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The news that she was staying at Dowlands, and the presumption that she would sing at the concert, had brought many a priest from St. Joseph's, and all the painters, men of letters, and designers of stained glass, and all the old pupils, the viol players, and the madrigal singers, and when Evelyn came downstairs in her pink frock, she was surrounded by her old friends.
He indicated his elder sister. "She won't let me boom things with my viol the way I'd like to. What's the use of playing the biggest instrument if you can't make the biggest noise?"
Bits of old embroidery harmonizing with the peacock shades were spread here and there. A pretty collection of eighteenth-century Italian ivory statuettes were grouped about the room. A spinet, inlaid with ebony and ivory, formed a centre for the arrangement of many other musical instruments a viol, mandolins gay with ribbons, a theorbo, flutes and clarinets.
The soft-toned viol had deeply indented sides to permit a free use of the bow, was mostly supplied with frets like a guitar, and had usually from five to seven strings. Its different sizes corresponded with the soprano, contralto, tenor and bass of the human voice.
It gave me a most vivid idea of antiquity that had been very little tampered with; insomuch that, if a group of steel-clad knights had come clanking through the doorway, and a bearded and beruffed old figure had handed in a stately dame, rustling in gorgeous robes of a long-forgotten fashion, unveiling a face of beauty somewhat tarnished in the mouldy tomb, yet stepping majestically to the trill of harp and viol from the minstrels' gallery, while the rusty armor responded with a hollow ringing sound beneath, why, I should have felt that these shadows, once so familiar with the spot, had a better right in St.
This seems to indicate that in very early days ladies sometimes played on stringed instruments, if only for their own amusement. Among the accounts of King Henry VII., dated November 2, 1495, is the following item, "For a womane that singeth with a fiddle, 2 shillings." Anne of Cleves after her divorce comforted herself by playing on a viol with six strings.
She wakes not with the thrill Of joy produced by strains so mild, But fancy moulds them gay and wild. Now, as the music low declines, 'T is sighing of the forest pines; Or 't is the fitful, varied war Of distant falls or troubled shore. Now, as the tone grows full or sharp, 'T is whispering of the Æolian harp. The viol swells, now low, now loud, 'T is spirits chanting on a cloud That passes by.
The evolution of the violin is a matter which can be traced back to the dark ages, but the fifteenth century may be considered as the period when the art of making instruments of the viol class took root in Italy. It cannot be said, however, that the violin, with the modelled back which gives its distinctive tone, made its appearance until the middle of the sixteenth century.
Idle revellers might loll on their rose-strewn couches as they 'sing idle songs to the sound of the viol and devise for themselves instruments of music, like David, but the austerer choir of the Temple despised ease, and stood ready for service and in the best bodily posture for song. The second important word of the text brings other thoughts no less valuable and rich in practical counsel.
We have visited our old music-master, at whose house we both boarded for the practice of the lute! He was so pleased to find I still studied! observing that many married ladies relinquished it soon; and he praised my husband's execution on the viol in no small degree. "Adieu, my dear young friend.
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