{"id":1237,"date":"2015-03-18T11:28:03","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T11:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/revival-fiddle\/?p=1237"},"modified":"2015-03-18T12:03:55","modified_gmt":"2015-03-18T12:03:55","slug":"1237","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk\/revival-fiddle\/2015\/03\/18\/1237\/","title":{"rendered":"Before the Fiddle 1 : A Parallel Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Scotland\u2019s writers and historians of the national and traditional music have speculated on whether there was a tradition of bowed instruments before the arrival of those of the viol type leading, ultimately, to absorbtion of the violin family. Speculation has been based on\u00a0a relatively small number of written sources although I’d like to think modern scholars may have added more to\u00a0these.<\/p>\n

Francis Collinson (The National and Traditional Music of Scotland (London, 1966) p.199) states that \u201cStringed instruments of different sorts and styles played with a bow have existed in Scotland from a very early period\u201d and quotes Henry Farmer in A History of Music in Scotland<\/em> who refers to lines in a poem by Thomas the Rhymer:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Harp and fedyl<\/h4>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 The getern and the sawrty<\/h4>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lut and rybid ther gon gar<\/h4>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thair was al maner of mysnstralsy<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is, therefore, suggestion of the fiddle (fedyl) and of the rebec (rybid). Names, however, are no indication of what actual instruments actually were at any time as the same name was often applied to different devices and established titles\u00a0stuck, even when the instruments were greatly changed or new.<\/p>\n

There has also been speculation on\u00a0bowed harps and similar instruments that may have come from Celtic or Scandinavian cultures.<\/p>\n

Collinson (plate 11) has a good photograph of a rebec player carved on the outside wall of the south transept of Melrose Abbey that he suggests is\u00a012th<\/sup> century. I have yet to see this carving and to locate a recent photograph so I am not sure what condition it is currently in. Carvings of musicians exist on a number of Scotland’s monuments but many have suffered considerable deterioration in recent\u00a0times.<\/p>\n

\"Melrose\"<\/p>\n

Then there is\u00a0the oft-quoted and much later reference to Mary Queen of Scots being entertained in Edinburgh in 1560 by \u201ca concert of the vilest fiddles and little rebecs, which are as bad as can be in that country\u201d (Collinson 1966, p. 201).<\/p>\n

In terms of the pear shaped, mandolin sized rebec, therefore, there is very little to go on. The making and playing of rebecs of all shapes and sizes have been revived through the early music movement although, to my limited knowledge, it has not attracted the attention of many players of Scottish traditional music.<\/p>\n