Violin Music in the Sixteenth Century

Abstract Much of the specific information about the origin and development of the violin, related in the first two chapters, raises provocative and tantalizing questions. What kind of music was composed for the violin during the first century of its existence? Who played it, how was it performed, and under what conditions? Was the music written for the early violin of three strings different from that for the four-stringed violin after 155o-or, for that matter, from music for the viols? Was the violin used to accompany voices in such prevailing forms as the masses, motets, chansons, and madrigals? To what extent did the violins usurp the place and role of their ancestor instruments?