The Transformations from Renaissance to Baroque Fiddles
Ephraim Segerman

Most of us understand Renaissance fiddles in terms of the simple theory presented in David Boyden’s famous book¹. In that theory, the tunings and sizes of Renaissance fiddles were essentially the same as early baroque fiddles, with the treble member of the family always being the violin in its modern tuning, the contralto and tenor members in modern viola tuning and the bass member tuned a tone below the modern cello. This theory fails to explain all of the evidence. Let us first look at the evidence of Italian terminology:

The evidence of Italian terminology
Generic terms for Italian fiddles (viole) in the sixteenth century were ‘violette’,’viole da braccio’ and ‘violini’. They were all plurals of ‘small viola’, and referred to sets of fiddles in three tunings and three to six (usually four) different sizes. The names distinguished these instruments from sets of viols which were generally larger, called ‘viole’,‘viole da gamba’, ’lironi’ or ‘violoni’. In the unusual instance when an individual member of a set of fiddles was mentioned, it was called by the voice name of the part it played: soprano, contralto, tenore or basso, plus the singular violetta or viola da braccio (Venetian voice names also included falsetto, and instead of the basso, they had both basetto and bason). The singular term violino (or ‘violin’ in Venetian dialect) was different. It appeared in the last quarter of the century, referring to a single soloistic fiddle without an associated voice name, distinct from any set of fiddles, and when it played with other instruments, it was the only fiddle playing. It replaced the ‘ribechino’ (apparently a rebec) as the soloistic fiddle and the only fiddle that played with other instruments in Italian court entertainments.

Within the first decade of the seventeenth century, several changes occurred. About 1600, the violino started to be referred to as a soprano instrument, and more than one violino started to be called for to play together. Very soon, a short-lived set of violini appeared, with each of three parts played by a type of violino. At about the same time, the set of viole da braccio became acceptable for playing with other instruments in court entertainments. Finally, that set of fiddles abandoned its original soprano member and replaced it with the violino.

After about 1610, the highest parts of music for the fiddle band were labelled violino or soprano, and the lower parts were consistently labelled by the vocal name of the part and/or an identification of the type of instrument, and the type name was viola da braccio or violetta, with no suggestion that it was any kind of violino. Nevertheless, the whole fiddle band was sometimes called violini or viole da braccio, continuing sixteenth century practice.

How all this happened needs to be explained This study reexamines the evidence on sixteenth century Italian fiddles, the early violino, how the violino integrated into the set, and the nature of the resultant baroque fiddle band. Theories on these are presented, each of which reasonably explains all of the evidence known to the author.

Nominal tunings
Let us first look at the reported nominal tunings of sets of Renaissance fiddles and the violino. These are shown in Table 1². The entries in parenthesis were originally given in relative tunings only, and are presented with pitch levels of related entries.

The tunings given for Zacconi and Cerone differ from those given by Boyden³. Zacconi gave the ranges of pitches available while fingering in first positions, from which the tunings can be deduced from his statement that fiddles in sets and the violino were tuned in fifths. Ranges for the bass and tenor fiddles were given, but significantly, not for the soprano. For the soprano, the tuning can be derived from the tuning instruction that the first string of the bass is in unison with the lowest string of the usual soprano. That there was a ‘usual’ soprano implies there was a less usual one with a different lowest string. That ambiguity is apparently why no range was given. The obvious candidates are that the soprano could have had either three or four strings.

Boyden justification for picking four strings for the soprano was that Zacconi stated that viols had six strings and fiddles had four. But that statement must have been statistical since many Italian viols had five strings⁴. Thus the soprano fiddle could have had three strings, since the majority (bass, tenor and contralto) had four. The choice can be made by observing that in all of the other fiddle sets shown in Table 1, the highest string of the middle tuning was in unison with the second string of the highest fiddle. This implies that the usual soprano had three strings and the unusual one had four.

Cerone presented a diagram showing the relative tunings in the set, and as with other fiddle sets, the highest string of the (3-string) middle tuning was in unison with the second string of the (3-string) highest fiddle. His discussion of ranges implied a 4-string tuning for the tenor, like Zacconi. Cerone wrote about Italian practices, and used Zacconi’s book as a model for his own (so that sections are almost direct translations into Spanish), but he usually changed statements that did not conform with his own experience.

Without any justification, Boyden added a high fourth string to both Cerone’s 3-string tunings. His general claim, that the soprano viola da braccio was always the violino because it had the same tuning, was wishful thinking. They never had the same tuning.

Zacconi discussed the violino as a completely separate instrument from the set of viole da braccio. He gave a diagram for the violino showing the modern tuning, but he also gave a fingering range of c to a” that implied a d” highest string. A violino with a string tuned lower than g is necessary to explain the violino part in G. Gabrielli’s Sonata Pian e Forte (1597), so it is generally assumed that this range referred to a different type of violino. That type could have had five strings tuned in fifths or four strings tuned in sixths (with no pitch redundancy in first-position fingering). Zacconi did not mention the number of strings on the violino.

Boyden’s interpretation was that the top of the range was a’, an octave lower (which is possible from the terminology for note names used), and that it referred to the top open string. That is extremely unlikely since Zacconi consistently gave fingered ranges, not open-string ranges. So Boyden’s resultant modern viola tuning was another case of wishful thinking.

The primary tuning of the violino was previously unknown in Italy, but it was the tuning of the treble member of the French fiddle set. This strongly suggests that the violin was originally an adaptation of that French instrument.

The sizes of fiddles
The sizes of instruments are important to be able to identify what we see in contemporary art, which can also tell us if the pitches reported were transposed. A good measure of sizes are string stops, which can be related to pitches via the physical properties of the gut strings used.

On an instrument strung in gut, the higher one normally tunes the highest string, the more often it will break and need replacement. The lower one tunes the lowest string, the duller it sounds because of inharmonicity in its vibration. The physics of strings is well understood, but it cannot tell us how high a rate of string breakage the musicians tolerated for the highest pitches, or how dull a sound quality they tolerated for the lowest strings on their instruments. We can get such information from Praetorius, who gave scaled drawings for many instruments (from which we can measure the string stops), and their nominal tunings (from which we can get absolute pitch frequencies because he gave a set of pitch pipes defining his pitch standard)⁵. The method is given in the Appendix. Understanding the physics lets us extrapolate the limits found on those instruments that push the limits the most to all other sizes of instruments. These limits for fiddles are shown in Table 4.

We can apply the range limits of Table 4 (middle and right sections) to the highest and lowest pitches of the sixteenth century tunings which gave nominal pitches in Table 1. This gives the string-stop ranges shown in Table 2A. The pitch standards assumed here are those determined from seventeenth century evidence, and though the degree of adherence to pitch standards increased from the sixteenth to the seventeenth centuries, there is no evidence suggesting that these standards themselves changed. It is also assumed that the lowest strings were just high-twist gut.

What is immediately striking with these figures is how large the instruments appear to be. Ganassi’s fiddle-tuned viols have calculated size ranges that include the approximately 100, 75 and 50 cm string stops we expect for sixteenth century Italian viols⁶ . The calculated sizes of Zacconi’s fiddles do not agree with those of fiddles in sixteenth century Italian pictures, which all show them very much smaller. This problem is resolved by postulating that the string pitches given were those assumed when reading the available music (which was in the usual vocal clefs), but the sounds produced were an octave higher.

The entries in Table 2B are the same as in Table 2A, but at what appears to be the correct octave. The three resulting pitch ranges for sixteenth century Italian fiddles lead to string-stop lengths of 57-62, 41 and 27 cm. These are comparable to modern sizes of a very small cello, a very large viola and a 1/4 or 1/2 size violin (or a baroque violino piccolo). There was a way for the contralto viola da braccio to have been somewhat smaller than the calculated size, for easier handling and playing. If its lowest string was thinner than the equal-tension diameter assumed in the calculation, that would allow the sound to still be acceptable, but at the sacrifice of some projection. That sacrifice could have been made because in the unusual situations when that string was called for, that projection was not expected. This would have also been necessary for the fourth string of a soprano if it had one. We would not expect that projection on the lowest string would have been sacrificed in favour of a smaller more convenient size on a tenore or basso.

Renaissance fiddles were apparently originally developed around 1500 in these small sizes, about half the sizes of viols. The German names imply such small sizes, as does the Italian viole da braccio, meaning ‘arm fiddles’. A 1516 French drawing of famous philosophers playing fiddles (figure 1 in Boyden’s book). shows such small sizes. It is thus likely that Jambe de Fer’s French tunings, and their implied larger sizes, had been developed afterwards. The ‘on’ in the French name ‘violon’ has the connotation of ‘large’ in French as well as Italian. The name ‘violon’ likely was a shortened form of its original one (now lost), which modified the name of the original small fiddles. The name violon first appeared in records in the 1520’s⁷, so that is probably when the French increased the sizes of their fiddles. Jambe de Fer mentioned that the players of viols were more respectable than fiddlers. This might have provided a motivation for the development of a set of larger fiddles.

One development that was important for the transition of Renaissance to baroque fiddles was the new ready availability of roped-gut bass strings, which happened in the 1570’s. These strings reduce inharmonicity because they are more elastic, and that allows either a shortening of the string stop or a lowering of the lowest pitch to keep the same inharmonicity limit that people then considered acceptable. It seems that the French took the path of shortening string stops for easier playing while keeping their tunings, while the Italians took the other path of lowering the string pitches to play the available music at written pitch while keeping their sizes. Table 2C shows the effect of using roped-gut basses on the acceptable range of string stops for the tunings of the French and Italian Renaissance fiddles. It also includes Italian developments at the beginning of the seventeenth century that led to the baroque fiddle band partnership between the violino and the viole da braccio.

The French basse de violon used roped gut to reduce its string stop from at least a metre to at least 80 cm. Each size is shown in the two related paintings of three trebles and a bass fiddle playing for a couple dancing the Volta (Plates 13 and 14 in Boyden’s book). The size of the smaller bass (Plate 14) implies that it was made to use a roped-gut lowest string. This size and tuning continued through most of the baroque. With roped gut the tenor was still big, with over 42 cm string stop. The Hoefnagel painting A Fête at Bermondsey⁸ shows one way that a such a large one was held, with the neck downwards. Another way of holding it was across the chest.

Il violino
In the last quarter of the sixteenth century, there is other evidence consistent with Zacconi report of a soloistic fiddle called violino or violin in Italy that was different from the fiddles in sets. Boyden mentioned that in 1586 ‘Antonio Beltramin, a violinist, was engaged by the Paduan church authorities for the “concerti which are played in this sacred Temple”’. In 1589, the Intermedii of the celebrations for the wedding of Ferdinand I and Christine of Lorraine include one violino amongst the many respectable stringed and wind instruments used, and no other fiddles. In 1597, Giovanni Gabrielli’s Sonata Pian e Forte scored for a single violino plus wind instruments. Virgiliano (c.1600) had a section on ‘il violino’ and a different section on the set of fiddles called ‘violini’.

The original French treble fiddle had a string stop of about 37 cm. In its usual tuning, the sixteenth century violino could have been smaller because it used roped-gut bass strings, but not necessarily so. The alternative violino with a low c implied by Zacconi required a string stop of 41 cm. That violino could have had the original overall size, but with a shorter tailpiece and bridge moved down the soundboard.

Violino players were versatile with tunings, and before 1600, they probably made full use of their lower strings in their soloistic style. This is strikingly similar to the viola bastarda players, who also were versatile with tunings, especially range-expanding ones, and did a large part of their work on their lower strings. What we know about bastarda playing styles, including complex divisions as in the published music, and a chordal style implied by Praetorius (and seen in the tablature repertoire of the English version), should be relevant when we try to imagine what the soloistic violino playing style before 1600 might have been like.

Then suddenly, around 1600, the violino was described as a treble instrument⁹. A likely reason for this is that the bass bar was adopted. Since the 1550’s, viols with cross bars glued to the under sides of their soundboards had bass bars to restore the treble response that the cross bars weakened. With the motion on the bass foot of the bridge restricted by the bass bar, when strings on the treble side of the bridge are bowed, there is enhanced pumping motion of the treble foot of the bridge on the soundboard. The pumping motion of the bridge on the soundboard creates the sound that we hear. With the bass bar, the violino acquired the big singing treble tone that made it the leading stringed instrument of the baroque. Its past soloistic experience with ornate improvised division and chordal styles gave it the boldness in decorating a melodic line that the more democratic fiddles in sets (ever sensitive to what the others are doing) never had.

Similarly, restricting the motion of the treble foot of the bridge with a soundpost enhances bass response. This appears also to have been discovered much earlier, since it can explain why it was worthwhile to add a 4th string to the smaller French fiddles. Fiddle sound is deadened all over if there are either two soundposts, or two bass bars, one under each bridge foot. It would therefore have been far from obvious to consider putting a soundpost under the treble foot and a bass bar under the bass foot. That could be why it took half a century for someone to discover the miracle that this enhanced both bass and treble response.

The violino players, being innovative and flexible, apparently adopted and exploited the bass bar as soon as its effect was realised. The viola da braccio players were more bound by tradition, and were very satisfied with the sounds of their instruments that they were used to.

Not long afterwards, a new type of fiddle set appeared. By then, violino players often worked in pairs. In 1605, Banchieri¹⁰ gave tunings of a set of three violini with each member named as a type of violino, The treble was a standard one, and the tenor had the tuning of the French tenor fiddle but with the 4th string raised a tone to d. That is the lowest pitch of a full-sized violino with a 37 cm string stop, suggesting that it was a restrung ordinary violino. The bass was tuned an octave below the ordinary violino. That required a larger instrument, which probably was a basso viola da braccio adapted with roped gut strings, a sound post and a bass bar. The tunings in this set are shown in Table 2C.

We need to explain why Banchieri’s bass violino was called a ‘violino’. It couldn’t be because of what it looked like, and must have been because of what it sounded like. An important aspect of its sound was the soloistic style that violino players used. The violino was not the first soloistic fiddle in sixteenth century Italy. When it grew in popularity it replaced the ‘ribechino’, the previously popular soloistic fiddle. The rebec described by Tinctoris (as ‘rebecum’)¹¹ is often seen in Italian pictures of that century, and there are no competitors in the association of the name ribechino with the rebec before the violino came along. In some sources, especially in Iberian languages, the association of the rebec name with a soloistic fiddle-playing style was so strong that it carried over to the violino after the replacement.

Monteverdi specified two ‘violini picciolo alla francese’ to play in Orfeo (1607). That instrument played in the range of the soprano viola da braccio, and we can deduce that it was a rebec because that was the only type of French bowed instrument of that size at that time. Monteverdi apparently wanted to revive the the sound of the old ribechino, which by then could only be offered by violino players using the French rebecs. It was called a violino because it was played by violino players in the soloistic violino style. The same applies to the ‘violino piccolo’ when it was used later in the baroque, with no association with the soprano viola da braccio that it originally was.

Developments in fiddle sets
At about the same time that a set of fiddles made up of violini appeared, there were changes in the set of viole da braccio to make them acceptable for the ‘serious’ music supported by the Italian nobility. The considerable similarities between the tunings of the larger members of the two sets suggest that one set (probably the viole da braccio) copied characteristics from the other.

Monteverdi’s Orpheo was a very early example of the new set of viole da braccio. The music appears to have been played at the same octave as it was written. The usual soprano member of the set was abandoned, and the contralto played the treble line. The range of the bass part suggests that the basso dropped a minor third in tuning, to the pitches of the basso of the set of violini. It presumably was the traditional size of basso, but it must have used roped gut bass strings, and acquired a sound post as well. The tenore, also using such bass strings and a soundpost, apparently dropped a fourth, to a very similar tuning as the middle one of the set of violini. Presumably, it also retained its traditional size. An interval of a fourth separated each size from the next one. The remaining two lines of the 5-part music were played by either contralto or tenore instruments. The tunings in this set, identified as ‘respectable’, are shown in Table 2C.

Within a decade, the violino, playing top line, formed a partnership with the viole da braccio. It replaced the new soprano (originally the contralto), which then tuned down to tenore pitches to play lower lines. We don’t hear again in Italy of an instrument called violino having a tuning that is not appropriate for a soprano line, nor of a soprano line specified to be played on a viola da braccio. This partnership eventually replaced the original set of viole da braccio in its dance-band and processional functions, and became the stable fiddle band of the early baroque. The tunings in this set are shown in the last line of Table 2C.

Alternative basses
The acquisition of respectability by viole da braccio was associated with the growth of playing such instruments by amateurs. Previously, the amateurs had been playing viols, and they enjoyed the low sounds made by large viols. Consequently they had made especially large bass fiddles to play with the usual small ones, and probably also to provide a bass line in other music-making. One of these had the tuning of the usual early baroque basso with an added low C. Its five strings filled the range allowed by gut strings, so its string stop had to be about 72 cm. It was illustrated by Praetorius (who did not list its tuning), and is featured in a painting by Pieter Claesz¹².

Praetorius listed the tuning of the other, a fourth lower than the first, but did not illustrate it. This contrabass fiddle also had five strings, and had a string stop of about 95 cm. If the relative sizes in Virgiliano’s drawings of a set of fiddles was realistic, his set included one of these plus two 4-string soprano and two 4-string contralto viole da braccio. It appears that Kircher (1650)¹³ illustrated one of these without the top string (its four strings tuned two octaves below the violin) as his example of a ‘violone’. The tunings of both of the 5-string large basses are shown in Table 2C. Also around the middle of the seventeenth century, the French basse de violon was used in in some regions of Italy (probably mostly by amateurs) to perform the violone function, and so also was called a violone¹⁴ .

When bass strings of gut wound (overspun) with metal became available in the 1660’s, some of the usual small basses (with a string stop of about 62 cm) used wound 4th strings tuned down to C, with the original strings shifted one over (discarding the high e’). Some others converted to five strings, including both the C and the e’, giving it the same tuning as as the earlier 5-string bass with a string stop of 72 cm. With a low C string, these basses could effectively play most parts written for violone, and they were often called ‘violoncello’, meaning small violone. As playing violone parts on instruments with a low C grew, those that preferred the sound of an all-gut lowest string revived the earlier large bass in a 4-string version. Near the end of the century, the modern size of violoncello with a string stop of about 68 cm, was developed to give a power closer to that of the violone on an instrument with a wound C.

The small bass with its original stringing and tuning survived well into the 18th century as a bass that violinists could play when cellists were unavailable¹⁵. Its version as a violoncello with a low C , as well as its 5-string version (sometimes called ‘violoncello piccolo’) was also played then. The large (about 72 cm string stop) violoncello with an all-gut C also survived for some time¹⁶ .

Conclusion and summary
This study presents new theories on the Renaissance development of fiddles and of the violino. Though some are more speculative than others, all are valid theories of scholarship because they have explanations that are reasonably probable historically for all of the evidence (that the author is aware of). Boyden’s simplistic theory is invalid since some evidence was misinterpreted and other evidence ignored. Other possible theories that are valid would be very welcome. It is much more constructive and objective to have multiple valid theories to try to choose between, than to insist that issues remain mysteries while dismissing all theories presented, with the excuse that more evidence is needed to be ‘convincing’.

Using criteria of how high and low gut strings could be tuned, derived from the data provided by Praetorius, the sizes of Renaissance fiddles are deduced from the tunings. The original ones had the sizes of the later violino piccolo, large and normal viola and small cello, and Italian fiddles retained these sizes to after 1600. The French increased their fiddle sizes quite early in the sixteenth century, and then reduced the lower ones in the last quarter of the century. The violino was an Italian adaptation of the French treble in that last period, used for soloistic purposes. With the adoption of the bass bar around 1600, the violino became a superb treble instrument, and soon replaced the treble fiddle in the fiddle band. Table 3 shows typical string stops of French and Italian fiddles in the Renaissance and in the transition into the baroque.


APPENDIX: Limits on absolute pitch and string stop for gut strings

Longest string stop for the highest pitch
We have a useful tool for relating pitches and sizes of gut-strung instruments. Praetorius’s plates have scales on them, so we can measure string stops (vibrating string lengths) of the instruments, and his tuning charts give the nominal pitches of their strings. He also defined his pitch standard by drawing an octave set of pitch pipes, so we can convert nominal pitches to absolute pitches. Thus we know the string stops and the highest and lowest absolute pitches of the strings on his instruments.

From the physics of string materials like low-twist gut (which have a constant tensile strength) we know that the frequency of the highest string times the string stop relates directly to how long a gut highest string can be expected to last. We don’t know that relationship, but don’t have to since the information Praetorius provided indicates that when the frequency (in Hz) times the string stop (in metres) is about 210, this represents the shortest string life that was tolerable to musicians at that time. This limit was observed both in Praetorius’s bowed and plucked gut-strung instruments¹⁷. It represents quantitatively the meaning of the common instruction to tune the highest string as high as it would go.

The longest string stops for a range of highest pitches are shown in the middle section of Table 4, calculated from the above relationship for a variety of pitch standards. The lowest standard listed, with a’ = 375 Hz, was determined from the dimensions of Mersenne’s organ pipes¹⁸. It was the primary standard followed in France until early in the 18th century, and remained as an ecclesiastical standard till well into the 19th. The next lowest is a’ = 383 Hz, which is the German Chorthon Praetorius preferred (a tone below his Cammerthon standard). It was the primary standard followed in southern Catholic Germany until well into the 18th century, and a good approximation for the Corista standard, the primary standard for stringed instruments and voices throughout Italy till late in the 18th century. The standard a’ = 430 Hz was Praetorius’s Cammerthon standard, the primary standard in northern Lutheran Germany that rose to that level during the sixteenth century, and remained so till around 1800¹⁹ . It was determined from Praetorius’s octave set of pitch pipes. The other pitch standards are modern, with a’= 440 Hz being modern pitch, a’ = 415 Hz being modern baroque pitch (a semitone lower), and a’ = 392 Hz, a tone below modern. These are included in case they might be useful.

During the sixteenth century, as the amount and variety of instrumental involvement in vocal performance and with instruments of different types increased, the need for using pitch standards increased. There was always some need, with a standard to satisfy it. The available sizes of instruments and their tuning flexibility must have reflected that need to some extent. Some of the customers of makers that produced instruments in quantity would want to play them at times with other instruments, and when these makers decided on their standard sizes, the sizes useful to these customers were usually as good as any to choose for these standard sizes.

Shortest string stop for the lowest pitch
The lowest pitch limit for a gut string depends mainly on inharmonicity in the sound. Inharmonicity means that the higher harmonics in the sound are out of tune with the fundamental. A small amount of it can be attractive, and it is essential in good piano tone. A lot of it cancels out most of the harmonics, leaving a sound that is mainly the fundamental. It sounds unfocussed and lacks richness. This was the preferred sound on the low strings of double basses until well into the 20th century. These strings, being thick gut, concentrating most of the bowing energy in the fundamental, leaving the richness to be be provided by the cellos doubling an octave higher.

Inharmonicity gets worse with higher tensions, lower frequencies or shorter string stops. Families of instruments, for balance in output between the strings, tend to have the tension proportional to the string stop. Combining this relationship with the Mersenne-Taylor Law in the theory results in the frequency times the string stop to the 5/4 power being constant for the same worst tolerable inharmonicity in various members of a family,. That constant will vary from family to family because of various factors. A major one is different string-tension traditions. Others are whether the lowest string is supported by an octave string, whether it was made of high-twist gut or of roped gut, and whether it was plucked or bowed. We can find that constant by identifying the member of the family that pushes both the highest and lowest string to their limits.

The member of Praetorius’s fiddle family that pushed the limits was his 5-string Bass Geige. From this instrument, these limits are calculated in the left section of Table 4, showing the shortest string stops for each pitch for fiddles with roped-gut basses, which was general in Praetorius’s time.

We have no information relating string stops with absolute pitches before Praetorius, so we need to fall back on less precise observations. When roped gut bass strings became available, the open-string ranges of lutes expanded from 26 to 31 semitones and the range of viols from 24 to 29 semitones (on the viola bastarda). Five semitones were added in each case, so we can approximate the previous situation with high-twist gut basses by raising the low limit of roped-gut basses by a fourth. The right section of Table 4 shows the shortest string stops for high-twist gut bass strings, which were used generally before the last quarter of the sixteenth century, and were slow in being replaced by roped gut for the lowest strings on many fiddles.

Bass strings made of gut with metal wound on top became available in the 1660’s. The inharmonicity of one of these strings is only that of the gut core. Since the pitch depends on the total weight per unit length, one can usually add enough metal to lower the string to any desired pitch.

In the range that both can work, modern ears (used to such strings) almost always prefer the greater richness and focus of their sounds to all-gut strings with the same weight per unit length. The situation was very different in the baroque, when an individual’s discovery of beauty in music happened when the warmth and groggy masculinity of the sound of all-gut basses were usually part of that discovery. The violin 4th string is an example where the choice was made according to the kind of sound rather than range. The French mostly converted to a wound 4th by early in the 18th century, but the Italians didn’t mostly convert until the middle of the century. During that century the Germans remained quite undecided, and according to a source as late as 1855, a preference for an all-gut 4th was still being expressed²⁰.

¹ D. D. Boyden, The history of violin playing from its origins to 1761 (O.U.P., 1965).

² M. Agricola, Musica instrmentalis deudsch (Wittemberg, 1528), H. Gerle, Musica Teusch (Nuremberg, 1532), G. M. Lanfranco, Scintille di musica (Brescia, 1533), S. Ganassi, Regulo Rubertina & Lettione Seconda (Venice, 1543,4), M. Agricola, Musica instrumentalis deudsch (Wittemberg, 1545), P. Jambe de Fer, Epitome musical (Lyons, 1556), L. Zacconi, Prattica di musica (Venice, 1592), D. P. Cerone, El Melopeo y Maestro (Naples, 1613).

³ D. D. Boyden, ‘Monteverdi’s Violino Piccoli and Viole da braccio’, Annales Musicologiques, Vol. VI (Paris, 1958-63). The relevant passages are quoted and translated. A review of this paper by E. Segerman is in FoMRHI Quarterly 101 (October, 2000), Comm. 1738, pp. 28-32.

⁴ Ganassi wrote in 1543 that most players played on 5-string viols. The manuscript by A. Virgiliano ‘Il Dolcimelo’ (c.1600) in the Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale, Bologna, illustrated a set of 5-string viols. A description of the contents of this manuscript by E. Segerman is in FoMRHI Quarterly 97 (Oct. 1999), Comm.1672, pp. 26-8).

⁵ M. Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum II (Wolfenbüttel, 1619) and Sciagraphia (Wolfenbüttel, 1620)

⁶ E. Segerman, ‘The Tunings of Viols in Sets, and their Sizes’, FoMRHI Quarterly 96 (July, 1999), Comm.1660, pp. 65-71.

⁷ ‘Pour le trompettes et vjollons de Verceil’ is mentioned in Torino, Archivio di Stato, Tesoreria generale Savoia, reg. 181, c. 194 (1523), cited in R. Baroncini, ‘Contributo alla storia del violino nel sedicesimo secolo’, Recercare VI (1994), pp. 61-190.

⁸ In Hatfield House. Reproduced in Van der Straeten History of the Violin I (1933) and in P. Holman, Four and twenty fiddlers.(O.U.P., 1993).

⁹ E. Cavalliere, Rappresentatione di anima, et di corpo (1600)

¹⁰ A. Banchieri, L’organo suonarino (Venice, 1605) and Conclusioni nel suono dell’ organo (Bologna, 1609)

¹¹ J. Tinctoris, De Inventione et Usu Musicae (Naples, c.1487), Book III

¹² Still-life with Musical Instruments, reproduced in A. Kendall, The World of Musical Instruments (Hamlyn, 1972).

¹³ A. Kircher, Musurgia Universalis (Rome, 1650). His tuning diagrams for all other bowed instruments gave string pitches an octave higher than the actual tuning, and it is assumed that this also applied to his ‘violone’.

¹⁴ G. Zannetti, Il Scolaro (Milan, 1645). Also, G. M. Bononcini, Della Sonate da Camera, e da Ballo, Opera Secondo (Venice, 1667), No 37 and 38. Here the ‘violone’ part was given with a scordatura tuning of C, G, d, g (i.e. with the lower three strings tuned up a tone) .

¹⁵ The bass line in some Bach contatas were written in treble claf to sound an octave down.

¹⁶ These instruments have often been confused nowadays with French basse de violons, which were rather larger.

¹⁷ E. Segerman, ‘Further on the Pitch Ranges of Gut Strings’, FoMRHI Quarterly 96 (July, 1999), Comm. 1657, pp. 54-8.

¹⁸ E. Segerman, ‘Mersenne’s Pitch Standard’, FoMRHI Quarterly 80 (July, 1995), Comm. 1374, pp. 39-40

¹⁹ E. Segerman, ‘Praetorius’s Cammerthon Pitch Standard’, Galpin Society Journal L (March, 1997). pp. 81-108.

²⁰ H. W. von Gontershausen Neu-eröffnetes Magazin musikalischer Tonwerkzeuge (Frankfurt, 1855), p.241.

Table 1: Pre-baroque tunings of fiddles
When the pitches are in ( ), the source gave only relative pitches.
When - - - appears between pitches, only the range was given.
When a pitches is in [ ], that string was optional.

Author	Date	Bass	Tenor & Alto	Soprano	Name
M. Agricola	1528	F, c, g	c, g, d’	g, d’, a’	cleinen Geigen
H. Gerle	1532	(C, G, d, a	c, g, d’	g, d’, a’)	Kleynen Geyglen
G. M. Lanfranco	1533	(BBb, F, c, g	c, g, d’	g, d’, a’)	Violetta da Braccio
S. Ganassi	1543	F, c, g	c, g, d’	g, d’, a’	3-string Viola tuned like
					Viole da brazo senza tasti
M. Agricola	1545	F, G, d, a	c, g, d’	g, d’, a’	kleinen handgeiglein
					and Polnischen Geigen
P. Jambe de Fer	1556	BBb, F, c, g	c, g, d’, a’	g, d’, a’, e”	Violons
L. Zacconi	1592	BBb, F, c, g	F, c, g, d’	[c], g, d’, a’	Viole da braccio
P. Cerone	1613	(BBb, F, c, g	[F],c, g, d’	g, d’, a’)	Vihuela de braço

L. Zacconi	1592	g, d’, a’, e”	Violino
		c - - - d”

Table 2: Calculated string-stop ranges for the pitch ranges
When a minimum size is greater than a maximum, it is shown in ( )
This indicates that the range was exceeded

At the reported pitches

S. Ganassi	1543	F, c, g	c, g, d’	g, d’, a’	3-string Viola tuned like
at a’ = 383 Hz		72 - 126 cm	52 - 82 cm	38 - 55 cm	Viole da brazo senza tasti
M. Agricola	1545	F, G, d, a	c, g, d’	g, d’, a’	kleinen handgeiglein
at a’ = 383 Hz		72 - 110 cm	52 - 82 cm	38 - 55 cm	and Polischen Geigen
P. Jambe de Fer	1556	BBb, F, c, g	c, g, d’, a’	g, d’, a’, e”	Violons
at a’ = 375 Hz		101 - 126 cm	53 - 56 cm	(38) - 37 cm
L. Zacconi	1592	BBb, F, c, g	F, c, g, d’	[c], g, d’, a’	Viole da braccio
at a’ = 383 Hz		100 - 123 cm	73 - 82 cm	53 - 55 cm

At the proposed octave

S. Ganassi	1543	F, c, g	c, g, d’	g, d’, a’	3-string Viola tuned like
at a’ = 383 Hz		72 - 126 cm	52 - 82 cm	38 - 55 cm	Viole da brazo senza tasti
M. Agricola	1545	f, g, d’, a’	c’, g’, d”	g’, d”, a”	kleinen handgeiglein
at a’ = 383 Hz		41 - 55 cm	30 - 41 cm	22 - 27 cm	and Polischen Geigen
P. Jambe de Fer	1556	BBb, F, c, g	c, g, d’, a’	g, d’, a’, e”	Violons
at a’ = 375 Hz		101 - 126 cm	53 - 56 cm	(38) - 37 cm
L. Zacconi	1592	Bb, f, c’, g’	f, c’, g’, d”	[c’], g’, d”, a”	Viole da braccio
at a’ = 383 Hz		57 - 62 cm	41 - 41 cm	(30) - 27 cm

Increased tuning range using roped-gut (catlin) bass strings

French	after 1575	BBb, F, c, g	c, g, d’, a’	g, d’, a’, e”	Violons
at a’ = 375 Hz		80 - 126 cm	42 - 56 cm	30 - 37 cm
Italian	early 17th c.	Bb, f, c’, g’	f, c’, g’, d”	[c’], g’, d”, a”	Viole da braccio
at a’ = 383 Hz		45 - 62 cm	33 - 41 cm	24 - 27 cm	original set
Italian	early 17th c.	G, d, a , e’	d, g ,d’, a’	g, d’, a’, e”	all Violini set
at a’ = 383 Hz		52 - 73 cm	38 - 55 cm	30 - 37 cm	(Banchieri)
Italian	early 17th c.	G, d, a , e’	c, g , d’, a’	f ,c’, g’, d”	Viole da braccio
at a’ = 383 Hz		52 - 73 cm	41 - 55 cm	33 - 41 cm	respectable set
		C, G, d, a , e’			5-string basso
		72 - 73 cm
		GG, D, A, e, b
		91 - 98 cm
Italian	from c.1610	G, d, a , e’	c, g ,d’, a’	g, d’, a’, e”	Violino and
at a’ = 383 Hz		52 - 73 cm	41 - 55 cm	30 - 37 cm	Viole da braccio

Table 3: Suggested Typical String Stops

French fiddles	basse	taille	haute-contra	dessus
to before 1520	up to 63 cm	41 cm	less than 41 cm	27 cm
c. 1520 to c.1575	at least 100 cm	55 cm	less than 55 cm	37 cm
c.1575 to 18th c.	over 80 cm	42 cm	less than 42 cm	32 cm

Italian fiddles	basso da braccio	tenore	contralto	violino	soprano
		viola da braccio	viola da braccio		viola da braccio
16th century	up to 62 cm	41 cm	less than 41 cm		27 cm
late 16th, early 17th c.	up to 62 cm	41 cm	less than 41 cm	37 cm	27 cm
17th century	62 or 72 cm	41 cm	less than 41 cm	32 cm

TABLE 4: FIDDLE STRING STOP LIMITS FOR PITCHES>
Roped gut BASSES							Low-twist gut TREBLES							High-twist gut BASSES
5-string Bass BBb, 72 cm, 430 Hz							String stop (cm) = 21000/freq. (Hz)							A 4th higher than roped-gut basses
low-	shortest string stop (cm)						high-	longest string stop (cm)						low-	shortest string stop (cm)
est	375	383	392	415	430	440	est	375	383	392	415	430	440	est	375	383	392	415	430	440
pitch	Hz.	Hz.	Hz.	Hz.	Hz.	Hz.	pitch	Hz.	Hz.	Hz.	Hz.	Hz.	Hz.	pitch	Hz.	Hz.	Hz.	Hz.	Hz.	Hz.
c'	24	24	23	22	22	21	c'''	24	23	23	21	21	20	c'	30	30	29	28	27	27
b	25	25	24	23	23	22	b"	25	24	24	23	22	21	b	32	31	31	29	29	28
	26	26	26	24	24	23		26	26	25	24	23	23		33	33	32	31	30	29
a	28	27	27	26	25	24	a"	28	27	27	25	24	24	a	35	34	34	32	31	31
	29	29	28	27	26	26		30	29	28	27	26	25		37	36	35	34	33	32
g	30	30	29	28	27	27	g"	31	31	30	28	27	27	g	38	38	37	35	34	34
	32	31	31	29	29	28		33	33	32	30	29	28		40	39	39	37	36	35
f	33	33	32	31	30	29	f"	35	35	34	32	31	30	f	42	41	41	39	38	37
e	35	34	34	32	31	31	e"	37	37	36	34	33	32	e	44	43	43	41	39	39
	37	36	35	34	33	32		40	39	38	36	35	34		46	45	45	43	41	41
d	38	38	37	35	34	34	d"	42	41	40	38	37	36	d	48	48	47	45	43	43
	40	39	39	37	36	35		44	44	43	40	39	38		51	50	49	47	45	45
c	42	41	41	39	38	37	c"	47	46	45	43	41	40	c	53	52	51	49	48	47
B	44	43	43	41	39	39	b'	50	49	48	45	44	43	B	56	55	54	51	50	49
	46	45	45	43	41	41		53	52	51	48	46	45		58	57	56	54	52	51
A	48	48	47	45	43	43	a'	56	55	54	51	49	48	A	61	60	59	56	55	54
	51	50	49	47	45	45		59	58	57	54	52	51		64	63	62	59	57	56
G	53	52	51	49	48	47	g'	63	62	60	57	55	54	G	67	66	64	62	60	59
	56	55	54	51	50	49		67	65	64	60	58	57		70	69	67	64	63	62
F	58	57	56	54	52	51	f'	71	69	67	64	62	60	F	73	72	71	68	66	64
E	61	60	59	56	55	54	e'	75	73	72	68	65	64	E	77	75	74	71	69	67
	64	63	62	59	57	56		79	78	76	72	69	67		80	79	78	74	72	71
D	67	66	64	62	60	59	d'	84	82	80	76	73	72	D	84	83	81	78	75	74
	70	69	67	64	63	62		89	87	85	80	78	76		88	87	85	81	79	78
C	73	72	71	68	66	64	c'	94	92	90	85	82	80	C	92	91	89	85	83	81
BB	77	75	74	71	69	67	b	100	98	95	90	87	85	BB	97	95	93	89	87	85
	80	79	78	74	72	71		106	104	101	96	92	90		101	100	98	93	91	89
AA	84	83	81	78	75	74	a	112	110	107	101	98	95	AA	106	104	102	98	95	93
	88	87	85	81	79	78		119	116	114	107	103	101		111	109	107	102	99	98
G G	92	91	89	85	83	81	g	126	123	120	114	110	107	G G	116	114	112	107	104	102
	97	95	93	89	87	85		133	130	127	120	116	114		122	120	118	112	109	107
FF	101	100	98	93	91	89	f	141	138	135	128	123	120	FF	128	125	123	118	114	112
EE	106	104	102	98	95	93	e	150	146	143	135	130	127	EE	134	131	129	123	120	118
	111	109	107	102	99	98		158	155	152	143	138	135		140	138	135	129	125	123
DD	116	114	112	107	104	102	d	168	164	161	152	146	143	DD	146	144	141	135	131	129
	122	120	118	112	109	107		178	174	170	161	155	152		153	151	148	141	137	135
C C	128	125	123	118	114	112	c	188	184	180	170	164	161	C C	161	158	155	148	144	141
Pitch standards: a'=375 Hz was French Ton de Chappelle, a'=383 Hz was Catholic German Chorthon and
Italian Corista, a'=430 Hz was Lutheran German Cammerthon, a'=440 Hz is modern, a'=415 Hz is
a semitone below modern and a'=392 Hz is a tone below modern.
To extrapolate beyond the range given, there is a factor of 2 in the longest string stops in the central table
for every 12 semitones, and in the shortest string stops in the other tables for every 15 semitones.
The approximation of equal temperament is used in these calculations.

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