Part 6

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 [Illustration: I.H.S.]), 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.