Geige
In the Middle Ages the term Geige, used without qualification, might refer to any bowed string instrument.
By about 1500, and perhaps a decade or two before, the term came to be associated with newly emerging types of instruments. By the mid-16th century a distinction was made between the grosse Geigen (viole da gamba, that is, the viol family), and the kleine Geigen (viole da braccio, the violin family). In 1619, Praetorius used Geigen to mean members of the violin family (he used Violen to mean viols); he distinguished the violin as the treble member of the violin family by the term Discant-Geig (‘treble violin’) – or, more exactly, by rechte Discant-Geig (‘treble violin proper’). The latter term established the meaning precisely in a terminology where Discant-Geig might refer not only to the violin proper but also, used loosely, to a small ‘violin’ (kleine Discant-Geig), tuned a 4th higher than the normal violin; it might even be used for a still smaller ‘violin’ with three strings (rather than four), tuned g'-d''-a'' – that is, an octave higher than the lower three strings of the regular violin. According to Praetorius, the term Fiddel was used as the equivalent of Geige among the ‘common people’.
DAVID D. BOYDEN
© Oxford University Press 2007
