826 



VINIFICATEUR VIOLONCELLO. 



ing at that time. They are considered important, 

 as sources of the history of Frederic, and have been 

 several times published. 



VINIFICATEUR (French); a contrivance re- 

 cently invented, and used in France and Spain, to 

 improve the spirituous fermentation of wine. Dur- 

 ing the fermentation, a portion of the ethereal parts 

 of the wine escapes from the open vats. The vini- 

 ficnteur is intended to collect these parts, and to 

 convey them back to the must. It is a cap, put 

 on the vat, and surrounded by cold water in a ves- 

 sel, in order to condense these vapours. The cap 

 is provided with a tube to admit of the escape of 

 the gaseous parts which do not condense. 



VINO TINTO. See Alicant. 



VIOL, oa VIOLA; the generic term of a num- 

 ber of stringed instruments, most of which have 

 gone entirely out of use. The most important viols 

 were, 1. Viola di gamba (literally leg viol), so called 

 because held between the legs during the perfor- 

 mance. It had six strings, tuned thus : D, G, c, 



e, a, d. The notes were written on a system of 

 six lines. 2. Viola d'amore (viole d'amour), love 

 riol; a kind of triple viol or violin, having seven 

 strings. Originally it had twelve to fourteen 

 strings ; six or seven were of catgut, the others of 

 brass. By degrees they were reduced to seven of 

 catgut, tuned thus : G, e, g, c, e, g, e, or G, c, e, 



a, d, g, c. 3. Viola di braccio, violetta, viola aha 

 (in French, faille), arm viol; an instrument answer- 

 ing to our counter-tenor, treble and fifth violin. 

 It is constructed like the violin, but larger. The 

 notes for this instrument are not written in the G 

 key, but in the alto key. The G or violin key is 

 used in this instrument only for the higher tones, 



which (e. g. in solos) rise above e and f. It has 

 four strings, of which the two lowest are covered 

 with brass, and the tuning of all is a fifth lower 



than that of the violin, that is, c, g, d, a; hence 

 the same with that of the violoncello, only one oc- 

 tave higher. It corresponds to alto and tenor in 

 vocal music. 



VIOLET (viola). These are favourite flowers 

 in all northern and temperate climates, and many 

 of them are among the first to make their appear- 

 ance in the spring. The corolla is composed of 

 five unequal petals, of which the inferior one is the 

 largest, and is more or less prolonged into a spur 

 at the base. The roots are mostly perennial ; the 

 stem almost wanting in some species, and distinct 

 in others; the leaves are alternate, provided with 

 stipules at the base, and the flowers are disposed 

 on axillary peduncles. More than a hundred spe- 

 cies are known. 



Although this favourite little flower has given 

 its name to one of the primitive colours, we must 

 not imagine that the violet is always of a violet hue ; 

 it is often blue, purple, lilac, or white. The viola 

 tricolor indeed is partly yellow, but then in com- 

 mon life this is called a heart's-ease ; botanically 

 speaking, however, it is a violet. The flowers 

 were formerly considered pectoral ; f. e. useful in 

 diseases of the chest ; but the supposed virtues of 

 the whole class of pectoral medicines have vanished 

 before the severe medical criticism of the last fifty 

 years; and at the present day the petals of the 

 violet are never prescribed by educated practitioners. 

 The root of the violet, however, is an emetic, and 

 may be useful as a domestic remedy in country 

 practice. The dose is forty grains. The infusion 



of violets is one of the most delicate tests of tl-e 

 presence of acids and alkalies ; the former changes 

 its colour to red, the latter to green. According 

 to Lightfoot, the Highland ladies of former times 

 used the violet as a cosmetic, the old Gaelic receipt 

 being " Anoint thy face with goat's milk in which 

 violets have been infused, and there is not a young 

 prince upon earth who will not be charmed with 

 thy beauty." 



VIOLIN (Italian, violino; French, violon) is the 

 most perfect, most agreeable, and most common of 

 all stringed instruments played with the bow. Of 

 its origin little is known ; but it seems that it grew 

 out of the ancient viola. Some place its invention 

 in the times of the crusades. Probably it was first 

 perfected in Italy, in which country, and the 

 neighbouring Tyrol, the finest violins are still pro- 

 duced. Those of Ainati, Guarneri and Stradivari, 

 are from the former country ; those of Stainer, 

 Klotz, &c., from the latter. The violin now com- 

 mon consists of three chief parts the neck, the 

 table, and the sound-board. At the side are two 

 apertures, and sometimes a third towards the top. 

 Its bridge, which is below the aperture, bears up 

 the strings, which are fastened to the two extremes 

 of the instrument at one of them by screws which 

 stretch or loosen them at pleasure. The arrange- 

 ment is nearly the same, only on different scales, 

 in the viol, violoncello and the double bass. The 

 violin has four catgut strings, of different sizes, of 

 which the largest is wound round with wire. They 



are tuned thus: g, d, a, e. The e is also called 

 simply the quinta, or fifth (in French, chanterelle). 

 This string should be about half the thickness of D. 

 The nearer the finger is placed towards the bridge, 

 the quicker become the vibrations, and the higher 

 the tone. Music for the violin is always set in the 

 G key, which, on that account, is called violin key. 

 The compass of the good tones of the violin extends 



from g to about a. It is only in our days, however, 

 that performers have ascended to this height : form- 

 erly, the highest note was g or a; and, in the six- 

 teenth century, they hardly rose to c. All the 

 tones comprised in the above compass, nay, even 

 the most delicate enharmonic relations, are produced 

 merely by the playing of the finger on the strings : 

 hence the violin, as well for this reason as for its 

 delightful and penetrating sound, is one of the most 

 perfect and most agreeable instruments. The ex- 

 cellence of a violin consists in its purity and dis- 

 tinctness, strength, and fulness of tone. The art 

 of playing on the violin has been carried to a per- 

 fection which it is not probable will be much sur- 

 passed, as it already often degenerates into useless 

 artifices. The most esteemed instructions for play- 

 ing on the violin are those of Loblein (with addi- 

 tions by Reichardt), Leopold, Mozart, Geminiani, 

 Rode, Kreutzer and Baillot (adopted by the con- 

 servatory, of Paris), Campagnoli, and others. TLe 

 most celebrated violin players ot our times are 

 Paganini, Rode, Spohr, Latent, Kreutzer, Viotti, 

 Polledro, Lipinski, Maurer, Franzel, Mayseder, 

 Rovelli, Molique, Rolla, De Beriot, Ol6 Bull, <tc. 



VIOLONCELLO comes between the viola di 

 braccio and the double bass, both as to size and 

 tone. It is constructed entirely on the same plan 

 with the violin. The player holds it between his 

 knees. It has four strings of catgut : the two 

 deepest-toned are covered with wire. The tuning 

 is C, G, d, a; hence like that of the viola di brae* 



