Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

32 REBEC REBEL
and over the cavity thus formed was glued a
short pine belly, pierced with two trefoil-shaped
sound-holes, and fitted with a bridge and soundpost.
The player either rested the curved end
of the instrument lightly against the breast, or
else held it like the violin, between the chin
and the collar-bone, and bowed it like the violin.
It had three stout gut strings, tuned like the
lower strings of the violin (A, D, 6). Its tone
was loud and harsh, emulating the female voice,
according to a French poem of the 13th century.
Quidam rebecam arcuabant,
Muliebrem vocem confingentes.^
An old Spanish poem speaks of ' el rab^ gritador,'
2 or the ' squalling rebec' This powerful
tone made it useful in the mediaeval orchestra ;
and Henry the Eighth employed the rebec in
his state band. It was chiefly used, however, to
accompanydancing ; andShakespeare'smusicians
in Borneo and Juliet, Hugh Rebeck, Simon
Catling (Catgut), and James Soundpost, w^ere
undoubtedly rebec -players. After the invention
of instruments of the viol and violin type
it was banished to the streets of towns and to
rustic festivities, whence the epithet 'jocund'
applied to it in Milton's L'Allegro. It was
usually accompanied by the drum or tambourine.
It was in vulgar use in France in the 18th century,
as is proved by an ordinance issued by
Guignon in his official capacity as 'Eoi des
Violons'in 1742, in which street-fiddlers are
prohibited from using anything else '
; II leur
sera permis d'y jouer d'une espfeoe d'instrument
k trois cordes seulement, et connu sous le nom
de rebec, sans qu'ils puissent se servir d'un
violon k quatre cordes sous quelque pr^texte que
ce soit.' A similar order is extant, dated 1628,
in which it is forbidden to play the treble or bass
violin 'dans les cabarets et les mauvais lieux,'
but only the rebec. The rebec .was extinct in
England earlier than in France. Itis now totally
1 D'Aymeric de Peyrat; see nii Gauge's Glonarium^ b.t. 'ban-
°«
Don Ant Bod. de HIto ; lee Vld»l, Ida ImtrumenU i arOut.
disused, and no specimen was known until, at
the exhibition of Musical Instruments at Milan
in 1881, six genuine specimens were shown.
Representations of it in sculpture, painting,
manuscripts, etc., are abundant. The illustration
is from an Italian painting of the 13th
century engraved in Vidal's Instruments a
Archet. [The custom of playing songs in
unison with the voice, which came into vogue
in the 15th century, resulted in the classifica-
'
tion of rebecs into definite sets ' answering in
pitch to the Treble, Alto, Tenor, and Bass voices.
Martin Agrioola, in his Musica Instrumentalis,
1528, gives woodcuts of a 'set' of rebecs
which he calls Discant, Altus, Tenor, and
Bassus. B. H-A.] E. J. p.
REBEL, Jean FtoT, born in Paris about
1661, [the son of Jean, a singer in the service
of the French court, from 1661 to his death in
1692.] After a precocious childhood he entered
the Opdra as a violinist. In 1703 he produced
'
Ulysse,' opera in five acts with prologue, containing
a pas seul for Francois Pr6v8t to an air
called 'Le Caprice,' for violin solo. The opera
failed, but the Caprice remained for years the
test-piece of the ballerine at the Opera. After
this success. Rebel composed violin solos' for
various other ballets, such as
' La Boutade,"
'Les Caracteres de la Danse' (1716), 'Terpsichore'
(1720), 'La Fantaisie' (1727), 'Les
Plaisirs ChampStres,' and 'Les Elements.'
Several of these were engraved, as were his
sonatas for the violin. In 1713 he was accompanist
at the Opera, and in 1717 was one of
the '24 violons,' and by 1720 'compositeur
de la chambre ' to the King. [This latter oflice
he resigned in 1727, in favour of his son
Fran9ois, and later passed on to him the duties
of conductor of the Opera, which he had fulfilled
for many years.] He died in Paris, 1746 or
1747, and was buried on Jan. 3, 1747. [His
sister, Anne-Ren^b, born 1662, became one
of the best singers of the court, and from the
age of eleven years, appeared in the ballet, etc.
She was married in 1684 to Michel Richard de
Lalande (see vol. ii. p. 623), and she died in
1722.]
Jean -Fury's son Franqois, bom in Paris,
June 19, 1701, at thirteen played the violin
in the Opera orchestra. It seems to have been
at Prague, during the festivities at the coronation
of Charles VI. in 1723, that ha became
intimate with Franjois Francoeur ; the two
composed conjointly, and produced at the
Academic, the following operas:— 'Pyrame et
Thisbe' (1726); 'Tarsis et Z^ie' (1728);
Scanderbeg" (1735); 'Ballet de la Paix'
(1738); 'Les Augustales ' and 'LeRetourdu
Roi' (1744); 'Z^lindor,' 'Le Trophic ' (in
honour of Fontenoy, 1745); 'IsmJine' (1750) ;
' Les Gteies tut^laires '
(1751) ; and ' Le Prince
de Noisy ' (1760) ; most of which were composed
for court f§tes or public rejoioinga. [Rebel