383 
M U S 
Wes muff be juft as Tnort again in the firing, viz. from 
bridge to nut, as are your bafies', becaufe they (land eight 
notes higher than the bafies ; the tenors juft fo long as 
from the bridge to the F fret, becaufe they Hand a fourth 
higher than your bafies. 
After all this, you may add to your prefs a pair of 
violins, to be in readinefs for any extraordinary jolly or 
jocund confort-occafion : but never ufe them, but with 
this proVifo; viz. be lure you make an equal proviiion 
for them, by the addition and ltrength of bafies ; fo that 
they may not out-cry the reft of the mufick, (the bafies 
Specially;) to which end it will be requifite you ftore 
your prefs with a pair of lufty fuli-fized theorboes, always 
to ftrike in with your conforts, or vocal mufick; to 
which that inftrument is molt naturally proper. And 
now, to make your ftore more amply compleat, add^to 
all thefe, three full-fcized lyro-viols; thefe being the 
moft admirable things made, by our very belt mafters, for 
that fort of mufick, both confort-wife, and peculiarly for 
two and three lyroes. Let them be lufty fmart-fpeaking 
viols ; becaufe that, in confort, they often retort againlt 
the treble ; imitating, and often Handing inftead of, that 
qiart; viz a fecond treble. They will ferve likewile for 
divifion-viols very properly. And, being thus ftored, 
you have a ready entertainment for the greateft prince in 
the world.” 
The viols in prefent ufe are none of them fretted, nor 
have any of them more than four firings. Of thefe, the 
firft place is due to 
The Violin. —This is a well-known inftrument with 
four firings, which are tuned fifths, and played by a bow. 
It has a neck, like the old treble viol; but the finger-board 
has no frets. 
The origin of the violin, according to the French account, 
is unknown. It is only fuppofed to have been invented 
about the ninth or tenth century; to which opinion we 
fhould have fubfcribed, had not fbme ancient monuments 
remained with an exaft reprefentation of its form. In 
the pictures of Philoftratus, in an ancient grotto, may be 
feen many violins, which are reprefented much like thofe 
of the prefent times, except that the neck is fhorter. Am- 
phion is there reprefented, playing upon a kind of viol or 
violin, with five firings, and with a bow like our’s, and 
quite different from the pleftrum of the ancients. It is 
believed, that Athenasus means the bow, when he fays, 
“ the fceptre is one thing, and the plectrum another.” It 
is imagined that by tl Kj’ceptre he means the bow. The 
pit, or grotto, on the walls of which we fee violins like the 
prefent, is found on filver medals which were ftruck by 
order of Scribonius Libo, a very confiderable perfonage 
at Rome. An account of thefe may be feen in Pierre 
Valerien, author of the Hieroglyphics, book xlvii. 
The violin feems to have been more cultivated in Ger¬ 
many, during the 17th century, than in any other part of 
Europe ; as appears by the number of performers who, 
according to Waltlier, have excelled, and the numerous 
compofers and pieces publifhed for that inftrument, which 
he has recorded in his Dictionary. 
Of the compofers foi the violin in the laft century, 
Telemann, the concert-mafter Graun, Fr. Benda, Neruda, 
and Janitfch, were in favour through Pruffia and Saxony ; 
while only Hofmann, Schwindl, and Wagenfeil, were 
heard at Vienna ; Holtzbaur, J. Stamitz, Filtz, Cannabich, 
Toefki, and Frantzel, at Manheim; and Bach and Abel 
in London. But in lefs than ten years, all thefe were fu- 
perfeded by Haydn, Ditters, and Vanhall. At prefent, 
Rofetti, Mozart, and Pleyel, fhare with them the public 
favour ; indeed (fays Dr. Burney, Hift. Mufic, vol. iv.) 
there has lately been a rage for the mufic of Pleyel, which 
has diminifhed the attention of amateurs and the public 
to all other violin mufic. “ But whether this ingenious 
and engaging compofer does not draw falter from the 
fountain of his invention than it will long bear, and whe¬ 
ther his imitations of Haydn, and too conitant ufe of femi- 
tones, and coquetry in ralentandos and paufes, will not be 
1 c. 
foon conftrued into affeCfo.tion, I know not; but it has 
already been remarked by critical obfervers, that his fancy, 
though at firft fo fertile, is not fo inexhauftible, but that 
he frequently repeats himfelf, and does not fufficiently 
difdain the mixture of common paflages with his own 
elegant ideas.” 
The violin has been cultivated with good fuccefs in 
England during the laft forty years. It is within our re¬ 
membrance, that the opera-band confifted chiefly of Ger¬ 
mans and Italians, and that a play-houfe band could not 
be made effective without one or more Germans to lead 
the principal parts. Foreigners being thus encouraged, 
we need not wonder that, during the laft century, alrnoft 
all the great violinifts of Europe, exceptSomis and Tartini, 
have vifited this country ; but Giardini, atone time per¬ 
haps the beft performer in Europe, refiding here fo many 
years, formed a fchool, which furniflied our orcheftras 
with a greater number of able performers on that inftru¬ 
ment than can be found in the capital of any other king¬ 
dom in Europe. And we may venture to aflert, from our 
own knowledge, that the loweft ripieno in the opera or- 
cheftra, at prefent, has more hand, and is a better fight’s- 
man, than the leader of that band in Fefting’s time. 
The violin confifts, like moft other inftruments of the 
viol kind, of three parts ; the neck, the table, and the 
found-board. At the fides are two apertures for found, and 
fometimes a third towards the top, lhaped like a heart. 
The bridge, which is between the apertures, bears up the 
firings, which are faftened to the two extremes of the in¬ 
ftrument ; at one of them by a fcrew, which ftretches or 
loofens them at pleafure. 
The ftyle and lound of the violin are the gayeft and moft 
fprightly of all other inftruments ; and hence it is, of all 
inftruments, the fitteft for dancing. Yet there are ways 
of touching it, which render it grave, foft, languifhing, 
and fit for church or chamber mufic. Indeed, it is well 
obferved by Dr. Crotch, that ftringed inftruments played 
with a bow, and the violin in particular, are fuperior in 
point of expreflion to keyed inftruments, as they combine 
the foftenuto of the organ, the precifion of the harpfi- 
chord, and the variety of power of the piano-forte ; and 
are alfo capable of producing the fmalleft intervals. 
The violin generally makes the treble, or higheft parts, 
in concerts. Its harmony is from 5th to 5th. Moft na¬ 
tions, ordinarily, ufe the G clef on the fecond line, to de¬ 
note the mufic for the violin ; only, in France, they ufe 
the fame clef on the firft line at bottom: the firft of thefe 
methods is beft where the fong goes very low; the fecond 
where it goes very high. 
Merfennus fpeaks of the tenor and contra-tenor violin, 
which, he fays, differ only in magnitude from the treble 
violin. But at prefent we have no fuch inftrument in ufe 
as the contra-tenor violin; the part proper to it, being 
with eafe performed on the violin ; and, accordingly, in 
concertos, overtures, and other inftrumental compofi- 
tions of many parts; the fecond violin is in reality the 
counter-tenor part. It is much to be doubted, fays fir 
John Hawkins, (Hift. Mufic, vol. iv. p. 115.) whether the 
counter-tenor violin ever came into England. Anthony 
Wood, fpeaking of the band of Charles II. makes no 
mention of the contra-tenor violin. Before the reftora . 
tion of Charles II. fays he, and efpecially after, viols 
began to be out of faihion, and only violins ufed, as tre¬ 
ble violin, tenor and bafs violin ; and the king, according 
to the French mode, would have twenty-four violins play¬ 
ing before him while he was at meals, as being more airy 
and brifk than viols. 
The old lutenifts and violifts marked the progrefs and 
influence of the violin with jealoufy. Though now the 
bafies in a concert bear a proportion to the violins of 
about one to four, the old mafters thought there ought to 
be as many bafs viols as trebles, or more. Thus fays old 
mafter Mace : “ Is it not reafonable, yea neceflarily rea- 
lonable, that all the parts fliould be equally heard ? fure 
it cannot reafonably be deny’d. Then what injury muft 
