«L’artificio prodigioso di cantar come i grilli». Un manoscritto seicentesco con tremoli su bicordi di violino

During a recent research at the Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica in Bologna I happened upon an unpublished manuscript from the second half of the 17th century, in which there are also two examples of two-string tremolo on the violin; the short pieces have didactic intentions and, at the moment, seem to represent the first known testimony. Today, many years after the beginning of the great early music adventure, it is surprising how many unanswered questions there still are. Many among them are pertinent to the philologic coherence regarding the use of the tremolo, whether it is preferable to produce it with the bow or the left hand and with which frequency it should be used. The path I am taking in this article moves through the testimonials at our disposal, in a time period spanning from the middle of the 16th century to the first half of the 19th century, concluding with the cues offered in the Bolognese source, to which our objective is to give interpretation and meaning.