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STEPHEN BONTA
It is becoming increasingly clear that any study of the history of string instruments is incomplete if it fails to take into account the string materials available at any given time, and the effect they may have had on both the size and tuning of an instrument. 1 Therefore it behoves us to learn as much as we can about both the properties of string materials and how strings were made in an earlier time if we hope more fully to understand the limits earlier musicians may have had to accept simply because of the strings they used. With gut strings there are two approaches that should be pursued: (1) investigations of the sort already undertaken by Abbott and Segerman 2 into the properties of gut strings, and (2) the search for further information on how gut strings were manufactured. Consideration of the correlation between the properties of gut strings and the sizes in which instruments were made should supply further clues both as to the sound earlier instruments probably had and as to the manner in which they could be played. This in turn should give clues as to why composers wrote as they did for these instruments.
One important early source of information concerning gut string
1 See the discussion of this matter in the following articles by the author: 'Further Thoughts on the History of Strings,' The Catgut Acoustical Society Newsletter, XXVI, (November 1976), 21-26; 'From Violone to Violoncello: A Question of Strings?' Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, III (1977), 64-99 [Italian trans. Gabriele Rossi & Renato Meucci, 'Da violone a violoncello : una questione di corde?' Liuteria musica e cultura 1996 (Milano, 1996), 60-79]; 'Terminology for the Bass Violin', idem . vi (1978), 5-42; 'Catline Strings Revisited', idem ., xiv (1988), 38-60; 'Corelli's Heritage: The Early Bass Violin in Italy', Studi Corelliani, iv (1986), 217-231.
2 See Djilda Abbott and Ephraim Segerman, 'Strings in the 16th and 17th Centuries', The Galpin Society Journal , XXVII (1974), 48-73; Ephraim Segerman and Djilda Abbott, 'Historical Background to the Strings used by Catgut-Scrapers', The Catgut Acoustical Society Newsletter , XXV (May 1976), 24-26 [or see the identical article in Fellowship of...