The vielle is a European bowed stringed instrument used in the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

period, similar to a modern

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

but with a somewhat longer and deeper body, three to five gut strings, and a leaf-shaped pegbox with frontal tuning pegs, sometimes with a figure-8 shaped body. Whatever external form they had, the box-soundchest consisted of back and belly joined by ribs, which experience has shown to be the construction for bowed instruments. The most common shape given to the earliest vielles in France was an oval, which with its modifications remained in favour until the Italian

lira da braccio The lira da braccio (or ''lyra de bracio''Michael Praetorius. Syntagma Musicum Theatrum Instrumentorum seu Sciagraphia Wolfenbüttel 1620) was a European bowed string instrument of the Renaissance. It was used by Italian poet-musicians in court i ...

asserted itself as the better type, leading to the

. The instrument was also known as a ''fidel'' or a ''viuola'', although the French name for the instrument, ''vielle'', is generally used; the word comes from the same root as ''

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

''. It was one of the most popular instruments of the medieval period, and was used by

troubadours A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairit ...

and

jongleur A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who ...

s from the 13th through the 15th centuries. The vielle possibly derived from the

lira Lira is the name of several currency units. It is the current currency of Turkey and also the local name of the currencies of Lebanon and of Syria. It is also the name of several former currencies, including those of Italy, Malta and Israe ...

, a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

bowed instrument closely related to the rebab, an Arab bowed instrument. There are many medieval illustrations of different types of vielles in manuscripts,Roi David jouant de la vièle en huit
/ref> sculptures and paintings. Starting in the middle or end of the 15th century, the word ''vielle'' was used to refer to the hurdy-gurdy, as a shortened form of its name: ''vielle à roue ("vielle with a wheel"). Several modern groups of musicians have formed into bands to play early music (pre-Baroque music, Baroque), and they sometimes include vielles, or modern reproductions, in their ensembles, together with other instruments such as rebecs and baglama, saz.

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External links

Vielles (''Polish folk musical instruments'')

Vielles (''Musiconis Database, Université Paris-Sorbonne'')
Bowed string instruments Necked lutes Early musical instruments Medieval musical instruments {{Violin-family-instrument-stub