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CROWD, CROUTH, CROWTH

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 514 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CROWD, CROUTH, CROWTH (Welsh crwth; Fr. troul; Ger. Chrotta, Hrotta), a See also:medieval stringed See also:instrument derived from the See also:lyre, characterized by a See also:sound-See also:chest having a vaulted See also:bath and an open space See also:left at each See also:side of the strings to allow th See also:hand to pass through in See also:order to stop the strings on the See also:finger- See also:board. The Welsh crwth, which survived until the end of the 18th See also:century, is best represented by a specimen of that date preserved in the See also:Victoria and See also:Albert Museum, and described and illustrated by Carl See also:Engel). The instrument consists of a rectangular sound-chest 22 in. See also:long, 92 in. wide and 2 in. deep; the See also:body is scooped out of a single See also:block, the See also:flat belly being glued on. Right through the sound-chest on each side of the finger-board is the See also:character- istic open space left for the hand to pass through. There are two circular sound- which lies obliquely across the belly, passes through the left sound-hole and rests inside on the back of the instrument. Six See also:catgut strings fastened to a tail-piece are See also:wound See also:round pegs at the See also:top of the crwth; four of these strings See also:lie over the sound-board and See also:bridge, and are set in vibration by means of a See also:bow, while the two others, used as drones and stretched across the left-hand See also:aperture, are twanged by the thumb of the left hand. The shape and shallowness of the bridge make it impossible to sound a single See also:string with the bow; the arrangement of the strings suggests that they were intended to be sounded in pairs. The instrument is tuned thus: =9- ` - zJ- At the beginning of the 19th century, See also:William Bingley2 heard a Welsh See also:peasant playing See also:national airs on a crwth strung as follows: L See also:asa that in his See also:time there was still a Welshman living in Anglesea who understood how to See also:play the crwth according to traditional usage. See also:Edward See also:Jones' and Daines See also:Barrington s both give an See also:account of the Welsh crwth of the 18th century which agrees substantially with Engel's; the See also:illustration communicated by Daines Barrington shows the strings of the crwth See also:drawn through holes at the top, and fastened on the back, as on the See also:Persian See also:rebab and other See also:Oriental stringed See also:instruments. On these somewhat scanty See also:authentic records of the instrument, several historians of See also:music 1 See See also:Early See also:History of the See also:Violin See also:Family (See also:London, 1883), pp. 24-36.

See A Tour round See also:

North See also:Wales (London, 1804), vol. ii. p. 332. 3 History of Music (London, 1766), vol. ii. bk. iii. ch. iii., description and illustration. ' Musical and Poetical Relicks of Welsh Bards (London, 1794), illustration of crwth, also reproduced by Carl Engel; see See also:note above. Archaeologia. vol. iii. (London, 1775). " Romanusque See also:lyra, plaudat tibi Barbarus harpa, Graecus Achilliaca, chrotta Britanna canat." The bow is not mentioned by See also:Fortunatus, and there is no ground whatever for believing that the Welsh crwth was played with a bow in the 6th century, or indeed for several centuries after. The stringing of the Welsh crwth with the two See also:drone strings still twanged, the See also:form of the body without incurvations, the flat bridge which rendered bowing, even in the most highly See also:developed specimens of the 18th century, a difficult task, together with what is known of the early history of the chrotta and See also:rotta derived from the lyre and See also:cithara and like them twanged by fingers or plectrum, all make the claim untenable. Carl Engel was probably the first to expose the See also:fallacy in his See also:work on the violin.' See also:British lexicographers all agree in deriving the words crwth, crowd and other forms of the name, from some word meaning a bulging protuberant bellying form, while in See also:German the See also:etymology of the word Chrotta is given as Chrota or Chreta, the O.H.G. for Krote=See also:toad, Schildkrote=See also:tortoise. This word Chrotta was undoubtedly the German See also:equivalent See also:term for the lyre of See also:Hermes, having as back a tortoise-See also:shell, gtws in See also:Greek and testudo in Latin. Chrotta was also spelt hrotta, and it is easy to see how this became rotta. A thoughtful and suggestive treatment of the whole subject will be found in Engel's work, to which reference has been made.

Just as the lyre and cithara, which appeared to be similar to the casual observer, and are indeed still confused at the See also:

present See also:day, were instruments differing essentially in construction"; so there were, during the early See also:middle ages, while lyre and cithara were still in transition, two types of chrotta or rotta. (I) The rotta or improved cithara had a body either rectangular with the corners rounded, or See also:guitar-shaped with incurvations, back and sound-board being nearly or quite flat, joined as in the cithara by ribs or sides. This rotta must be reckoned among the early ancestors of the violin before the See also:advent of the bow; it was known both as rotta and cithara, and with a See also:neck added it became the guitar-See also:fiddle. (2) The tortoise or lyre chrotta consisted of a protuberant, very See also:convex back cut out of a block of See also:wood, to which was glued a flat sound-board, at first like the lyre, with- out intermediary ribs. This instrument became the crwth, and there was no further development. The first step in the transition of both lyre and cithara was the See also:incorporation of arms and See also:cross-See also:bar into the body, the same outline being preserved; the second step was the addition of a finger-board against which the strings were stopped, thus increasing the See also:compass while restricting the number of strings to three or four; the third step, observed only in the rotta-cithara, consisted in the addition of a neck,' e Venantius Fortunatus, Poemata, See also:lib. vii. cap. 8, p. 245; see See also:Migne's Patrologia Sacra, vol. 88. ' Op. cit. chapters " Crwth," " Chrotta," " Rotta." 8 See Kathleen Schlesinger, Orchestral Instruments, See also:part ii., " The Precursors of the Violin Family " (London, 1909), pp. 14 to 23, with illustrations. 9 See also Kathleen Schlesinger, op. cit. ch. vii., " The Cithara in Transition," pp.

111-135 with illustrations. 1° See Auguste de See also:

Bastard, Peintures et ornements See also:des See also:MSS. de See also:France, and Peintures, ornements, eec., de la See also:bible de See also:Charles le Chauve, in facsimile (See also:Paris, 1883). 11 See J. O. Westwood, Photographic Facsimile of the Bible of St See also:Paul (London, 1876). 12 See also:Sir See also:John See also:Hawkins 3 relates as in the guitar. The crwth, Peinlur Drawneset from aorpinate inementsde t Augusteode Bbible astard de 's crowd, crouth did not undergo Caarles le Chauve. this third transition even when FIG. 2.—Early Crwth, the bow was used to set the 9th century. strings in vibration. The earliest See also:representation of the crwth yet discovered See also:dates from the Carolingian See also:period. In the miniatures of the Bible of Charles the Bald,10 in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, one of the musicians of See also:King See also:David is seen stopping strings on the finger-board with his left hand and plucking them with the right (fig.

2); this crwth has only three strings, and may be the crwth trithant of Wales. A second example occurs in the Bible of St Paul," another of the magnificent MSS. prepared for Charles the Bald, and preserved during the middle ages in the monastery of St Paul extra muros in See also:

Rome (now deposited in that of St See also:Calixtus in Rome). Other representations are in the miniatures of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. To Edward See also:Heron-See also:Allen (De fidiculis opuscula, viii., 1895) is due the See also:discovery of a representation of the Welsh crwth, showing the form still retained in the 18th cent. On the See also:seal of See also:Roger See also:Wade (1316) is a crwth differing but little from the specimen in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The 14th-century instrument had four strings instead of six, and the See also:foot of the bridge does not appear to pass through the sound-hole—a detail which may have escaped the See also:notice of the artist who cut the seal. The See also:original seal lies in the See also:muniment See also:room at See also:Berkeley See also:Castle in See also:Gloucestershire attached to See also:defeasance of a See also:bond between the crowder and his debtor See also:Warren de 1'Isle, and a See also:cast (see fig. 3) is preserved at the British Museum. The British Museum also possesses two interesting MSS. which concern the crwth: one of these century Seal. contains an See also:extract made by See also:Lewis See also:Morris in 1742 from an See also:ancient Welsh MS. of " Instructions supposed to be wrote for the Crowd "; the other (Add. MS. 15036 if. 65b and 66) consists of tracings from a 16th-century Welsh MS. copied in t6to of a bagpipe, a See also:harp and a krythe, together with the names of those who played the last at the See also:Eisteddfod.

The See also:

drawing is crude, and shows an instrument similar to Roger Wade's crowd, but having three strings instead of four. The genealogical See also:tree of the violin given below shows the relative positions of both kinds of rotta and chrotta. See also:Italian' See also:viola See also:French See also:vielle or viole Violin The Welsh crwth was therefore obviously not an exclusively Welsh instrument, but only a See also:late 18th-century survival in Wales of an archaic instrument once generally popular in See also:Europe but long obsolete. An interesting See also:article on the subject in German by J. F. W. Wewertem will be found in Monatshefte See also:fur Musik (See also:Berlin, 1881), Nos. 7-12, p. 151, &c. (K.

End of Article: CROWD, CROUTH, CROWTH

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