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GUITAR FIDDLE (Troubadour Fiddle)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 705 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GUITAR See also:FIDDLE (See also:Troubadour Fiddle) , a See also:modern name bestowed retrospectively upon certain precursors of the See also:violin possessing characteristics of both guitar and fiddle. The name " guitar fiddle " is intended to emphasize the fact that the See also:instrument in the shape of the guitar, which during the See also:middle ages represented the most perfect principle of construction for stringed See also:instruments with necks, adopted at a certain See also:period the use of the See also:bow from instruments of a less perfect type, the See also:rebab and its hybrids. The use of the bow with the guitar entailed certain constructive changes in the instrument: the large central See also:rose See also:sound-hole was replaced by lateral holes of various shapes; the See also:flat See also:bridge, suitable for instruments whose strings were plucked, gave See also:place to the arched bridge required in See also:order to enable the bow to vibrate each See also:string separately; the arched bridge, by raising the strings higher above the sound-See also:board, made the stopping of strings on the See also:neck extremely difficult if not impossible; this See also:matter was adjusted by the addition of a See also:finger-board of suitable shape and dimensions (fig. I). At this See also:stage the guitar fiddle possesses the essential features of Kathleen Schlesinger, The Instruments of the See also:Orchestra, See also:part ii. " The Precursors of the Violin See also:Family," See also:chap. viii. " The Question of the Origin of the See also:Utrecht Psalter," pp. 352-382 (with illustrations), where all the foregoing are summarized. Reproduced in See also:Hubert Janitschek's Geschichte der deutschen Malerei, Bd. iii. of Gesch. der deutschen Kunst (See also:Berlin, 189o), p. 118. Harmonie universelle (See also:Paris, 1636), livre ii. prop. xiv. See C.

F. See also:

Becker, Darstellung der musik. Literatur (See also:Leipzig, 1836) ; and Wilhelm Tappert, " Zur Geschichte der Guitarre," in Monalshefte See also:fur Musikgeschichte (Berlin, 1882), No. 5. pp. 77-85), From See also:Denon's Voyage in See also:Egypt. 1700 to I200 B.C. d From Ruhlmann's Geschichte der Bogeninstrumente. See also:century (Pinakothek, See also:Munich). 15th the violin, and may justly claim to be its immediate predecessor 1 not so much through the viols which were the outcome of the Minnesinger fiddle with sloping shoulders, as through the intermediary of the See also:Italian See also:lyra, a guitar-shaped bowed instrument with from 7 to 12 strings. From such See also:evidence as we now possess, it would seem that the See also:evolution of the See also:early guitar with a neck from the See also:Greek See also:cithara took place under Greek See also:influence in the See also:Christian See also:East. The various stages of this transition have been definitely established by the re- markable miniatures of the Utrecht Psalter.' Two kinds of citharas are shown: the See also:antique rectangular,' and the later See also:design with rounded See also:body having at the point where the arms are added indica- tions of the See also:waist or incurvations characteristic of the outline of the See also:Spanish guitar.' The first stage in the transition is shown by a cithara or See also:rotta 5 in which arms and transverse See also:bar are replaced by a See also:kind of See also:frame repeating the outline of the body and thus completing the second See also:lobe of the Spanish guitar. The next stages in the transi- tion are concerned with the addition of a necks and of frets.' All these instruments are twanged by the fingers.

One may conclude that the use of the bow was either unknown at this See also:

time (c. 6th century A.D.), or that it was still confined to instruments of the rehab type. The earliest known See also:representation of a guitar fiddle See also:complete with bows (fig. 2) occurs in a Greek Psalter written and illuminated in Caesarea by the See also:archpriest See also:Theodorus in Io66 (See also:British Museum, Add. MS. 19352). Instances of perfect guitar fiddles abound in the 13th century See also:MSS. and monu- ments, as for instance in a picture by See also:Cimabue (1240-1302), in the Pitti See also:Gallery in See also:Florence.' An evolution on parallel lines appears also to have taken place from the antique rectangular cithara 's of the citharoedes, which was a favourite in Romano-Christian See also:art." In this See also:case examples illustrative of the transitions are found repre- sented in See also:great variety in See also:Europe. The old See also:German rotta12 of the 6th century preserved in the Volker Museum, Berlin, and the instru- ments played by See also:King See also:David in two early Anglo-Saxon illuminated MSS., one a Psalter (See also:Cotton MS. Vesp. A. i. British Museum) finished in A.D. 700, the other " A Commentary on the See also:Psalms by See also:Cassiodorus manu Bedae" of the 8th century preserved in the See also:Cathedral Library at Durham13 See also:form examples of the first stage of transition.

From such types as these the rectangular crwth or See also:

crowd was evolved by the addition of a finger-board and the reduc- tion in the number of strings, which follows as a natural consequence as soon as an extended See also:compass can be obtained by stopping the strings. By the addition of a neck we obtain the See also:clue to the origin of rectangular citterns with rounded corners and of certain instruments played with the bow whose bodies or sound-chests have an outline based upon the rectangle with various modifications. We may not look upon this type of guitar fiddle as due entirely to western or See also:southern See also:European initiative; its origin like that of the type approximating to the violin is evidently See also:Byzantine. It is found among the frescoes which See also:cover walls and See also:barrel vaults in the See also:palace of Kosseir 'Amra,l' believed to be that of See also:Caliph Walid II. (A.D. 744) of the Omayyad See also:dynasty, or of See also:Prince ' See " The Precursors of the Violin Family," by Kathleen Schlesinger, part ii. of An Illustrated Handbook on the Instruments of the Orchestra (See also:London, 1908), chs. ii. and x. 2 See Kathleen Schlesinger, op. cit. part ii., the " Utrecht Psalter," pp. 127-135, and the " Question of the Origin of the Utrecht Psalter," pp. 136-166, where the subject is discussed and illustrated. 3 Idem, see pl. vi. (2) to the right centre. Idem, see pl. iii. centre and See also:figs.

118 and 119. 5 Idem, see fig. 117, p. 341, and figs. 172 and 116. s Idem, see fig. 121, p. 246, figs. 122, 123, 125 and 126 pl. iii. vi. (1) and (2). ' Idem, see fig. 126, p.

350, and pl. iii. right centre. 8 Idem, see fig. 173, p. 448. ' Idem, see fig. 205, p. 480. i° See Museo Pio Clemeniino, by See also:

Visconti (See also:Milan, 1818). u See for example Georgics, iv. 471-475 in the Vatican See also:Virgil (See also:Cod. 3225), in facsimile (See also:Rome, 1899) (British Museum See also:press-See also:mark 8, tab. f. vol. ii.). 12 This rotta was found in an Alamannic See also:tomb of the 4th to the 7th centuries at Oberflacht in the See also:Black See also:Forest. A facsimile is preserved in the collection of the Kgl.

Hochschule, Berlin, illustrations in " Grabfunde am Berge Lupfen hei Oberflacht, 1846," Jahresberichte d., Wurttemb. Altertums-Vereinr, iii. (See also:

Stuttgart, 1846), tab. viii. also Kathleen Schlesinger, op. cit. part ii. fig. 168 (See also:drawing from the facsimile). 13 Reproductions of both miniatures are to be found in See also:Professor J. O. Westwood's Facsimiles of the Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and Irish MSS. (London, 1868). 14 An See also:illustration occurs in the See also:fine publication of the See also:Austrian See also:Academy of Sciences, Kusejr `Amra (See also:Vienna, 1907, pl. xxxiv.). veserved in See also:Westminster See also:Abbey (14th century); in the See also:Sforza ook1t (1444—1476), the See also:Book of See also:Hours executed for See also:Bona of See also:Savoy, wife of Galeazzo Maria Sforza; on one of the carvings of the 13th century in the Cathedral of See also:Amiens. It has also been painted by Italian artists of the 15th and 16th centuries. (K.

End of Article: GUITAR FIDDLE (Troubadour Fiddle)

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