Smyrna times., 1875-09-29
The Violin and it's Makers.

also unknown when stringed instruments |
were first used. 1t might be said that if |
we knew the latter we should know the
| former, but that would scarcely be true,
because we read of quantities of stringed |
instruments used i'll olden times, that can |
scarcely be called of the violin class, but |
more like the guitar.
Several early instruments of the East,
varying in number of strings and details, |
according to the oriental tradition, were
invented by Ravona, king of Ceylon, 5000
years before the Christian era.
Numerous musical instruments are men,
toned in the Old Testament among which
are the "harp and the viol; )" but there is
no proof, or even probability, that any of
them belonged to the violin class The
word viol was only used by the translators
as the name of an instrument, but of which
nothing is distinctly known.
Neither do we know when the bow was
first brought into use. Forster says: " In
truth, however, the history of the violin
meaning thereby stringed instruments,
played on with a bowls a subject of great
difficulty, and the origin, like that of many
other things, seems lost in obscurity,
especially the commencement of the use of
the bow
Stringed and bowed instruments are men,
toned by travellers in many countries, but
they are generally of a simple and often
rude form, and to none can we look for the
origin of our violin. The modern Greeks
land Egyptians, and even the Africans have
them. Bowditch, i'll his EMISSION to
Ashantee," describes one used by the ma
tives of the interior, made from a calabash,
, with a deerskin at the top, having two
large sound-holes, one broad string made
, of cowhide, and the bow strung with the
same material.
Layard mentions the Bedouins who
attended him, chanting verses to the
: monotonous tones of one-stringed fiddle,
, made of a gourd covered with sheepshin.
Prince Youssoupow, also, in his " Lutho-
| monographie,' relates having met with
. travelling Orchestras of Persians, Turks, and
: Armenians, in which there were instru-
| ments of the violin class, but without its
n tone or form, being made of half gourd
S or sometimes followed wood, covered with
t a piece of bladder having three or four
e strings.
/, Dr. Halde refers to a kind of violin
e with three silken strings, in China, used by
It the common people.
/, Great numbers of travellers and historians
h mention these stringed instruments played
l. upon with bows, and by nations and peo
ir pie which would make it seem positive
Ig that they have been in use nobody knows
Sc how long.
e, The description of all of them is similar
id and none of them anything like the violii
Sd in form or tone. The dates when thes
n were seen are very uncertain, in fac
scarcely any are given, therefore; as show
no when the stringed and bowed instrument
~ were invented is a mystery.
he The approach to the present shape of til
n. violin was probably gradual, the frs
va makers being makers of viols. (Viols ar
! scarcely known in America they are {
a about the same form of a violin, with 81
bc strings, generally, and with frets on tn
,al fnger-board).
i'll There are painted on the interior of tn
de roof of an old cathedral at Peterborough
he England, representations of people playin
Ter upon different instruments. Among thes
ar, is a person playing upon an instrumer
sly something the same shape as a violin. TIL
lat roof is considered to be of the date of ll9
he or little earlier. The instrument is hel
ct, under the chin and is played upon with
lot bow, the same as is the violin of to-da
en- Therefore, of course, instruments somethir
to like the violin were used before 1894.
From this date-which is the first v
,os find when they used instruments of Il
tIo violin class-to 1900, which is 300 yea
ro later, there seems to have been no We
nor great change in the form of the viol; st
Y there was a slow and gradual approach
the violin form.
Fetis mentions "two" luthiers (make
by of lutes and other instruments) in the fiji
ned half of the fifteenth century-Jean OFT al
1ne Hans Frez, of Nuremburg. The tel
gan " luthiers" was and still is applied
the makers of Violns and other bowed inst
and ments. There was, however, a maker
ter. this date of whose instruments there can
ight no doubt.
strong movement has been develop