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the original book.
THE VIOLIN:
Some Account of That Leading Instrument, and Its Most
Eminent Professors, from Its Earliest Date to the
Present Time; with Hints to Amateurs, Anecdotes, etc.
by
GEORGE DUBOURG.
FOURTH EDITION,
Revised and Considerably Enlarged.
LONDON:
Robert Cocks and Co.
Publishers to the Queen,
New Burlington Street;
Simpkin, Marshall and Co. Stationers'-Hall Court.
MDCCCLII.
London:
Printed by J. Mallett,
Wardour Street.
PREFACE
TO THE PRESENT EDITION.
After a lapse of nearly sixteen years since this little work first
appeared in print, I have been called upon to prepare it anew for the
press, incorporating with it the additional matter necessary for the
extension of the subject to the present time.
My new readers may like to know, at the outset, what is the intended
scope of the following pages. This is soon explained. My object has been
to present to the cultivators of the Violin, whether students or
proficients, such a sketch (however slight) of the rise and progress of
that instrument, accompanied with particulars concerning its more
prominent professors, and with incidental anecdotes, as might help to
enliven their interest in it, and a little to enlarge what may be called
their _circumstantial_ acquaintance with it. This humble object has not
been altogether, I trust, without its accomplishment;—and here, while
commending my renovated manual to the indulgent notice of the now
happily increasing community of violin votaries, I would not forget to
acknowledge, gratefully, the liberal and generous appreciation with
which, when it first ventured forth, it was met by the public press, and
introduced into musical society.
G. D.
_Brighton, August, 1852._
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE VIOLIN.
The Fiddle Family—the Epigonion—the Semicon—the Plectrum—the
Magadis and Sambuce—Orpheus and the lyre—the Plectrum an implement
of percussion, not a bow—the Egyptian Chelys—Orpheus at
Versailles—the fidicula of the Latin Dictionary—Welch claims—Crowd
and Crowder—Instrument of the Saxon Glee-men—Strutt’s sports and
pastimes—Italy—Successive stages of the invention—the
Sounding-board—the neck—the bow—the Rebec—the viol—conversion of
the viol into the violin—the tenor viol, &c.—chest of
viols—Cremona fiddles—Hieronymus Amati—Galilei’s dialogues—claim
of the Neapolitans—violins and organs in Verona in 1580—Corelli’s
Violin, and Annibale Caracci—Piccoli Violini alla
Francese—Monteverdi’s _Orfeo_—Mersennus—the Barbiton—the Kit—the
Musurgia of Luscinius—the Rebec and Viol-di-Gamba—Violars
accompanying the troubadours—Saxon word Fidle, German Videl,
Icelandic Fidla, &c.—Fythelers of the old English romances—passage
from the Life of St. Christopher—Chaucer and the Canterbury
Tales—Absolon, the parish clerk—the ribible—the violin in low
esteem before the Restoration—minstrels included among rogues,
vagabonds, and sturdy beggars—Percy’s reliques—King of the
minstrels—Butler’s Hudibras—Crowdero—France—sculptures on the
portal of Notre Dame, in Paris—the Decameron—Michele Todini—the
first to introduce the Double Bass—Arms of the Town of
Alzei—Inhabitants called Fiddlers—Cushion Dance described—Hone’s
table book—Miss Hutton’s Oakwood Hall—Punch and the fiddler—‘a
regularly educated Zany’—Purcell’s catches—Epigram upon Young,
father and son—Anthony à Wood’s Autobiography—the Restoration
favourable to music—the Violin introduced at Court—Matthew Lock,
master to the Court band—Cambert, Lulli’s predecessor—the music of
the drama: act tunes—arrival of Nicolo Matteis—first
music-engraving in England—‘Musick’s Monument,’ and Thomas
Mace.—_pp. 1, et seq._