THE V I O LIN AND ITS MUSIC, GEORGE HART, "HE VIOLIN: ITS ...

IHE'VIOL·COTHIC. 13
enga'ged, many of them being men of much emi­
nence, arid so kindly were they treated by the Duke
that it is written, "had- the heavenly choir been·
sndden:ly dismissed, they would straightway have
made for the court of Munich, there to find peace
and retirement." ,This establishment furnishes us
with some notion of the musical arrangements of
the time. It would appear that for general ,pur­
poses the wind and brass instruments were separated
from the strings ; the former accompanying
the mass on Sundays and festivals. In the chamber
all took part in turn. At a banquet the wind
instruments were used during the earlier courses,
and afterwards the stringed instruments were
introduced. This description of the use to which
the Viols were put would seem to accord with
Montaigne's, in his journal, written in 1580, where
he says he heard, at Kempster, in Bavaria, one of
the ministers preach to a very thin congregation,
and "when he - had done, a psalm was sung to a
melody a little different from ours. At each stave
the organ (which had been but lately erected) played
admirably, making a kind of response to the
singing." Further on Montaigne adds, "As a
newly-married couple went out of church, the
Violins (?)* and Tabors accompanied them." Though
it would appear from these extracts that Viols were
not used inside the German churches at this date,
" D - r. Burney concludes from this passage that Violins were
common in Germany.