{"id":721,"date":"2020-02-19T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rescotcreative.com\/?p=721"},"modified":"2020-02-16T17:43:07","modified_gmt":"2020-02-16T23:43:07","slug":"before-the-violin-early-stringed-instruments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rescotcreative.com\/de\/2020\/02\/19\/before-the-violin-early-stringed-instruments\/","title":{"rendered":"Before the Violin: Early Stringed Instruments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In recent years I have found the history of the violin quite fascinating. Here I look at a few of the precursors to the violin: the lyre, the rebab, the vielle, the rebec, the lyra family, and the viol family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Greek Lyre: by Lynxette79, CC-BY<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Ancient Greek lyre:\nAntiquity, c.14th century B.C.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ancient Greeks and\nRomans used beautiful lyres to accompany their vocals. Unlike the violin, these\nstringed instruments were plucked, as opposed to bowed, more like the\nmodern-day harp (Cizek, 49).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middle Eastern rebab: early Middle Ages, c. 8th century A.D.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Vielle by Joseph Pajot, image United States Public Domain<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The vielle<\/strong> is the earliest known bowed instrument. Similar to the cello, it had an endpin-like spike to secure it to the floor. It served as a precursor to the medieval rebec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Byzantine lyra: early\nMiddle Ages, c. 10th century <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This instrument was constructed\nin the shape of a pear, and used three to five strings. It was not played under\nthe chin like the violin, but rather upright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

French vi\u00e8le: Middle Ages<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the middle ages\nEuropeans played vi\u00e8les\u2014instruments made of three parts: top, bottom, and sides\n(Cizek, 49). They were larger than the modern violin, usually oval-shaped, and\nused three to five strings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebec: Middle Ages<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Turkish Spike Fiddle \/ Rebec<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The rebec, a descendant\nof the Middle Easter rebab, was made up of three strings. These instruments\nwere composed of only two parts: the top and a curved underside (Cizek, 49).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lira da braccio: Renaissance, c. 16th century<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lira da braccio is\nusually considered the predecessor to the violin. (Cizek 49) The lira da\nbraccio was a beautiful, precise instrument for its time. It was quite popular\nduring the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Its form resembles that of a woman,\nwhich for Renaissance musicians represented the connection between love and\nmusic. (Cizek, 51). The f-holes were shaped as Cs instead of Fs. Many of the\nlira had carvings of faces on the backs and scrolls. They had more strings than\nthe contemporary violin, some with 5 on the fingerboard and an additional 2 off\nto the side (Cizek, 52).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lira da braccio from KHM<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Viol family: Renaissance\nand Baroque<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the Middle\nAges, the vi\u00e8le evolved into the viol. The viol family covered a wide range of\npitch, similar to the modern string family, from bass to soprano. They were\nusually divided into two groups based on where the instrument was situated. The\nviola da gamba was played between the legs like a contemporary cello, and the\nviola da braccio was placed on the shoulder like the contemporary violin and\nviola (Cizek, 49). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viola d\u2019amore: Baroque contemporary of violin: 18th century <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Viola d’Amore, US Public Domain<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The viola d\u2019amore were usually\ncomposed of seven melodic strings, as well as seven sympathetic strings, and\nare often considered the most beautiful stringed instruments of all time (53).\nTheir f-holes were carved in the shape of flames, and painted faces often\ndecorated their scrolls. Some of the most renowned luthiers of this genre\ninclude Jan Oldrich Eberle and Tomas Ondrej Hulinsky of Prague (Cizek, 53-55).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These beautiful\ninstruments provide a rich history for the birth of the violin in the\n17th-century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works Cited:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cizek, Bohuslav, adaptation fran\u00e7aise de C\u00e9cile Boiffin. \u201cChapitre 2: Instruments \u00c0 Cordes Frott\u00e9es.\u201d Instruments de Musique. \u00c9dition Gr\u00fcnd, 2003.<\/a> (Affiliate link included to this wonderful French resource)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Adapted from my original post: Early Stringed Instruments, September 5, 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent years I have found the history of the violin quite fascinating. Here I look at a few of the precursors to the violin: the lyre, the rebab, the vielle, the rebec, the lyra family, and the viol family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[36,38,37,39],"class_list":["post-721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-history","tag-lira","tag-lyre","tag-vielle","tag-viol"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"de","enabled_languages":["en","es","fr","de","it","br"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":true},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"fr":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"de":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"it":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"br":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rescotcreative.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rescotcreative.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rescotcreative.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rescotcreative.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rescotcreative.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.rescotcreative.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":730,"href":"https:\/\/www.rescotcreative.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions\/730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rescotcreative.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rescotcreative.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rescotcreative.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rescotcreative.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}