Shakespeare and Music Part 5

The reader will get a sufficiently accurate idea, both of the sizes and the use of viols, if he will consider the treble viol to have corresponded closely with our modern violin, the tenor viol to the modern viola [which is also called Alto, Tenor, or Bratsche--_i.e._, braccio, 'arm' fiddle], and the ba.s.s-viol, or viol-da-gamba [so called because held between the knees], to the modern violoncello.

The princ.i.p.al difference from our modern stringed instruments was that all the viols had _six_ strings, whereas now there is no 'fiddle' of any sort with more than four. A secondary difference was, that all the viol family had _frets_ on the fingerboard to mark out the notes, whereas the finger-boards of all our modern instruments are smooth, and the finger of the performer has to do without any help of that kind.[7]

[Footnote 7: See Frontispiece.]

John Playford, in 1683, published his 'Introduction to the Skill of Music,' which gives an account of the viols, and Thomas Mace, of Cambridge, lay clerk of Trinity, in his 'Musick's Monument,' pub.

1676, gives full instructions how many viols and other instruments of this kind are necessary. From these we learn that viols were always kept in sets of six--two trebles, two tenors, and two ba.s.ses--which set was technically known as a 'Chest' of viols. Mace also says that the treble viol had its strings just half the length of the ba.s.s viol, and the tenor was of a medium size between these. Also he says that if you add to these a couple of violins (which were then thought somewhat vulgar, loud instruments) for jovial occasions, and a pair of 'l.u.s.ty, full-sized Theorboes,'[8] 'you have a ready entertainment for the greatest prince in the world.'

[Footnote 8: Theorbo, a lute with a double neck; so called from Tiorba, a mortar for pounding perfumes, referring to the basin-shaped back of a lute.]

The tuning of the six strings on the _ba.s.s_-viol was, on the ba.s.s staff, 1st string, or treble, D over the staff; 2nd or small mean, A on the top line; 3rd or great mean, E in the third s.p.a.ce; 4th or counter-tenor, C in the second s.p.a.ce; 5th or tenor, or gamut, G on the first line; and the 6th or ba.s.s, low D, under the staff. On the most complete viol there would be seven frets, arranged semitonally, so the compa.s.s of the Ba.s.s Viol or Viol da Gamba would be about two octaves and a half, from D under the ba.s.s staff to A on the second s.p.a.ce of the treble staff. [In South Kensington Museum is a Viol da Gamba with no less than twelve frets still remaining. This would make the compa.s.s nearly _three_ octaves.]

The tenor-viol had its top string tuned to G on the second line of the treble staff; and the remaining five were the same in pitch as the top five on the ba.s.s viol. The treble viol (as mentioned above) was tuned exactly an octave above the ba.s.s.

The tone of the viols is very much like that of our modern bowed instruments, the princ.i.p.al difference being that they are a little feebler, and naturally more calm. The reason is that vigorous 'bowing'

is a risky thing on the viol, for, as there are _six_ strings on the arc of the bridge, more care is required to avoid striking two or even three at once than on the violin, which has only four.

The amateur of music would keep a 'Chest' of six Viols in his house, and when his musical friends visited him, they would generally play 'Fancies' (or Fantasias) see _H. 4. B._ III, ii, 323, in several parts, from two to the full six, according to the number of those present. Amongst a great number of composers of this kind of music, some very well known names are, John Jenkins, Chris. Sympson, William Lawes, Coperario (John Cooper), and the Italian Monteverde. It was common for the Organ or other keyed instrument to join with the viols in these pieces, and thus fill out the chords of the 'consort,' as it was called.

We still have one of the viol tribe left in our orchestra. The double-ba.s.s (or viol-one) is lineal descendant of the Chest of viols.

Its shape, especially at the shoulders, is quite characteristic, and elsewhere--_e.g._, the blunt curves of the waist, the outline of the back, and even the shape of the bow.

The practice of playing extempore variations on the viol da gamba has already been mentioned as one of the elegant accomplishments of a gentleman in those days. The following two quotations therefore will not require further remark.

_Tw._ I, iii, 24.

_Maria_ [of Sir Andrew Aguecheek] ... he's a very fool, and a prodigal.

_Sir Toby._ Fie, that you'll say so! he _plays o' the viol-de-gamboys_ ... and hath all the good gifts of nature.

_Richard II._ I, iii, 159. Banishment of Norfolk.

_Norfolk._ The language I have learn'd these forty years, My native English, now I must forego; And now my tongue's use is to me no more Than an _unstringed viol_, or a _harp_; Or like a _cunning instrument cas'd up_, _Or_, being open, _put into his hands_ That knows _no touch to tune the harmony_.

The _violin_ family had only a precarious footing amongst musicians up to 1650. After that time, the viols declined in favour, and so rapidly, that at the very beginning of the 18th century, Dr Tudway of Cambridge describes a chest of viols, in a letter to his son, with such particularity, that it is clear they had entirely fallen out of use by 1700. As the viol fell out of fashion, the violin took its place, and has kept it ever since.

The violin family had come into general and fashionable use under the patronage of the Court of Louis XIV., and thus the English nation, true to their ancient habit of buying their 'doublet in Italy, round hose in France, bonnet in Germany, and behaviour everywhere,' took up the 'French fiddles,' and let their national Chest of viols go to the wall.

This growing tendency to adopt French customs, even in music, is referred to in the following:--

_Hen. VIII._ I, iii, 41. French manners in England.

_Lovell._ A _French song_, and a _fiddle_, has no fellow.

_Sands._ _The devil fiddle 'em!_ I am glad they're going, For, sure, there's no converting of 'em: _now_, An honest country lord, as I am, beaten A long time out of _play_, may bring his _plain-song_, And have an hour of hearing: and, by'r lady, Held _current music_ too.

The only word here that has not already been fully explained is 'current music,' which I suppose to mean simply, that the old accomplishments of which Lord Sands speaks would be still thought 'up to date' and in the fashion.

Another instrument in common domestic use was the Recorder. This was a kind of 'Beak-flute,' like a flageolet. Lord Bacon says it had a conical bore, and six holes. So it had the general figure of a modern Oboe, but was played with a 'whistle' mouthpiece instead of a reed.

The six holes may still be seen on any penny whistle, or the bra.s.s flageolets in the music-shops.

The Recorder was known for its sweet tone. Poets used the word 'record' to signify the song of birds, especially of the nightingale.

Hawkins identifies it with the Fistula Dulcis, seu Anglica, and gives two pictures which help to explain the next quotation.

In South Kensington Museum there is a Recorder[9] made of a dark wood, which is nothing else but a big flageolet. Its length is 2 ft. 2 in., and its bore is that of the modern flageolet and old flute--viz., conical, but with the wide end nearest the player's mouth.

[Footnote 9: See Frontispiece.]

_Hamlet_ III, ii, 346. Enter Players with recorders.

_Ham._ O! the _recorders_: let me see one....

L. 351.

... Will you _play upon this pipe_?

_Guildenstern._ My lord, I cannot.

_Ham._ It is as easy as lying: govern these _ventages_ with your _finger and thumb_, give it _breath_ with your mouth, and it will discourse _most eloquent music_. Look you, these are _the stops_.

_Guil._ But these cannot I command to any utterance of _harmony_: I have not the skill.

_Ham._ Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of _me_. You would _play upon me_: you would seem to _know my stops_; ... you would _sound me_ from my _lowest note_ to the _top of my compa.s.s_; and there is _much music_, excellent voice, in _this little organ_ [the recorder], yet cannot you make it _speak_. 'Sblood! do you think I am _easier to be played on than a pipe_? Call me what _instrument_ you will, though you can _fret_ me, you cannot _play_ upon me.

The holes in a flute have always been called 'ventages,' because the 'wind' comes through them when the fingers are removed. They were 'governed' 'with the finger and thumb.' One of the ill.u.s.trations from Mersennus [b. 1588] shows a conical flute with four holes in front and two at the back. These latter would, of course, be controlled by the _thumbs_, while the others would occupy two fingers on each hand.

(Modern flageolets still keep a thumb hole at the back.) There were other beaked flutes of the same period, of a better cla.s.s, which had several keys as well as the holes.

'The stops' referred to by Hamlet are merely the 'ventages.' The act of covering a hole with the finger or thumb was called 'stopping'; and further, one example of the Fistula Dulcis given by Mersennus has two different holes for the lowest note, one on the right and the other on the left, so that the instrument might be used either by a right-handed or left-handed person. One of these two duplicate holes was temporarily _stopped_ with wax. [The pa.s.sing play upon 'fret' in the last line should not be missed.]

In the next pa.s.sage the meaning of stop as applied to Recorders is punned on by Hippolyta, who carries on the play from Lysander's horsebreaking metaphor.

_Mids._ V, i, 108. The Prologue speaks with all the punctuation wrong.

_Theseus._ This fellow doth not _stand upon points_.

_Lysander._ He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows not the _stop_....

_Hippolyta._ Indeed, he hath played on this prologue like a _child on a recorder, a sound_, but _not in government_.

That is--the Prologue has misplaced all his _stops_--like a young horse that refuses to _stop_--also like a child who has not learned to _stop_ the holes on the flute _a bec_.

It is singular that the Virginal, which was the most popular of all the keyed instruments, is nowhere directly named in Shakespeare. There is, however, a reference to the action of the fingers on its keys in the following.