To describe the effect of muted violins, modern commentators often default to such terms as 'ethereal', 'otherworldly', or similarly magical and disembodied images. But in the 18th century, musicians had different ways of understanding the effect and meaning of muted violin tone. This article identifies conditions and principles that underpinned the usage and perception of muted violins from their beginnings to the 18th century, as well as significant shifts that took place during this time. For most of this period, musicians preferred metal to wooden violin mutes. Whether the accessory fundamentally altered the tone-quality of the instrument, or simply made it quieter, was up for debate, the question complicated both by regional differences in violins, and the fact that 'timbre modification' was not yet a familiar concept. And while otherworldly associations are sometimes apropos, more often the idea was to hear murmuring water, a mournful character, or some other effect—magical or mundane—cued by the particular context.
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