The orchestra and its instruments . nt to form a kindof waist. And this waist was the first step towardsour modern violin. In the Fifteenth Century — two hundred yearslater — something else happened, — something ofimportance for the whole future of music. Peoplebegan to make bowed instruments corresponding tothe various kinds of human voices; consequently,these were the treble, or discant, viol; the tenor viol;the bass viol; and the double-bass, or violone. The next thing that happened — also in this Fif-teenth Century — was the invention of corner blocks,which followed naturally from the cutt
The orchestra and its instruments . nt to form a kindof waist. And this waist was the first step towardsour modern violin. In the Fifteenth Century — two hundred yearslater — something else happened, — something ofimportance for the whole future of music. Peoplebegan to make bowed instruments corresponding tothe various kinds of human voices; consequently,these were the treble, or discant, viol; the tenor viol;the bass viol; and the double-bass, or violone. The next thing that happened — also in this Fif-teenth Century — was the invention of corner blocks,which followed naturally from the cutting of thewaist, although it took a long time to think of will notice if you look at the illustrations facingpages 22, 24, 30, 34, and 38, that a violin has twosharply projecting points on each of its sides, one ateither extremity of the /-holes at the waist of theinstrument. These sharp corners mark the positionof triangular blocks inside the violin. These blocksare glued to the back and to the belly of the violin. ST. CECILIA By Jan and Hubert van Eyck THE VIOLIN 19 and the ribs of the violin are glued to the blocks are the very corner-stones of the con-struction of a violin; and they add very much tothe strength and the resonance of the instrument. If you look at the violins and other bowed instru-ments in many old Italian and Flemish paintingsyou will see that they have only single corners, as,for instance, the large viol the Angel is holding inthe picture of St. Cecilia facing page 18. Nobodyseems to know whether single, or double, cornerscame first; but after a time only double corners wereused. The use of these double corners produced somethingelse that was new. This was the curving of the ribsat the waist forming a hollowed-out place calledbouts; and these bouts gave the right hand of theplayer more freedom to move up and down withthe bow. Up to this time the position of the per-formers hand was stiff and cramped unless there wasa tremendou
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmusicalinstruments
