Vielle

The vielle was medieval Europe's fiddle—a bowed string instrument that accompanied troubadours, minstrels, and courtly musicians from roughly the 10th to the 15th centuries. Its exact construction varied widely; the term covered any bowed string instrument that was not a rebec (pear-shaped) or a viol (fretted). This variability reflected an instrument still evolving toward the standardized violin.

Bowing technology itself had arrived in Europe from Central Asia around the 10th century, transforming plucked instruments into continuous-tone ones. The sustained sound of bowed strings enabled new musical possibilities: long melodic lines, drone accompaniments, and the interweaving of parts that would characterize later polyphony.

Medieval iconography shows vielles in diverse shapes—oval, figure-eight, rectangular—with anywhere from two to five strings. Some had drone strings that played continuously while melody strings carried the tune. Others were designed for fully melodic playing. The lack of standardization reflected both regional variation and the instrument's transitional status.

The vielle accompanied sung poetry, both sacred and secular. Troubadours used it to support their voices; minstrels played dance music; church musicians provided accompaniment for liturgical dramas. The instrument was ubiquitous enough to appear in Dante's writings and countless medieval paintings.

What ended the vielle era was not obsolescence but refinement. The Renaissance brought standardization: luthiers settled on specific body shapes, string configurations, and construction methods. The viola da gamba and the violin emerged from centuries of experimentation that the vielle represents. The vielle did not disappear; it evolved.

Modern early music performers reconstruct vielles from iconographic evidence and scattered textual descriptions. The variety of reconstructions—no two identical—reflects the original instrument's diversity. A thousand years later, we glimpse medieval music through instruments that were never quite standardized.