There are other points of interest about Judenkünig’s work besides
that of its being the earliest attempt to mingle instruments in a
methodical concerted manner. For instance, the title-page monopolises
our attention, for the name Geygen is among the first to be found in
print. Then again, further on, there is a woodcut representation of a
man standing erect and playing on a big six-stringed viol, which he
apparently holds vertically before him.[16] The instrument does not
touch the ground, and, doubtless, it is attached round the player’s
neck by a cord or ribbon, although the artist has not shown anything
of that description. Similar woodcuts of the period intimate that this
manner of playing the bass-viol was not at all uncommon during the
sixteenth century. The custom was, doubtless, a survival of those
“_musiciens ambulants_,” the minstrels, who could not be burdened
with many accessories, and, like the Egyptian camel, carried their
belongings on their backs. It was doubtless with their fiddles slung
round their necks that the Chester minstrels sallied forth in the
reign of King John, and, unarmed, conquered the besieging Welshmen by
making such a noise that their enemy imagined themselves to be opposed
by an overwhelming force, and flew. Also, at a later date, it is easy
to imagine the genial Anthony Wood desiring to escape a little from
University pedagogism and stealing out with five chosen comrades “in
poor habits,” and how like country fiddlers they “scraped for their
livings.” Roaming the country with their viols on their backs, Wood
states that they went to “Farringdon Fair,” and, to the house of Mr
Thomas Latton, at “Kingston Bakepaze,” who gave them money and sent
drink out to them. After playing dance music at the inn and visiting
other private houses, a most depressing encounter with some soldiers
considerably damped Anthony Wood’s spirits. These men of war forced
them to play in an open field without paying them a penny. “Most of
my companions,” says he, referring to the incident, “would afterwards
glory in this, but I was ashamed and could never endure to hear of it.”
Among the five gentlemen who assisted in this escapade he mentions that
“Edmund Gregorie, B.A., and gent. com. of Mert. Coll., Ox., played the
bass-viol.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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