MUSI C. 
881 
matter of the inftrument, and fo able a mufician, that he 
played voluntaries upon it in the lame full and learned 
manner of a great performer on the organ ; led off fub- 
jedts, purfued them in three and four parts with lcience 
and fancy through all the keys of legal modulation ; and 
in flow movements, his tafte and expreflion were equally 
admirable with the learned and mafterly eft'ufions of his 
allegros- Dr. Burney was “ fo fortunate as to hear him 
perform at lord Eglington’s, with lord Kelly, Bach, and 
Abel, all good judges and fevere critics.” 
The Spaniflr guitar had originally but four firings; 
afterwards it had five double wire firings, of which we 
are told the three firft were tuned unifons, and the fourth 
and fifth odlaves to each other : fometimes the fifth firing 
had no odlave, left it Ihould overpower the reft ; and the 
firtt firing was often fo falfe, that it was thought moll 
advifable to play it Angle. At prefent this guitar has fix 
catgut firings, a fixth or bafs firing having been added, 
a double. odlave below the firft, and which is flopped by 
the thumb of the left hand. The tuning is ftill like that 
of the lute, entirely by fourths, except one major third: 
viz. E, A, D, G, B, E ; as in the following example, where 
the open notes exprefs the open firings. 
The Mandoline, fig. 4. has been fufficiently deferibed 
under that word, vol. xiv. p. 272. The diffance from the 
bridge to the nut is the fame as the violin, 13 inches; 
and its fcale and tuning are exadtly the fame, which there¬ 
fore we Avail defer till we come to deferibe that inftru¬ 
ment. 
The Harp-Guitar, as improved by Mr. Levien of 
Pentonville, is reprefented at fig. 5. Mr. L. was rewarded 
with ten guineas, from the Society of Arts, for his in¬ 
vention. The improvement confifts in an appendage to 
the finger-board, by which any of the firings can be 
raiihd or lowered half a tone, lo as to introduce fuch flats 
or fliarps as are neceflary, in order to perforin the mufic 
that is ordinarily met with, without the neceflity of previ- 
oufly tranfpofing itjnto the keys of C, G, or F, as is the 
cafe with guitars in general. This is effedled, by placing 
acrofs the firft fret of the finger-board a feries of metal 
loops, or flops, through which the firings pafs, the holes 
in the loops being widened fo as to permit the firings to 
vibrate therein unimpeded. Tbefe loops, being ferewed 
into the finger-board, can be turned fo as to cornprefs the 
firing on each fide in the manner frequently done on 
pedal-harps, and thereby to raife the tone of the firing- 
half a note higher; thus introducing thofe fliarps, See. 
which are neceflary to the performance of the mufic, with¬ 
out the neceflity of crofs-fingering, the only method of 
producing them hitherto ufed, and the great difficulty of 
doing which is fufficiently known. Fig. 5. reprefents the 
head of the improved guitar, and part of the finger-board : 
a, a, the nut ; and b, b, the metal loops arranged acrofs, 
or in place of the firft fret. Fig. 6. is a fide-view of thefe 
parts. Fig. 7. is an enlarged view of that part of the finger¬ 
board containing the firft fret, with the loops ferewed into 
it of their full iize; one of the loops, a, a, is here repre¬ 
fented as being turned, and adting upon the firing fo as 
to raife its tone half a note higher; and fig. 8. fliows one 
of the loops, with its ferewed tail or Item, and its hole 
widened, as deferibed above, but which more evidently 
appears in the ledtion of the hole, fig. 9, the oppofite 
fides of it being rounded off, fo as not to gall or injure 
the gut or iilk firing, by preffing againft it, when turned. 
The loops are turned by means of a flit made acrofs the 
handle of the key, ufed in turning the pins to put the 
guitar into tune. 
Plate XIX. reprefents the Indian Guitar, called the 
Vina, or Been, with the manner of playing it, and its 
Vol. XVI. No. 149. 
fcale. This inftrument has been already deferibed at 
vol. xiii. p. 840. from the Afiatic Refearches. Francis 
Fowke, elq. caufed an accurate drawing to be made of 
the been, both feparalely and in the hand of the player, 
which he tranfmitted to the prefident of the Afiatic So¬ 
ciety, (the late lamented fir William Jones;) and the 
communication enriched the firft volume of their Tranf- 
adtions, from which we have copied it. The wires are 
feven in number, and are tuned in the following manner : 
There are nineteen frets; and the notes that they give 
will appear on the fcale which is engraved underneath 
the figure of the inftrument itfelf. “ I have added below,” 
fays Mr. Fowke, “ the names which the performer him- 
felf gives to the notes in his own language. It is very 
obfervable, that the femitones change their names 011 
the fame femitone as in the European fcale. On the 
wires R and S, which are thofe principally ufed, there 
is an extent ot two odlaves, with all the half-notes com¬ 
plete in the firft odlave, but the G^ and JRb wanting in 
the fecond. The performer’s apology for this was, that 
he could eafily get thofe notes by preffing the firing a lit¬ 
tle hard upon the frets F* and A^, which is very true 
from the height of the frets; but he afierted that this 
was no defedt in his particular inftrument, but that all 
beens were made fo. The wires T and U are l'eldom ufed, 
except open. You may abfolutely depend upon the accu¬ 
racy of all that I have laid refpedling the conftrudtion and 
fcale of this inftrument: it has been done by mealure- 
ment; and, with regard to the intervals, I would not 
depend upon my ear, but had the been tuned to the harp- 
fichord, and compared the inftruments carefully, note by 
note, more than once.” 
Ol Viols. —In the feventeenth century, moft mufical 
families were in pofl'effion of a c/ie/i of viols, as it W’as called, 
which confifted of two trebles, two tenors, and two 
bafles, with fix firings upon each, all tuned lute-faffiion, 
by 4ths and 3ds, and the necks fretted. The compafs, 
and accprdaturti, of this inftrumental family, were the 
following: 
Baft-Viol, or 
Viol da Gamba • 
Tenor-Vi■'J, nr 
Viol da Braccio % 
Treble-Viol, or 
Viol d'Amore. 
Flere it will be obferved, that thefe inftruments, as we 
noticed in the Spanilh guitar, are uniformly tuned by 
fourths, except one major third, which in thefe viols is 
between the third and fourth firing. The treble viol is 
an odlave above the bafs ; and the tenor viol a fourth 
above the bafs, and a fifth below the treble. Thepaflages 
given to thefe feveral inftruments, at this time, difcover 
no kind of knowledge of the expreffive power of the bow ; 
and even Orl. Gibbons, who compofed fo well for voices 
in the church, feetns very little fuperior to his cotempo¬ 
raries in his produdtions for inftruments. Indeed, his 
madrigals of five parts, as well as thofe of many others, 
are faid in the title-page to be apt for viols and voices : a 
proof that with us, as well as the ancient Greeks, and 
other nations, there was at firft no mufic exprefsly cam - 
pofed for inftruments; confequently, the powers of thefe 
inftruments mull have been circumfcribed ; and, when 
this mufic was merely played without the affiftance of the 
human voice and of poetry, capable of no great eftedls. 
As to the proportions of the viols, honeft Mace, wbofe 
quaint expreffions we love to quote, tells us, “ Your tre- 
5 E bles. 
