Antique Drone II - The Medieval Fiddle
A few months ago I picked up Nigel Wilkins’ Music in the Age of Chaucer for a bargain £3. The book has a lot of interesting material on the music of the 14th century in France, England and Italy as well as a particularly fascinating chapter on minstrels (the note about the striking similarity between the lyrics of medieval Welsh bards, such as Dafydd ap Gwilym and the poetry and song of their French contemporaries rather caught my imagination). However, reading through the chapter on instruments, I came across this paragraph on the medieval fiddle:
The popular fiddle was about the size of a large modern viola. The strings were of gut, four or five in number, usually with the top two tuned to a unison and the bottom two to a drone fifth, essential for consonance, since the flattish bridge caused all strings to be sounded simultaneously. (p.151)
It seems as though, for the benefit of the modern ear, most early music recordings that I’ve heard concentrate on melodic playing, without the drones. However, Kate McWilliams makes several medieval fiddles, including a waisted vielle with a very-slightly arched bridge - here’s a recording of her playing the famous 14C anonymous saltarello. I think the screeching drone is pretty astounding, akin to the hurdy-gurdy - the king of the European drone instruments, and in French known as the vielle à roué, literally ‘fiddle with a wheel’.
It seems as though, for the benefit of the modern ear, most early music recordings that I’ve heard concentrate on melodic playing, without the drones. However, Kate McWilliams makes several medieval fiddles, including a waisted vielle with a very-slightly arched bridge - here’s a recording of her playing the famous 14C anonymous saltarello. I think the screeching drone is pretty astounding, akin to the hurdy-gurdy - the king of the European drone instruments, and in French known as the vielle à roué, literally ‘fiddle with a wheel’.