Chapter III: Part 3

Bach's solemn cantata, "Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit" (God's time is the best of all times), opens with the viola da gamba, but, early in the eighteenth century, composers replaced the Viola da Gamba with the violoncello. The last noted performer upon it was Carl Friedrich Abel, who died in 1787. Of late years it has been taken up again for its own special qualities, which should preserve it for at least occasional use. The late Henry Webb, at the suggestion of Professor Ernst Pauer in 1862, was perhaps the first to adopt it again. He had to obtain instruction in the fingering of the instrument from an old man of eighty-six. The fingering is practically that of the lute, and, as Mr. E.J. Payne has pointed out in Grove's _Dictionary of Music and Musicians_ (Art. "Violin"), it was the command of the six-stringed finger-board which the lutenists had attained by two centuries of incessant practice that was transferred by them to the Viola da Gamba, both instruments being thus common to the same players. Owing to this fact the bass viol remained in use much longer than the other members of the viol family. At the present time Mr. Payne, Herr Paul de Wit of Leipsic, and Mr. E. Jacobs of Brussels, have reintroduced the Viola da Gamba to the notice of the musical public. Mr. Jacobs played upon one furnished with sympathetic strings, with great success in the Historical Concerts given, under the direction of Mr. Victor Mahillon, in the Music Room of the London International Inventions Exhibition of 1885. The instrument here represented belongs to the Museum of the Brussels Conservatoire.

PLATE XX.

DOUBLE SPINET OR VIRGINAL.

This uncommon instrument displays one of the expedients employed to gain a more brilliant effect by the addition of an octave string, before such a string was permanently attached to the sound-board of the harpsichord itself by means of an additional row of strings placed beneath the ordinary unison strings. Octave spinets were, as Mersenne (1636) describes, made independent of the ordinary spinet, and there are frequent examples to be met with. These little spinets were placed upon the larger ones for performance, as Praetorius (1619) says, like turrets on a tower. In this double spinet it is a removable part of the instrument, and constitutes the left-hand key-board, the right-hand key-board being a fixture. The maker, as is proved by his initials, HR, and his device in the rose of the sound-hole, is no other than the famous Hans Ruckers the elder, of Antwerp. This Spinet is numbered 9 of the sixty-six existing instruments by the Ruckers family catalogued by the present writer in Sir George Grove's _Dictionary of Music and Musicians_. It can now be extended to sixty-eight. On the jack rails of both spinets may be read "Joannes Rvqvers me fecit." There is another double spinet at Nuremberg made in 1580 by Martin Vander Beest, which has been figured and is the frontispiece to Dr. August Reissmann's _Illustrirte Geschichte der Deutschen Musik_ (Leipzig, 1881). The Ruckers double spinet can hardly be much later. The earliest examples known to me of the octave string attached, as above mentioned, in the harpsichord itself, are to be found in a double clavecin (French for harpsichord) by Hans Ruckers the elder, dated 1590, and preserved in the Museum of the Paris Conservatoire, and in a clavicembalo (Italian for harpsichord), made at Pesaro, and also in 1590,--lately brought to England by Messrs. Hill, the violin-makers, and now acquired by the South Kensington Museum. The latter is an instrument with only two strings to each note. The invention of the octave string, as well as of double key-board, has been attributed to Hans Ruckers. The latest evidence, however, does not favour these attributions, although both inventions most likely belong to the Netherlands. Ruckers and his sons, it may be said, made instruments that were never surpassed for quality of tone. To return to the Double Spinet--both key-boards are of four octaves, the fixed right-hand one being from the second C below, to the second above, middle C, and the removable left-hand one is an octave higher throughout. The complete instrument rests upon the original arcaded stand.

The paintings are of later date than the instrument itself. The subjects are on the lid, and represent a contest before the gods between Apollo and Marsyas--the former divinity playing a viol, and the latter a pipe. The background is a hilly country with a lake and castle, and a man in a boat. Above and below the removable spinet are painted landscapes with figures, immediately above it children dancing; and at the fixed key-board men and women dancing in pairs. This pleasing instrument formerly belonged to Messrs. Chappell of London, but is now the property of Mr. George Donaldson.

There are seven pierced arches and columns in the stand, which is 2 feet 4 inches high. The dimensions are--extreme length, 5 feet 8-1/2 inches; the length of the left-hand key-board, 2 feet 2-1/2 inches, and of the right-hand one, 2 feet 1-1/4 inches. The width from back to front is 1 foot 7-1/2 inches, and the depth is 11-1/2 inches.

PLATE XXI.

THREE CHITARRONI.

The primary meaning of "Chitarrone" is a large guitar, but, in point of fact, this imposing yet graceful instrument is a theorbo or bass lute with a very long upper neck to give length for bass strings of deep pitch. The one to the left in the drawing, which belongs to Mr. Rudolf Lehmann, London, is Venetian, if we may judge from the beautiful decoration. It has three sound-holes with roses joined together in a fashion that is regarded as Roman, and is adorned with mother of pearl. It is strung with six pairs of strings upon the finger-board, each pair tuned in unison. Seven single diapason strings, or open basses, are stretched from the upper peg-box clear of the finger-board. It is 5 feet in extreme length, that of the neck being 3 feet 5 inches. The Chitarrone in the centre, which belongs to Mr. George Donaldson, and is richly inlaid with mother of pearl, has also three connected roses, six pairs of unisons upon the finger-board and eight diapasons clear of it. The length of it is 6 feet; the neck is 4 feet 1 inch. It is also Venetian, and dated 1608. The right-hand Chitarrone, shown at the Exhibition of 1885 by Mr. Edward Joseph of Bond Street, London, has six pairs of unisons and seven diapasons. The neck is ornamented with chequers, and the finger-board is bound with thirteen frets for the melody strings, giving the player a semitone more than the complete chromatic series.

The chitarrone is sometimes called the Roman theorbo. It is of greater length than the Paduan theorbo, with which it was introduced towards the end of the sixteenth century,--owing to a necessity having arisen for bass instruments of greater sonorousness than had been used before, in order to accompany the newly-invented recitative. About the same time there also came into use a larger instrument of the viol family, known as the violone, the precursor of the double bass. The heavier basses and simple harmonies, for which the Italians had shown a growing preference, replaced, to a great extent, the ingenious interweavings of counterpoint, and assisted the development of the latest offspring of the Renaissance, that of Monody--the recitativo and aria--introduced in Florence by Peri, Caccini, Cavalieri and Monteverde, the foundation of the modern Italian opera.

The chitarrone was used in the orchestra of Monteverde on the first production of his _Orfeo_ in 1607. There is also mention of it in a band of instruments as early as 1589.

PLATE XXII.

SPINET.

This "Spinet," with its original six-legged stand, was made in London about the end of the seventeenth century. "Stephanus Keene Londini Fecit," is inscribed upon the name-board, which is characteristically inlaid with birds and foliage. It is a transverse Spinet, the Italian "Spinetta traversa," an adaptation of the longer bichord or trichord harpsichord within the limitations of size of this instrument, which, like the trapeze-shaped and oblong spinets, had one string only to each note. The tail is extended on the right-hand side; the key-board is placed somewhat obliquely, and the wrest-plank, with the tuning-pins, is immediately above the key-board, instead of being, as in the older spinets, at the right-hand side. The compass of the key-board is from the second B below, to the second D above, the middle C,--in all four octaves and two notes, being one note more in the treble than occurs in the key-board diagram to Henry Purcell's _Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinnet_. The lowest key would, however, be tuned down to the lowest pianoforte G, the object being to secure a dominant bass for the lowest C. Purcell's diagram for the spinet gives the lowest key as "B B," but, in the lessons, he here and there writes down to G G, also to A A, for which the lowest C[sharp] key would be similarly accommodated. The two lowest sharps of the spinet here drawn present the peculiarity of being cut or divided, each division being an independent key. These were not quarter-tones as has been supposed; the front halves were tuned A and B for dominant basses like the G, and the back halves C[sharp] and D[sharp], chromatic semitones to the adjacent natural notes, thus combining the "Short Octave" principle, indispensable for the performance of contemporary music, with the chromatic system then beginning to be recognised.

Stephen Keene was a well-known maker of spinets, equal in reputation to his great rivals, Charles Haward, and Thomas and John Hitchcock, The earliest notice known of Keene occurs in an advertisement at the end of the sixth edition of Playford's Introduction (London, 1671), which announces that "Mr. George Dalham, that excellent organ-maker, dwelleth now in Purple-Lane, next door to the Crooked Billet, where such as desire to have new organs, or old mended, may be well accommodated."

"And Mr. Stephen Keene, Maker of Harpsycons and Virginals, dwelleth now in Threadneedle-Street, at the sign of the Virginal, who maketh them exactly good, both for sound and substance."

It is proved that Keene was long in business by a name-board which is in my possession dated 1719. Indeed, longer than the period occupied by Thomas Hitchcock, whose autograph occurs in spinets from 1664 and 1703. The principal dimensions of the instrument drawn, which belongs to Mr. H.J. Dale, Cheltenham, are--extreme width, 5 feet 6 inches, extreme depth, without the projection of the key-board, 1 foot 9-1/4 inches. The key-board is 2 feet 4-1/4 inches wide, and 3-7/8 inches deep.

PLATE XXIII.

QUINTERNA AND MANDOLINE.

The Quinterna or Chiterna, the Italian guitar, was formerly used by the humbler order of musicians. According to Engel, it had three pairs of catgut strings and two single strings covered with wire, and was played guitar-lute fashion with the fingers, and not with a plectrum. But the instrument here drawn, with its ten wire strings, must have been played with a plectrum in cither fashion. It was exhibited by Mr. George Donaldson in the Music Loan Collection at the Royal Albert Hall as a Giterna, an obvious variant of the name. Two views of it are here given. It is of tortoiseshell with arabesques of ivory and a carved ebony head, the back being of ebony and ivory. In length it is 24-1/2 inches, and the neck, measured from the body, is 14 inches. The words, "Joachim Tielke Hamburg fecit, 1676," are inscribed on the back of the instrument; the date, however, suggests a considerable discrepancy when compared with the Quinterna in South Kensington Museum, by Joachim Tielke, 1539. Engel supposes that this famous maker's name was continued through several generations, to account for the difference in dates. Evelyn, visiting Pozzuoli in 1645, says, "The country-people so jovial and addicted to musiq, that the very husbandmen almost universaly play on the guitarr, singing and composing songs in praise of their sweet-heartes." This guitar would be the Quinterna. The Mandoline drawn, also Mr. Donaldson's, is by Domenico Vinaccia, dated Napoli, 1780, and is of tortoiseshell and mother of pearl, with a beautiful pear-shaped back or shell. It is 22 inches long, the neck and head being 11 inches.

The Mandoline (Italian Mandolino) is smaller than the Mandora, a kind of alto lute. It is strung with catgut and wire, the bass strings being of catgut covered with silver wire, and is played with a plectrum. Of several kinds, including the Mandore, Mandurina, and Pandurina, that have been used in Italy, the Milanese and Neapolitan Mandolines are the best known. The Milanese Mandoline, with five or six pairs of strings, preserves old cither tunings; the Neapolitan Mandoline, which is really an eighteenth-century instrument, is evidently of later introduction, as it is tuned in fifths similar to a violin, which makes performance upon it easily attainable by violin players. Mozart wrote the serenade in _Don Giovanni_ with an accompaniment for it, but beautiful as this composition is, the accompaniment appears scarcely characteristic of the Mandoline or of the Bandurria either--a small kind of Spanish guitar of deeper pitch than the Mandoline, which, for local colour, would have been the right instrument. These instruments, like the Dulcimer, make their characteristic effects by means of the reiteration of notes, analogous to what is called "repetition" on a pianoforte, the intention being to convey an impression of sustained sound, and make the melody prominent when several other instruments are being played.

The accordance of the Neapolitan Mandoline is--

[Music]

of the Milanese Mandoline of five notes--

[Music]

of the Milanese Mandoline of six notes--

[Music]

and of the Bandurria--

[Music]

the three higher notes being here of catgut--the lower of silk overspun with metal. The Bandurria, like the Mandolines, is played with a plectrum, called in Spanish "Pua," which is prevented from defacing the wood by the presence of a tortoiseshell plate, let into the sound-board. The plectrum is usually a small piece of tortoiseshell or quill.

PLATE XXIV.

WELSH CRWTH. RUSSIAN BALALÄIKA.

The Crwth is a rare Welsh instrument, supposed to have been the "Chrotta Brittanna" mentioned in one of the odes of Venantius Fortunatus, written about A.D. 617, and published under the title of "Venantii Fortunati Poemata"; but following the analogy of the Gaelic "cruith," and the phonetic "crot" of the Book of the Dean of Lismore (a sixteenth-century collection of Ossianic fragments), the British Chrotta was more likely to have been an early form of the Celtic Harp. Of original Welsh Crwths known there are three--one from the Engel collection in the South Kensington Museum, another less perfect in the Warrington Museum, and the one here drawn, which belongs to Colonel Wynne-Finch of Voelas, Bettws-y-Coed, North Wales. They have been hollowed out of single pieces of wood, the sound-board being glued on--a very primitive manner of structure akin to the old Celtic Harps. The dimensions of Colonel Wynne-Finch's Crwth are--length, 22-1/2 inches; width, between 10-1/2 and 9 inches; depth, 2 inches. This instrument has six strings, although nearer examination shows that it had originally only five; four are on a finger-board played with a bow, and two are off the finger-board, intended to be twanged by the player's thumb. These open strings are a comparatively late fancy, adopted in the theorbo, lyra, and baryton viols. It is said there was a three-stringed crwth (Crwth thrithant) probably bowed, and tuned as the first, fifth, and octave, but I am disposed to agree with the late Carl Engel (_Researches into the Early History of the Violin Family_: London, 1883) that this could be no other than the mediæval Rebec. From observations made, more than a hundred years ago, by the Hon. Daines Barrington (published in the _Archæologia_ of the Society of Antiquaries, London, Vol. III. p. 20), who had the advantage of hearing a performer claiming to be the last upon the instrument, the accordance of the six-stringed crwth was--

[Music]

The strings were of catgut. Another authority, Bingley, heard the crwth played at Carnarvon as late as 1801. He gives a different accordance, in which, however, the octave arrangement remains:--

[Music]

It would appear as if the notes forming octaves upon the finger-board were bowed together but not all four strings at once, as has been sometimes supposed. To effect this there must have been a peculiar knack in using the bow. From the large openings on either side of the finger-board it is possible to trace, through the intermediate mediæval Rotta or Rote, a descent from the Græco-Roman Cythara or Lyre. There are two sound-holes in the belly, and the bridge, which is placed obliquely, has the right foot resting upon the belly, while the left foot, as in the tromba marina, passes through the left sound-hole to rest upon the back. The left foot then acts as a sound-post, and sets the whole instrument in vibration. Colonel Wynne-Finch's Crwth was found in the Island of Anglesey. It has the following inscription upon a label inside:--

MAID IN THE PARIS OF
ANIRHENGEL BY RICHARD
EVANS INSTRUMENTS MAKER
IN THE YEAR 1742.

But it is supposed to be older, and only to have been repaired or reconstructed by Richard Evans. It was restored very carefully by Mr. George Chanot before being shown at South Kensington in the Loan Collection of 1872.

The BALALÄIKA is the Russian peasant's guitar. This example was drawn because of the ornament, but the common instrument is usually quite plain. It came from Moscow tuned [Music] but another in my possession, sent to me at the same time from St. Petersburg, was tuned [Music]. The Balaläika has three frets attached to the neck, for stopping the semitone, whole tone, and minor third on each string. The strings are of catgut. The quality of tone is very sympathetic, almost sad.

The dimensions of the specimen drawn are--extreme height from the base, 30 inches; the finger-board, 13 inches; the width at base is 11-1/2 inches. The depth of the sound-chest, which is the half of a duodecagon, 5-3/4 inches. The corresponding measures of the simple peasant's instruments are--26-3/4, 13-3/4, 13, and 3-1/2 inches.

The peculiar triangular shape of the Balaläika is of very primitive character, the curved form in lutes and guitars being an artistic development. In a delightfully realistic Russian bronze shown at the Health Exhibition, South Kensington, 1884, the performer simultaneously holds the neck of the instrument and stops the strings with his left hand, while he touches them, guitar fashion, with his right hand, the instrument being free from any other support whatever.

PLATE XXV.

VIOLIN, THE HELLIER STRADIVARIUS, AND TWO OLD BOWS NOTED FOR THE FLUTING.

This is the beautiful "Hellier" Stradivarius Violin made in 1679 and bought by Sir Samuel Hellier of Womborne, Staffordshire, about the year 1734, from the maker himself. It remained in the Hellier family until 1875, when it was acquired by Mr. George Crompton, who subsequently disposed of it to Messrs. W.E. Hill and Sons of New Bond Street, formerly of Wardour Street, London, the experts in the violin section of the South Kensington Music Loan Collection of 1885. It now belongs to Mr. Charles Oldham, who possesses another inlaid violin dated 1687, which was originally made for the King of Spain, and completes his quartet of Stradivarius instruments. This Violin is considered to be one of the perfect earlier works of Stradivarius, and is of full proportions. It has greater breadth than the so-called "grand" pattern of that famous maker, and is one of his inlaid violins, of which there are not more than twelve extant. A letter of Stradivarius, recording the price (£40) Sir Samuel Hellier paid for it, was forthcoming until a few years ago, when it was unfortunately lost. We are not informed why Stradivarius should have kept this instrument in his own possession for fifty-five years--it seems likely that it had had another owner before Sir Samuel Hellier, and that Stradivarius had taken it back. The details of the ornament upon this Violin have been corrected from an exact tracing taken by Mrs. Huggins of Upper Tulse Hill, London, an earnest amateur of Stradivari's violins. The Hellier Stradivarius was certainly one of the most remarkable examples that appeared in the unrivalled collection of famous violins exhibited at South Kensington in 1885.

A quotation from Mr. George Hart's well-known book upon _The Violin, its Famous Makers and their Imitators_ (London, 1884, p. 191), justly sums up the worth of those artificers when Italian violin-making most excelled. He says: "The chief merits of Stradivari and his contemporary makers were intuitive. Their rules, having their origin in experience, were applied as dictated by their marvellous sense of touch and cunning, with results infinitely superior to any obtained with the aid of the most approved mechanical contrivances. When to these considerations we add that devotedness of purpose without which nothing great in art has been accomplished, we have a catalogue of excellences sufficient to account for the greatness of their achievements."

The bows that accompany the "Hellier" Stradivarius are from the collection of Messrs. Arthur and Alfred Hill. The violin bow, the medium by which the performer's personality is transmitted to the instrument and its various powers are brought out, is not less worthy of admiration than the violin itself. The gradual improvement of the bow has followed the development and improvement of the violin, and the settlement of its form and materials in the last quarter of the last century by François Tourte, in reality made the violin a different instrument from what it had been before. With Tourte's bow came a power of expression in violin-playing previously unknown.

PLATE XXVI.

VIOLINS, THE ALARD STRADIVARIUS, THE KING JOSEPH GUARNERIUS DEL GESÙ.

The back and front views of the Violin to the left of this Plate are taken from the "Alard" Stradivarius, so called from the famous violinist who formerly owned it. It is one of the finest violins made by Stradivarius, and bears the date 1715, thus belonging to his great period, which is considered by connoisseurs to have extended from about 1700 to 1725. The following is the brief history of the Alard Stradivarius. Bought in Florence early in the present century by a banker of Courtrai in Belgium, it passed at his death into the possession of the late J.B. Vuillaume of Paris, one of the most famous violin-makers and experts of the present century. Vuillaume reserved it for his son-in-law, Mr. Delphin Alard, professor of the violin at the Paris Conservatoire, and of European reputation as a virtuoso, in whose possession it remained until he retired from public life in 1876. It was then acquired by Mr. David Laurie of Glasgow, in whose possession this fine instrument still remains.

It is a Stradivarius of the "grand" form, and of a very handsome model, the arching of the belly and back being of exquisite proportions, neither exaggerated nor weak. The workmanship is between the earlier and later styles of the master. A careful choice of the wood is of course presupposed, but the fine regular marking of the back may be observed, and also the beautiful colour and quality of the varnish. The neck is original, as it left the hands of Stradivarius; it has, however, been lengthened by a piece added at its junction with the upper block of the body. The letters P.S., which are sometimes found on Stradivari violins at the peg-box end of the neck when it is original, are here very distinct. These enigmatical letters have given rise to some discussion among experts, but the conclusion appears to be that they are the initials of Stradivari's youngest son, Paolo, through whose hands the instruments may have passed. Paolo was a cloth merchant, not a violin-maker, but he succeeded to his father's house after the decease of his brothers.

The "King Joseph" Guarnerius del Gesù Violin (del Gesù on account of his signing his violins with the device ), of which back and front views appear to the right of the Plate, also belongs to Mr. Laurie, who has allowed this fine instrument to be drawn for comparison with the no less fine specimen of Stradivarius. The differences in the construction of the instruments of these famous makers are, to the practised eye, considerable. In general, the violins of Guarneri are smaller than those of Stradivari. There is a marked difference observable in the outlines of the two makers, the Stradivarius being somewhat square in the shoulders, the C's, or inward curvings of the sides of a violin which resemble that letter, and in the lower part, while all those features in the Guarnerius are more curved. The head of the latter is bolder, less symmetrical and quaintly original. The "_f_'s," the sound-holes in violins assuming the form of that letter as an italic, which are beautifully curved by Stradivarius, are by Guarnerius often sharply pointed at top and bottom. It might be expected that this peculiarity of the "_f_'s" would be detrimental to the artistic effect, but it is not. The arching of the belly and back is with Guarnerius less marked than with Stradivarius. Generally speaking, Guarnerius left his bellies thicker than those of Stradivarius. As may be expected, there is a decided difference in tone between a Guarnerius del Gesù and a Stradivarius. I am indebted to Dr. William Huggins, F.R.S., for the following interesting comparison. The Stradivarius possesses, as a rule, a brighter tone with unlimited capacity for expressing the most varied accents of feeling, "welling forth like a spring (says Dr. Joachim in Mr. Payne's 'Stradivari,' Grove's _Dictionary_, vol. iii., p. 733) and capable of infinite modifications under the bow." The tone of Guarnerius has intense individuality, it is powerful and somewhat contralto in quality, with a superb mellow richness strongly tinged with melancholy.

The famous "King Joseph" Guarnerius del Gesù was formerly in the celebrated collection formed by the late James Goding. It was sold after his decease in 1857 to the Viscomte de Janzé, from whom Mr. Laurie obtained it. The Tourte bow, mounted with gold, tortoiseshell and mother of pearl, shown in the same Plate, is also Mr. Laurie's.

PLATE XXVII.

VIOLA D'AMORE.

French "La Viole d'Amour" is the Love Viol, so called from the soft and tender quality of the tone produced from it. Beneath the catgut strings there are usually wire strings, which, being tuned in accordance, vibrate sympathetically when the catgut strings are bowed. This is in obedience to a well-known law of physics, according to which a body set in vibration will cause another body having the same frequency of vibration to sound when within reach of its influence. In the beautifully carved and inlaid instrument here drawn, a perfect viola d'amore in form, surmounted by a lovely head with bandaged eyes, the sympathetic strings are absent, and if they were ever attached the peg-box has since been altered. But it has the "flaming sword" sound-holes invariably found in a viola d'amore, and also the addition, not unfrequent in that viol, of a rose immediately under the finger-board.

Meyerbeer has revived the use of the viola d'amore by writing for it the delicious _obbligato_ to Raoul's song, "Ah! quel spectacle enchanteur," in _Les Huguenots_. In the present day Mr. Carli Zoeller has come forward in England as the regenerator of the viola d'amore. He has published an instruction-book, with an historical introduction of value, and has also composed for the instrument. The following interesting passage occurs in John Playford's _Musick's Recreation on the Viol Lyra-way_, London, 1661:--"The first authors of inventing and setting lessons this way to the Viol was Mr. _Daniel Farunt_, Mr. _Alfonso Ferabosco_, and Mr. _John Coperario_ alias _Cooper_. The first of these was a person of much ingenuity for his several rare inventions of instruments, as the Poliphant and the Stump, which were strung with wire; and also of his last, which was a _Lyra Viol_, strung with Lute strings and Wire strings, the one above the other; the wire strings were conveyed through a hollow passage made in the neck of the Viol and so brought to the tail thereof, and raised a little above the belly of the viol by a bridge of about 1/2 an inch. These were so laid that they were equivalent to those above, and were tun'd unisons to those above, so that by striking of those strings above with the bow, a sound was drawn from those of wire underneath, which made it very harmonious; of this sort of Viols I have seen many, but Time and Disuse have set them aside." This description may have referred to the Viola Bastarda, with the invention of which Praetorius credits England. A great authority on this subject, Mr. E.J. Payne, writing in Sir George Grove's _Dictionary of Music and Musicians_ (article Violin), says the principle of sympathetic vibration was applied to several Viols, even the little Sordino. The Viola Bastarda was the Viola da Gamba with wire strings added. In the same way the Tenor Viol became the usual Viola d'Amore. But the latter has varied in construction, the name being applied by Mattheson (1713) to a Viol with four metal strings and one of catgut, which he said bore "the beautiful name of Viola d'Amore (Viole d'Amour), in fact, for it expresses much languishment and tenderness." This must have been similar to the Viola d'Amore "of 5 wyre strings plaied on with a bow," described by Evelyn in 1679 as "above all for its sweetnesse and novelty."

The tuning of the Viola d'Amore was at first the ordinary viol way of fourths and a third, but later the major common chord tuning was given to it [Music] known as "Harp-way Sharp" (on account of the facile arpeggio and major third). This tuning was adopted by Meyerbeer for his graceful _obbligato_. Whether Bach wrote for a true viola d'amore is doubtful; the compass employed in the Johannis-Passion suggests an ordinary viola which might have been partly strung with steel or brass. Berlioz, in his _Treatise on Instrumentation_, writes of the Love Viol with sympathetic strings, "The quality of the Viole d'Amour is faint and sweet; there is something seraphic in its partaking at once of the viola and the harmonics of the violin. It is peculiarly suitable to the legato style, to dreamy melodies, and to the expression of æsthetic or religious feeling." It will, I think, be conceded that when an instrument which has gone out of fashion possesses some special quality, such as is found in this fascinating viol, there is sufficient justification for bringing it back into use.

The Viola d'Amore and other instruments in this work, that belong to the Music Class Room of Edinburgh University, have been drawn by permission of Professor Sir Herbert Oakeley, Mus. Doc., and composer to her Majesty the Queen for Scotland.

PLATE XXVIII.

CETERA, BY ANTONIUS STRADIVARIUS.

An interesting Italian Cither, dated 1700, that may be compared for design, beauty, and workmanship with Lord Tollemache's English cither known as Queen Elizabeth's Lute. It belongs to the violinist Alard, and found a place in the splendid contribution of violins and other stringed instruments sent from Paris, by the mediation of Mr. E. Gand, to the Music Loan Collection in the Royal Albert Hall, 1885. It had also been lent by Mr. Vuillaume to the South Kensington Collection of 1872. This instrument, as well as the guitar drawn in the next Plate, show Stradivarius was not averse from making other instruments than violins. As well as cithers and guitars, he is known to have made a harp. Two views are given of this cetera, and one enlarged profile of the head and peg-box. It is a woman's head, said to represent Diana,--a satyr and nymph behind the peg-box serving to form a crook or handle for supporting the instrument, as the lizard in Mr. Donaldson's cetera already described.

It will be seen this Cetera differs from the Quinterna in Plate XXIII.; it is in form one of the oldest existing musical instruments.

PLATE XXIX.

GUITAR, BY ANTONIUS STRADIVARIUS.

This Guitar is inscribed on the back of the peg-box ANT'S STRADIVARIVS CREMONEN'S. F 1680. It was brought from Brescia in 1881, and was acquired by Messrs. W.E. Hill and Sons of London. It has been supposed that this might have been the only guitar made by the illustrious violin-maker; but another, in the Museum of the Paris Conservatoire, is also claimed for Stradivarius.

The beautiful arabesque rose of this Guitar will attract attention. The coat of arms upon the finger-board indicates the noble family to which the instrument formerly belonged.

While often made in Italy, France and Germany, the Guitar is the national Spanish instrument, and although fashion may for a time permit its use in other countries, it is as an exotic, for the character and traditions of the instrument attach it closely to Spain, where it is the universal accompaniment to song and dance. The Andalusian Seguidilla and Fandango with castanet accompaniment are characteristic measures for dances, with which are combined vocal performances of _coplas_ and _estrevillo_ (couplets of four short lines and a refrain of three), partaking more of the character of an improvisation than a set performance. In the north of Spain, the Jota Aragonesa and Jota Navarra are accompanied by a vocal refrain as well as castanets, hand-clapping and finger-snapping. All these Spanish dances are in triple time with certain peculiarities of rhythm; occasionally professed guitar players elaborate them into compositions of special interest and beauty, astonishing the listener with the capabilities of the Spanish guitar as a solo instrument. But, in truth, the artist will make himself felt, however limited the range and power of the instrument may be.

PLATE XXX.

BELL HARP AND HURDY-GURDY.

The Bell Harp, although it appears in modern pre-Raphaelite paintings and is a kind of wire-strung psaltery, cannot be classed as a mediæval instrument, as it dates only from about the year 1700. Its invention is attributed to John Simcock, a soldier, who, judging from the label inside, probably gave the name of his superior officer to the instrument. It reads as follows:--"John Simcock, in the Right Honourable the Earl of Ancram's regiment of Dragoons, and in Captain Bell's troop, makes, mends, and sells the English harp; also instructs gentlemen in the best mode of playing that instrument." Robert, third Earl of Ancram, afterwards Marquis of Lothian, was appointed Colonel of the seventh regiment of Dragoons in 1696.

The Bell Harp here drawn belongs to Miss E.A. Willmott of Warley Place, Essex, as well as the Hurdy-Gurdy beneath it in the same Plate. It has four roses and fourteen notes of brass strings of four unisons to each. The extreme length of the sides is 21 inches; the breadth at the top is 6-5/8 inches, and at the bottom, 13-1/2 inches. Simcock constructed bell harps with more notes, occasionally of three unisons to each, excepting the deepest note, which was one string only, spun over with wire. The scale of another of sixteen notes, made by John Simcock at Bath, as given by Engel, was--

[Music]

The bell harp, like the zither, is sounded with a plectrum on each thumb, and the performer, while twanging the strings rapidly, holds the harp by wooden projections from the sides of the frame, and swings it upwards and downwards, to which action Grassineau (_Musical Dictionary_, London, 1740) attributes the name. This may have been so, but it is certain that the swinging motion could have no appreciable effect upon the tone. A few years ago a Frenchman played the bell harp in the streets of London, attracting audiences by the novelty of the instrument and the grace with which he swung it.

THE HURDY-GURDY.

"With dead, dull, doleful, heavy hums,
With mournful moans, with grievous groans,
The sober hurdy-gurdy thrums."

These lines, from an Ode for St. Cecilia's Day, are said to have been set to music for ancient British instruments, by Arne. But they libel an instrument that has only failed from lack of inventors to attain to the development that has raised some of its former competitors to the consideration they are now held in. While the organistrum of the church became the vielle of the Jongleurs, passing into the chifonie and hurdy-gurdy of the common folk in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the dulcimer has been the precursor of the pianoforte. The hurdy-gurdy, although at one time transformed to a sostenente key-board instrument described by Evelyn, and as the "Geigenwerk" exciting the attention of J.S. Bach, has remained what it was. The latest improved vielle or hurdy-gurdy had the following key-board compass and tuning of the open strings--

[Music: Tuned in C. Tuned in G.]

[Music: The open notes correspond with the long black keys of the instrument; the black notes with the short white keys.]

The sound is produced by the vibration of the strings, maintained by the friction of a wheel with which they are brought into contact, the function of the rotary movement being analogous to that of the fiddler's bow, the wheel being also prepared, like the bow, with rosin. Sympathetic strings are not unfrequently attached.

The Hurdy-Gurdy here drawn has within the sound-body the maker's label, "Louvet, Luthier, à la Vielle Royale, rue de la Croix des Petits Champs, à la côté de la petite porte Saint Honoré à Paris, 1757." The length, without the head, is 19-1/2 inches; the breadth being respectively 8-1/8 and 10 inches across the belly at the wider measures. The carving of the head in this and many other vielles and viols is a message to us from the past of loving care bestowed.

Baton, a luthier of Versailles, introduced in the year 1716 improvements in the vielle, or hurdy-gurdy, one of which, by reducing it to the size of a guitar, made it more convenient for performance. He even went further by adapting it to lute and theorbo bodies, while he and his successors gradually extended the compass, the highest G being added by Louvet about 1773. It became for some time a fashionable instrument, and representations of the vielle and musette (a refined bagpipe) occur in contemporary French paintings. But after the French Revolution the hurdy-gurdy was relegated once more to the highways and byeways; the last popular street player in Paris was Barbu, who, according to Mr. Louis Pagnerre, was to be heard previous to 1870, in the Champs Elysées and other open spaces, and occasionally in the courtyards of the houses of his patrons. He sometimes gave concerts, for he was an artist, and had taste as well as executive talent; he could make the instrument sing, use it to accompany his own voice, or to take a part in combination with guitar and violin. He disdained to ask for money, relying upon the appreciation of his audiences to obtain his reward. Barbu had also been heard in London, and is supposed to have been shot during the Commune.

PLATE XXXI.

SORDINI.

The Sordino is a pocket fiddle, the "Pochette" of the French and the "Taschengeige" of the Germans. In form it is derived from the mediæval rebec which came from the East, and was also known as "gigue." It was distinguished from the viol family by the neck being a prolongation of the body of the instrument, instead of an attachment to it. A diminutive viol, the dancing master's kit, replaced the rebec kit, or sordino, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. A sordino, in the Museum of the Paris Conservatoire, with the date 1717, is believed to be unique as the undoubted work of Stradivarius. Tarisio, a well-known violin collector, brought it from Italy to France, and Louis Clapisson, the violinist, composer, and collector, eventually bought it in 1858, and employed it in his opera of "Les trois Nicolas," writing a gavotte for it. The late M. Chouquet (author of _Le Musée du Conservatoire National de Musique_, Paris, a catalogue _raisonné_ of the musical instruments in that collection) has described, in enthusiastic terms, the effect of this little instrument when a gavotte was played upon it by Croisilles. "It was remembered," he says, "with pleasure by the old subscribers to the Opera Comique"--a remark that would seem to imply that the sordino, or pochette, had adequate power, and a special and agreeable quality of tone. The instrument is provided with four catgut strings, and _f_ holes on either side the bridge. Two Sordini are represented in the three figures of this Plate, the one with a negro's head in two views, the other with a termination in ivory.

These Sordini belong to the Music Class Room, Edinburgh University.

PLATE XXXII.

CLAVICHORD.

"The claricord hath a tunely kynde
As the wyre is wrested high and lowe."

John Skelton, Poet Laureate, who was born at Oxford in 1489, and died in the sanctuary, Westminster, in 1529, was the author of a poem entitled "The Claricorde," from which this quotation is taken. The true spelling is Clavichord, from the Latin "clavis," a key, and "chorda," a string. The wrester was the tuner, who wrested or strained the wire to the required tension. The words "wrest-pin" and "wrest-plank" remain in technical use for the tuning-pin and the wood in which the tuning-pins are inserted.

The Clavichord represented belongs to Mr. Gerald Wellesley, of London: its dimensions are--length, 5 feet 8-1/2 inches; width, 1 foot 9 inches; and depth, 6-1/2 inches; width of the key-board, 2 feet 9-1/2 inches. The compass is five octaves and a semitone--from the third E below, to the third F above, middle C.

Chinese decoration, which was much in vogue in the early part of last century, was not unfrequently applied to clavichords and harpsichords. As examples of the latter may be mentioned the instrument that belonged to Queen Sophia Dorothea, until lately preserved in her palace at Charlottenburg, near Berlin, but now in the Hohenzollern Museum, and the Ruckers clavecin or harpsichord in the Turin Museum. There are two music parties or concerts shown within the lid of Mr. Wellesley's clavichord, with instruments that are not, however, Chinese, but conventional representations of European fiddles and guitars.

The Clavichord is, without question, the earliest key-board stringed instrument, it having been developed from the Monochord, used for teaching singing in monasteries and church schools. It appears to have come into use in the second half of the fourteenth century, but it was not until the beginning of the eighteenth century that it obtained its full development, when, in fact, its expressive character was brought into notice by improvements in the instrument and the finger technique. It was the Bachs who took advantage of this quality as the medium to express a characteristic and tender sentiment. Its gentle, intimate tone is produced by brass pins, called tangents, fixed in the keys and flattened at the upper ends. Raised to the strings in playing, these tangents set the strings in vibration, and at the same time form bridges to measure off the lengths required for the notes. The red cloth, woven in the strings behind the tangents, damps the sound. As far as we have met with the clavichords, the instrument has had two, sometimes three strings of brass wire to each note tuned in unison; the treble being, however, occasionally of steel wire to cause a brighter sound. There were sometimes octave strings to the lowest bass octave, after the manner of some theorboes, to make those notes distinct. These groups of unisons served for two, three, and even four notes according to the point of contact of the tangent affecting them, and to clavichords thus made the Germans applied the word "gebunden" (fretted). About the year 1700 each key obtained its own strings; and the instrument having become larger, it was more powerful and fitted to produce shades of sound of varying intensity. It had the "Bebung" as well, which is analogous to the violin-player's _vibrato_, and obtained by rocking the finger upon the key without quitting it. The clavichord is the only key-board instrument that allows this effect, but care has to be used to avoid an undue sharpening of the pitch of the note so treated--indeed, a constant equality of touch has to be maintained in playing the clavichord, to preserve an accurate intonation.

One of the most inspired compositions ever written for the clavichord is the "Fantasia Cromatica e Fuga," by Johann Sebastian Bach. The figuration, the manner of slurring, the arpeggios, and much more in this piece, are extremely characteristic of the instrument. For a performance intended to reproduce, as far as may be possible, the original reading, the piece should be first studied upon a clavichord, not a pianoforte. The gentle influence of the instrument soon makes itself felt, and both player and listener seem to breathe another and a purer atmosphere. But such a performance demands concentration and those quiet surroundings the old composers enjoyed.

I'm never merry when I hear sweet music;
The reason is your spirits are attentive.
SHAKSPEARE.

Music, which gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes.
TENNYSON.

PLATE XXXIII.

THE EMPRESS HARPSICHORD.

Represents a Harpsichord of the largest size, the culmination of an instrument that had remained in use for nearly three hundred years, but, at the time this one was made, was about to be replaced by the pianoforte. This fine Harpsichord bears the joint names of Shudi and Broadwood, and was made at the house now known as No. 33 Great Pulteney Street, London, where the pianoforte business of Messrs. John Broadwood and Sons is still carried on. The instrument is numbered 691, and the books of the original firm show that it was made for the Empress Maria Theresa, and shipped on the 20th of August 1773, which happened to be the day after Shudi died. But he had for some time retired from harpsichord-making, and this instrument is really to be attributed to his son-in-law, John Broadwood. Burkhard Tschudi, or Shudi as he wrote his name in England, was of a noble Swiss family. He had established his business as a harpsichord-maker, in Great Pulteney Street, about 1732. Through Handel's friendship he became patronised by Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of George III., and was permitted to use the sign of "The Plume of Feathers" for his house. He was honoured with a commission from Maria Theresa's old enemy, Frederick the Great, to make two harpsichords for the "Neues Palais" at Potsdam, where they are still to be seen. One of them is described, with Silbermann's Forte Piano, in Dr. Burney's famous tour. Some years previously, Shudi had made a harpsichord and presented it to Frederick on the occasion of his victory at Prague, but the present writer could not find the instrument when he made a special visit to Berlin and Potsdam, in 1881. It may be said of Shudi and Jacob Kirkman, once fellow-apprentices, and afterwards competitors, that they left the harpsichord a more powerful instrument, and more varied in effect, by means of stops and registers, than it had ever been before.

Shudi was the inventor of the Venetian Swell (patented 1769), which he intended for the harpsichord. When the patent expired this contrivance was generally adopted in England, and becoming transferred to the organ, has remained, ever since, an important means of effect in that instrument. The figure in the Plate shows the Venetian Swell open, as it would be when the right pedal is put down. There are four registers and six stops in this instrument. Taking them in their order from left to right, we find on the left-hand side, the "lute," the jacks or plectra of which twang the first unison string, near the wrest-plank bridge, and give a more reedy sound than is obtained from the usual striking-places; the "octave," which, as its name indicates, acts upon strings tuned an octave higher, which are of shorter length, and lie below the others; and the "buff" (sometimes called "harp") stop, which partly mutes the second unison strings, throughout, by the contact of small pads of leather. On the right-hand side are the first and second rows of unison strings. The upper key-board has the first unison and lute only, while all the registers come under the player's control on the lower key-board. The machine stop, at the left hand of the key-boards, permits an agreeable change to lute and buff (harp) by using the left pedal and both sets of keys. Kirkman appears to have arranged his left-hand stops differently--buff, lute, octave. The dimensions of the Harpsichord here drawn are 8 feet 9-3/4 inches in extreme length, and 3 feet 4 inches in width at the key-boards. The great width of the key-board of the modern pianoforte renders it impossible, in designing one, to reproduce the special grace of the harpsichord.

Among composers, those who have best understood the genius of the harpsichord have been Handel and Scarlatti. The former, with his famous Air with variations in D Minor and the Presto following it, summed up the history and technique of the instrument, as far as it was then known. Scarlatti found such new features to display in technical contrivance and effect, that we are still attracted by an individuality the originality of which is, as yet, untouched by time. The only parallel instance, although resembling it in no other way, is that of Frédéric Chopin as a composer and performer on the pianoforte.

With the harpsichord went out the figured bass accompaniment, or thorough bass, that, for two hundred years, had been the foundation of a correct musical education. By degrees the training for technique and memory came to occupy that attention with pianoforte-players, which had been devoted to developing the fluency of improvisation expected from the harpsichord-player.

This harpsichord was lent by Mr. Victor Mahillon, of Brussels, to the South Kensington Music Loan Collection, 1885.

PLATE XXXIV.

PEDAL HARP.

A green and gold Harp that once belonged to George IV., and is now in the possession of Mr. Edward Joseph, of London. It is 5 feet 3 inches high, 2 feet 6 inches in extreme width, and 1 foot 9 inches wide at the base. It was included in the characteristic Louis Seize Historic Room, in the Music Loan Collection, Royal Albert Hall, 1885. This room, one of three, was so contrived as to display the musical instruments in social use with such surroundings of furniture, paintings, etc., as would be true for the period. These Historic Rooms, suggested by Mr. Alfred Maskell, the official superintendent of the Music Loan Collection, were arranged with great knowledge and taste by Mr. George Donaldson. They represented an English apartment of the time of George I., a Tudor apartment that included Queen Elizabeth's virginal, and a Louis Seize apartment that, with the Harp in the accompanying Plate, contained also the beautifully painted Ruckers clavecin or harpsichord (lent by Viscount Powerscourt) that had belonged to the unfortunate Marie Antoinette. There is a photograph of this harpsichord in the Catalogue of the South Kensington Collection, 1872, and a wood engraving of the Louis Seize room, showing both harpsichord and harp, in the _Art Journal_ for August 1885.

The first pedal mechanism was invented by Hochbrucker, a Bavarian, about 1720; by it he rendered the harp fit for changes of key, possible before, and that only partially, by clumsy contrivances. By using a pedal to raise each open string a semitone, accomplished by pressure upon the strings, he gave the harp eight major and five complete minor scales--also three descending minor. The Cousineaus, who were Frenchmen, and father and son, superseded the contrivance of Hochbrucker by another that grasped or pinched the strings with pieces of metal on either side, and also by slides raising or lowering the bridge-pins. By doubling the pedals and mechanism, and changing the key of the open strings from E[flat] to C[flat], they, about 1782, produced the first double-action harp. It was, however, left for Sebastian Erard to perfect the harp by means of a fork mechanism of most ingenious contrivance. He began with the single-action harp about 1786, turning his attention to the double-action in 1801. It was not, however, until 1810 that he succeeded in producing the culmination of his various improvements in a harp of great beauty of tone, with seven pedals and two transpositions, the semitone and the whole tone, permitting performance in any key without change of fingering. In spite of these important inventions the harp has almost lost position as a solo instrument. It has, however, been taken advantage of by modern composers, who have adopted it, with charming effect, as an orchestral instrument.

PLATE XXXV.

STATE TRUMPET AND KETTLEDRUM.

This silver state trumpet, with nine others, adorned with bannerets of the Royal Arms in crimson and gold, and silver state kettledrums, similarly adorned, belong to the collection of H.M. the Queen, in St. James's Palace. They were both probably made in the reign of George III., one of the trumpets in the collection bearing the maker's name, William Shaw, Red Lion Street, Holborn. Henry VIII. had fourteen trumpets in his Royal Band, while Queen Elizabeth, in 1587, had ten.