Home › Glossary › Letter V

Vielle

Musical Instrument
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A medieval European bowed string instrument, precursor to the violin

Detailed Definition
The vielle’s soft, nasal tone appears in troubadour and historical poetry to symbolize courtly love, pilgrimage, and early polyphony; its role in minstrelsy makes it a metaphor for the traveling poet and the oral transmission of lyrical tradition in verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
In medieval troubadour poetry, the vielle’s bowed strings accompany tales of courtly love and distant crusades; A reconstructed Occitan verse describes the vielle as “the soul’s companion on pilgrim roads”; Modern historical poets use the vielle to evoke monastic scriptoria and candlelit halls; In a feminist reimagining, the vielle becomes a woman minstrel’s tool of subversion; A contemporary poem likens the vielle’s drone to the hum of bees in abbey gardens; In diasporic verse, the vielle’s ancient sound bridges European roots and American reinvention.
Additional Notes
The vielle (or medieval fiddle) is a bowed string instrument from the European Middle Ages, often with a rounded back and drone strings; it accompanied troubadours and sacred chant—poets might reference it to explore the origins of Western bowed sound, the vielle as companion to early lyric poetry, or the instrument’s role in bridging sacred and secular emotional expression.
Also Known As
Medieval fiddle viella
Skip to main content