La Franco: Scintille di Musica, 1533.

Silvestro Ganassi: Regola Rubertina che insegna suon di Viola d’arco, 1543.

Ludovico Zacconi: Prattica di Musica, 1592 (Zacconi stated here that the compass of the violin was g-ciii).

M. Prätorius: Syntagma Musicum, 1619.

Touching upon the use of the violin in the sixteenth century there is extant a wealth of historical references. From one of these, for example, we gather that at a public festival in 1520 viols were used to accompany songs. We may assume their popularity in England from the fact that they were used in the family of Sir Thomas More (1530), an ardent music lover, and that during the reign of Edward VI the royal musical establishment increased the number of its viols to eight. Violins were used at public performances in Rouen in 1558; at a fête in Bayonne for dance music in 1565, and in a performance of a Mass at Verona in 1580. In the year 1572 Charles XI of France purchased violins from Cremona and a little later ordered the famous twenty-four violins from Andrea Amati. In 1579, at the marriage of the Duke of Joyeuse, violins were used to play for dances, and Montaigne in his Journal (1580) refers to a marriage ceremony in Bavaria, where ‘as a newly married couple went out of church, the violinists accompanied them.’ From this passage of Montaigne we may infer that, in Germany at least, the popularity of violin music was not confined to the upper classes. It must be remembered, however, that the terms ‘viola,’ ‘violin,’ ‘viol,’ etc., were often applied indifferently to stringed instruments of various kinds, and in view of this inaccurate nomenclature historical references must be accepted with a certain amount of reserve.

We know little of the music that was played on the violin before the last decade of the sixteenth century. Violins, we are aware, were employed in ensembles, in orchestras, and in unison with voices, and in looking for violin music we have not necessarily to consider compositions written especially for violin. By way of illustration we may cite a collection of French Dances (1617), published for ‘instruments,’ presumably for all kinds of instruments, and a collection of ‘Songs’ edited in Venice (1539) bearing the remark ‘to sing and play,’ and indicating no special instruments. Probably much of this sort of music was played by violin. Among examples of specific writing for the violin there has come down to us previous to 1539 a Fugue (Fugato rather) for four violins, composed by Gerle. It is in four parts: Discant (first violin), Alto (second violin), Tenor (viola) and Bass ('cello), perhaps the earliest specimen of a composition for string quartet. The style is purely vocal, as we may see from the theme:

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There is no suggestion of the violin idiom in the piece and it throws no light on the development of violin music. Cortecci and Striggio in 1565 scored their intermezzi for two gravecembali, violins, flutes, cornets, trombones, and several other instruments. D’Etrée, an oboe player, wrote down the common lively tunes which had been previously learned by ear and published them in 1564. As a practical musician he undoubtedly considered also the violin. In the performance of Beaulieu’s Circe (1581) ten bands were used and in the first act ten violin players in costumes appeared. The famous violinist, Beaujoyeaulx (an Italian in the service of Henry III whose real name was Baltasarini), wrote ballets (1584), dances, festival music, and other compositions, which were very successful at the court. Doubtless he played them himself. Castiglione in his Cortigiano mentions a composition as being written for ‛quattro viole da arco’ which almost seems to indicate another specimen of early string quartet. Toward the end of the century we meet with the Balletti of Gastoldi and of Thomas Morley, some of which are printed without words and may have been intended for instrumental performances. Still, they are vocal in character and do not exceed the compass of the human voice. Besides these, there are other compositions and collections of dances, etc., that may be considered musical material for violinists of the time. Most of them, however, deserve no detailed notice.

Up to 1587 the leading instrument of the orchestra was the Cornetto (German ‘Zinke,’ an instrument of wood, not of metal). The earliest instance where the Cornetto alternates with the violins in taking the lead and where a part was inserted especially for violino is to be found in Concerto di Andrea e Giovanni Gabrieli—per voci e strumenti musicali, 1587. Some of G. Gabrieli’s compositions, however, are still in vocal style, but some are decidedly instrumental in character, as we may see from the following illustrations.