Identifier: orchestraitsinst00sing (find matches)
Title: The orchestra and its instruments
Year: 1917 (1910s)
Authors: Singleton, Esther, d. 1930
Subjects: Orchestra Musical instruments
Publisher: New York : The Symphony society of New York
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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in the region ofpines, in which instrument-makers had long beensettled, and he made lutes and viols all his life. Hisinstruments come so nearly to being violins that he issometimes called the first maker of violins. But inhis hands the violin did not quite reach the form thatwe find in Gasparo di Said, who, as we have seen (seepage 22) was the true creator of the violin. Duiffoprugcars instruments are valued not only be-cause they are old and rare, but also because they areworks of art. They are often elaborately inlaid andcarved, such as the one facing page 54. Another of hisinstruments, in the Brussels Conservatory, has the planof Paris inlaid in colored woods on the back, while thescroll ends in a finely carved horses head. And stillanother has inlaid in the back a poetic Latin inscrip-tion, which is a riddle that could be applied to anystringed instrument. Translated, it reads as follows: / was living in the forest; the cruel axe killed me.Living, I was mute; dead, I sing sweetly.
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FIRST VIOLA, SYMPHONY SOCIETY OF NEW YORK Samuel Lifscbey THE VIOLA 49 The tenor viol was the ancestor of our modernviola. It was the oldest of the viol family. It wasvery large and very hard to play, because it was sodifficult to hold comfortably. But the instrumentwas too important to be sacrificed to the convenienceof the player and the latter had to get along with itas well as he could; for, in the general plan of MediaevalMusic, the tenor always sang, or sustained, the melody,or cantus. The need for a more manageable instru-ment to play the leading melody is one of the reasonsthat brought about the creation of the little violinwhich was destined to sing soprano. But at thetime we are talking about there was no violin. Thisgreat, big, awkward tenor viol was called Violino!Then when the instrument-makers developed thelittle instrument that we call violin, they gave it thename violino piccolo, or little violin. The newcomerwas really the little tenor viol! Both violino (ortenor) and

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