424 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



II. STRINGED INSTRUMENTS. 





In sharp oontnitst to that widely u.scd division of a string which we 

 know on the guitar, showing decreasing- distances between the frets as 

 the pitch rises, we find many instances of a uniform spacing of the 

 frets through a considerable. distance. Instances from four countries 

 may here be cited: 



1. The Avell-known architect, VioUet-le-Duc.^ gives a figure (fig. 1) 

 of a mandolin from the end of the sixteenth century which shows frets 

 for the first seven semitones prettj' uniformly 

 spaced ; the frets for the next five to complete the 

 octave are again uniform, though closer than be- 

 fore, and the following five are also uniformly 

 spaced and still closer. Figures in other books ^ 

 of European lutes, viols, etc.. very often show a 

 similar equal spacing. These are too numerous 

 to be lightly treated as artists' blunders. Two 

 instruments in the United States National Museum 

 are illustrated in Plate 1. 



"J. Among the Greek rules given 

 by Ptolemy is one for the division 

 called Diatonon homalmi^ in which 

 the whole string being twelve units 

 long the points for stopping would 

 be at 11, 10, 9, and 8, giving C, a 

 note between D\j and D, Et>, F, and 

 G. Here it will be noticed the inter- 

 vals get larger and larger as the pitch 

 rises. Again, Carl EngeP refers to 

 Drieberg's drawing of the ancient 

 Greek guitar in the Berlin Museum, 

 which has '"seven frets at equal dis- 

 tances," but objects to it as it does 

 not give a diatonic scale. The tracing of this drawing 

 furnished by Professor Howard, of Harvard, adds to 

 EngePs data the fact that the whole compass of the six 

 intervals is slightly more than an octave (fig. 2). 



3. Among the instruments described in the Arabic treatise of the 



Fig.l. 



EUROPEAN MANDOLIN. 

 After Viollet-le-Duc. 



Fig. 2. 

 GREEK GUITAR. 

 After Drieberg. 



' Dictionnairc raiHuimt' du mobilier fran^-ais, II, 1871, pi. li. 



^'M. Prtetorius, Syntagma Musicum, II, 1618. Reprint, 1894. Plates v, fig. '.V, \i, 

 fig. 1; XVI, fig. 1; XVII, fig. 4; xx, figs. 1, 3. 



Bonanni, Description des instruments harmoniques. 2d. ed. Rome, 1776. Plates 



LII, LVII, LX, LXXI. 



J. Ruhlmann, Geschichti- der Bogeninstrnmente, 1882. Plates ix, figs. 2, 5, 6, 13; 

 X, fig. 16; XIII, figs. 3, 8. 

 *Music of the Most Aneient Nations, 1864, i>. 205, 



