ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Schaeffner seems to return to a more empirically historical perspective. “Our study,” he claims, “must restrict itself to the examination of archaic or archaicizing types of instruments,” but when dealing with instruments whose morphology is similar to the instruments we use in the Western world today, he cannot help outlining a chronological genealogy (whence the title, “Genealogy of String Instruments”). “The harp, the guitar and the violin are the endpoints of genealogical lines that began with the musical bow and later diverged.” “The construction of the harp, the lyre, the lute and the violin” offer a starting point for taking up “the narrative of the most probable genealogy of string instruments starting with the musical bow.” Schaeffner also shows that our bow used for bowing is also descended from the musical bow.
