the fact that it is sounded by the ordinary fiddle-bow, and not by means of a wheel. The organistrum is remarkable for having been “in constant and popular use” from the tenth century up to the present day.
Clavichord and Virginal.
The clavichord, the earliest progenitor of the piano, originated in an instrument in which the tangent which struck a given string also acted as a bridge to mark off the length of the vibrating portion and therefore to determine the note produced. It is remarkable that (p. 115) this type of instrument remained in use until the time of Sebastian Bach, when the principle of “one tangent one string” replaced the more ancient system.
Of the clavichord Mr Dolmetsch (p. 433) writes that its tone is comparable, as regards colour and power, “rather to the humming of bees than to the most delicate among instruments. But it possesses
a soul . . . for under the fingers of some gifted player it reflects every shade of” his “feelings like a faithful mirror. Its tone is alive, its notes can be swelled or made to quiver just like a voice swayed by emotion. It can even command those slight variations in pitch which in all sensitive instruments are so helpful to expression.”