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The violin and its music / 




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Cjrr SJinliii: 

ITS FAMOUS MAKERS AND THEIR IMITATORS, 

BY 

GEORGE HART. 



Opinions of the Press on the Original Edition, 1875. 



"Mr. Haft is an authority on this subject who commands general respect, and 
the volume in which he has embodied the results of his experience and researches 
will be gratefully received by all who take an interest in what he justly calls the 
leading instrument. ... In the history of the instrument, as well of the strange 
adventures of some famous makers and specimens of it, there is moreover a touch of 
seductive romance. . . . Mr. Hart takes the various' schools in turn, analysing the 
characteristics of the chief makers." — Saturday Review. 

" The title of this book does not fairly indicate its interesting contents. The 
volume is valuable to the violinist ; it is instructive for the amateur ; and miscellaneous 
matter may be found in it to fix the attention of the general reader. " — Athenaum. 

"The book is as nearly exhaustive as possible, far exceeding any previous attempt 
of the kind." — Academy. 

"Mr. Hart possesses a rare knowledge of Italian Violins, and the practical parts 
of his book are for the most part interesting and original. . . . The special feature of 
Mr. Hart's volume is the combined application of photography and wood-engraving 
to his illustrations." — Times. 

"Mr. Hart's book is enjoyable not only to the professional but to the amateur, 
and it is a most exhaustive account of an extensive subject." — New York Herald. 

"We must award the highest praise to Mr. Hart for this very satisfactory result 
of what must evidently have been the labour of many years." — Musical Times. 




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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022421139 




A R CA N G E LO COME ILL 



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C|p f iilio 



AND ITS MUSIC, 



GEORGE HART. 



" There is nothing in which the power of art is shown so much as in 
playing the Fiddle. In all other things we can do something at first. 
Any man will forge a bar of iron if you give him a hammer, not so well 
as a smith, but tolerably ; and make a box, though a clumsy one ; but 
give him a Fiddle and a Fiddle-stick, and he can do nothing. " 

Dr. Johnson. 



Jonumt : 

DULAU AND CO., 37, SOHO SQUARE, W. 

1885. 

[all rights reserved.] 



PREFACE. 



oX«o 



T T is now six years since' my work on "The 
Violin and its Famous Makers " was received 
with so much indulgence by my friends and admirers 
of the leading instrument. The signs of approval 
which have from time to time been brought under my 
notice with regard to the publication of that book, 
prompted me to again occupy some portion of my 
leisure hours in the preparation of another volume, 
treating of the remaining branch of the same 
subject, namely : " The Violin and its Music." I 
need scarcely remark, that I am not unmindful of 
the distinctive character of the two undertakings, 
and of the wholly different knowledge necessary to 
be brought to bear upon each. 

In entering^ however, upon a task so distinct 
from my former one, it is, I feel, unnecessary to 



IV PREFACE. 

state that I should not have contemptated touching 
the subject of the Music of the Violin had I not 
in some degree a practical acquaintance with its 
theme. Whether that knowledge has been made 
use of in the preparation of the following pages in 
a manner likely to instruct and amuse — and at the 
same time to manifest that judgment which is 
deferential without servility, and critical without 
impertinence — is for the reader to decide. 



14, Princes Street, 

Leicester Square, 
May, 1881. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Section I. — The Viol Gothic. 

Chapter I. — Roger North's Early History of the Viol, the " Memoires 
of Music" — The Gothic Viol-germ in France, Italy and Spain — 
The Anglo-Saxons and their Music — The Spanish Violars ; 
The Troubadours ; The Minnesingers and Mastersingers I 

Chapter II. — Influence of the Mastersingers on Western Civilization ; 
their home in Nuremberg ; Hans Sachs ; Paul Hof haimer ; Albert , 
Durer ; Hans Frey ; Fritz Gerles — The Germans earliest in 
practical Composition — Franco's Time Table, nth century — 
Luscinius' estimate of Hofhaimer — Heinrich Isaac — Emperor 
Maximilian — Albert V. Duke of Bavaria, his Music Establishment 
in Munich — Montaigne on the use of Viols in Churches — Earliest 
Book on the Viol, by Carmine Angurelli, 1491 — Earliest Instru- 
mental Music in Parts — Hans Syngriner, 1523 — The German 
Fretted Geige, the Basis of the Viol 9 

Chapter III. — Bowed Instruments among the Anglo-Saxons in France, 
Spain, and Italy at the fall of the Roman Empire — The Fithell, the 
Rebec, and the Geige — The Modern Violin, first traces of, by Brescian 
and Cremonese Makers, and its connection with Viols — Gaspard di 
Salp, Dardelli, and Andrew Amati — The Madrigal, its Cradle in 
the Netherlands — The Nebulous Period of the Musical Art — 
Earliest Makers of the Viol in Italy ; Joan Kerlin ; Duiffoprugcar 
— Italy and Germany's early claims compared 17 

Section II. — The Viol in the Netherlands. 

Chapter I.— Flemish Skill in the Fine Arts — Progress of the Arts in the 
Low Countries in the 15th century — The Van Eycks, Okeghem, 
and Josquin Despres — Jean de Muris and Notation by Points — 
Early Associations and Guilds of Rhetoric — A Musical Society at 
Louvain, 15th century — Okeghem and the New School of 
Flemish Music ; his Canons, Masses, and Motetts ... 27 



VI CONTENTS. 

Page 
Chapter II, — Comparative Progress of Vocal and Instrumental Music 
in the 16th century — The Early Contrapuntists mainly Vocal — 
Earliest indication of Instrumental Music in Church Service — 
Flemish Ecclesiastical Music, 1 6th century — Magnificence of 
Gothic Churches in the Netherlands prior to the Reformation — 
Position of the Viol at this Period, and its relation to the Madrigal 
— Immigration of Flemish Musicians into Italy — John Tinctor, 
and his first Book on Music ever printed — Josquin at Rome and in 
Florence — Adrian Willaert, the "Father of the Madrigal," and 
the Pioneer of Domestic Music — Doni, and his "Dialogue on 
Music," — The Viol in Venice 35 

Section III. — The Viol in France. 

Chapter I. — Earliest indications of Bow Instruments in Spain- 
Provence, the " Mother of Troubadours and Minstrels " — High 
Civilisation of Provence in the 12th century— Connection of the 
Troubadours with the earliest French Musical History — The 
Troubadour, Trouvere, and Jongleur — The Rhymed Romance of 
Charlemagne ; connection of the Viol therewith 50 

Chapter II.— Romance Poetry of the Troubadours— The King of 
Navarre, the Lord of Courcy, the Count d'Anjou, and the Duke 
of Brabant -The Tale of "The Two Minstrels "—The Geige and 
the Rebec in France — The Minstrels' Royal Charter, 1321— The 
Charivari or Masquerade 36 

Chapter III.— King Rene and the Troubadours— Louis XL, his 
grovelling disposition ; "no music in his soul ''—Charles the Bold, 
Duke of Burgundy, composer of Songs and Motetts— Francis I. 
the " King of Culture," and Cellini and Leonardo da Vinci— He 
founds the Royal College— His meeting with Leo X. at Bologna— 
The King's Orchestra and Duiffoprugcar .66 

Section IV. — The Viol in England. 

Chapter I.— The Viol in England's Baronial Halls— Visit of Henry V. 
to France ; his Minstrels and Snyth Fydeler— Minstrels at the 
Battle of Agincourt ; earliest English Song in Gregorian Notation 
relating thereto— Visit of Henry V. to the City of London- 
England's first Minstrels' Charter, 1469— England's Musicians in 
the time of Edward IV. ; the King's Household Establishment ; 



CONTENTS. Vll 

Page 

the Minstrels' Duties ; the Waits — The "Master of Songe," and 
the Children of the Chapel — Instruments of the Minstrels, 15th 
century : Sauterie, Rebec, Rote, Vielle, Fyddyl, Viol', Violin, 
Rebelle, Ribible, Crwth, Crowd, Shalm, Sackbut — Early appear- 
ance of the Bow in England— The " Beverley Minstrels " ... 70 

Chapter II. — Political relation of Edward IV. and Charles the Bold, 
its influence on Music in England — Commission for a Commercial 
Treaty with the Duke of Burgundy, William Caxton's connection 
therewith — Introduction of Printing, and Wynkyn de Worde's first 
Musical Works, 1530 — Reign of Henry VII. and Musical 
Development — The " Stryng Minstrels " at Westminster — Henry 
VIII. and his Musical Accomplishments — His State Band — 
Invention of the Lute ascribed by Galileo to England : its earliest 
appearance — Earliest mention thereof by Chaucer — Isaak Walton 
on the Lute and Enharmonic Symphony — The Lute and Viol 
in Barbers' Shops — Thomas Mace and his ' ' Musick's Monument " 
— Cost of a Lute and its Maintenance ... ... ... ... 84 

CHAPTER III. — Development of Instrumental Music in England — First 
Appearance of Viols in the Reign of Henry VIII. — Caxton's 
Mission to the Netherlands, 1464 — Charles V.'s love of Music — 
The Masque at Greenwich, 1512 — Observations of Lord Bacon — 
Musical Establishment of Henry VI. — Orlando Lassus and the 
Venetian Madrigal — Byrde's "Songs of Sadnes and Pietie"— 
Netherlanders in England under Queen Elizabeth — Sir Thomas 
Gresham's Music Professorship 96 

Chapter IV. — Nicholas Yonge, and Italian Madrigals — The Palace of 
Nonesuch at Greenwich — Dowland's " First Book of Songes or 
Ayres," 1597 — Thomas Morley's Canzonets — Dowland's " Lacry- 
mae " — Evidence of Drayton and Roger North — James I. and his 
Court Masques — John Coperario's "Fancies" for the Viol da 
Gamba — Scipione Cerreto, " Delia Prattica Musica " — The , 
" Musurgia '' of Ottomarus Luscinius — Simpson's "Division Viol," 
and his Instructions for Playing 105 

Chapter V. — Playford's "Introduction to the Skill of Music "—His 
Stringing of Viols — Mace's "Musick's Monument " — The " Chest 
of Viols," "An Howre's Recreation in Musicke," by Richard 
Alison — Sir Roger L'Estrange and Oliver Cromwell — Sir Henry 
Wotton and Isaak Walton — Pepys a Violist 120 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

Pags 

Section V. — The Viol in Italy. 

Chapter I. — Italy and the Renaissance— Observations of Sir William 
Temple, Hallam, Burckhardt, and Macaulay— Petrarch and Boc- 
caccio — Illustrations from early Italian Painters 130 

Chapter II. — Lorenzo de Medici and his School of Harmony^Heinrich 
Isaac and his "San Giovanni e San Paolo" — Michael Angelo and 
Poliziano in Lorenzo's Gardens at Florence — Leonardo da Vinci — 
The Court of Duke Hercules at Ferrara, and Josquin's Masses — 
Instruments there used — The Court of Gonzaga at Mantua, and 
Jacques Berchem and Dardelli — Claude Monteverde at Cremona 
and Mantua — His Opera, " L' Orfeo " — Presumed Italian origin of the 
modern Violin, 16th century — Cardinal Medici (Leo X.), his visit 
to the German Court of Maximilian — Music in the Venetian States, 
l6th and 17th centuries 138 

Chapter III. — Music in Venice (continued) — "Coriat's Crudities" — 
Petrucci's Music-Printing, and Venetian Tablature — Development 
of Italian Viol Manufacture — The large Italian Double Bass — The 
Viol da Gamba — Silvestro Ganassi's "Art of Playing, the Viol," 
1543 — Andrea and Giovanni Gabrielli ... ... ... ... 156 

Chapter IV. — The Sack of Rome, and the Reformation of Luther and 
Calvin — Luther's Love of Music — Goudimel's School of Music at 
.Rome — Palestro, Nanini, and Alessandro Romano — Tinctor's 
School of Music at Naples — The Prince of Venosa, and his Madri- 
gals— Salvator Rosa — Scipione Cerreto, " Delia Prattica Musica" 165 

Section VI. — The Violin in Italy. 

Chapter I.— Paoli Quagliati, 17th century; first Solo for the Violin — 
Bagio Marini— Carlo Faririi— Giovanni B. Fontana— Giovanni 
Legrenzi— Giovanni B. Vitali and his Compositions— Tomasso 
Antonio Vitali— Gregorio Allegri— Giuseppe Colombi and his 
Sonatas— Giovanni Nicolai— Bassini, his Sonate da Camera- 
Giuseppe Torelli — Anthony Veracini ,gj 

Chapter II.— Corelli ; sketch of his History and Work— His Sonatas— 
His Patrons, Cardinals Panfilio and Ottoboni— First appearance of 
Corelli's Solos— His Visit to Naples— His Performances with 
Scarlatti — Sir John Hawkins, Dr. Bumey, George Hogarth, and ' 

others, on Corelli and his Works — His Death and Burial His 

Compositions ; their Introduction into England by Henry Needier 177 



CONTENTS. IX 

Page 
Chapter III.— Alessandro Scarlatti and Corelli at Rome— Porpora and 
Haydn at Vienna — Pergolesi's Ecclesiastical Music — Vivaldi and his 
" Cuckoo Solo" — Vivaldi, Albinoni, J. M. Ruggeri, and other contem- 
poraries of Corelli — Veracini ; his reception in England ; his alleged 
" Combat " with Pisendel — Tartini and his Compositions ; his 
" Devil's Trill " — Locatelli and his Works — Valentini — Castrucci — 
Lorenzo Somis and Giardini — Pietro Nardini — Pugnani — Barbella 
— Antonio Lolli — Mestrino — Jarnowick — Bononcini, and his 
Rivalry with Handel — Fiorillo and his Works 199 

Chapter IV. — Boccherini and his Works ; Baillot, Spohr, and Mendels- 
sohn's observations thereon — Brunetti — Cimarosa — Campagnoli ; 
importance of his Works — Borghi, Bruni, and Rolla 236 

Chapter V.— The Modern School of -Instrumental Music— Viotti ; his 
Performance and his Composition — His appearance in Paris before 
Louis XVI. at Versailles ; his appearance at Salomon's Concerts in 
London ; his Expulsion from England — His Return and Death in 
. London — Cherubini and his Work ; Napoleon, Mehul, Baillot, and 
Spohr's estimates thereof 246 

Chapter VI.— Nicolo Paganini; Sketch of his Career — The Phrenetical 
or Revolutionary School of Violin Playing — His Reception in 
Milan — His "Witches' Dance" — Visit to Louis Spohr — His Con- 
tinental Triumphs — Personal Appearance — His Performance in 
London — Extraordinary Prices — Contemporary Opinions on his 
Merits — List of his Compositions — Camillo Sivori — Bazzini — 
Bottesini — Arditi — Rossini and Verdi 257- 

Section VII. — The Violin in France. 

Chapter I. — The Subject resumed, time of Francis I. — Excerpt from 
Rabelais — Charles IX. and the Royal Chapel at Versailles — French 
Composers of the Period — Goudimel and his "Psalmes de David" 
— Baltazarini — Cordier — Henri IV. and his Violin Band — Louis 
XIV. and his Court — Jean Baptiste Lulli : his exquisite Skill and 
Taste ; his band of "Petite Violons" — Joseph Marchand — Francois 
Duval— Jean Baptiste Senaille 274. 

Chapter II. — The "Concerts Spirituels,'' or Lenten Concerts — Philidor 
and Le Clair — Pierre Gavinies, "The French Tartini" — Pagin — 
Barthelemon; his Work with Garrick — Francois Gossec and the 
"Concert des Amateurs;" his versatility — La Houssaye — Blasius 
— Michael Woldemar ; his " Labyrinth of Harmony " 283. 



X CONTENTS. 

Page 
Chapter III. — Formation of the "Conservatoire de Musique "— Com- 
mittee for formation of a Violin Instruction Book — Rodolphe 
Kreutzer; his "Forty Studies," and other important Works — 
Pierre Baillot ; his " New Violin Method ; " Spohr and Mendels- 
sohn's diverse appreciation of his Abilities ; his visit to England — 
Pierre Rode ; Solo Violinist to Napoleon, and to Emperor Alexan- 
der; Teacher of Spohr— Jean Baptiste Cartier; his "L'Art du 
Violon "— Habeneck, Pupil of Baillot ; his Societe des Concerts du 
Conservatoire " — Hector Berlioz ; his Requiem, his Reverie, and 
Mendelssohn — George Onslow and his Chamber Music — Lafont — 
Mazas — Massart — Sainton — Deldevez — Alard — Dancla ... ... 293 

Chapter IV. — Belgium and its Violinists — Francois Joseph Gossec — 
Francois Cupis — Chartiani — Vander Plancken — Francois Snel — 
The Blumenthals — Francois Joseph Fetis ; his " Biographie 
Universelle des Musiciens " — Andre Robberechts — Lambert Joseph 
Meerts ; his "Mecanisme du Violon,'' &c. — Nicholas Lambert 
Wery — Theodore Hauman — Artot, "The Belgian Ernst" — Fran- 
cois Hubert Prume — Charles Auguste De Beriot ; his " Ecole 
Transcendant du Violon" — Henri Vieuxtemps ; his Compositions ; 
his "Etudes de Concert "—Hubert Leonard— The Great Nor- 
wegian Musician, Ole Bull— Polish Violinists : Chopin, Lipinski, 
Wieniawski 316 

Section VIII. ■ — The Violin in Germany. 

Chapter I.— Seventeenth Century — Thomas Baltzar ; excerpt from 
Evelyn's Diary -Johann J. Walther— Schiitz ("Sagittarius")— 
Johann Schopp— Krieger — Nicolaus Hasse — Gottfried Finger, 
James II. 's Chapel-master— Biber— The Emperor Leopold and 
Frederick the Great— The Brothers Benda— John Sebastian Bach 
at Frederick the Great's Court— J. S. Bach's Works 328 

Chapter II.— Frederick the Great at Potsdam— Benda and Quantz— 
Emanuel Bach — The Court of Maximilian Joseph III. of Bavaria 
—The Hanover Court of Elector George Louis (George I. of 
England)— George Frederick Handel and his Works ; Jealousy of 
Addison and Steele; Handel's "Harmonious Blacksmith;" his 
Performances in London— The "Water Music" of King George— 
The "Concerto Grosso "—Hasse— Vanhall— Stamitz— Leopold 
Mozart and his " Violin School " 340 



CONTENTS. XI 

Page 
Chapter III. — The Palace of Prince Esterhazy — Joseph Haydn and 
his Works ; his Visit to London, and the Lord Mayor's Banquet ; 
The Prince of Wales ; " The Emperor's Hymn "' — Ignatius Pleyel 
— Johann Ludwig Dussek — Franz Krommer ... ... ... 358 

Chapter IV.— Wolfgang Mozart ; his Patron, Count Colloredo, Arch- 
bishop of Salzburg ; Early Difficulties ; Mozart and Haydn ; List 
of his Works ; His Death and Burial — Johann N. Hummel, Pupil 
of Mozart ; Chapel-master to Prince Esterhazy ; his Works ... 372 

Chapter V. — Ludwig van Beethoven ; his mighty Genius ; Residence 
in Vienna ; Intercourse with Haydn ; The London Philharmonic 
Society ; his Sonatas, &c. ; the "Bridgetower Sonata" ; his Deaf- 
ness and Affliction ; his Method of Conducting ; List of Works ; 
his Death and Funeral ... .. ... ... .. ... 389 

Chapter VI. — Franz Schubert and his Works — Ferdinand Ries — Von 
Weber — Joseph Mayseder — Kalliwoda — Louis Spohr and his 
Works ; his Style of Playing ; German Criticism — Bernhard 
Molique 412 

Chapter VII. — Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy ; his Precocity; Early 
Life ; Visit to Goethe at Weimar ; Visit to London and the Philhar- 
monic Society ; Judgments of Spohr, Moscheles, and of Prince 
Albert, as to his Powers; the " Elijah " at Exeter Hall — Herr 
David and Mendelssohn — Andreas Romberg — Joseph Boehm — 
Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst — Hellmesberger — Joseph Joachim — Herr 
Lauterbach — Ferdinand Laub — Schumann — Johannes Brahms ... 424 

Section IX. — The Violin in England. 

Chapter I. — A Cursory Glance at its History from the Stuart Period to 

the Present Time 442 

Chapter II. — John Jenkins — Playford's "Skill of Music" — The Puritan 

Iconoclastic Craze — Charles II. 's Twenty-four Violins 453 

Chapter III. — Henry Purcell, the Father of Modern Musical Art — John 
Bannister; his " Parley of Instruments " — Britton, the "Musical 
Small -coal Man" — William Corbett — HenryNeedler— Johnlmmyns, 
and the Academy of Ancient Music — John Young 1 — Richard Clarke 
— The Madrigal Society in Bride Lane — The Concerts of Ancient 
Music 461' 



EUitstrztiixnts. 



FRONTISPIECE— Arcangelo Corelli. 



Page 

Viol Tablature of the 15TH Century . .. 158 

Tartini's Dream 214 

Paganini's "Joseph Guarnerius" 259 

Paganini at Drury Lane 268 



The Violin and its Music. 



Section L—Wxz ^Biol Gothic. 



CHAPTER I. 

" IVfOTHING made so great a denovement in 
musick as the invention of horse-hair, with 
rozin, and the gutts of animals twisted and dryed. 
I scarce think that the strings of the old Lyra used 
in either the Jewish or Greek times, which in latine 
are termed nerves, were such, becaus it was more 
or less piacular to deal in that manner with the 
entra of dead animalls. Nor is it anywhere, as I 
know, intimated of what materiall these strings were 
made, but I guess they were metalline, as most 
sonorous, or of twisted silk ; nor is there any hint 
when the Violl kind came first in use. Had the 
Greeks known it, some deity, for certain, had bin 
the inventor, and more worthily than Apollo of the 
Harp, for it draws a continuing sound, exactly tune- 
able to all occasions and compass, w.jth small labour 

B 



2 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

and no expense of breath. But as to the invention, 
which is so perfectly novel as not to have bin ever 
heard of before Augustulus, the last of the Roman 
Emperors, I cannot but esteem it perfectly Gothick, 
and entered with those barbarous nations setled in 
Italy, and from thence spread into all the neighbour 
nations round about, and now is in possession, and 
like to hold it, as a principall squadron in the 
instrumentall navy." 

These, then, were the opinions of King James 
the Second's Attorney General, the Hon. Roger 
North, relative to the early history of the Viol, and 
contained in a manuscript entitled, " The Memoires 
of Musick," a work Dr. Rimbault rightly describes 
as an exceedingly lucid and well-drawn sketch of 
the progress of the art,, from the period of the 
ancient Greeks down to the commencement of the 
eighteenth century. In ignoring Nero's fiddling 
and the bow of Orpheus, our author has given us 
evidence of his ability to separate fact from fiction 
in his pursuit of truth; but let us follow him a little 
further, keeping intact his diction and orthography, 
the quaintness of which seems to be in harmony 
with its Gothic subject. 

" I doe suppose that at first it was like its native 
country, rude and gross, And that at the early 
importation it was of the lesser kind, which they 
called Viola da Bracchia, and since the Violin ; and 
no better then as a rushy Zampogna used to stirr up 
the vulgar to dancing, or perhaps to solemnize their 



THE VIOL GOTHIC. 3 

idolatrous sacrifices. These people made no scruple 
of handling gutts and garbages, and were so free 
with humane bodys as to make drinking cupps of 
their sculls. And when the discovery of the vertue 
of the bow was made, and understood, the vertiiosi 
went to work and model'd the use of it, and its 
subject the Viol, with great improvement, to all 
purposes of musick, and brought it to a parallel 
state with the Organ itself. And by adapting sizes 
to the severall diapasons as well above E la as the 
doubles below, severall persons take their parts, 
and consorts are performed with small trouble, and 
in all perfection. The invention needs no encomium 
to recomend it to posterity ; for altho' it hath bin in 
practise many hundred years, no considerable altera- 
tions of it in forme or application have bin made 
which any memoriall can account for. And now no 
improvement is thought of or desired, but in the 
choice of the materiall, and curiosity of the work- 
manship. I shall take leave of the Violl with a 
remembrance onely of a merry discovery of Kir- 
cher's in one of his windy volumes,* which is a note 
added to the picture of a Lute and a Guittarre, 
that the old Hebrews used to sound them with the 
scratch of an horse tail bow." ! ! 

With this scornful allusion to Kircher's know- 
ledge of the bow, we will close North's Memoires of 
Musick, staying but to call the reader's attention 
to what appears to be a singularly correct estimate 

* Musurgia Universalis, 165a 
B 2 



4 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

of early bowed instrument history, and far-seeing 
views of the excellencies of the Viol as a mechani- 
cal contrivance.. 

That the Goths possessed a bowed instrument 
which in succeeding ages gave rise to the Viol is a 
supposition strengthened by evidence which has 
accrued since the publication of North's Memoires. 
Whether the original of the true Viol "entered 
with those barbarous nations settled in Italy, and 
ultimately passed to other states," is to my mind 
a doubtful question, since it is almost certain that 
the Viol in form and character nearest to that 
of the sixteenth century was chiefly developed 
where the Teutonic language predominated. What- 
ever the Viol-germ may have been which the 
Goths carried to Italy, that which they sowed 
in Germany and in Spain was productive of results 
far in advance of those of its Italian prototype, to the 
period when the musicians of the Low Countries 
immigrated thence. The value of this view of 
Viol-history may be tested by simply comparing the 
bowed instruments depicted in the paintings and on 
the architectural monuments of the German and 
Gallic nations, as far as the middle of the fifteenth 
century with those of Italy- 
Evidence of much weight bearing on the 
German development of the Viol is found in the 
Anglo-Saxon's love of music. The minstrel's 
art was .cultivated by this people with extra- 
ordinary zeal, and they played bowed instru- 



THE VIOL GOTHIC. 



ments of various kinds ; among these was one of 
oval shape having four strings, which they called a 
Fithele. This love of minstrelsy and knowledge 
of rude Fiddles, surely belonged not to the Roman- 
ized Britons, and if not, the Anglo-Saxons must 
necessarily either have invented this minstrelsy and 
Fiddling, or brought these arts from their German 
homes. In taking the latter view we follow Thomas 
Percy, who asks in his celebrated Essay on the 
Ancient Minstrels, " For if these popular bards were 
confessedly revered and admired in those very 
countries which the Anglo-Saxons inhabited, before 
their removal into Britain, and if they were after- 
wards common and numerous among the other 
descendants of the same Teutonic ancestors, can 
we do otherwise than conclude, that men of this 
order accompanied such tribes as migrated hither, 
that they afterwards subsisted here, though perhaps 
with less splendour than in the North ; and that 
there never was wanting a succession of them to 
hand down the art, though some particular conjunc- 
tures may have rendered it more respectable at one 
time than another ?" 

Though I have named the Goths as the 
possessors of a bowed instrument which gave rise 
to the Viol, I have done so for the sake of simplicity, 
rather than from conviction ; inasmuch as at this 
distance of time, it would be impossible to decide 
which tribe of adventurers from the North first 
bowed a musical instrument. This, however, is of 



6 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

small consequence, since they were but different 
tribes of the same common Teutonic stock, and 
spoke only different dialects of the same Gothic 
language. 

All bowed instruments down to the eleventh 
or twelfth centuries must have been of the rudest 
kind.- > It was not until minstrelsy, which the 
Northmen Introduced, became greatly extended and 
varied in its character, that attention was bestowed 
upon bowed instruments. That the Spanish Violars 
and the Troubadours of Provence* contributed in 
some measure towards the advancement of instru- 
mental music is possible enough, but the chief work 
appears to have been accomplished in Germany, 
where Grimm tells us " Far back towards the 
thirteenth century, until which time nothing but the 
long-drawn strains of old heroic poems had been sung 
and heard, a wondrous throng of tones and melodies 
resounds at once, as if arising from the earth. From 
afar we fancy we hear the same key-note, but, if we 
come nearer, no tune is like another. One strives to 

* Macaulay has written of "The region where the beautiful 
language of the Oc was spoken, that country, singularly favoured by 
nature, was in the twelfth century, the most nourishing and civilised 
portion of Western Europe. It was in nowise a part of France. It 
had a distirict political existence, a distinct national character, distinct 
usages, and a. distinct speech. The soil was fruitful and well-culti- 
.vated ; and amidst the corn-fields and vineyards rose many rich cities 
each of which contained a miniature of an imperial court. It was 
there that the spirit of chivalry first laid aside its terrors, first took a 
humane and graceful" forfn, first appeared as the inseparable associate 
of art and literature." «' Essays" Vol. III. p. 107. 



THE VIOL GOTHIC. 7 

rise above the rest, another to fall back and softly 
to modulate the strain; what the one repeats the 
other but half expresses. If we think, too, of the 
accompanying music, we feel that this, on account of 
the multitude of voices, for which the instruments 
would not have been enough, must have been simple 
in the highest degree. These poets called them- 
selves Nightingales, and certainly no comparison can 
express more strikingly than that of the song of 
birds, their rich and unattainable notes, in which, at 
every moment, the ancient warblings recur always 
with new modulations. In the fresh and youthful 
Minnepoesy, all art has acquired the appearance of 
nature, and is, too, in a certain sense, purely natural." 
Such were the Minnesingers, the predecessors of 
those mechanics in toil, and poets in repose, the 
Mastersingers. 

" As the weaver plied the shuttle, wove he too the mystic rhyme, 
And the smith his iron measures hammer 1 d, to the anvil's chime ; 
Thanking God, whose boundless wisdom makes the flower of 

poesy bloom, 
In the forge's dust and cinders, in the tissues of the loom.'' 

Following the example of the Masons, who had 
formed themselves into a corporation, — the same 
which gave to Europe its sublime Gothic temples, 
— the artizans of all trades divided themselves into 
different societies. These incorporated mechanics 
met together, and, after the disposal of civic business, 
either read the chronicles of their country, or the 
ancient Nordic poems and erotic ballads. Such 



8 1HE , VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

meetings could hardly fail to suggest the idea of 
entertaining the company with some composition of 
their own, and thus was awakened the dormant spirit 
of poetry in that unlettered age. The practical 
lovers of music and poetry belonging to these bodies, 
formed the poetic corporation of the fourteenth 
century, to which was given the name of the Master- 
singers. The birth-place of this poetic phenomenon 
was Mentz, thence it passed into the other cities of 
Germany, particularly Augsburg and Nuremburg. 



Section i.—Wxi licrl ©othic. 



CHAPTER II. 

" I "'HE Mastersingers link in the chain of musical 
history is indeed a most important one, and 
rightly has it been said, "music and metre constituted 
its essential elements, and civilization felt her march 
quickened by their influence."* It was they who 
rescued music from its wanderings over the earth in 
a state of semi-barbarism, and clothed it in the dress 
of civilization. The Gothic Viol, which had roamed 
with the Saxons to Britain, with the Goths to Spain 
and Italy, under the influence of the Mastersingers 
assumed a more definite shape, and became detached 
from its companions, the Pipes and Shalmes, with 
which it had been more or less connected for 
centuries. It no longer attended the minstrel in his 
perambulations amid courts and revels, but became 
.the associate of honest burghers in peaceful cities. 
Augsburg and Nuremburg have been mentioned 
as the strongholds of the Mastersingers, and it is in 
the annals of these cities we discover evidence of 
extraordinary musical progress. At Augsburg lived 
Hans FrQschauer, he who first gave to the world 
music printed from wood blocks, which Petrucci, at 
Venice, at the end of the fifteenth century; improved 

* Retrospective Review, Vol. X. 



IO THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

upon, by using moveable type : which system was 
imitated first in Germany, by Ernard Oglin, of 
Augsburg, in the year 1507. Turning to the City of 
Nuremburg in the heyday of the Mastersingers, we 
find it was one of the most flourishing centres of 
commerce in Europe ; from its trade and manufactures 
it derived enormous wealth, which, as usual, 
caused art to wait on affluence. Poets, Musi- 
cians, and Painters flocked thither, to give play 
to their genius, by sharing in its prosperity ; within 
its walls lived Hans Sachs — the friend of Martin 
Luther — the son of a barber, and himself a cobbler ; 
whose prolific pen produced upwards of four thou- 
sand master-songs ! more than two hundred 
comedies and tragedies ! and nearly two thousand 
comic tales ! An herculean labour, though judged by 
the then existing standard of merit. Amid the 
musical life of old Nuremburg often dwelt Paul 
Hofhaimer, the Emperor Maximilian's famous 
organist, he who figures in the picture of the 
Triumph of Maximilian, limned by the hand of him 
whose name is indelibly written in the annals of the 
Bavarian city — Albert Durer. 

We have more than a passing interest in this 
greatest of German painters, since he has left: us 
several representations of the Viol in his paintings 
and engravings, which serve as a key to the character 
and popularity of the instrument in the fifteenth 
century, and further, if I mistake not, he was himself 
a Violist ; but there is yet another item of interest 



THE VIOL GOTHIC. II 

not to be passed over in connection with Durer arid 
our subject, in the fact that Hans Frey, the famous 
maker of Lutes and Viols at Nuremburg, was his 
father-in-law. Hans Frey is said to have amassed 
considerable wealth from his manufactures, a circum- 
stance which points to the extensive use of such 
instruments in those days ; and yet further shown by 
his not being alone in his trade; Fritz, Gerle, and 
others whose names and works have . long since 
passed away, had also their Viol and Lute patrons. 

Turning to the cultivation of practical composition, 

we find the Germans among the earliest in the field. 

As far back as the eleventh century, they had their 

Magister Franco developing the principles of modern 

rhythm, and planning the time table. Until then no 

characters existed to distinguish or mark time, and 

written. music in parts consisted of note against note, 

or sounds of equal duration. It is needless to follow 

in these pages the course of German musical history 

from Franco's time to that of Paul Hofhaimer, a 

period of some five hundred years ; it is sufficient to 

know that Hofhaimer was Germany's first great 

musical genius, and honoured as such, as the 

following estimate of his abilities . from the pen of 

Luscinius shows : — " Nor is he more remarkable for 

skill in his profession, than for the extensiveness Of 

his genius, and the greatness of his mind ; Rome 

owes not in ore to Romulus or Camillus, than the 

musical world does to Paulus Hofhaimer. His 

style is not only learned, but pleasant, florid, and 



& 



I 2 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC K 

amazingly copious, and withal correct; and this 
great man, during thirty years, has suffered no one to 
exceed, or even equal him. In a word, what 
Quintilian says of Cicero, I think is now come to 
pass, and a person may judge of his own proficiency, 
according as he approves of the compositions of 
Paul, and labours day and night to imitate them." * 
Possessed of such transcendent abilities, Hofhaimer 
was indeed worthy of Durer's portrayal, and of 
being regarded as a corner-stone in the structure 
of early German music. 

Contemporary with Paul Hofhaimer was another 
great German contributor to the furtherance of the 
musical art, whose labours perhaps bore more 
directly on its progress than those of any musician 
of his time. It is to Heinrich Isaac I refer, since it 
was he who carried his German art among neigh- 
bouring nations, thus helping to develop the merits 
of each, by combination with the beauties of others. 

As evidence of the extent to which music was 
cultivated and patronized in Germany at this 
period, we have but to note the interest taken in the 
art by the Emperor Maximilian, and likewise by 
Albert the Fifth, Duke of Bavaria, the friend and 
patron of Orlando Lassus, the famous Netherland 
composer. The music establishment of the Bavarian 
Duke was evidently conducted on a grand scale, for it 
is recorded there were upwards of ninety musicians 

* Luscinius, " Musurgia seu Praxis Musicoe, Strasbourg, 1536." 
— See Hawkins' History. 



THE VIOL GOTHIC. 1 3 

engaged, many of them being men of much emi- 
nence, and so kindly were they treated by the Duke 
that it is written, " had the heavenly choir been 
suddenly dismissed, they would straightway have 
made for the court of Munich, there to find peace 
and retirement." This establishment furnishes us 
with some notion of the musical arrangements of 
the time. It would appear that for general pur- 
poses the wind and brass instruments were sepa- 
rated from the strings ; the former accompanying 
the mass on Sundays and festivals. In the chamber 
all took part in turn. At a banquet the wind 
instruments were • used during the earlier courses, 
and afterwards the stringed instruments were 
introduced. This description of the use to which 
the Viols were put would seem to accord with 
Montaigne's, in his journal, written in 1580, where 
he says he heard, at Kempster, in Bavaria, one of 
the ministers preach to a very thin congregation, 
and " when he had done, a psalm was sung to a 
melody a little different from ours. At each stave 
the organ (which had been but lately erected) played 
admirably, making a kind of response to the 
singing." Further on Montaigne adds, " As a 
newly-married couple went out of church, the 
Violins (?)* and Tabors accompanied them." Though 
it would appear from these extracts that Viols were 
not used inside the German churches at this date, 

* Dr. Burney concludes from this passage that Violins were 
common in Germany. ■ 



14 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

it must riot be forgotten that the Council of Trent 
had, already been discussing the subject of Church 
reform in its relation to music, and had probably- 
banished them from the service. Whether Viols 
took part in the music of Hofhaimer, Lassus, and 
other men of the time, I know not, but I am inclined 
to believe they helped the vocal. Be that as it 
may, it is certain that Viol tablature existed in 
Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, and in 
England. Whether the Viols of these countries 
were identical is a question to be considered later. 

The earliest book on the Viol I have met with is 
that of Carmine Angurelli, published at Verona in 
1491, now in the possession of Mr. Bernard Quaritch, 
which contains a woodcut of a seven-stringed Viol 
without middle bouts, and having a head with the 
peg arrangement similar to that of the Spanish 
Guitar, all of which points to a development inferior 
to that depicted by Albert Durer in the hands of 
the Mastersingers. There is no notation of any 
kind throughout this early Italian book. A few 
years later, however, we find Viol tablature issued 
from a Venetian press. In France as early as 1502, 
Viol tablature existed, and also a book on the Viol, 
dated 1547. Notwithstanding that no German Viol 
book is in existence dated so early as that of the 
Italian Angurelli, published at Verona in 1491, or 
those published in France, I do not consider we 
should therefore credit the French and Italians with 
a greater knowledge of the instrument. The test of 



THE VIOL GOTHIC. 1 5 

superiority turns wholly on shape and form, and 
there is no question but the Mastersingers' Viol of 
Durer's time was more highly developed than either 
that of Italy or France at the same period ; and 
being so we have every reason to assume that 
Germany possessed Viol writings earlier than 
those nations, but that accident has deprived us 
of them. 

According to Hawkins, the earliest intimation of 
instrumental music in parts, is contained in a book 
written * by a Spanish Dominican in 1570, named 
Thomas a Sancta Maria, the title of which is " Arte 
de tanner fantasia para tecla, viguela y tode instru- 
mendo de tres o quatre ordenes." 

Later research has brought to light a German 
work dated half a century earlier. Schmid, in his 
work on Petrucci, describes this curious book as 
written by Hans Judenklinig, of Vienna, and pub- 
lished there in 1523 by Hans Syngriner : the text is 
in German and Latin, the music consisting of little 
symphonies, songs, and dances, with tablature for 
Lute and Violin (Geygen) in separate parts. It has 
the following title : — " Ain schone Kunstliche Under- 
weisung in diesem Bucchlein, leychtlich zu be- 
greyffen, den rechten Grund zu lernen auff der 
Lautten und Geygen." 

I regard this book as a key which opens the way 
to the birthplace of the instrument mainly concerned 
in these pages — the Violin. On its title-page we 
have probably the earliest mention of the Geygen 



1 6 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

or Geige which time has preserved to us. Now, 
believing that the family of the German Geige 
played a far more prominent part in the formation 
of the Violin than any of the Italian or German 
families of the Viol, is the cause of the importance I 
attach to this book as a piece of weighty historical 
evidence in relation to the birthplace of the leading 
instrument. In giving this prominent position to 
these Fiddles, I do not claim for them a more 
honourable descent than that of the Viols, believing 
both families owe their existence to a common 
ancestor, which was none other than that barbarous 
bowed contrivance which Roger North informs us 
the rushy Zampogna used " to stir up the vulgar to 
dancing," and was played upon at idolatrous sacrifices. 
Whether the descent was lineal or collateral is a 
question of Fiddle heraldry not easily decided ; but 
I am inclined to think the transmission was in a direct 
line, and that the " Chelys " or early German Double 
Bass of Ottomarus Luscinius, and drawn by Albert 
Durer, was a branch of the rushy Zampogna in- 
strument's direct descendants formed by an alliance 
with the monochords, a family which preserved its 
lineage down to the Marine Trumpet.* 

* Mersennes says, " The instrument commonly called the Marine 
Trumpet, either because it was invented by seamen, or because they 
make use of it instead of a Trumpet, consists of three boards so joined 
and glued together, that they are broad at the lower end and narrow 
at the neck, &c. &c. Of the six divisions marked on the neck of the 
instrument, the first makes a fifth with the open chord, the second an 
octave, and so on for the rest, corresponding with the intervals of the 
Military Trumpet."—" Hawkins' History." 



THE VIOL GOTHIC. I "J 

The fretted Geige serving well for the rendering 
of acute sounds, and giving them in quick succession, 
the extreme of these qualities would be next sought 
for rather than attempting to discover a contrivance 
fitted to produce intermediate sounds. To attain 
this object, it would appear only necessary to apply 
frets and extra strings to the monochord, and render 
its form suitable for carrying additional strings. 
Judging from the earlier drawings of the Chelys, it 
seems to have had a flat bridge, thus causing the 
bow to strike all the strings together. As the 
knowledge of bowed instruments increased, the 
disadvantage of this arrangement would naturally 
present itself, and the curvature of the bridge be 
introduced to correct it. The arching of the bridge 
brought about a radical change in the shape of the 
body of the instrument, which was the introduction 
of the centre curves or middle bouts, without which 
the bow could not have command of the outer 
strings. These centre curves which were introduced 
from necessity, gave rise to others in the earlier 
stages of re-formation, for the sake of ornament, and 
by these successive steps, the box-like bowed instru- 
ments of early days became the curved and graceful 
Viols of the sixteenth century. 

Though the primitive German Geige is here 
represented as having formed the basis of Viol 
development, it is not intended to convey the idea 
that its independence was sacrificed to the Viol. On 
the contrary, the Geige undoubtedly held its course 
c 



1 8 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

through successive generations of wandering musi- 
cians with whom it was allied at the period of its 
own creation, until its strange destiny associated it 
with the greatest of all conversions in relation to 
bowed instruments, namely, its own transmutation 
into the Violin of four strings, tuned in fifths. 

That an apparently contemptible little instrument 
— the companion of the juggler, the fool, and the 
dance — should be looked upon as having paved the 
way to the absolute dominion which the Viol exer- 
cised over bowed instruments for centuries, and 
finally dethroning it, and becoming itself the king of 
instruments— the Violin — may seem but a flight of 
fancy, but evidence is not wanting in support of the 
assumption. 



§ectirm i.— 'She lioi Gothic. 



CHAPTER III. 

~C" NQUIRY renders it clear that not far removed 
^^ from the period of the fall of the Roman 
Empire, the chief European nations possessed a bowed 
instrument which, to avoid troubling the reader with 
a confused nomenclature, we will call a barbarous 
Fiddle. Among the Anglo-Saxons, in France, Spain, 
and Italy, such an instrument existed. Its shape 
often varied with the different nations that fostered 
it, but its character and the purpose to which it was 
applied were identical. The Fithele of the Anglo- 
Saxons, the Rebec of the French, though less savage 
than their progenitor, were but vulgar Fiddles, and 
lived in the same company, that of the dance and 
mirth. It is, however, not until we seek the corre- 
sponding Fiddle among the Germans that we dis- 
cover it bearing a title which throws a direct light 
upon the history of its kind. The Teutonic name 
Geige apparently carries with it, the meaning of 
the instrument. In the early ages of mankind 
dancing or jigging must have been done to the 
sound of the voice, next to that of the pipe, and 
when the bow was discovered, to that of a stringed 
instrument which was named the Geige from its 
primary association with dancing ; and unless it 
c 2 



20 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

can be shown that fiddling preceded jigging — 
which surely would be somewhat difficult — the instru- 
ment found its name in the dance, and not the 
dance in the instrument. 

The value of the title Geige as historical evidence 
of the instrument bearing that name having merged 
into the perfect Violin, has yet to be noticed. I 
have already remarked in effect, that the barbarous 
Fiddle, whether the Geige, Fithele, or Rebec, was 
not sacrificed at the shrine of the Viol, but went on 
its way merrily, playing dance and jig, heedless of 
the grave and superior duties fulfilled by its own 
creature, the Viol. Long before the time when the 
Viol's vocation had passed away, the resources of 
the merry Fiddle were gradually but surely being 
developed. No longer was its music alone heard 
amid fools and jugglers, the halls of prince and 
potentate resounded with its strains. As the sound 
of the Viol died away, the voices of other instru- 
ments, the offspring of the merry Fiddle, were heard. 
It is here we have the chief evidence of Germany's 
part in the development of the foremost member of 
the stringed instrument family; for it was the 
Germans who, in the early years of the sixteenth 
century, possessed the descant, tenor, and bass 
Geigen.* It is, however, the retention of the name 
Geige by the Germans which strikes us as remark- 
able, and as pointing to the connection of the old 
three-string .Geige and the modern Violin. An 

* Martin Agricola mentions these in his work on Music, 1545. 



THE VIOL GOTHIC. 21 

instrument in a perfect state, having the same name 
and put to the same use, namely, the rendering of 
dance music, as a rude stringed instrument, centuries 
earlier, would seem to have had its origin in its rude 
namesake. 

Whether the modern Geige or Violin, having 
four strings tuned in fifths, originated with the 
Germans or the Italians, is a question not easily an- 
swered. The Italians have the advantage of existing 
evidence in Violins by the Brescian and Cremonese 
makers, whereas no such evidence existing or re- 
corded can be used for the Germans. In written 
music for the instrument the Italians possess a 
similar advantage. Though these facts cannot be 
disputed, I am disinclined to admit that Italy is 
entitled to claim the whole merit of perfecting the 
instrument. 

It must not be forgotten that the earliest steps in 
all the arts are for the most part pre-historic. We 
know much of Corelli, a little of his immediate pre- 
decessors, and nothing of those beyond. It is pre- 
cisely the same with the makers of Violins. The 
names and works of Gaspard di Salo and Andreas 
Amati are familiar to us, but we are left in compara- 
tive ignorance of the founders of Italian Viol making. 
We have nothing but indirect evidence to guide us 
to a knowledge of this manufacture ; such testimony, 
however, in its bearings upon the question, is not 
wanting in interest, and is worthy of our attention. 

Starting with the direct evidence of the Italians, 



22 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

we have Pietro Dardelli making Viols at the end of 
the fifteenth century* at Mantua. That Dardelli was 
undoubtedly Italian his name sufficiently shows. 
At Brescia, a little later, Gaspard di Salo was 
making Viols. That he made a Violin in 1566 is 
shown from an instrument sold at Milan in 1807 
bearing that date. Andreas Amati made also Violins 
at Cremona about the same period. Turning to the 
music of the Italians we have the fact that Gabrielli 
published at Venice, in 1587, Church madrigals, on 
the title-page of which the Violin is mentioned. I 
do not think it is possible to cite earlier reliable 
evidence of Italian Viol and Violin making, or of 
Italian music adapted to the leading instrument, than 
that given above. The manufacture of bowed 
instruments of a superior kind clearly took root in 
Italy about the commencement of the sixteenth 
century. That this manufacture had its rise in the 
music of the Italians, I am unable to believe. In 
following the course of musical progress in Italy, the 
indirect evidence of German Violin creation becomes 
more valuable. If we seek for the chief cause of the 
early growth of the Italian Viol manufacture, we shall 
find it in the madrigal ; the question naturally 
follows, "Where was this species of composition 
nursed during its infancy ? " We answer — " In the 
Netherlands." 

Upon turning to the musical records of the Low 

* The Italians made Viols much earlier, but Dardelli seems to have 
been, the first maker of instruments worthy of the name. 



THE VIOL GOTHIC. 2$ 

Countries, we cannot fail to discover the connection 
between the Germans and the Lowlanders with 
regard to music, when the art was in what may be 
called a bulbous state. The progressiveness which 
manifested itself in Germany about the middle of the 
fifteenth century, had its counterpart in the Nether- 
lands,. There was a seeming interchange existing 
between these musicians, for we find famous Germans 
lived in the Netherlands, and greater Netherlanders 
in Germany. Towards the close of the century, 
however, Germany was left behind, and then it was 
that the development of the Viol took place, which, 
the Netherlanders' madrigal gave rise to. Now it 
is worthy of note, that the people of the Low 
Countries were much addicted to playing the Viol. 
We see this in the names of Dutch and Belgic 
Violists in the lists of different orchestras, but I am 
unable to discover much evidence of Viol manufacture 
among them. The major part of the instruments 
we meet with date from Nuremburg, Konigsburg, 
and Hamburg, which points to the Germans having 
had the lead of the trade in their hands. 

Turning to the earliest makers of Viols in Italy, 
we find among them names foreign to the language 
of the Italians. Joan Kerlin, who is said to have 
worked at Brescia, is one of these. This maker is 
credited with having made a species of Geige, 
having four strings, dated 1449.* If this could 
be authenticated by the production of the instru- 

* Fe"tis, Notice of Stradiuarius. 



24 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

ment, and the maker's home traced to Germany, 
but little would remain to be done in order to 
render it clear that the four-string Violin originated 
in Germany. In the absence of such evidence, 
it is necessary to search further for German- 
sounding names in the Italian Viol manufacture 
of the early part of the sixteenth century. In that 
of Duiffoprugcar we appear to find that which we 
seek. In tracing this name to the German one of 
Tieffenbrucker, I cannot think M. Wasielewski* can 
be charged with going out of his way in order to 
connect this early maker with Germany. Though it 
has been said that we have proof of Duiffoprugcar 
having made Violins, in certain instruments bearing 
his name, dated 151 1, 1517, and 1519,! I am quite 
unable to believe in the genuineness of any reputed 
specimens brought under my notice ; and I have 
seen all worthy of attention. At the same time I 
consider we have good grounds for thinking that 
Duiffoprugcar played no unimportant part in the 
transformation of the old Geige into its new 
namesake. 

In following the manufacture to Cremona, we 
discover an item of evidence which, in my opinion, 
tends to strengthen Germany's part in the formation 
of the Violin. I refer to the circumstance of Andrew 
Amati having made a three-string Violin in the year 
1546. Here we appear to have conclusive proof of 
German influence, since this instrument must have 

* " Die Violme in XVII. Jahrhundert." Bonn, 1874. 



THE VIOL GOTHIC. 25 

been but a modification of the Geige if not actually 
the instrument itself. This fact, taken together 
with the German-sounding names of the early Viol 
makers located in Italy, and the magnitude of Viol 
manufacture in Nuremburg, KSnigsburg, and Ham- 
burgh, as compared with that of Italy, seems fully to 
justify the throwing of these side lights upon the 
question ; and thus giving to the Germans more 
credit than their direct evidence entitles them to 
receive in relation to the part they took in the 
formation of the leading instrument. 

It is, however, needless to pursue this branch of 
our subject further, since, when all has been said, 
we must admit that whatever shape the Teutonic 
Fiddle assumed towards the middle of the sixteenth 
century, it must have been rude and gross when 
compared with that of the Italians a few years later;' 
for the art of making Viols and Violins, whether of 
three or four strings, followed in the march of Paint- 
ing, Poetry, and all the Arts, to Italy, there to receive 
that artistic grace and completeness which no other 
nation but the Italian could bestow. 

The cursory view we have taken of the progress 
of Music in Germany, in the preceding pages, may 
help the reader to a better understanding of the 
earlier steps in that branch of the Art which mainly 
interests us ; and enable him to gauge its develop- 
ment generally among the Germans. Sufficient 
has been said to show that the progress which 
made itself felt in Germany with regard to Litera- 



26 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

ture, at the close of the fifteenth century, was 
probably not greater than that of Music at the same 
period. The Schools and Universities, the formation 
of Public Libraries, the encouragement of intellectual 
and liberal Princes, all tended, however indirectly, 
to give an impulse to the Art, which seems to have 
been borne rapidly onwards ; when the wars broke 
forth which devastated the land and checked its 
course, leaving the Germans to seek advanced musical 
knowledge in the Schools of Italy, which, in the 
meantime, had made extraordinary strides under the 
original guidance of the Musicians of Germany and 
the Netherlands. 

It is at this point, therefore, we must leave the 
Viol Gothic, and follow the course of Viol History 
among the Netherlanders and Italians, and next 
take up the German thread of our subject after the 
period of the Thirty Years' War. 



tertian II. — ^he licrl in the Uttfarknbjs. 



CHAPTER I. 

" XJOLLAND and Flanders, peopled by one race 
vie with each other in the pursuits of civili- 
zation. The Flemish skill in the mechanical and 
in the Fine Arts is unrivalled. Belgian Musicians 
delight and instruct other nations. Belgian pencils 
have for a century caused the canvas to glow 
with colours and combinations never seen before."* 
Such is the historian's account of the condition 
of the Arts in the Netherlands at the close of the 
fifteenth century. With whatever hesitation we 
may at first feel disposed to accept such an estimate 
of Belgic progress, enquiry will banish all doubt as 
to its correctness. To be sceptical is at least par- 
donable when it is remembered how frequently we 
have been led to regard Italy as the sole cradle 
of the Arts. 

In lifting the veil which has hidden the inner 
life of the people of the Low Countries, about the 
period of the Renaissance, merit long denied them 
has been made theirs beyond all question. That 
this has been the case with regard to their Music 

* Motley's " Rise of the Dutch Republic." 



28 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

more particularly, the patient enquiries of those 
interested in the early Flemish Composition suffi- 
ciently testify. 

In attempting to measure for ourselves the 
progress of the Arts in the Low Countries in the 
fifteenth century, we need not travel the by- 
paths of their history, nor does it matter which 
of the Arts — with the exception of poetry — we 
select for enquiry, since we can scarcely fail to find 
the Netherlanders in possession of them, if not in 
a higher state of development at least on a level 
with their condition among their neighbours, making 
due allowance for that difference of character which 
is as marked in the mechanical and Fine Arts of a 
people as their language. If we take the Art of Paint- 
ing, we discover that it was in the fifteenth century 
that those masters of the Flemish School, Hubert 
and John Van Eyck, were glorifying themselves and 
their country by giving to the world works painted 
in oil colours which were destined to revolutionise 
the principles of Painting throughout Europe. The 
wondrous colours they produced, together with the 
genius which guided them in their use, caused the 
name of Van Eyck to be echoed from end to end of 
the domain of Art. Their landscapes have been 
described as " not merely a fruit of the endeavour 
to reflect the real world in Art, but have, even if 
expressed conventionally, a certain poetical meaning, 
in short a soul." * 

* Burckhardt, "The Renaissance in Italy," Vol. II., p. 28. 



THE VIOL IN THE NETHERLANDS. 2Q 

If we examine into the condition of Music 
among the Netherlanders about the same period, 
we shall find that much of that which the Van 
Eycks achieved for their Art, Okeghem, and in 
a higher degree, Josquin Despres accomplished 
for theirs. Although Music had been cultivated for 
more than a century by the people of the Low 
Countries before the advent of these remarkable 
Musicians, to an extent which left other nations far 
behind, yet that which then passed for the Science 
of Music was in reality a system crippled and 
cramped with meaningless dogmas, bearing appa- 
rently about the same relation to Music as Alchemy 
to Chemistry. With the appearance of Okeghem 
and his pupil Josquin, the haze which had so long 
enveloped the Art was at length dispelled. What 
these Musicians accomplished amounted to little else 
than a re-creation. The Science and Poetry of the 
Art were joined. 

The fame of the Musicians of the Netherlands was 
European, but particularly that of Josquin Despres. 
Louis XII. of France, Lorenzo di Medici, and the 
Emperor of Germany, were among his princely 
patrons. Luther said of him, " other Musicians do 
what they can with notes, Josquin does what he 
likes with them ; " in short, some years before the 
close of the fifteenth century he was looked upon 
as the greatest Musician of any time or nation. 
That a people should have had such men as the 
brothers Van Eyck, Okeghem, and Josquin in 



3<3 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

their midst, born Netherlander dedicating their 
powers to the cause of Art, throwing light where all 
was darkness— the idols of other nations — sufficiently 
demonstrates that the account of the condition of the 
Arts in the Netherlands which heads this Chapter 
is in no way overdrawn. 

The growth of the Arts cannot but be slow 
during infancy, no matter where they take root. It 
may therefore be inferred that it must have taken 
the best part of two centuries to have attained to 
that degree of excellence which the historian credits 
the Netherlanders with towards the close of the 
fifteenth century. It is perhaps not possible to go 
further back than to the twelfth century for the 
rudiments of what we term the Science of Music. 
That the Musicians of the Low Countries made 
use of these rudiments with greater success than 
their brethren of other nations, is now generally 
admitted. It was not, however, until the beginning 
of the fourteenth century that Counterpoint was 
introduced. To Jean de Muris, who is said to have 
flourished about 1330, seemingly belongs the credit 
of introducing the system of notation by points or 
pricks. The adding of one set of points to another 
signified the performance at the same time of various 
melodies agreeing in harmony^-hence the term 
Counterpoint. The nationality of Jean de Muris 
appears to have been a vexed question. He has 
been claimed as an Englishman, but there is little 
doubt the claim had no foundation in truth. Apart 



THE VIOL IN THE NETHERLANDS. 3 1 

from his patronymic, the state of music with us in 
the days of Edward the Black Prince was certainly 
not sufficiently advanced to admit of the reception of 
contrapuntal laws. The road opened up by De 
Muris was soon trodden by William Dufay (the 
earliest composer of masses written in counterpoint), 
by Binchois, and others, comprised under the 
designation of the Old Netherlands School of 
Music. 

The people of the Low Countries were at a very 
early date attached to pursuits of an elevating and 
humanizing character. They had in the fourteenth 
century their various trade associations and guilds 
of rhetoric ; the members of the latter belonging for 
the most part to the working section of the com- 
munity; but sometimes they had enrolled among them 
men at the top of the social scale, as instanced by 
Philip the Fair having been a member of their body. 
They were essentially associations instituted for the 
very laudable purpose of occupying the leisure time 
of their members with useful and rational amuse- 
ment, the drama and music receiving much atten- 
tion. The passion for rhetorical display among the 
Netherlanders was fed mainly by these associations, 
and during two centuries their friends and foes were 
deluged with its showers, whenever an opportunity 
seemed to present itself. 

Tritely does Mr. Motley tell us " no unfavourable 
opinion can be formed as to the culture of a nation 
whose weavers, smiths, gardeners, and traders found 



2,2 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

the favourite amusement of their holy-days in com- 
posing and enacting tragedies or farces, reciting their 
own verses, or in personifying moral and aesthetic senti- 
ments by ingeniously arranged groups or gorgeous 
habiliments. The cramoisy velvets and yellow satin 
doublets of the court, the gold brocaded mantles of 
priests and princes, are often but vulgar drapery of 
little historic worth. Such costumes thrown around 
the swart figures of hard-working artisans, for 
literary and artistic purposes, have a real signi- 
ficance and are worthy of a closer examination." 

The taste for the drama and music was thus 
stimulated among a large and important section of 
the population, and its effects were not only felt by 
those brought under its immediate influence, but 
extended to others at a more distant date. Here we 
have the body of a people deriving pleasure from 
pursuits which in other countries failed to enlist often- 
times the sympathies of the higher classes. When we 
reflect for a moment upon this evidence of culture 
we cannot fail to recognise its vast importance. , 

Associated with these Chambers of Rhetoric 
was an order that combined Oratory with Music, 
the original of which is apparently traceable to the 
Mastersingers of Germany. At Louvain, where the 
standard of culture was seemingly elevated, the 
city possessing a University as early as the year 
1423, wherein the Law, Medicine, Theology, and the 
Arts were cultivated, existed at the close of the 
fifteenth century a " Musical Society " which could 



THE VIOL IN THE NETHERLANDS. 33 

boast of an orchestra — composed of a Harp, a Flute, 
a Viol, and a Trumpet.* Mention of these instru- 
ments at this early date is interesting, without staying 
to enquire whether their tones were ever heard in 
combination. That this refers to a branch of an 
Association of Rhetoric seems clear, and it is in 
these branches we are interested as bearing upon 
the progress of Music at this period, since to their 
influence is traceable the extended cultivation of the 
Art among the Netherlanders during the next cen- 
tury. From these Chambers emanated the multi- 
farious arrangements for the conduct of the city 
processions and entertainments in the management 
of which the Netherlanders were unequalled, causing 
them to become the instructors of other nations in 
these matters. In their plays and pageants, instru- 
mental music was introduced. At first it was doubt- 
less of a rude description. Those instruments fitted 
to make the most noise were selected, such as the 
Bagpipes, and other wind mediums of sound ; but in 
course of time, as their pageantry became artistic, 
these were supplemented or replaced by others, 
among which were bowed instruments of the kind 
common in Germany, which was a large Bass instru- 
ment suited for sustaining the fundamental harmonies. 
This Bass Viol I cannot but regard as the parent 
of those ushered into existence with the Motett 
and Madrigal. 

It is unnecessary in these pages to trace the 

* Lavoix Fils, " Histoire de l'lnstrumentation," Paris, 1878. 
D 



34 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

course of musical progress further than is needed 
to render tolerably clear those parts of it which 
touch upon instrumental music, and more particu- 
larly that for stringed instruments. That Okeghem 
opened up what is called the new school of 
Flemish Music ; that he carried the art of writing 
Canons to a lofty height ; that his illustrious pupil 
Josquin (whom Burney names " The Father of 
Modern Harmony") took up the standard of musical 
excellence borne by his master, and planted it at 
such an altitude as to gain for him the plaudits of 
the whole musical world, past and present, that he 
wrote Masses and Motetts of extraordinary excel- 
lence, form the chief historical facts which may be 
noticed without becoming tedious. 



Section H.— Ihc Wiol in thz ftetherlattba. 



CHAPTER II. 

T TPON comparing the condition of Instrumental 
Music at the commencement of the sixteenth 
century with that of Vocal, it will be seen that they 
had not progressed in the same ratio. The genius 
of the early contrapuntists was wholly spent upon 
Vocal Music, and it was not until considerable strides 
had been taken towards perfecting this branch of the 
art, that instruments received attention from com- 
posers. That it should have been so, is not difficult 
to understand when we reflect that the voice is 
Dame Nature's instrument, and in rendering it 
subject to rules and regulations then laid down, 
the old masters found therein sufficient occupation 
without burdening themselves with the Music of 
instruments, which in their then imperfect state was 
but an indifferent copy of the original. Much re- 
mained to be accomplished in the manufacture of 
musical instruments to permit of their being brought 
under the civilising influence of the old contrapun- 
tists; it was therefore necessary for Instrumental 
Music to follow in the wake of its vocal companion 
D 2 



36 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

until such improvements had been effected as would 
fit it to pursue a distinct and independent course. 

The use to which instruments were put in the 
fifteenth century was that of accompanying the dance, 
making martial music in processions, and rendering a 
semi-barbarous accompaniment to the voice. The 
performers were left free to play upon them as fancy 
prompted ; in short, their accompaniments were 
rude improvisations, and their melodies and dances 
were but the popular ditties of the period rendered in 
a very free manner. 

That the Viol was used in the Music of the 
Church as an adjunct to the voice long before any 
written music existed for the instrument may be 
assumed from the variety of forms and sizes we see 
given to Viols in early prints, which variety evi- 
dences the aim of the masters of the fifteenth century 
to assimilate the Viol with the different registers 
of the human voice, as also the indefinite condition 
of the instrument in the days of old Flemish 
masters. 

Instruments of some kind or other had been 
pressed into the musical service of the Church from 
a very early period, for we are told that Saint 
Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century denounced 
the practice of employing them as " tending to stir 
up the mind to delight, than frame it to a religious 
disposition." Notwithstanding, however, this and 
other anathemas, the custom grew apace, culminating 
with the Reformation. It happened that the Refor- 



THE VIOL IN THE NETHERLANDS. 7)7 

mers were not alone in their denunciation of the then 
existing musical arrangements in connection with 
the Church. Their voices were joined by those of 
some high dignitaries of the orthodox faith ; since 
Cardinal Cajetan complained that "With the noise 
of organs, and the clamorous divisions and absurd 
repetitions of affected singers, which seem, as it 
were, devised on purpose to darken the sense, the 
auditors should be so confounded as that no one 
should be able to understand what was sung." 
Erasmus — a votary of Music in his youth — steered 
a course betwixt that which was deemed orthodox 
and that which was regarded as heretical, said 
" What notions have they of Christ who think He 
is pleased with such a noise ? " These, then, were 
the opinions that were rife in reference to Ecclesias- 
tical Music about the period of the Reformation. 
When we take into account the character of the 
Flemish Ecclesiastical Music written during the 
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, we are led to 
believe that the innovations which were so loudly 
complained of, had their rise in the Netherlands' 
and passed into Italy with the Flemish musicians. 
The extraordinary number and magnificence of the. 
Gothic sacred buildings spread over the Low Coun- 
tries prior to the Reformation, evidences the Nether- 
landers' influence in this direction ; and though it 
may not be wise to gauge the depth of a nation's 
piety by the number of edifices raised for religious 
purposes, we can measure the extent and depth of 



3# THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC 

artistic work necessarily attending such erections. 
The lavishness of architectural ornament, the mar- 
vellous display of the genius and skill of Flemish 
painters, was sought to be equalled by the grandeur 
of the Musical service. " All that opulent devotion 
could devise in wood, bronze, marble, gold, precious 
jewellery, or sacramental furniture had been profusely 
lavished." "The vast and beautifully painted windows 
glowed with Scriptural scenes, antique portraits, 
homely allegories, painted in those brilliant and 
forgotten colours which Art has not ceased to deplore. 
The daylight melting into gloom, or coloured with 
fantastic brilliancy, priests in effulgent robes chanting 
in unknown language the sublime breathing of choral 
music, the suffocating odours of myrrh and spike^ 
nard, suggestive of the Oriental scenery and 
imagery of Holy Writ, all combined to bewilder 
and exalt the senses." This vivid description of 
the interior of Antwerp Cathedral serves to convey 
some idea of the splendour of the sacred buildings 
in the Netherlands. Such were the churches at 
Tournay, Ghent, Utrecht — where the youthful voice 
of Erasmus had been heard in the chorale — and 
many others throughout the land. 

It was in these sublime monuments of Gothic 
Art, raised by the combined efforts of a nation's 
skilled artizans, prompted by strong religious 
feelings, that the music of these highly-gifted Belgic 
composers was heard. No effort was spared to 
enrich the harmonies, the organ was deemed in^ 



THE VIOL IN THE NETHERLANDS. 39 

sufficient, the voices were supplemented by the 
nasal sounds of the Viol, secular melodies were 
introduced of a florid character, with their secular 
words sung by the chief voice, whilst the other 
voices were heard singing to the words of the mass. 
The words, sacred or secular, were not considered, 
notes alone were esteemed as tending to increase 
that display which had been gradually developed 
during two centuries; but the time was at hand 
when this singularly free mode of conducting the 
service of the Church was to be abandoned. The 
school of Church music which arose and flourished 
in the Netherlands, crumbled and fell, and a portion 
of its ruins served Palestrina in the construction of 
his glorious work.* 

It is hardly possible to imagine that the music 
of the Church in the Netherlands could have been 
developed in the manner described without affect- 
ing that of the chamber ; indeed it is certain that the 
domestic music of the low countries received similar 
scientific treatment to that bestowed on sacred 
music, if such florid writings may be described as 
sacred. It is also generally admitted that it was the 
first domestic music allied to musical learning, which 

* J. R. S. Bennett, in one of his admirable contributions to Grove's 
" Dictionary of Musicians," remarks, " The simplicity of Lassusj 
Church music as early as 1565, shows that the story of the causes 
of Palestrina's revolution must not be accepted too literally," 
and again, " the simple Church music did not indeed take the place 
of the older and more elaborate forms of the Josquih period at a few- 
strokes of Palestrina's pen." 



40 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

renders it historically peculiarly interesting. What 
the position of the Viol was in relation to this music 
is uncertain ; that it was used in connection with it 
there is every reason to believe, though in a manner 
precluding its recognition by the learned composers. 
The character of the instrument at this important 
period in the history of chamber music was probably 
but little changed from that of the Viol of the 
Mastersingers, and accompanied the voice with 
the same degree of licence. In this state it most 
likely remained for a considerable length of time, 
ultimately ; however, as the home music of the 
Netherlanders was advanced, certain changes were 
effected in the form and construction of Viols, 
rendering them capable of taking parts of more 
importance in such music. Whatever these variations 
in form and shape may have been, I am disposed 
to think that they Were not of a trivial kind, even 
when thought of beside those effected in Italy after 
the musicians of the Netherlands had succeeded in 
making the Madrigal a great power in music. 

I have before remarked that the earliest steps in 
Art are for the most part pre-historic, and therefore 
do not think we should hastily conclude that it was in 
Italy where Viols were first made — in their relation 
to the Madrigal — to conform to the tones of the 
different voices, by dividing and sub-dividing the 
length of string, until each voice had its representa- 
tive Viol. It is certain such divisions were rendered 
complete in Italy, and are traceable to the Italian 



THE VIOL IN THE NETHERLANDS. 4 1 

Madrigal, when for the sake of variety the singers 
ceased singing their Madrigal parts, and performed 
them on their Viols. But this most interesting in- 
novation on the part of the Viol of taking to itself 
the music of Nature's organ, must surely have been 
brought about by successive steps in the instrument's 
development, which are no longer visible ; and I see 
nothing unreasonable in believing that these early 
steps were taken in the Low Countries, long prior 
to the time when the Madrigal was taken to 
Italy. That a Viol-playing people like that of the 
Netherlands of the fifteenth century, the originators 
of scientific domestic music, the creators of the 
true Madrigal, should have carried their music and 
their Viols to Italy without having previously con- 
tributed in some measure to that knowledge which 
enabled the Italians to perfect the family of the 
Viol, is difficult to realise. 

Towards the close of the fifteenth century com- 
menced that departure of Netherland musicians to 
Italy, the full effects of which was to fall upon 
the Musical Art in after ages. These men carried 
with them the accumulated work of two centuries, 
ripe for the reception of that adornment which was 
then being bestowed upon painting and other arts 
by born Italians, or aliens under the influence of 
Italy's climate, its people, and surroundings. Their 
art had been scientifically developed in the Nether- 
lands to a degree to which no other nation could 
in any way lay claim. It had reached to its 



42 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

full extent of growth in the soil upon which it fed, 
and needed transplanting to flower afresh ; and no 
country was better adapted to nurture it than the 
Italy of the first half of the sixteenth century, 
where Macaulay tells us "knowledge and public 
prosperity continued to advance together. Both 
attained their meridian in the age of Lorenzo 
the Magnificent." " Restored to supreme peace 
and tranquillity, cultivated no less in her most 
mountainous and sterile places than in her plains 
and more fertile regions, and subject to no other 
empire than her own, not only was she most abun- 
dant in inhabitants and wealth, but in the highest 
degree illustrious by the magnificence of many 
princes, by the splendour of many most noble and 
beautiful cities, and by the seat and majesty of 
religion — she flourished with men pre-eminent in the 
administration of public affairs, and with genius 
skilled in all the sciences, and in every elegant and 
useful art."* Such was the condition of Italy when 
the musicians of the Netherlands flocked thither, 
and to its many princes both they and the musicians 
of after ages owed a debt of lasting gratitude, for the 
lustre which their munificent patronage caused to be 
shed upon their art. It was at the invitation of 
King Ferdinand that John Tinctor went to Naples 
in 1476, and assisted in establishing the School 
of Music. It was in Naples that he wrote the first 

* Essay on Machiavelli, Longfellow's translation of the passages 
of Thucydides. 



THE VIOL IN THE NETHERLANDS. 43 

book on music ever printed, which assumed the 
shape of a dictionary. At Rome, about the same 
period, Josquin was busy with his art at the Chapel of 
Pope Sixtus IV., and later we hear of him at the 
Court of Hercules the first Duke of Ferrara. At 
Florence, Lorenzo the Magnificent was giving every 
encouragement to promote the advancement of 
music ; he secured the services of Heinrich Isaac (a 
Netherlander by education if not by birth) to instruct 
his children, and thus did his son Giovanni begin to 
acquire that taste for music for which he was so 
famous as Pope Leo X. At Mantua Jaques Berchem 
was appointed to the post of chapel-master in the 
Duke's chapel. And lastly, at Venice, appeared 
Adrian Willaert to instruct its people in music, 
and share in that progress which the Venetians 
were beginning to make in the fields of art and 
learning. It would not be difficult to multiply these 
instances of princely patronage, and of the high 
positions awarded to the musicians of the Low 
Countries, but those already given amply suffice to 
mark the degree of esteem in which they were held 
by the Italian nation, and the artistic devotion of 
its many princes. If we desire further evidence of 
the influence of the musicians of the Low Countries 
at this period, we have but to turn to the printing 
press of Petrucci, at Venice, and we discover that 
nearly the whole of the works printed by it for 
several years, were those of Netherlander. 

With the early years of the' sixteenth century 



44 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

opens up a period rife with interest relative to 
our subject. Then it was that the madrigal began 
to receive the serious attention of the Flemish 
composers. It had existed among them in a more 
or less crude shape since about the middle of 
the fifteenth century, but the time had come when it 
was to play an important part in musical history, now 
that it was dressed in much of the learning belonging 
to the Flemish motett. With it the social element 
was entered, and the foundation laid of high-class 
chamber music. The term madrigal originally 
meant a pastoral song; there were simple and 
accompanied madrigals ; the former were first intro- 
duced, and in their character partook greatly of the 
music composed for the Church. It is not possible 
to say when or where the Flemish madrigal was 
first heard in Italy; we are left to form an opinion 
from a loose collection of dates and the circumstances 
attending them. Taking into consideration the 
advanced state of culture at Ferrara, and the world- 
wide reputation that Court obtained for its art 
patronage, and that of music more particularly, it 
would seem highly probable that it was to that city 
the madrigal was taken from the Netherlands. That 
the madrigal was sung at Mantua early in the 
sixteenth century is evidenced by the presence there 
of Berchem, who composed a great number. 

It is to the Netherlander Adrian Willaert we 
must now turn, since it was he who gave to the 
madrigal a form in which originality was so mani- 



THE VIOL IN THE NETHERLANDS. 45 

fested as to have earned for him the title of father of 
this species of composition. Willaert was born, at 
Bruges in the year 1490. At the age of twenty- 
eight he followed the example of many of his 
countrymen, and removed to Rome, where he 
possibly hoped to find a larger field for the exercise 
of his abilities than his native city afforded him r 
but at that period Rome must have sheltered quite 
an army of musicians, the chief part of which was 
mainly dependent on the patronage of Leo X. and 
his Cardinals, and it is possible that he discovered 
the Church and its princes already sufficiently 
weighted with claimants to favour without casting 
in his lot with them, and thus resolved to quit 
the Papal city, and make that of the Venetian 
Republic the stage for his efforts in Music's cause. 
In Venice he worked and died, amid the din 
of its vast commerce, for then the Venetian capital 
was not only the first commercial city in Italy but of 
Europe. Its wealth, its churches, and its marble 
palaces formed a theme of admiration throughout 
the civilised world. In Venice at the height of its 
prosperity he found its citizens as eager to encourage 
and practise music as they were to aid and cherish 
other arts — furnishing another instance of art follow- 
ing close upon the heels of successful commerce. 

Doni, in his Dialogue on Music, published at 
Venice in 1 544, supplies us with a description of the 
chamber music of Willaert's time. In the Dialogue, 
compositions by most of the seventeen composers. 



46 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MVSIC. 

then living at Venice are performed ; in the first 
conversation the interlocutors are Michele, Hoste, 
Bago, and Grullone, all performers, who sing 
madrigals and songs by Claudio Veggio and 
Vincenzo Russo. In the second conversation, 
instruments are joined to the voices, Antonio de 
Lucca first playing a voluntary on the Lute, then 
Buzzino il Violone* Bosso Battista, Doni, and others 
play on Viols ; Doni also refers to the superior state 
of music in his time, compared with that of any 
former period. " There are musicians now " he 
remarks, "who, if Josquin were to return to this 
world, would make him cross himself. In former 
times people used to dance with their hands in their 
pockets, and if one could give another a fall, he was 
thought a wit and a dexterous fellow ; Heinrich Isaac 
then set the songs, and was thought a master, at 
present he would hardly be thought a scholar." 
That great progress in music had been made admits 
of no doubt whatever, but that Doni was carried 
away by enthusiasm in making this reference to 
Isaac was evidently the opinion of Dr. Burney, who 
supplements it with a quotation. " Hannibal," says 
Captain Bluff, " was a very pretty fellow in those 
days it must be granted. But, alas, Sir! were 
he alive now, he would be nothing ! nothing in the 
earth!" 

The difference of conditions under which music 

* This instrument was a Double Bass haying five or six strings, 
and had frets like the lute. 



THE VIOL IN THE NETHERLANDS. ' ,/tf 

flourished in Rome and Venice accounts for the 
distinctive character of the work achieved by 
the musicians of these cities. In the city of 
the Church, patronage was almost wholly ecclesias- 
tical, and the music composed there at that period 
belonged to the church chiefly. In Venice, Music 
was influenced by both the Church and the 
people, the effect of which soon manifested itself in 
an unmistakeable manner. Adrian Willaert could 
not have failed to observe the essentially different 
tone of thought and action belonging to the people 
of these States. He found the Venetians prepared 
to be led into an untrodden path, namely, that of 
Domestic Music, and it fell to him to be their 
pioneer. In Rome he had witnessed the solid 
foundation upon which the Roman School of Music 
was raised, to which his countrymen had contributed 
so much, and he appears to have aimed at estab- 
lishing in Venice a school equally solid at its base, 
but which should have a section, in which Domes- 
tic Music might partake of that high excellence 
which had hitherto belonged almost exclusively to 
the Church. 

That Adrian Willaert succeeded in accomplish- 
ing this, and that the madrigal was instrumental in 
the achievement, is made clear by reference to his 
fifty years' labour in this particular section of vocal 
music. We shall there discover that during this 
long period, scarcely a collection of motetts and 
madrigals was given to the public, to which he did 



48 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

not contribute, besides imparting that knowledge to 
others which for the most part originated with him- 
self. To mention alone Francesco Viola and 
Gabrielli as his pupils, amply marks the extent of 
Willaert's influence over chamber music, when in its 
infancy, and yet further awakens our interest in the 
father of the madrigal, since it was his scholar 
Gabrielli who was one of the chief actors, if not the 
principal, who rendered that distinguished service 
to Viols and other instruments, of emancipating 
them from their long dependence upon vocal music. 
Henceforth instruments were no longer to follow 
in the wake of vocal music, they had been made ripe 
to claim their liberation under the skilful guidance 
of men whose names and merits are for the most 
part unrecorded ; when Gabrielli, or a contemporary 
musician came forth as their liberator and proclaimed 
them independent. One of their earliest charters — to 
continue the metaphor — is that composed and attested 
by this same Gabrielli, the pupil of Willaert, and 
entitled " Sonate a cinque per i stromenti," printed 
by Gardane, Venice, 1586 ;* the actual date of com- 
position may be much earlier. The nephew and pupil 
of Gabrielli, Giovanni, followed in the steps of his 
uncle, and left us the earliest record of music for the 
Italian Violin we have any account of. Thus we find 
that it occupied more than a century from the period 
When bowed instruments were connected with the 
madrigal, to bring them to that state of perfection 

* Fetis, " Biographie Universelle des Musiciens." 



THE VIOL IN THE NETHERLANDS. 49 

which admitted of their having music specially 
written for them. 

Having brought the Netherlander and his mad- 
rigal to Venice, and lightly sketched their in- 
fluence on chamber music, in relation to our subject, 
it is time to close this section, and follow the course 
of Viol history in France. 



Section IB..— Ike lie! in Jrance. 



CHAPTER I. 

' I 'HE German Viol and its offspring having already 
occupied our attention, it now remains to seek in- 
formation relative to the Viol- germ which the Goths 
carried to Spain, the fruitfulness of which was 
singularly great, as we shall presently discover. I 
am no better able to succeed in placing the reader in 
possession of indisputable evidence of the Viol 
having been common to the Goths in Spain, than I 
have before been with regard to Germany; indeed, I 
am not so well prepared to give proof of early 
Spanish cultivation of bowed instrument knowledge, 
for with the exception of mentioning the Western 
door-way of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compos- 
tella — which is said to belong to the eleventh century 
— upon which a number of instruments of the Viol 
kind are represented,* I have nothing to show that 
Spain was in possession of such instruments. 

It is in the evidence of the following century, 
namely, the twelfth, which is of importance in con- 
necting our subject with Spain, although the infor- 

* See large cast in the South Kensington Museum. 



THE VIOL IN FRANCE. 5 I 

mation relates to another and distinct kingdom, viz., 
Provence, which Nostradamus, in his Lives of the 
Provencal Poets — published about the middle of the 
sixteenth century* — describes as the mother of 
Troubadours and Minstrels. In this now part of 
France undoubtedly existed from the tenth to the 
fourteenth centuries minstrelsy of a superior kind, 
which was deemed worthy of imitation in Germany, 
England, and Italy. In this sense Nostradamus 
correctly named Provence the parent of Minstrelsy. 
Our enquiries, however, extend beyond this parent- 
age, and in pursuing them we must not lose the 
Gothic thread, slender though it be, upon reaching 
the tenth century, for it is all we have to connect the 
Viol of the Troubadours with the Viol-germ of 
Spain. 

The highly developed condition of the people of 
Provence in the twelfth century can scarcely be 
regarded as the outcome of an independent civiliza- 
tion, like that witnessed by the conquerors of 
Mexico: surrounding influences must have contri- 
buted something towards it, and if we admit that 
such was the case, we have to consider which of 
these predominated. For our purpose it becomes a 
question, from which side the Viol found its way to 
Southern France : in short, whether it was the Viol 
of Italy or that of Spain. Geographically, Italy is 
nearer Provence than Spain; but there remains the 
fact that the Provencal language was more cultivated 

* Burney, vol. 2, p. 230. 
E 2 



52 THE VIOLIN AND IIS MUSIC. 

in Languedoc and the adjacent provinces than in 
that which gave the language its name, and these 
provinces are nearer Spain, which was the last place 
where the Goths figured as a power in Western 
Europe. During the dominion of the Goths the 
Latin language lost much of its original character 
and degenerated to the Romance, three different 
dialects of which were spoken in Spain as early as 
the beginning of the eighth century.* Here, then, we 
appear to have a link to connect the Romance of Spain 
with that of Provence, which taken in conjunction with 
Voltaire's remark as to most of the music heard in 
France before the time of Louis the Fourteenth 
(Francis I. ?) having been that of Spain.t strengthens 
greatly my belief that the Viol associated with the 
Troubadours of Provence came from the Viol-germ 
carried to Spain by the Goths. 

Whatever may have been the condition of music 
in France prior to the time of the Troubadours, to 
those minstrels rightly belongs the opening page in 
all notices of French musical progress. Nay, more, 
they are entitled to primary notice in the history of the 
music of Western Europe, since it was they — para- 
doxical though it may seem — who gave melody to 
music. The scraping of Viols, the jargon blowings 
of huntsmens' horns and shepherds' pipes, the crude 
twangings of minstrels' harps and primitive lutes, was 
hushed as the music of the Troubadours arose. 

* Longfellow's " Spanish Language and Poetry.'' 
+ " Age of Louis XIV." 



THE VIOL IN FRANCE. 

Henceforth, in the musical language of Thackeray, 
" their melody overflows into the air richly, like the 
honey of Hybla ; it wafts down in lazy gusts like the 
scent of the thyme from that hill."* 

I have hitherto used the term Troubadour in its 
broadest sense in reference to the poet minstrels of 
Provence ; they were, however, divided into distinct 
orders, and named Troubadours, Trouveres, and 
Jongleurs: the first were the true Romance poets, the 
next were the poets of Northern France, and the last 
the wandering minstrels who sang at the courts and 
at the houses of the nobility, the heroic achievements 
of their ancestors, and accompanied themselves on 
instruments. These Jongleurs have been described 
by Crescimbeni,+ as men of a merry nature, full of 
jests and arch sayings, and adopted a kind of fool's 
costume for the purpose of entertaining in a burlesque 
manner their patrons, for which reason they were 
called Jongleurs, quasi Joculatores. 

To the Jongleurs and Trouveres may be traced the 
old rhymed romances of Charlemagne and his twelve 
peers, and those of Arthur and the round table, and it is 
interesting to follow M. Paulin Paris in relation to 
these and other early romance poems. He tells us — 
"After an attentive examination of our ancient 
literature, it is impossible to doubt for a moment 
that the old monorhyme romances were set to music 

* "An Essay without end." 
+ Translation of Nostradamus' " Lives of the Provencal Poets noticed 

by Hawkins. 



54 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

and accompanied by a viol or harp, and yet this 
seems hitherto to have escaped observation. 

" In the poem of ' Gerars de Nevers' I find the 
following passage : — 

" Then Gerars donn'd a garment old, 

And round his 'neck a Viol hung, 

For cunningly he played and sung. 
* * * * 

Steed he had none ; so he was fain, 

To trudge on foot o'er hill and plain, 

Till Nevers gate he stood before, 

There many burghers full a score, 

Staring, exclaimed in pleasant mood, 

' This minstrel cometh for little good. 

I wene, if he singeth all day long, 

No one will listen to his song.' 

Whilst at the door he thus did wait, 

A knight came through the court-yard gate, 

Who bade the minstrel enter straight 

And led him to the crowded hall, 

That he might play before them all." 

Dr. Burney supplies us with another description 
of this early minstrelsy, given by a French poet who 
flourished about 1230. 

" When the cloth was ta'en away, 
Minstrels strait began to play, 
And while harps and Viols join, 
Raptured bards in strains divine, 
Loud the trembling arches rung, 
With the noble deeds we sung." 

It would be easy to multiply these instances of 



THE VIOL IN FRANCE. 55 

the presence of the Viol in the minstrelsy of the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries in France, but those 
already given render it sufficiently clear, that to 
itinerant musicians may be traced the earliest culti- 
vation of secular music in France, as indeed it may 
be in all countries. 



Station HI— ^hc Wiol in Jraittt. 



CHAPTER II. 

T T was in the twelfth century that the wandering 
musicians and their music began to receive that 
attention which gave to their art a new and 
important character. This was accomplished by the 
Troubadours and Trouveres or poets calling to their 
aid the Jongleurs or musicians to sing and accompany 
their lays with harp and viol. These instruments, 
which had hitherto been heard in conjunction with 
the chivalric ballads of the Jongleurs, now accom- 
panied the Romance poetry of the Troubadours. 
This combination of tuneful poetry with melo- 
dious music was hailed with delight from court and 
castle, and so much had this minstrelsy grown in 
favour during the thirteenth century that kings and 
nobles aspired to become poets and minstrels. The 
King of Navarre, the Lord of Coucy, the Comte 
d' Anjou, and the Duke of Brabant are mentioned as 
Court Trouveres. An illuminated manuscript of the 
poems of this King of Navarre and his contem- 
porary poets supplies us with the figure of a Jongleur 
represented as playing before the King a three- 



THE VIOL IN FRANCE. 57 

stringed instrument, which has the appearance of a 
Giege. That this instrument had found its way to 
France at this early period is evidenced by the tale 
of the Two Minstrels,* though Dr. Burney, who 
gives the following interesting remarks upon this 
tale from the pen of a French author, tells us he had 
no knowledge of the instrument : — 

" Two companies of minstrels meeting at a castle, 
endeavour to amuse its lord by counterfeiting a 
quarrel. One of them quitting his companions, 
insults a minstrel of the other troop, calling him a 
ra gg e d beggar, who never had done anything to 
deserve a better dress from his patrons ; and, in 
order to prove his own superiority, says with triumph, 
that he can tell stories in verse, both in the Romance 
and Latin tongues ; can sing forty lays and heroic 
songs, as well as every other kind of songs which 
may be called for ; that he knew also stories of 
adventures, particularly those of the Round Table ; 
and, in short, that he could sing innumerable 
romances, &c. He finishes the enumeration of his 
talents by facetiously informing the spectators that 
he did not choose his present employment for want 
of knowing others, as he was possessed of several 
secrets by which he could make a great fortune ; for 
he knew how to circle an egg, bleed cats, blow beff, 
and cover houses with omelets. He also knew the 
art of making goats'-caps, cows' bridles, dogs' gloves, 

* Dr. Burney states that a copy of this tale is in the Bodleian Library, 
MS. Digby, 86. 



58 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

hares' armour, joint-stool cases, scabbards for 
hedging-bills ; and if he were furnished with a 
couple of harps, he would make such music as they 
never heard before." At length, after some 
additional abuse, he advises the minstrel whom he 
attacks to quit the castle without staying to be turned 
out ; " For I despise you too much," says he, " to 
disgrace myself and comrades by striking such a 
pitiful fellow." The other vilifies him in turn, and 
asks how he dares presume to call himself a minstrel 
" For my part," says he, " I am not one of your 
ignorant fellows who can only take off a cat, play the 
fool, the drunkard, or talk nonsense to my comrades ; 
but one of those true and genuine Troubadours who 
invent everything they say, 

" All the minstrel art I know ; 
I the Viol well can play, 
I the pipe and syrinx blow, 
Harp and Gigue obey." 

At length he concludes by advising his rival never 
to be seen in the same place as himself, " and you, 
my lord," says he, "If I have been more eloquent 
than he, I entreat you to turn him out of doors, to 
convince him that he's an ignorant blockhead." 

The argument of the minstrel's tale, besides 
informing us as to the presence of the Giege 
among the Troubadours, contains much that is inte- 
resting and instructive relative to the minstrel's 
art. The character of Jongleur and Troubadour or 
Trouvere is well defined, and it informs us as to the 



THE VIOL IN FRANCE. 59 

poets being sometimes independent of the Jongleur's 
aid by being themselves instrumentalists ; our chief 
interest lies, however, in the mention of that 
Teutonic member of the Fiddle family, the Giege. 
This instrument having been familiar to "one of those 
true and genuine Troubadours who invent every- 
thing they say," I cannot but think adds some 
weight to the opinion I have already expressed, as 
to the chief work in relation to the early develop- 
ment of bowed instruments having been accom- 
plished in Germany, since it shows that the Germans 
had at least brought this instrument to a state which 
rendered it worthy of imitation. That the Germans 
were famous players upon it we gather from 
Adenes, the trouvere, who speaks with admiration 
of the " Gigeours of Germany." * The trouveres 
apparently were the minstrels who introduced the 
Giege in France. Apart from their mention of the 
instrument, they being the minstrel poets of Northern 
France, their knowledge of German instruments would 
be greater than that of the Troubadour, and they would 
be therefore more likely to adopt them. The true 
Romance poets were, no doubt, early in possession of 
the Rebec, which we may call an early French Fiddle; 
but the Giege, or early German Fiddle, would seem 
to have been unknown to them until their brother 
minstrels from the North used it. 

Taking this view of Fiddle history we have the 
meeting in a foreign country of the direct descen- 

* Paul Lacroix, " The Arts in the Middle Ages." 



6o THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

dant of that " barbarous bowed contrivance," men- 
tioned by Roger North in connection with the 
Goths, with a scion bearing a marked family like- 
ness to its own remote ancestor through another 
line of Fiddle and Viol. If this view be correctly 
taken, we may assume that the coming together of 
Geige and Rebec amid the minstrelsy of France 
contributed something towards the perfection of the 
Violin, though we cannot possibly learn, at this 
distance of time, to what extent. 

Leaving these speculations, let us pass to the 
time when the Jongleurs formed themselves into a 
company, and obtained a charter, in the year 1321. 
Under this charter they elected a chief, whom they 
styled the " King of the Minstrels," and laws were 
made which the members of their body corporate 
were to observe. They inhabited a building which 
gave the name to the street in Paris, St. Julien des 
Menestriers. At these head-quarters all applications 
for musicians were made and duly attended to. 
In the reign of Charles VI. the Jongleurs are 
said to have separated themselves entirely from 
the art of juggling, and attended only to the art of 
music, and it is in a charter of Charles, dated 1401, 
that we discover evidence of much importance 
relative to the progress of bowed instruments in 
France. The charter runs : — 

" Charles, by the grace of God, &c, &c. It 
having been humbly represented unto us by the 
King of the Minstrels and other performers on high 



THE VIOL IN FRANCE. 6 1 

and low instruments that since the year 1397,* when 
they were formed and associated into a company for 
the free and lawful exercise of their profession of 
minstrelsy according to certain rules and ordinances 
by them formerly made and ratified, and by which 
all minstrels, as well players on high instruments as 
low, ' having agreed and bound themselves to appear 
before the aforesaid King of the Minstrels to take 
oath and swear to the performance of the covenants 
hereinafter declared, &c, &c." 

It is the reference to high and low instruments 
which I have italicized in the above charter that 
furnishes us with valuable information in relation to 
early French bowed instruments. Dr. Burney rightly 
infers from it that it was about this time that treble 
and bass Rebecs or Viols with three strings began to 
be in use, either to play in octaves to each other; or, 
perhaps, in a coarse kind of counterpoint. I cannot 
agree, however, with the musical historian naming 
them Rebecs or Viols ; it is this looseness of descrip- 
tion which has made Viol history so confused. The 
three strings points to their having been Rebecs and 
not Viols, and if they were such, I am inclined to 
regard this development as springing from the 
meeting of Rebec and Giege already noticed. 
Though Martin Agricola's reference to the descant 
tenor and bass Giege belongs to the middle of the 
sixteenth century, the inclusion of tenor Giege 
indicates a higher development and does not preclude 

* This date is apparently incorrectly copied. 



62 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

the possibility of there having been treble and bass 
Gieges of a rude kind in the previous century, 
which gave rise to the variation of the Rebec. 

The separation of music from jugglery, and the 
granting of the minstrels' charter, were not the only 
interesting events in relation to music belonging to 
the reign of Charles VI. ; there is yet another which, 
in its bearings upon the musical world of France, 
was of far more importance, and one in which the 
king played an unfortunate and more prominent 
part. In the year 1392 the king was struck with 
madness caused by a man starting from behind a 
tree in the forest of Le Mans clad in a white 
smock, his head and feet bare, crying " Go no 
farther ; thou art betrayed !" An appearance so 
strange and unexpected affected the king's reason. 
The hopes that were entertained of its recovery 
were completely frustrated by an accident which 
occurred in the following year. Music had but 
recently been associated with a new entertain- 
ment called Charivari or Masquerade, and at one 
of these given at the Royal Palace of St. Paul in. 
Paris, five young noblemen with the king appeared 
as savages linked together in a dress of linen to 
which fur was cemented by means of resin. The 
Duke of Orleans, either from levity or accident, ran 
a lighted torch against one of the party, which at 
once set his costume on fire ; the flame was quickly 
communicated to the others, but the maskers in the 
midst of their torments cried " Save the king ; Save 



THE VIOL IN FRANCE, ' 63 

the king ;" which was happily done, but left his 
reason disordered beyond all chance of recovery. 
To the circumstance which gave rise to this 
melancholy event is in a great measure traceable 
the beginning of that light music which the pens of 
Lully, Rameau, and Phillidor — the father of Phillidor 
of Chess-gambit fame — a century and a half later 
brought to such perfection. Our interest in this 
description of music is heightened, when we re- 
member that the Violin was. first used in France in 
connection with it. 



kctxon III.— %ht liol iit Jraitce. 



CHAPTER III. 

"DURSUING our course amid French Royalty in 
search of information pertinent to our subject, 
we find ourselves once more among the Troubadours 
of Provence, with that right kingly minstrel Rene of 
Angou, who was " endowed with every gift of mind 
and every noble virtue, the first French Prince on 
whom fell the inspiration of the Renaissance, poet, 
painter, musician, the practical man who developed 
the prosperity of his Provencal domains ; a king, 
brother of kings, father of kings, he stands alone 
in this age of ours, combining the culture of Provence 
with the fresh life of Italy."" 5 ' 

It is Rene of whom Sir Walter Scott discourses so 
eloquently, and makes him answer when importuned 
to resign his kingdom of Provence: "With my 
Viol and my pencil, Rene the troubadour will be as 
happy as ever was Rene the king: so saying, with 
practical philosophy he whistled the burden of his 
last composed ariette, and signed away the rest of 
his royal possession without pulling off his glove." 

Kitchen's " History of France." Vol. ii., p. 1 1. 



THE VIOL IN FRANCE. 6$ 

These words serve to convey to the reader some 
notion of good King Rene's love of art, the intensity 
of which led him beyond the bounds of prudence, and 
caused Shakspeare to write : 

" Unto the poor King Reignier, whose large style, 
Agrees not with the leanness of his purse.'' 

" — King of Naples 
Of both the Sicilies and Jerusalem,* 
Yet not so wealthy as an English yeoman.' 7 

King Henry VI. 

King Rene's love of music was passionate in the 
extreme, and he joined to this devotion executive 
skill of no mean order as a Violist and composer. 
A sacred composition of his, written in honour of 
St. Louis, Bishop of Toulouse, was often heard in 
the Churches down to the time of the Council of 
Trent, while the profane music which had been 
employed as subjects for the solo parts was still 
being played by the minstrels.t 

The despoiler of poor King Rene's dominions, 
Louis XL, has but little claim on our notice. His 
name figures in a minstrels' charter, but music in 
France was not advanced by the recognition it 
received from him. Louis' taste for the art seems to 
have been in complete harmony with his grovelling 
and, cruel disposition. We have an instance of this 
in his having upon one occasion commanded the 

* King Rene", after the seizure of Angou by Louis XL, continued to 
style himself King of Sicily and Jerusalem. 

t Lacroix.."The Arts in the Middle Ages." 
F 



66 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

master of the Royal music, the Abbe de Baigfte, to 
give him a concert of pigs, which entertainment was 
carried out in the following manner — Swine of 
mixed age and size were procured — apparently with 
a view to the production of as many dissonances as 
possible— and placed in a tent in front of which was 
a keyboard like that of an organ, every key was 
furnished with a sticker, though of a very different 
kind which that technical term implies when con- 
nected with a pianoforte. These stickers of torture 
were so arranged that the performer at the key- 
board in executing his barbarous passages should 
stick the wretched inmates of the tent, causing them 
to squeak and grunt with both velocity and vivacity. 
It has been remarked again and again, there is no 
accounting for taste, and in music we constantly 
meet with curious instances of its vagaries ; but 
Louis XL's must have been unique, and remains a 
curiosity among such curiosities. Let us, however, 
quit the ridiculous in, music, and return to the sub- 
lime with Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, 
who, we are told, " was in the best sense of the 
word a gentleman, refined, courteous, polished; was 
an excellent chess player, a good musician, a composer 
of songs and motetts." 

With the opening years of the sixteenth century, 
we reach the boundary which may be said to sepa- 
rate the new and the old in music among the French. 
The brilliant rays of light which beamed upon the 
art world over which Pope Leo X. reigned supreme, 



THE VIOL IN FRANCE. 6 J 

illumined the court of Francis I. The goodwill, 
which the " King of Culture " bore the arts and 
learning, secured for his people this inestimable 
benefaction. It was Francis who obtained the 
services of Italian architects and artists to guide and 
instruct his subjects in the building of palaces and 
public buildings. It was he who filled them with 
some of the choicest works of the Art World. The 
cunning hand of Benvenuto Cellini wrought him 
treasures of priceless worth and wondrous design. 
The brothers Estienne, by the aid of his munificent 
patronage, sent forth from their printing press 
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin works, in type which the 
Bibliomaniac of to day venerates. It was in his 
reign that Petrucci's system of printing music was 
introduced into France. Jean Mouton, the pupil of 
Adrian Willaert, was his Chapel-master, thus con- 
necting France with the great musicians of the 
Netherlands; and, lastly, he gained over to his 
service that most accomplished of men, Leonardo 
da Vinci, who died in his arms. 

The interest Francis I. took in music was evi- 
dently of no ordinary kind : the frequent mention of 
his name in connection with the musical life of his 
time points to a continued association with those 
engaged in the furtherance of the art. We are told 
that upon his founding the Royal College in 1530, 
the third chair was one of music. 

In the year 15 15, when Francis went to Bologna 
to meet Leo X. for the purpose of signing the famous 

, F 2 



68 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Concordat, he was accompanied by the choir which 
his predecessor Louis XII. left him, and which, it is 
said, had no equal in the world. Under the direction 
of Guillaume Guinand, formerly Chapel-master to 
Ludovic Sforza, the last Duke of Milan, the choir of 
the French King had the honour of singing in the 
mass which Pope Leo celebrated in the Cathedral 
of Bologna. A choir accompanying a King on 
such important business points to Sovereigns and 
Pontiffs going about their state affairs in moods 
less serious than those of later times ; in any case we 
have the satisfaction of citing this particular com- 
bination of business with pleasure as evidence of 
Francis I.'s love of music, and the importance of his 
choir. This visit of the French King to Bologna is 
associated with yet another event in relation to 
music, and one which concerns us far more than 
that already noticed. In Bologna at this time lived 
Gaspard Duiffoprugcar, and the attention of Francis I. 
was directed to the Viol-maker's skill. With that 
intuitive power of detection of exceptional ability, 
which- belonged to Francis, he resolved to secure the 
Viol-maker's services, and induce him to accompany 
him to Paris. These arrangements we are told were 
duly carried out, and thus it was that the French 
King's orchestra was enriched with the Viols of 
Duiffoprugcar. 

It now remains to notice the early Viol music 
belonging to France. In the excellent work on the 
history of instrumentation by H. Lavoix fits we 



THE VIOL IN FRANCE. 69 

find mentioned " Dix-huit basses dances garnies de 
recoupes et tordions avec dix-neuf branles, quatre 
sauterelles, quinze gaillardes et neuf pavanes; Paris 
Attaingant, 1538;" also the curious book on the Viol 
by Claude Gervaise, by the same publisher, 1547 to 
1555, which is in the Bibliotheque Nationale ; it is 
divided into seven books, written for Viols in four 
and five parts. In the work are galliardes, pavanes, 
and popular songs. These are the earliest printed 
compositions for bowed instruments. 

From the period of the death of Francis I. to the 
total suppression of the League in the time of Henry 
IV., the political condition of France was completely 
opposed to that tranquility under which the arts can 
alone flourish. The bigotry and fanaticism which 
involved the nation in a forty years' civil war 
checked the further development of music, and 
makes it necessary to close this section of our 
subject. 



kctxon IH— Wxt liol tit (England 



CHAPTER I. 

" I ^O seek for knowledge of the character and use of 
the Viol in times when England's baronial halls 
and castles were open to the way-worn minstrel, ever 
ready with his tales of heroic deeds, recounted to the 
sound of sweet music, is almost a profitless task, 
since "All — to use the words of Mr. Froude — 
is gone, like an unsubstantial pageant faded ; and 
between us and the old English there lies a gulf 
of mystery which the prose of the historian will 
never adequately bridge." 

To render an account of the Viol in England, at 
all approaching completeness, is not possible : its early 
history lies buried beneath a vast accumulation of 
extraneous matter, which even to partially separate 
is a task beset with difficulty. That it is necessary 
to delve deep enough into the history of music 
generally, that we may lay bare a portion of the root 
of our subject, is sufficiently evident ; but to know 
where and how far to dig, is certainly perplexing, 
apart from the confusedness of the material to be 
sifted. We cannot, perhaps, do better than follow in 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 7 I 

the line of our last Section, by commencing with 
Charles VI. 's son-in-law, our Henry V. 

When Henry V. went to France in 141 5, he was 
accompanied by fifteen minstrels, one of whom was 
named Snyth Fydeler, a name which readily awakens 
our interest. It is possible that Fydeler may have 
been his family name ; but in any case we may 
conclude its origin is traceable to Fiddling. These 
minstrels played at the , King's head-quarters, 
morning and evening, and it is said that on the eve 
of the battle of Agincourt, though the English were 
fatigued and hungry, and sorely troubled with visions 
of death on the morrow, yet they played on their 
trumpets throughout the night, and confessed their sins 
with tears, many of them taking the sacrament. With 
the famous battle is associated the earliest English 
song of which the original music has been preser- 
ved. This curiosity, written on vellum in Gregorian 
notes, reposes in that wondrous collection of books 
and manuscripts which that early book collector 
Samuel Pepys brought together, and which is now in 
Magdalen College, Cambridge, in the same book- 
cases and in the same order as Pepys left them, one 
hundred and seventy-seven years since. 

Henry V. is said to have been a devoted admirer 
of sacred music and proficient in " organ playings." 
When he entered the city of London on the 23rd 
of November, 141 5, where the citizens had prepared 
pageantry of extraordinary splendour in honour of 
the King and his memorable victory, and verses were 



J 2 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

sung celebrating the event, he commanded, by a 
formal edict, that in future no songs should be 
recited by harpers or others in commemoration of 
the battle. These orders were, however, given 
when the King was surfeited with the laudation of a 
people intoxicated with joy, and must not be attri- 
buted to a dislike for music and poetry but to dis- 
gust for slavish adulation. That he delighted in 
music is shown by his having, in the twenty-third 
year of his reign, liberally rewarded some foreign 
minstrels. Five minstrels from the King of Sicily 
had £\o each, a very considerable amount when 
the value of money in the fifteenth century is 
thought of. 

In passing to the time of Henry VI. we are 
again reminded of good King Rene, Henry's father- 
in-law. He does not appear, however, to have 
imbibed any of his relative's enthusiasm for music, 
for, beyond a few payments to minstrels and 
heralds, there is nothing during his reign worthy of 
our attention. Leaving, therefore, the red rose of 
Lancaster, and with it the mendicant friars, the 
harpers, and the pipers of minstrelsy, in a dis- 
organised state, we will follow the white rose in 
the Yorkist, King Edward IV., and commence with 
England's first minstrels' charter. 

Charters are instruments which have been both 
abused and misused in their relation to music, as well 
as to other arts ; yet they have a kind of recognised 
authority which begets reverence, and in quoting 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 73 

them an air of importance is at least given to a 
subject. Though the granting of a charter implies 
some degree of development in relation to the art 
affected by it, we shall find in this instance that the art 
of music, as judged at this distance of time, was in a 
very primitive state ; and in selecting this particular 
charter, the early progress of instrumental music in 
connection with the Violin in England will be ren- 
dered sufficiently clear. 

"In the year 1469, Edward IV., by his letters 
patent under the great seal of his realm in 
England, bearing date the twenty-fourth day 
of April, in the ninth year of his reign, did for 
him and his heirs give and grant licence unto 
Walter Haliday, Marshall, and John Cliff, and others 
then minstrels of the said King, that they by them- 
selves should be in deed and name, one body and 
cominality, perpetual and capable in the law, and 
should have perpetual succession ; and that as well 
the minstrels of the said King, which then were, as 
other minstrels of the said King, and his heires 
which should be afterwards, might at their pleasure 
name, choose, ordain and successively constitute from 
amongst themselves, one Marshall, able and fit to 
remain in that office during his life and also two 
wardens every year to govern the said fraternity 
and guild." 

Among others Dr. Batman, an English writer of 
the latter part of the sixteenth century, has afforded 
us an opportunity of living for the nonce among the 



74 THE. VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

musicians of King Edward's time. In his account 
of the king's household establishment we learn that 
his majesty had thirteen minstrels, one acting as 
director, whose duty it was on festival days to place 
each minstrel in such position that his "blowings and 
pypings " might be heard by the various attendants 
occupied in preparing the kings " meats and 
sDiipers." It thus appears these instrumentalists, 
armed with trumpets and pipes, were directed to 
execute divers fanfares or warnings, the meaning of 
which was perfectly intelligible to the gentlemen of 
the great kitchen as having reference to the taking 
or removal of certain dishes between their office and 
the banqueting chamber. That the state band of 
the period was put to such base uses appears curious, 
but nevertheless easily understood when it is remem- 
bered that feasting occupied a far more prominent 
place in the business of life than at a much later 
date.* When the vast extent of building 
comprised in our old castles is considered, the 
arrangement is yet easier to understand, for those 
were not the days of electric bells and telephones ; 
trumpets therefore performed the parts allotted to 
modern inventions. Although utility was doubtless 
an object of consideration, it was not that alone which 



Mr. Froude states that the guests and servants upon some 
occasions numbered four thousand persons, and that one thousand 
sheep, one hundred peacocks, and three hundred quarters of wheat, 
were consumed, besides other food in proportion. 



. THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. J$ 

prompted these musical arrangements ; ornament and 
effect were highly considered. 

" Illumining the vaulted roof 
A thousand torches flamed aloof 
From many cups with golden gleam 
Sparkled the red metheglin stream ; 
To grace the gorgeous festival 
Along the lofty window'd hall, 
The storied tapestry was hung ; 
With minstrelsy the rafters rung." 

The minstrels ushered in the banquet with their 
musical strains, they preceded the servants carrying 
the dishes, among them the famous dish of chivalry, 
the peacock with his tail displayed, and they 
remained in the hall to enliven the scene during the 
progress of the banquet. Sometimes one or more 
played upon his instrument beside the table, now the 
croudero, then the harper, making music whilst the 
juggler performed feats with the tools of his craft. 
The banquet ended, the King and his " nobley " 
(nobles) left the table, and adjourned to the great 
chamber for the dance. 

" Befoure him goth the loude" minstralcie, 
Til he come to his chamber of parements,* 
There as they sounden divers instruments, 
That it is like an Heaven for to be here."t 

Sometimes the dance took place in the hall, when 
the signal from the master of the house was given, 
" A hall ! a hall ! " the boards and trestles were 

* Great Chamber. t The Squire's Tale. 



76 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

quickly removed, and fifteenth century dancing com- 
menced to minstrels music* From this brief 
account of the minstrel's duties we gather that his 
occupation was one of some importance, and this 
view is borne out by a few interesting particulars 
contained in Dr. Batman's edition of Friar 
Bartholomceu's book, entitled " De Proprietatibus 
Rarum," — first printed in English by Caxton — 
relative to the remuneration they received — in the 
household of Edward IV. 

A wait, who piped watch within the court of the 
castle four times on winter nights and three times on 
summer nights, and made "Bon Gayte" (by playing on 
his instrument) at every chamber door and office as 
well, for fear of " pyckeres and pillers " (thieves ?) was 
allowed to eat in the hall with the minstrels, and had 
given him a loaf, a gallon of ale, two pitch candles, 
and a bushel of coals. His salary was either three- 
pence or fourpence at the discretion of the steward 
or treasurer. When he was ill he was allowed two 
loaves, two messes of " great meate," and one gallon 
of ale. It would therefore appear that sickness, in 
these days, had the effect of increasing the appetite ; 
his bedding was carried by a groom waiter; but if 
he chose to dispense with this attendant's services 
he received the groom's wages. This " Yeoman " 
wait, when attending at the making of Knights of 
the Bath, besides his fee, received the knight's 
clothing. 

* Cutt's " Scenes, and Characters of the Middle Ages." 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. yf 

The chaplains and clerks of the chapel were 
elected by the dean, and were expected to have a 
good knowledge of descant, to be " clean voyced and 
well releshed " in pronunciation, eloquent in reading, 
and sufficient in "organ playings," modest in 
their behaviour, and were to eat together at the 
dean's board, and lodge in one chamber. 

Dr. Rimbault remarks* — " Minstrels sometimes 
assisted at divine service, as appears from a record of 
the 9th of Edward IV. By part of this record it is 
recited to be their duty ' to pray (exorare, which it is 
presumed they did by assisting in the chant, and 
musical accompaniments, &c.) in the King's Chapel, 
and particularly for the departed souls of the King 
and Queen when they shall die, &c." 

The eight children of the chapel were instructed 
in singing by the " Master of Songe" appointed by 
x the dean ; they also received tuition on the organs. 
They ate at the Chapel board next the Yeoman of 
the Vestry, and had divided amongst them two 
loaves, one " messe of great meate," two gallons 
of ale; they were allowed in the winter four pitch 
candles and litter for their pallets, and to have one 
servant to truss and bear " their harnesse and lyverey 
in court." When they reached the age of eighteen, 
and their voices changed, the king sent them to 
Oxford or Cambridge, there to be instructed until 
the king otherwise advanced them. These extracts 
serve to show that music and musicians in the reign 

* " North's Memories of Mustek," p. 77. 



78 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

of Edward IV. were not neglected ; and there is 
evidence of even earlier appreciation of the followers 
of the musical art in the curious, though profane fact 
that minstrels were better paid than the clergy, since 
we are told that at the annual feast of the fraternity 
of the Holy Cross at Abingdon, in 1441, eight priests 
were hired from Coventry to celebrate an obit in the 
Church of the neighbouring priory, and six minstrels 
belonging to the family of Lord Clinton were em- 
ployed to " sing, harp, and play," in the hall of the 
monastery during the extraordinary reflection 
allowed to the monks on that anniversary. Two 
shillings were given to the priests, and four to the 
minstrels, and the latter are said to have supped in 
the painted chamber of the convent with the sub- 
prior, on which occasion the chamberlain furnished 
eight massive tapers of wax. 

The minstrels derived their knowledge from the 
schools belonging to the monasteries. They learnt 
something of the theoretical principles of music, the 
practical part of singing, and the elements of 
grammar ; including also, perhaps, as much know- 
ledge of poetry as was sufficient for the composition 
of a song or ballad. Persons already acquainted with 
the principles of music, could find little difficulty in 
acquiring sufficient skill to play on the Viol or some 
such instrument, a simple melody ; together forming 
a sufficient body of theoretical science and practical 
skill, to enable them to compose and play a variety 
of simple tunes. 



the viol in England: ■ 79 

We will now glance at some of the instruments 
used by the minstrels of the fifteenth century. The 
harp being essentially the instrument of the minstrel, 
takes precedence of the rest I shall mention. The 
extraordinary popularity of this instrument in the 
middle ages is shown from the accounts we have of 
the vast number of harpers brought together upon 
occasions of festival. Mention is made of upwards 
of one hundred having been assembled. Con- 
tinuing with the stringed instruments, the Sauterie 
(Psaltery), a description of lyre — of which there 
appears to have been a great variety — may be noticed. 
Although there is no mention of bowed instruments 
in connection with the minstrels of Edward IV:, it 
may be assumed they were numbered with the rest ; 
but, in any case, we know they were in use in 
England. It is difficult to know how to describe 
this class of instrument, so varied are the names 
applied by different authorities — Rebec, Rote, Vielle, 
Fiddle, Viol, and Violin — that all these names applied 
indiscriminately could convey any notion at all 
approaching correctness of the bowed instruments 
of the fifteenth century is impossible. To describe 
the virginals of Queen Elizabeth's time as a grand 
pianoforte would give a very erroneous notion of 
that instrument, yet Violinists of the nineteenth 
century have been told over and over again that 
Violins were in Elizabeth's state band. Whatever 
bowed instrument it was, the difference between it 
and our Violin would be as marked as. that of the 



80 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

virginals and a Broadwood trichord grand. That 
there were instruments in very early times having much 
in common with the Violin is not to be doubted; but 
I cannot but think it is necessary to keep them apart 
from the instrument known to us under that name, if 
confusion is to be in any way avoided. The attach- 
ment of different names to one and the same instru- 
ment arises chiefly from the uncertainty of the 
meaning of their nomenclature in English poetry 
and chronicles. The confusion of titles to bowed 
instruments which appears among the old writers, 
has been greatly intensified by the laudable endea- 
vour of the musical historian to reconcile this nomen- 
clature with divers pieces of sculpture and monu- 
mental brasses, upon which some rude-shaped bowed 
instrument has been depicted, without making suffi- 
cient allowance for the looseness of description on 
the part of the poet, and the licence indulged in by 
the sculptor. There are no instruments in existence 
to my knowledge of fifteenth century work in 
England of the bowed kind, therefore all knowledge 
of them rests on this unstable foundation. 

That a bow was in use in England at a very early 
date is evident from Saxon Illuminated MSS. in the 
British Museum, in which musicians are represented 
playing upon a pear-shaped instrument with sound- 
holes, resembling a lute, the neck being only sufficiently 
large to admit of the hand. This instrument appears 
slightly in advance of one played without a bow, and 
possibly it was so constructed to be used with or 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 8 1 

without, for no bridge is represented ; now between 
this instrument and one represented on a Flemish 
brass in St. Margaret's Church, Lynn, of the time of 
Edward III., there is no apparent difference except- 
ing that the neck is longer; but some allowance must 
be made for the liberties the draughtsman may have 
taken with the original. This seeming length may 
have been but slight indeed, and the surmise is 
strengthened when we turn to the bowed instrument 
the minstrel is playing in the group called the 
" Beverley Minstrels " in Beverley Minster, the date 
of which would be probably, very near the time of 
Edward IV. Here the sculptor has apparently the 
same instrument, but the neck shortened. There 
can be little doubt it was to this instrument and the 
Crwth the -words Fidel, Fiddyll, and Crowd, met 
with in old English poetry, applied. Among the 
bowed instruments at this period was also the Rebec 
or Rebella ; here again it appears impossible to decide 
the shape this instrument took. It has been described 
as a bowed instrument of three strings, shaped like a 
box, of oblong form, and again we see it drawn with 
a long neck with four strings, somewhat resembling 
an old English guitar in shape. That the instrument 
was distinct from the Fiddyll of the old writers is 
shown from the following extract : — 

" Sir Piere called this yonge squier, and saide 
unto hym and axed hym ' where was his Fedylle or 
his ribible.'" 

These bowed instruments I have enumerated 

G 



82 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

appear to be those only in use in England in the 
fifteenth century, and we are able to form a tolerably 
correct opinion of their capabilities from the slight 
and uncertain descriptions afforded us, when joined 
with historical facts relative to the extent of musical 
knowledge at the time they were in use. They were 
frequently bridgeless, and even when that all impor- 
tant appendage was added, it could have been of 
little use, the form of the bodies of the instruments 
making it impossible to use the outer strings singly, 
from the absence of middle bouts,* therefore the 
strings must have been sounded together, with what 
effect the reader may easily imagine. It must be 
remembered notation had not been applied to musical 
instruments, and the performer was left to exercise his 
own judgment as to the form of accompaniment he 
used. It would be a severe test of executive skill for 
a Violinist of the present age to have to invent an 
effective accompaniment with a bridge unarched. That 
the musicians of King Edward's day succeeded in 
doing so under the then existing state of music, 
would be difficult to realise. 

It now only remains to briefly notice the wind 
instruments. There were trumpets of many kinds — 
the Shalm, a pipe with a reed ; the Sackbut — a 
primitive description of trombone — numbers of 
which were frequently used together, and other 
instruments of this class it is unnecessary to men- 
tion in these pages. That drums were not 

* Sides or curves in the middle of the instrument. 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 83 

wanting need scarcely be said, both small and kettle. 
These, then, were the chief instruments belonging to 
this period; although music was in an infantile state, 
we cannot conceive it possible that the inhabitants of 
these islands in the fifteenth century could have 
derived any pleasure from listening to a combination 
of the instruments I have enumerated. The mode 
of use was probably to select sound mediums having 
something in common. For processions drums and 
sackbuts ; for the dance the bowed instruments or 
the pipes ; for the minstrel's song or tale, the harp or 
psaltery ; but whatever may have been their method 
of selection the term they applied to a band, 
namely, a " noise,"* it must be confessed was not in- 
appropriate from a modern point of view. 



* In the "History of Jack of Newbury" "a noise {i.e. band) of 
musicians in townie coats, who, putting off their caps, asked if they 
would have music." 
G 2 



kction IH.— ^he Uwl in: (Englanb. 



CHAPTER II. 

^pOWARDS the end of the fifteenth century the 
term minstrel had lost much of its original signi- 
fication ; it was applied not only to the degenerate 
minstrels,, poets, and harpers, but to instrumentalists, 
from the drummer to the performer on the sackbut. 
This was an innovation upon the integrity of the 
ancient craft which unmistakably pointed to its deca- 
dence. In the reign of Edward II. the character of 
the minstrel had much changed since it was necessary 
to institute a regulation to prevent " idle persons 
under colour of minstrelsy going messages or other 
feigned business, being received in other men's 
houses to meate and drynke." That it was possible 
to mistake the counterfeit for the original alone indi- 
cates the fallen state of the art at that period. Its 
degradation continued, notwithstanding this regula- 
tion, down to the date of King Edward I V.'s charter, 
which was granted to prevent husbandmen and 
artificers from assuming the title and livery of the 
king's minstrels. 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 85 

It was, however, too late to attempt to resuscitate 
the craft by giving it that exclusiveness which had 
in times past belonged to it. Those who had 
assumed the title of minstrel were too many and too 
strong to be extinguished; numbers had been received 
in the halls of the rich upon an equality with the 
licensed minstrel ; among others the " wayte," whose 
duty it was to " pipe watch "* at night in the court- 
yard of the castle, and at every chamber door at 
stated intervals. This familiar intercourse with the 
recognised members of minstrelsy not only bred con- 
tempt in the mind of the hitherto humble musician, 
but affected all equally, resulting in complete dis- 
regard of distinction between minstrels and itine- 
rants. I shall have occasion to refer to the wan- 
dering members of minstrelsy, which calling seems 
to have originated with the men who "piped the 
watch, and were designated waytes." 

The political connection that existed between 
Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and Edward 
IV. and which led to the triumph of the white rose 
over the red, I am inclined to regard as having 
been productive of results of much consequence to 
music in England. It brought our people into closer 
relationship with the Lowlanders, among whom 
the arts had been more developed than elsewhere, 
and thus an impetus was given to them in England, 
particularly that of music— the full effects of which 
fell upon a later generation. Our minstrelsy from 

* The Wayte used a kind of Oboe. 



86 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

the time of the Conquest to the period when 
Edward IV. held the sceptre in security, must 
certainly have been more or less influenced by 
that of France, and doubtless with good results; but 
our fraternising with the Lowlanders engrafted a 
new and higher knowledge of music on the sturdy 
Saxon stem. 

Five years prior to the date of the minstrels' 
charter, King Edward sent into the Low Countries a 
commission to negotiate a commercial treaty with 
the Duke of Burgundy. One of the members of 
this commission was William Caxton : whether any 
treaty was ratified or not we need not stay to 
enquire. It is sufficient to know that the king in 
sending the city mercer on this errand secured to his 
people and their posterity advantages out-weighing 
all the good derived from the commercial treaties 
of the whole world, since it was at Bruges 
where Caxton commenced printing, after having 
studied the art with great assiduity during his stay 
abroad. Upon his return to England he started his 
printing press in the Almonry at Westminster, and 
printed the first book in England — " The Game and 
Playe of Chesse," in 1474. It was not long before 
Caxton had others following in his wake. Among 
these was Wynkyn de Worde, the earliest printer 
of musical characters in this country. In a work 
published by him at Westminster, one year after 
Caxton printed the book on the game of chess, are 
the characters alluded to. 



THE VIQL IN ENGLAND. 87 

In order to bring under the notice of the reader 
the first printer of music in England, I have, perhaps, 
journeyed away from my subject in re-stating well- 
worn facts relative to William Caxton. My excuse 
is simple. The name of Wynkyn de Worde is as 
familiar to the Bibliomaniac as that of Corelli to 
Violinists ; but to mention him alone in connection 
with the art of printing, I felt would leave him but 
barely clad in the minds of many musical readers: 
in associating him as a contemporary and follower of 
Caxton, he is readily invested with a warm covering 
of interest. When it is remembered that the early 
printers in England only printed such books 
as would be likely to appeal to the taste of the 
general reader, whose knowledge was of a very 
slender kind, it is unlikely the presses printed much 
music in type which must have alone found favour 
with the learned. No musical work is known to have 
been issued by Wynkyn de Worde until 1530, 
though he possessed the requisite knowledge thirty- 
five years previous to this date, as we have seen. It 
is a small volume of part-songs designed for social 
recreation, both sacred and secular,* and well marks 
the state of music at this period. 



* Dr. Rimbault makes the following reference to this work in his 
" Musical Bibliography." 

"This extraordinary Musical Work has escaped the researches of 
Hawkins, Burney, Ames, Herbert, Dibdin, &c. It was first noticed by 
Douce. ' Illustrations of Shakspeare,' edit. 1839, p. 262." 



88 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

With the reign of Henry VII. we catch a glimpse 
of a higher development of music in England. Dr. 
Fayrfax, William of Newark, Cornyshe, and a few 
others composed music to popular poetry. Dr. Burney 
tells us these compositions were transcribed with 
much clearness, though, the time of the musical 
characters, from the absence of bars, and the use of 
ligatures with a mixture of red notes for diminution, 
is difficult to ascertain. Our author proceeds to 
inform us that the music of these ditties is somewhat 
uncouth, but it is superior to the poetry. It is at 
this period that we read of " Stryng Minstrels at 
Westminster " which must refer to players on Rebecs 
or Viols. There is also mention of the principal 
towns having each its own set of Waits, and the 
payments made to them for their services in 
making merry music as the king journeyed through 
the different townships. 

According to an old chronicler,* Henry VIII. 
exercised himself daily in shooting, dancing, wrestling, 
casting of the bar, playing the recorders (a kind of 
flageolet), flute, virginals, setting of songs, &c, &c. 
The four first-named diversions we will dismiss as 
void of interest to the reader, the remaining four on 
the contrary are worthy of our attention, showing, as 
they do, the better side of Bluff King Hal's disposi- 
tion ; but let us hearken to Pasqualigo, an ambas- 
sador at Henry's Court, who says : " He speaks 

* Sse Chappell's "Popular Music of the Olden Time." 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND, 89 

French, English, and Latin, and a little Italian, plays 
well on the Lute and virginals, sings from book at 
sight, draws the bow " (archer's, not Fiddler's) " with 
greater strength than any man in England, and 
jousts marvellously; believe me he is in every respect 
a most accomplished prince ; and I who ' have now 
seen all the sovereigns in Christendom, and last of 
all these two of France and England, might well 
rest content."* 

Opinions contemporary with the subject of 
them require to be received with caution, a neces- 
sity which is evidenced by the report of another 
ambassador, touching Henry VIII., who, in writing 
to, the Doge of Venice, said, " He (King Henry) 
plays almost every instrument and composes fairly, 
is prudent, and sage, and free from every vice." After 
weighing, however, the several independent judg- 
ments upon the king's musical abilities, and remem- 
bering that we have positive proof of his creative 
musical talent in the existence of a number of his 
compositions, we may safely come to the conclusion 
that Henry VIII. both loved and practised music, 
and in the words of John Playford "did much 
advance music in the first part of his reign, 
when his mind was more intent upon the arts and 
sciences," t 



* Hall (Chron. An. 2 Henry VIII.) Dr. Rimbault's "North's 
Memories," p. 75. 

t Introduction to the "Skill of Music," 1655. 



90 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

The state band of Henry VIII. in the year 1526, 
consisted of the following instruments : — 

3 Lutes. 1 Harp. ' 4 Drumslades. 

2 Viols. 15 Trumpets. 1 Fife. 

3 Rebecks. 3 Tabarets. 10 Sackbuts. 

It is worthy of note that the performers on the 
Sackbuts obtained the highest pay, tending to show 
that noise continued to be chiefly valued. 

As the Lute and the Viol made their appearance 
in England about the same period,* and curiously 
enough departed in company towards the end of the 
sixteenth century, I am unwilling to pass over some in- 
teresting particulars relative to the first-named instru- 
ment, though it has little in common with its bowed 
companion. Galileo, the father of the illustrious 
Galileo, writing in 1581 ascribes the invention of the 
Lute to the English,t and refers to the great per- 
fection we attained to in its manufacture. I am, 
however, inclined to think we obtained the instru- 
ment in the first instance from the Netherlands. 
The earliest mention of the instrument in the 
writings of our old authors is that in Chaucer's 

* The Lute is first mentioned in the List of Instruments belonging 
to the Earl of Northumberland, 15 12. The Viol in the band of 
Henry VI 1 1., 1526. 

t Galileo says the Trumpet was invented by the Netherlanders, we 
cannot, therefore, place much reliance on his statements as to the 
birth-place of instruments. 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 9 1 

*' Pardoner's Tale," and there we find it associated 
with the Flemish people. 

" In Flanders whilom was a campagnie 
Of yonge folk, that hauteden folie, 
As hazard not stewes and tavernes ; 
Whereas with Harps, Lutes, and Giternes 
They dance and play." 

It is somewhat curious that Galileo should have 
given us the credit of inventing the Lute, in the face 
of earlier evidence of the instrument's use among his 
own people than with the English. The famous 
painter Domenico was a Lutenist, and the fact is 
associated with his untimely death. It is recorded 
in the life of Castagno that the skill and reputation 
of his brother artist Domenico excited his jealousy, 
Castagno resolved to waylay and murder him. It 
was the custom of Domenico after his painting hours 
to stroll along the country roads singing and accom- 
panying himself with his Lute. Castagno, well 
knowing the habit of Domenico, followed and killed 
him, returning immediately afterwards to his own 
studio. He had not long arrived before he was 
told of the melancholy fate of Domenico, and 
returned to the spot where he laid and joined with 
the bystanders in their lamentations; The date of 
this occurrence is given as 1462, and therefore half 
a century earlier than the date of Henry VIII.'s list 
of instruments. There is, however, earlier evidence 
of the presence of the Lute in Italy than that above 
cited. 



9 2 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

These references I believe to apply to a type of 
Lute preceding that in common use among the 
Germans and Lowlanders of the fifteenth century. 
I am unable to think otherwise than that the Lute 
was mainly developed in Germany, and that it passed 
into the Netherlands in its improved condition, from 
whence Italy and England obtained it as near as 
possible at the same period. That the English made 
Lutes of a superior kind afterwards seems certain, 
but that the Italians ultimately surpassed them may 
be assumed from the fact of Stradiuarius having 
given his attention to their manufacture. 

Izaak Walton, curiously though not inaptly, cites 
the Lute as illustrative of that sympathy of thought 
and vision which in these days is known as spiritual- 
ism and second sight. After giving an account of a 
vision that appeared to Dr. John Donne, he proceeds : 
" This is a relation that will beget some wonder ; 
and it well may, for most of our world are at present 
possessed of an opinion that visions and miracles are 
ceased. And though it is most certain that two Lutes 
being both strung and tuned to an equal pitch, and 
then one played upon, the other that is not touched 
being laid upon a table at a fit distance, will like an 
echo to a trumpet warble a faint audible harmony in 
answer to the same tune." 

The Lute was of several sizes, and of varied con- 
struction : originally it had eight strings. The small 
Lute was used frequently for instrumental music, the 
larger size for accompanying the voice. It occupied 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 93 

as a popular instrument, a position similar to that of 
the pianoforte of our time. Its practice was culti- 
vated by the rich and their dependents. Edward VI. 
played on the Lute, and reference is made thereto by 
Queen Catherine, in a letter to her daughter Mary, 
exhorting her to use her Lute. Again, in a com- 
munication to Thomas Cromwell, afterwards Earl 
of Essex, from his son's tutor, referring to the 
course of instruction he is taking, he says, " The 
residue of the day he doth spend upon the Lute and 
virginals."* 

Both the Lute and the Viol were hung on the 
walls of the barbers' shops in England ; but the 
latter instrument did not form part of the hairdresser's 
furniture until long after the Lute had done so. Ben 
Jonson, in one of his plays, wishes the barber "may 
draw his own teeth and add them to the Lute-string." 
The barber's shop in past times was resorted to by 
persons of all ranks and for many purposes. Here 
was practised dentistry, surgery,t and " trimming," as 
hair-cutting and shaving were then denominated. 
The barber's patrons awaiting their turn, musical 
instruments were supplied them to wile away the 
time. Thomas Mace, the author of " Musick's 
Monument," was a passionate lover of the Lute, 
and in his most interesting book he gives a very 
long account of this his favourite instrument. He 

* Froude's " History of England." Vol. 1, p. 49. 
f The barber's sign, the pole, represented the staff held by the 
patient whilst being bled, 



94 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

speaks of the Lutes of Laux Mailer as having 
been most highly valued in his time, "pitiful, old, 
battered, cracked things valued at one hundred 
pounds apiece." 

Whatever the first cost of a Lute might have been, 
it must have been insignificant to its maintenance in 
catgut, if we may rely upon the accounts handed 
down to us relative to Lute-strings. It has been said 
keeping a Lute must have been on a par with keeping 
a horse. That the demand for Lute-strings was 
large is shown from the circumstance of the public 
being invited in the year 1688, to take shares in a 
company for the supply of the article, and the pro- 
jectors held out to the subscribers the hope of 
immense gains.* Whether the ever-confiding British 
public responded to the appeal I know not. 

Whilst on the subject of Lute-strings it may not 
be uninteresting to Violinists to know that the well- 
known practice of testing the purity of a gut string 
by holding it between the fingers of each hand and 
setting it vibrating is mentioned in probably the 
earliest book on the Lute, that of Adrian Le Roy, 
published at Paris in 1570. 

Although it would be easy to recount much that 
is entertaining in relation to this once favourite 
instrument, it is necessary to remember that our 
subject is the Viol and not the Lute ; but let us stay 
but a moment more to listen to Thomas Mace 

* Macaulay's " History of England." Vol. 4, p. 320. 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 95 

talking to his favourite instrument towards the close 
of its career : — 

Mace — " What makes thee sit so sad, my noble friend, 
As if thou wert, with sorrows, near thy end ? 
What is the cause, my dear renowned lute, 
Thou art of late so silent, and so mute ? 
Thou seldom dost in public now appear ; 
Thou art too melancholy grown, I fear." 

Lute— " What need you ask these questions why 'tis so ? 
Since 'tis obvious for all men to know, 
The world is grown so slight, full of new fangles ; 
And takes their chief delight in jingle-jangles ; 
With Fiddle-noises, pipes of Bartholomew, 
Like those which country wives buy, gay and new, 
To please their little children when they cry, 
This makes me sit and sigh thus mournfully." 



section KB.— "She IBitrl in Crnglani). 



CHAPTER III. 

TT is the presence of Viols in the band of 
Henry VIII. that mainly concerns us. We have 
become familiar with the mention of rebecks, shalmes, 
and psalteries in connection with early English music ; 
but now for the first time we meet with Viols. The 
advent of these instruments needs more than a 
passing word or two. Whence they came, and 
their history in England during some one hundred 
and fifty years, are questions we should like to be 
informed upon. In vocal music we had already 
gained a proud position, considering the infantile 
state of music throughout Europe, and it now 
remained to develop the instrumental branch of the 
art. That the Viol came to us from Italy I am un- 
able to believe. The respective dates upon which 
we may, with any semblance of certainty, rely as 
having any bearing upon the instrument, both in 
Italy and England, point to its being as early in use 
with us as with the Italians. The latter, doubtless, 
became makers of the Viol at a much earlier date 
than ourselves ; but it is its introduction here, not its 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 9 J 

manufacture, we are now considering. In seeking 
the country whence the Viol came into England, 
it is necessary to inquire into the condition of the 
arts among the chief European nations at this period . 
and next consider the extent of our intercourse with 
these nations. We need not undertake that exceed- 
ingly difficult task in its entirety, but content our- 
selves with the results of the labours of others. We 
are told, " Italy, long conspicuous for such musical 
science and skill as the middle ages possessed, had 
fallen in the first part of the sixteenth century very 
short of some other countries, and especially of the 
Netherlands, from which the courts of Europe, and 
even the Italian princes, borrowed their performers 
and their instructors."* Again, it is said, in 
reference to the Low Countries, " The standard of 
culture in those flourishing cities was elevated, com- 
pared with those observed in many parts of Europe. 
The children of the wealthier classes enjoyed great 
facilities for education in all the great capitals. The 
classics, music, and the modern languages, particularly 
the French, were universally cultivated."! I can 
hardly over-estimate the value of this last extract in 
its relation to music, when the progress of the art 
among the different European nations is being- 
gauged, since it refers to a period a century earlier than 
that under consideration ; but it yet remains to 
notice the early cultivation of amusements of a 

* Motley's " Dutch Republic." 
t Hallam's " Literature of Europe." Vol. II., p. 252. 
H 



98 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

rational nature among the Netherlanders, which led 
up to a pastime afterwards much practised by the 
English, namely, the masque, in which the Viol was 
not seldom used. As early as the year 1425, the 
Netherlanders had their tragedies, their charades, 
and feats of poetic skill. " They dramatised tyranny 
for public execration." " They ridiculed with their 
farces and their satires the vices of the clergy." 
Music had a share in most of these entertainments. 
In England at the same period we had a rude kind 
of play — the mystery — which had formerly been per- 
formed at wakes and fairs, in barns, taverns, and 
tap-rooms, but was now under the control of 
particular guilds. 

And now as to our intercourse with the Low 
Countries. I have already referred to Caxton's 
auspicious mission, undertaken in the year 1464, 
to bring about a commercial relationship between 
England and the Netherlands. Whatever may 
have been the result of that mission commercially, 
does not affect the fact that trade and inter- 
course between these nations had existed for a long 
period. Edward III., struck with the flourishing 
condition of the United Provinces, rightly concluded it 
was the result of industry and skilfulness among the 
artisans, and exerted himself to induce many Flemish 
workers to settle in this country. 

In the reign of Henry VIII. evidence is not 
wanting to show that our connections with the 
people of the Low Countries, both political and 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND, 99 

commercial, assumed a more important character 
than had hitherto attached to them. The events 
which led to the visit of the Emperor Charles V. to 
England need no mention here. It is sufficient for 
our purpose to know that he was met at Dover by 
his confidant, Cardinal Wolsey, and that Henry VIII. 
welcomed him with all the honours due to his 
station. That a visit which lasted but a few days, 
served to enlighten the English people upon the 
advanced state of music in the Netherlands, is not 
to be supposed, or that the subject occupied greatly 
the thoughts of the Emperor, the King, or the 
Cardinal. We may, however, assume that it led 
indirectly to musical results beneficial to us, re- 
membering the attachment to music shown by 
Henry VIII., Wolsey, and the Emperor. 

If we accept but a tithe of all that has been said 
of Charles V.'s love of music, there yet remains 
enough to give value to his association with the art. 
Sandoval, in his life of the Emperor, tells us " he 
was a great' friend to the science of music;" "that 
he knew if any other singer intruded, and if any one 
made a mistake ; " and relates that " a composer 
from Seville presented the Emperor with a book of 
motets and masses, and when one of these composi- 
tions had been sung, he called his Chancellor, and 
said, ' See what a thief ! What a plagiarist ! Why 
this passage is taken from one composer and this 
from another,' naming each as he proceeded. This 
display of musical knowledge on the part of the 
h 2 



IOO THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Emperor reminds us of Napoleon's supposed feats 
of memory, when, inspecting his men after an 
engagement, he called them by their names, and 
praised them for their bravery, thus magnifying their 
deeds to themselves and their companions. It never 
occurred to their simple minds that their beloved 
Sfeneral obtained a list of the soldiers who merited 
praise and distinction. The Emperor Charles V., 
like Bonaparte, was a skilful general both in and 
out of the field, and contrived probably to make 
a somewhat superficial knowledge pass current as 
profound. We read of him as the greatest general 
of his age ; probably the greatest eater ; an all but 
canonized saint ; and, according to Sandoval, the 
foremost musical critic of his time. That his 
deeds entitle him to the two first distinctions, 
history abundantly shows. 

The pastime of the masque already referred to 
as having been popular in the Netherlands and 
France, was first introduced here at the Palace of 
Greenwich in 1512. Eight years later, we read of 
another being given in the same place. Bearing in 
mind the presence of the Viol in Henry's Court 
band, it is possible they were used as accompani- 
ments to the voice in these entertainments. Lord 
Bacon lightly touches upon the musical . arrange- 
ments of a masque : he tells us, " These things are 
but toys to come amongst such serious observations. 
But yet, since princes will have such things, it is 
better they should be graced with elegancy than 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. IOI 

daubed with cost. I understand it, that the song be 
in quire, placed aloft, and accompanied with some 
broken music,* and the ditty fitted to the device. 
Acting in song, especially in dialogues, hath an ex- 
treme good grace. I say acting, not dancing (for 
that is a mean and vulgar thing), and the voices of 
the dialogue should be strong and manly, a bass and 
a tenor ; no treble, and the ditty high and tragical, 
not nice or dainty. Several quires placed one over 
against another, and taking the voice by catches, 
anthemwise, give great pleasure."t 

Viols had evidently found their way into the 
houses of the wealthy, since Sir Thomas More, 
Wolsey's successor, an ardent lover of music, had 
the Viol used in his family, and, probably at an 
earlier date than the year of his succeeding to the 
Chancellorship in 1530. 

In the reign of Edward VI. we find the royal 
musical establishment had increased its Viols to 
eight, and reduced its sackbuts to six. This points 
to a reform in the right direction. Our interest in 
relation to-this state band is awakened by the names 
of several of its members, such as Philip Van Welder, 
Peter Van Welder, Bernard de Ponte, John Seuer- 
nicke, Oliver Rampons, Pier Guye, Anthony de 
Chounte, pointing directly to the influence of the 
musicians of the Low Countries ; but there- remains 

* " Broken music," Mr. Chappell, in his " Popular Music of the 
Olden Time," tells us, means " a string band." 
t Bacon's " Essays." 



102 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

to notice a Netherlander, who visited our shores 
about this period, before whom a whole army of 
such as those mentioned in connection with Edward's 
musical establishment, sink into utter insignificance. 
It is to Orlando Lassus I refer. How long this 
great composer stayed with us, or what he did, is not 
known; we may, however, assume that the visit of 
such a truly great musician as Lassus could not 
have been otherwise than productive of important 
consequences to the furtherance of music in Eng- 
land. When it is remembered how much Orlando 
contributed to the school of Venetian Madrigal 
writings, it is scarcely possible he could have been 
in our midst without making us more or less familiar 
with this style of music, and mention of his name 
serves to bring under the reader's notice the progress 
of that delightful branch of musical composition in 
this country, forming, as it does, an important link 
in the history of the Viol. 

I have already referred to the first collection of 
compositions for social use, published in England by 
Wynkyn de Worde in 1530. The next collection 
appears to have been published in 1571, with the 
following curious title : " Songes of three, fower, 
and five voyces, composed and made by Thomas 
Whythorne, gent, the which songes be of sundry 
sortes, that is to say, some long, some short, some 
hard, some easie to be songe, and some "between 
both ; also some solemne, and some pleasant or 
merry; so that according to the skill of the 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 103 

singers (not being musitians) and disposition or 
delite of the hearers, they may here finde songes 
for their contentation and liking. Now newly 
published, Anno 1571." Both the words and 
music of this collection are described by Dr. 
Rimbault as truly barbarous. In 1588 was pub- 
lished Byrd's " Psalmes, Sonets, and Songes of 
Sadnes and Pietie." 

It is convenient in this place to refer to the ex- 
traordinary number of Netherlanders who made 
England their home in 1566, unable longer to exist in 
their native land under the tyrannizing government 
of Philip. It is said as many as thirty thousand 
Netherlanders established themselves at Sandwich, 
Norwich, and other places assigned to them by Queen 
Elizabeth ; and thus remarks one of their own his- 
torians, " Have the English built up their own 
fabrics." " Thus have they drawn over to their own 
country our skilful artisans to practice their industry." 
We thus appear to have received similar benefits to 
those which the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes 
afforded us with regard to the handicrafts of 
France more than one hundred years later. That 
this body of Netherlanders, coming from the home 
of domestic music, must have largely influenced its 
progress in England, hardly admits of doubt. 

As further evidence of our intercourse with the 
Low Countries, it may be mentioned that the 
merchant prince, Sir Thomas Gresham, both traded 
with them and spent much time there. When it 



104 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

is remembered that Sir Thomas Gresham was a 
great patron of music — proved in his founding a 
Music Professorship— it can scarcely be doubted 
that he introduced much that was musically new to 
England from those parts. 

The information I have given in the foregoing 
pages relative to the Viol, from the time of its 
appearance in the band of Henry VIII., points to 
its progress in England having been similar to 
that which it made in the Low Countries. The 
entertainments, long associated with the people of 
those parts, were numbered with the pastimes of 
the English. Musicians bearing Dutch-sounding 
names have been mentioned as having landed on 
our shores, which, taken together with the evidence 
of the existence of a political and commercial 
intercourse, strengthens me in the opinion I have 
formed, that from the Low Countries we obtained 
the Viol in ,the shape it took when connected 
with the madrigal. 



Section II.— Ihe Biol in (England 



CHAPTER IV. 

HPOWARDS the close of the sixteenth century we 
seem to have completely awoke to a sense of 
Italian musical art. Our progress towards it had 
probably been more rapid than that of either France 
or Germany, and had its recognition been longer 
delayed it would have appeared unaccountable at 
this distance of time. In 1588 was issued the first 
collection of Italian Madrigals translated into 
English, edited by Nicholas Yonge,* with the 
following preface, which throws some light upon the 
state of music in the latter part of the sixteenth 
century. 

" Since I first began to keep house in this city, 
it has been no small comfort to me, that a great 
number of gentlemen and merchants of good accom- 
paniment (as well of this realm as of foreign nations), 
have taken in good part such entertainment of 
pleasure as poor ability was able to afford them, 
both by the exercise of Music daily used in my 
house, and by furnishing them with books of that 

* Burney describes Yonge as a city merchant. 



1 06 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

kind yearly sent me out of Italy and other places ; 
which being for the most part Italian songs, are for 
sweetness of air very well liked of all ; but most 
in account with them that understand that language. 
As for the rest, they do either not sing them at all, 
or at the least with little delight. And albeit there 
be some English songs lately set forth by a great 
master of music, which for skill and sweetness 
may content the most curious ; yet because they are 
not many in number, men delighted with variety, 
have wished more of the same sort ; for which cause 
chiefly I have endeavoured to get into my hands all 
such English songs as were praiseworthy ; and 
amongst others I had the happiness to guide in the 
hands of some of my good friends certain Italian 
madrigals, translated, most of them, five years 
ago, by a gentleman for his private delight (as not 
long before certain Napolitans had been Englished 
by a very honourable personage, and now a Coun- 
sellor of State, whereof I have seen some, but 
never possessed any)," &c. 

We here get a glimpse of the private musical 
parties in the reign of Elizabeth. In order to obtain 
additional light we must turn to a foreign source. 
Doni published at Venice in 1544 his " Dialogue of 
Music," a work already referred to in the section on 
the Viol in the Netherlands. In the first part of 
the Dialogue the voices are unaccompanied. In 
the second conversation, instruments are joined to 
the voices. That the Viol was used by the 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. I07 

singers of madrigals in England in the latter part 
of the sixteenth century, may be assumed, and 
therefore Doni's description serves to inform us 
as to how they were utilised. Instrumental music 
for the chamber at this period did not exist. The 
Viol either accompanied the voice in unison, or 
the performer played the voice part alone. 

We have an instance of the use of the Viol at 
this period which is connected with an important 
political event, that of the signing of a famous 
treaty at the Palace of Nonesuch at Greenwich in 
1596. Three peers of the realm waited upon the 
French Ambassador, and escorted him and his suite 
in seventeen royal coaches to the Tower ; seven 
splendid barges then conveyed them along the 
Thames to Greenwich. " In the midsummer twilight 
the brilliantly decorated barges were again floating 
on the historic river, the gaily-coloured lanterns 
lighting the sweep of the oars, and the sound of the 
Lute and Viol floating merrily across the water."* 

It was not until 1597 that the titles to madrigals 
and songs had any reference upon them to the Viol 
da Gamba. In that year appeared "The First 
Booke of Songes or Ayres of foure parts, with 
Tablature for the Lute. So made that all the partes 
together, or either of them severally, may be song 
to the Lute, Orpherion, or Viol da Gamba. Com- 
posed by John Dowland, Lutenist and Batchelor of 
Musicke in both Universities. Also an invention 

* Motley's " The United Netherlands." Vol. III., p. 384. 



108 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

by the said Author for two to play upon one Lute. 
Printed by Peter Short, dwelling on Bread Street 
Hill at the signe of the Starre, 1597. 

The composer of this book of songs was a 
musician of considerable reputation. Anthony 
Wood went so far as to say "He was the rarest 
musician, that his age did behold," in the utterance 
of which he over-stepped the bounds of truth by a 
long way. Dowland, however, lives not alone in 
the pages of gossiping Wood ; his name is found 
entwined in Shakspeare's verse : 

Dowland to thee is dear, whose heav'nly touch, 
Upon the Lute doth ravish human sense, 

Spenser to me, whose deep conceit is such, 
As passing all conceit needs no defence." 

In another book of songs composed by John 
Dowland, and printed in the year 1600, is included 
" An excellent lesson for the Lute and Bass Viol, 
called Dowland's Adew." To the same year belong 
Thomas Morley's Canzonets, or short songs to sing 
and play to the Lute with the Bass Viol. In 1599, 
Morley edited " Consort lessons made by divers 
exquisite authors for six different instruments to 
play together, viz., the treble Lute, pandore, cithern, 
Bass Viol, flute, and treble Violl." 

To this period belongs the earliest music for the 
Viol, published in England without voices, which is 
that of Anthony Holborne, dated 1599, consisting 
of pavans, allemands, &c. 

Between 1603 and 1609, Dowland printed a work 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 109 

in five parts for Lute and Viols, named " Lacrimae ; 
or, Seven Teares figured in seven passionate Pavans, 
with divers other Pavans, Galliards, and Almands." 
The works already mentioned sufficiently evidence 
the new condition of the Viol in England at this 
date, without lengthening the list. If the reader 
wishes to extend his knowledge of such works, he 
cannot do better than look into Dr. Rimbault's 
"Bibliotheca Madrigaliana," and Mr. Chappell's 
" Music of the Olden Time." 

The following lines of Drayton's, printed in 
16 1 3, throw much light upon the instruments in 
use at the close of the sixteenth century : — 

" When now the British side scarce finished their song, 
But th' English, that repin'd to be dela/d so long, 
All quickly at the hint, as with one free consent, 
Struck up at once and sung, each to the instrument 
(Of sundry sorts that were, as the musician likes) 
On which the practic'd hand with perfect'st fmg'ring strikes, 
Whereby their height of skill might liveliest be exprest, 
The trembling Lute some touch, some strain the Viol best, 
In sets that there were seen, the music wondrous choice 
Some, likewise, their affect the Gamba with the voice. 

To shew that England could variety afford, 
Some that delight to touch the sterner wiry chord, 
The Cithern, the Pandore, and the Theorbo strike 
The Gittern and the Kit the wand'ring Fiddlers like, 
So were there some again, in this their learned strife, 
Loud instruments that lov'd, the Cornet and the Fife, 
The Hoboy, Sackbut deep, Recorder, and the Flute ; 
E'en from the shrillest Shawm into the Cornamute, 
Some blow the Bagpipe up, that plays the Country Round ; 
The Tabor and the Pipe some take delight to sound." 



I IO 1HE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Upon the accession of James I. to the English 
throne, instrumental music was further developed 
by the frequent performance of court masques. 
Roger North tells us, " The music at these masques 
(as must be supposed) was of the airy kind, with as 
much variety and novelty as could be contrived 
to please the Court, and among other conceits there 
was a consort of twelve Lutes, which must needs be 
(in our dialect) very fine and pretty. The enter- 
tainments consisted of consorts, singing machines, 
short dramas, familiar dialogues, &c, wherein the 
younger quality had no small share, and taking the 
whole together, and excepting the advantage of a 
single voice or two, these diversions were not 
inferior to our operas." These entertainments at the 
Court of St. James's, as with the French, were the 
precursors of opera in England, and belong to the 
chain of dramas which completed the union of poetrv 
and music on our stage. Whether James I . gave 
encouragement to music from any love he himself 
had for the art matters little ; we have the fact that 
his children were taught music, and that Prince 
Charles attained to a considerable degree of pro- 
ficiency on the Viol da Gamba, under his master, 
John Coperario, an Englishman, who, having 
resided in Italy some time, returned to his native 
land with his name Cooper Italianised. I am 
inclined to think much of the future development 
of playing the Viol da Gamba in England had its 
foundation in Coperario introducing a knowledge 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 1 1 r 

of the instrument from abroad, superior to any we 
then possessed. He composed a set of Fancies for 
his royal pupil, the original manuscript of which is 
said to be in existence. It was doubtless to these 
Fancies that Playford alludes, when speaking of 
Charles I.'s skill in music : " He could play his part 
exactly well on the Bass-Viol, especially of those 
incomparable Fancies of Mr. Coperario to the 
organ." It is interesting to know, upon the 
authority of Dr. Rimbault, that this first great 
English professor of the Viol da Gamba composed 
the celebrated song, " Mad Tom," erroneously 
attributed to Purcell. To Coperario is attributed 
the adaptation of Lute tablature to the Viol, 
which system was known as " Lyra way," hence 
Lyra Viol. This is clearly an error, since the 
Italians used it a hundred years before Coperario's 
time. That he first applied it in England is 
possible and probable. 

To attempt to describe the construction and 
mode of playing instruments no longer in use, in 
a manner which shall at once be entertaining and 
instructive, would end as all such attempts have 
invariably done, in confusion, when technicalities 
have to be explained. History in rhyme is curious 
and, perhaps, entertaining, but terribly misleading, 
and so are sciences made easy ; nevertheless, to 
leave the reader without information as to the mode 
of playing Viols in England at this period, would 
leave him without any idea at all approach- 



112 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

ing correctness as to their merits. I will, therefore, 
hasten to administer the medicinal information in as 
agreeable a manner as possible. 

In an Italian work, entitled " Delia Prattica 
Musica, vocale et strumentale," by Scipione Cerreto, 
published in 1601, mention is made of the Viola da 
Gamba as an instrument proper to accompany the 
voice in singing. The system of notation, common 
to the Italians, was by figures, which method had 
been in use among them certainly more than a 
century prior to the date of Cerreto's publication. 
In another place I have given an example of this 
tablature. The Spaniards also used figures, whilst 
the French notation was by letters of the alphabet. 
Galileo explains, in a book published at Venice in 
1583, the Italian tablature, which is identical with 
that of the French as set forth by Adrian Le Roy 
in his work on the Lute, published at Paris in 
1570. This work was translated and published in 
England in 1574, by John Kingston; earlier 
information, however, relative to tablature, is 
found in the Musurgia of Ottomarus Luscinius, 
published at Strasburgh in 1536. The system, 
whether by figures or letters, was briefly this ; each 
string had its stave line, therefore a seven-stringed 
Viol needed a stave of seven lines, lettered or 
figured, at the points of which the finger was made 
to stop the note, the instrument being, of course, 
tuned in accordance with such fingering. The mode 
of indicating the time in this notation was by 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. \ I 3 

placing above each figure or letter characters 
answering to our quavers and crotchets, &c, but 
detached as in the early ordinary notation, for it was 
not until long after that crotchets and quavers were 
set forth in groups. Between the time that Coperario 
applied this notation to the Viol in England, and 
the date of publication of Simpson's Division Viol, 
published in 1665, there does not appear to have 
been issued any book treating at length of the Viol. 
Roger L'Estrange, the licenser of the period, an 
ardent lover of the Viol da Gamba — of whom we 
shall have more to say later — addresses the reader 
in a second edition of Simpson's book, saying, " It 
bears for title, " The Division Viol ; or the Art of 
Playing Extempore upon a Ground ; " and it does 
certainly answer that pretence, both for matter and 
method, to the highest point of reasonable expecta- 
tion. And yet I cannot so properly call it the Best, 
as (indeed) the only Treatise I find extant upon this 
argument." As regards actual shape and form 
there was no difference between a Lyra Viol, a 
Consort Viol, and a Division Viol, further than that 
they were increased or diminished in size as fancy 
dictated. These terms have reference to the music 
adapted to the instrument : to play the Gamba Lyra- 
way was simply to apply Lute tablature to the 
instrument, arranging the strings and frets accord- 
ingly. A Consort Viol was used with the ordinary 
notation. To apply the old custom of making 
divisions (variations on a theme or ground) to a 
1 



114 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Gamba was to play the Division Viol. For half a 
century this taste for "Division" had been increasing 
in England among Violists, and Simpson un- 
doubtedly did them good service in writing his 
book ; indeed, it reflects no little credit on their 
abilities that they should have done without it so 
long, for the demands of " Division " were not slight. 
The art of playing upon a ground needed both 
theoretical and executive skill. That Cavaliers and 
Roundheads should have met in all seriousness to 
perform extempore, that feat which Corelli in his 
Twelfth Solo, and Sebastian Bach in his Chaconne, 
performed pen in hand, is but again the verification 
of that time honoured line — 

" Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." 

An extract or two from Christopher Simpson's 
most interesting treatise will serve to show the 
technicalities of Division, and how much that is 
thought new is truly venerable. 

Of the instrument, Simpson says, " A Viol for 
Division, should be of something a lesser size than 
a Consort Bass." " It must be accommodated with 
six strings and with seven frets, like those of a Lute, 
but something thicker." His instructions as to 
holding the Viol, and the motion of the bow arm, 
are both curious and apt, and in some cases have 
not been departed from in the works of Romberg 
and Dotzauer : — 

" Being conveniently seated, place your Viol 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 1 1 5 

between your knees, so that the lower end of it may 
rest upon the calves of your legs, set the soles of 
your feet flat on the floor, your toes turned a little 
outward. When you are to set your fingers upon 
the strings, you must not grasp the neck of your 
Viol, but keep your thumb on the back of the neck, 
opposite to your forefinger, so that your hand may 
have liberty to remove up and down as occasion 
shall require. When you set any finger down, 
hold it on, and play the following notes with 
other fingers, until some occasion require the 
taking it off". This is done as well for better order 
of fingering, that the fingers may pass smoothly 
from note to note, without lifting them too far from 
the strings, as also to continue the sound of a note 
when the bow has left it," This rule Campagnoli 
made use of in his Violin instruction-book, nearly 
a century and a half later, and it holds good to the 
present day. Of the motion of the bow arm he 
says, " I told you before, you must stretch out your 
arm straight, in which posture (playing long notes) 
you will necessarily move your shoulder joint; but 
if you stir that joint in quick notes, it will cause the 
whole body to shake, which by all means must be 
avoided, as also any other indecent gesture. Quick 
notes, therefore, must be expressed by moving 
some joint nearer the hand, which is generally 
agreed upon to be the wrist." Further on, he enters 
upon the matter of taste in playing the Viol da 
Gamba. "It now remains, that in directing the 
1 2 



1 1 6 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

hand, I speak something concerning the gracing of 
notes, and tho' it depends much upon humour and 
imitation, yet I will try how far it may be delivered 
in words and examples : Gracing of notes is per- 
formed two ways, viz., by the Bow and by the 
fingers. By the Bow, as when we play loud or 
soft, according to our fancy, or the humour of the 
music. Again, this loud or soft is sometimes 
expressed in one and the same note, as when we 
make it soft at the beginning, and then (as it were), 
swell or grow louder towards the middle or ending. 
Some also affect a Shake or Tremble with the Bow, 
like the shaking stop of an organ ; but the frequent 
use thereof is not (in my opinion) much commend- 
able." Duport, Spohr, or Bailliot never to their 
pupils uttered words more to the purpose in 
reference to light and shade and good taste, than 
Christopher Simpson wrote in his book on the 
Viol in 1665 ; but let us listen to Simpson on 
the Shake. 

" Skaked Graces we call those that are formed by 
a shake or tremble of -a finger, of which there are 
two sorts, viz., close and open ; close-shake is that 
when we shake the finger as close and near the 
sounding note as possible may be, touching the 
string with the shaking finger so softly and nicely 
that it makes no variation of tone." " Open-shake 
is when a finger is shaked in that distance from 
whence it was removed, or where it is to be set 
down ; supposing the distance exceed not the wide- 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 1 1 7 

ness of two frets, for wider than that we never 
shake. Graces made with open shakes are these — 
a beat, a backfall, an elevation, a cadent, and a 
double rellish." It is enough for the reader to 
know that our author clearly explains his meaning of 
backfalls and double rellishes, together with beats 
and elevations, which were appoggiaturas of divers 
kinds. " Of these forementioned Graces," he pro- 
ceeds to tell us, " some are more rough and mascu- 
line, as your Shaked Beats and Backfalls; others 
more smooth and feminine, as your Close-shake 
and Plain Graces, which are more natural to the 
treble or upper parts. Yet when we would express 
love, courage, or cheerfulness upon the treble, we 
do frequently use both shaked beats and backfalls, 
as on the contrary, smooth and swelling notes 
when we would express sorrow, compassion, or the 
like." 

Part the Second of the " Division Viol" teaches 
the use of concords and discords. His " Reflections 
upon the Concords of Music " are curious and 
interesting : he remarks, " And here I cannot but 
wonder, even to amazement, that from no more 
than Three Concords (with some intervening dis- 
cords), there should arise such an infinite variety, 
as all the music that ever has been or ever shall 
be composed. And my wonder is increased by 
a consideration of the seven gradual sounds or 
tones, from whose various positions and inter- 
mixtures those concords and discords do arise> 



1 1 8 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

The gradual sounds are distinguished in the scale 
of music by the same seven letters which in the 
calendar distinguish the seven days of the week ; 
to either of which, the adding of more is but a 
repetition of the former over again." " When I 
further consider the three sounds placed by the 
interval of a third one above another, do consti- 
tute one entire Harmony, which governs and com- 
prises all the sounds which by art or imagination- 
can, at once, be joined together in musical concor- 
dance, this I cannot but think a significant 
emblem of that supreme and incomprehensible 
Three in One, governing, comprising, and dis- 
posing the whole machine of the world with all its 
included parts, in a most perfect and stupendous 
Harmony." This ingenious and beautiful compari- 
son serves to display the inner man of the old Violist. 
To have been moved by such thoughts as these 
points to a reflective, moral, and religious character. 
Of Division, and the manner of performing it, 
Christopher Simpson says, " Diminution or Division 
to a Ground, is the breaking either of the Bass or 
of any higher part that is applicable thereto. A 
Ground, Subject, or Bass (call it which you please) is 
pricked (written) down in two several papers ; one 
for him who is to play the Ground upon an Organ, 
Harpsichord, or what other instrument may be apt 
for that purpose ; the other for him that plays upon 
the Viol, who, having the said Ground before his 
eyes, as his Theme or Subject plays such variety of 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 1 1 9 

Descant or Division in concordance thereto, as his 
skill and present invention do then suggest unto 
him. In this manner of play, which is the perfection 
of the Viol, or any other instrument, if it be exactly 
performed, a man may show the excellency both of 
his hand and invention, to the delight and admira- 
tion of those that hear him." 



Section F&.—Wxz Dtol in €nglanb. 



CHAPTER V. 

TT is to the pages of John Playford's book, 
-*• " An Introduction to the Skill of Music, we must 
now turn for further information on Viols. He tells 
us, " Of the Consort Viol there are three several sizes, 
one larger than the other, according to the Three 
Parts of Musick set forth in the gamut, viz., Treble- 
Viol, Tenor- Viol, and Bass- Viol. The Treble-Viol 
plays the highest part, and its lessons are pricked 
by the G clef. The Tenor- Viol or middle part by 

Mode of Tuning the Treble Viol. 



m 



rzl 



m 



m 



-si- 



Tenor Viol. 



m 



Viol da Gamba. 



m 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 121 

the C clef, and the Bass-Viol, which is the largest, 
by the F clef." 

It will here be seen that the Treble- Viol was an 
octave higher than the Bass-Viol. There must have 
been, however, intermediate Viols in use at an 
earlier date, judging from the compositions of several 
parts adapted to them, for when the practice of 
singing madrigals declined, Coperario, Jenkins, and 
others composed fancies (fantasias), in six parts 
answering to the number of Viols in a chest. Hawkins 
quotes Dr. Tudway, who describes a chest of Viols 
as " a large hutch with several apartments and par- 
titions in it ; each partition was lined with green 
baize to keep the instruments from being injured 
by the weather ; every instrument was sized in big- 
ness according to the part played upon it." 

In turning to the pages of "Musick's Monument," 
by Thomas Mace, who was an enthusiastic lover of 
music, and one of the Clerks of Trinity College, 
Cambridge, we find many interesting particulars 
relative to Viols. He records that in the days of 
his youth, " we had for our grave musick fancies 
of three, four, five, and six parts to the organs,, 
interposed now and then with some Pavins, 
Allmaines, solemn and sweet delightful ayres, all 
of which were so many pathetical stories, 
rhetorical and sublime discourses, subtle and acute 
argumentations, so suitable and agreeing to the 
inward, secret, and intellectual faculties of the soul 
and mind, that to set them forth according to their 



122 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

true praise, there are no words sufficient in language ; 
yet what I can best speak of them, shall be only to 
say, that they have been to myself and many others, 
as divine raptures powerfully captivating all our 
unruly faculties and affections for the time, and dis- 
posing to solidity, gravity, and a good temper, 
making us capable of heavenly and divine influences. 
The authors of such like compositions have been 
divers Englishmen and Italians, some of which, for 
their very great eminency and worth in that par- 
ticular faculty I will name here, viz., Mr. Alfonso 
Ferabosco, Mr. John Ward, Mr. Lupo, Mr. White, 
Mr. Richard Deering, Mr. William Lawes, Mr. 
John Jenkins, Mr. Christopher Simpson, Mr. 
Coperario, and one Monteverde, a famous Italian 
author." He then proceeds to tell us that these 
compositions were " performed upon so many equal 
and truly-sized Viols, and so exactly strung, tuned, 
and played upon as no one part was any impedi- 
ment to the other." Our quaint old author 
later tenders his advice regarding the selecting 
of Viols. " Your best provision and most com- 
plete will be a good chest of Viols, six in 
number, viz., two Basses, two Tenors, and two 
Trebles, all truly and proportionably suited. Of such 
there are no better in the world than those of 
Aldred, Jay, Smith, yet the highest in esteem are 
Bolles and Ross ; one Bass of Bolles I have known 
valued at ^"ioo. These were old, but we have now 
very excellent workmen, who, no doubt, can work as 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 1 23 

well as those, if they be so well paid for their work 
as they were. Yet we chiefly value old instruments 
before new ; for by experience they are found to be 
far the best." " If you cannot procure an entire 
chest of Viols, suitable, &c, endeavour to pick up, 
here or there, so many excellent good odd ones, as 
near suiting you as you can, every way, viz., both 
for shape, wood, colour, &c, but especially for size. 
And to be exact in that, take this certain rule, viz., 
let your Bass be large. Then your Trebles must be 
just as short again in the string, viz., from bridge 
to nut, as are your Basses, because they stand eight 
notes higher than the Basses, therefore as short 
again ; for the middle of every string is an eighth. 
The Tenors in the string just so long as from the 
bridge to F fret, because they stand a fourth higher 
than your Basses, therefore so long. Let this suffice 
to put you into complete order for Viols either way ; 
only note, that the best place for the bridge is to 
stand just in the three-quarter dividing of the open 
cuts (sound holes) below, though most, most errone- 
ously, suffer them to stand too high, which is a 
fault." " And now to make your store more amply 
complete, add to these three full-sized Lyra Viols, 
there being most admirable things made, by our 
Very best masters for that sort of musick, both consort- 
wise and peculiarly for two or three Lyres. " Let 
them be lusty, smart-speaking Viols ; because that 
in consort they often retort against the Treble, 
imitating, and often standing instead of that part, 



I 24 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

viz., second Treble. " They will serve likewise for 
Division- Viols very properly, and being thus stored, 
you have a ready entertainment for the greatest 
prince in the world." This curious account furnishes 
us with a theoretical knowledge of Viols, and shows 
our author to have been possessed of an enquiring 
mind, and fully alive to their merits. 

Although it would, perhaps, be easy to cite many 
other interesting references to the English Viol, 
space and the patience of the reader render it 
necessary to bring this section to a close with a 
brief notice of the Viol in social life. 

From the days of Elizabeth — when, according to 
Thomas Morley, it was the custom after supper to 
bring forth the madrigal parts, to fail to read which 
at sight was sufficient to excite amazement and 
wonder as to how such (madrigally) ignorant 
persons could have been " brought up " — to the time 
of the Restoration, social music continued to 
advance, excepting when puritanical principles exer- 
cised their tyrannising influence over the delights and 
recreations of the people ; and even then it flourished 
by stealth. When the decline of the madrigal in 
England began, the practice of the Viol among 
the gentry became very general. It was not, 
however, until it was recognised at the Palace 
of St. James's that we find so many notabilities 
deriving pleasure from Viol -playing. We get 
a glimpse of this amateur musical interest in more 
than one of the sets of compositions, written and 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. I 25 

published about this period. In 1606, one Richard 
Alison, who subscribed himself "gentleman and 
practitioner'" in music, published a set with the 
following title: "An H owre's "Recreation in Musicke, 
apt for instrumentes and voyces, framed for the 
delight of gentlemen and others which are wel 
affected to that qualitie ; all for the most part with 
two trebles, necessarie for such as teach in private 
families." Then follows an evident allusion to the 
Gunpowder Plot, " with a prayer for the long pre- 
servation of the King and his posteritie, and a 
thanksgiving for the deliverance of the whole estate 
from the late conspiracie." In 16 14 Sir William 
Leighton, " one of his Majesty's honourable band 
of gentlemen pensioners," published " Teares ; or, 
Lamentations of a Sorrowfull Soule," set for divers 
instruments and voices. 

Among the principal amateur performers on 
the Viol da Gamba, Sir Roger L'Estrange stands 
out in, bold relief. His character, painted by the 
historian "as ferocious and ignoble,"* strangely 
contrasts with that we invariably find belonging to 
musicians. Ferocity and music, musically speaking, 
is a false relation barbarously discordant. It is, 
however, Sir Roger's connection with the Viol with 
which we have to do, and not with his party spirit. 
Allusion has already been made to his " Address to 
the Reader," in Simpson's book on the Viol. This 
is not the only evidence of his interest in music, for 

* Macaulay. 



126 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

we find him foremost among the admirers of that 
first of English concert givers, Thomas Britton; and 
it is even said that to Sir Roger the musical club 
presided over by the small-coal-man owed its 
existence. He was also frequently at the music 
meetings held at the house of John Kingston, 
organist to Oliver Cromwell, where, upon one 
occasion, he earned for himself a title which 
caused him some amount of displeasure. It is 
scarcely needed to remind the reader that party 
spirit was above proof at this period, and made even 
social music gatherings inflammable. This being so, 
we cannot wonder that a Royalist performing on his 
Viol de Gamba in the house of Cromwell's organist, 
should alarm his friends. It happened that while so 
engaged, Cromwell — who was a great lover of music 
— entered the room. Cromwell's presence not 
causing Sir Roger to instantly quit the chamber, the 
Cavaliers dubbed him Oliver's Fiddler. That he 
had not shaken off the name in 1683, is shown 
from a pamphlet printed in that year, entitled, 
"The Loyal Observator; or, Historical Memoirs 
of the Life and Actions of Roger the Fidler." 
In a pamphlet entitled, " Truth and Loyalty 
Vindicated," published in the year 1662, Sir Roger 
says : — 

" Mr. Edward Bagshaw will have it that I 
frequently solicited a private conference with Oliver, 
and that I often brought my Fiddle under my cloak 
to facilitate my entry. Surely this Edward Bagshaw 



7 HE VIOL IN ENGLAND, \2J 

has been pastor to a Gravesend boat ; he has a vein 
so right ; a Fiddle under my cloak ? Truly my 
Fiddle is a Bass Viol, and that's somewhat a trouble- 
some instrument under a cloak. 'Twas a great 
oversight he did not tell my lord to what company 
(of Fiddlers) I belonged. Concerning the story of 
the Fiddle, this I suppose might be the use of it. 
Being in St. James's Park, I heard an organ touched 
in a little low room of one Mr. Hickson's. I went 
in and found a private company of some five or six 
persons. They desired me to take up a Viol, and 
bear a part. I did so, and that a part too, not much 
to advance the reputation of my coming. By-and- 
bye, without the least colour of a design or expecta- 
tion, in comes Cromwell. He found us playing, 
and as I remember, so he left us."* Thus we see 
Sir Roger, upon his own showing, did not allow his 
Royalism in any way to interfere with his music 
which, from a musical point of view, was very 
commendable. 

We also recognise his anxiousness to clear his 
character from the stain of being a votary of the 
Fiddle, for be it remembered that instrument of 
instruments was looked upon as essentially vulgar in 
Cromwellian times, as we shall presently discover. 
I have now but to add my last note in reference to 
Sir Roger L'Estrange, which is, according to Jesse's 
Memoirs of London, that he lies buried in St. Giles's. 

* Chappell's " Music of the Olden Time." 



128 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Church, where, in the middle pillar on the north 
side of the column may be seen — 

" Sir Roger L'Estrange, Knt., 
Born 17th December, 1616, 

Died nth December, 1704. 
Anno ^Etatis Suae 89." 

That worthy notability, Sir Henry Wotton, was 
a Violist. In his life, by Izaak Walton, we have his 
will, wherein he says, " To the above-named Dr. 
Bargrave, Dean of Canterbury, I leave all my 
Italian books not disposed of in this will. I leave 
to him likewise my Viol da Gamba, which hath been 
twice with me in Italy, in which country I first 
-contracted with him an unremovable affection." 

Pepys seems to have played both the Fiddle 
and the Viol, from the references he makes to these 
instruments in his immortal Diary. On the 3rd of 
December, 1660, he "rose by candle-light and spent 
his morning in Fiddling till it was time to go to the 
office," and on the 21st of November in the same 
year, he tells us, " At night to my Violl (the first 
time that I have played on it since I came to this 
house), in my dining-room, and afterwards to my 
Lute there, and I took much pleasure to have the 
neighbours come forth into the yard to hear me." 

Lord Keeper North, the author of the "Memoirs 
of Musick," a book I have so frequently noticed, 
was in his youth a great Violist, besides possessing 
a theoretical knowledge of Music. 

Having mentioned a few of the Viol's votaries, I 



THE VIOL IN ENGLAND. 1 29 

•cannot refrain from giving the reader the opinion of 
a most eminent hater of the instrument, Henry 
Purcell. An intimate friend of Purcell's, one 
Subdean Gosling, played on the Viol da Gamba, 
and, to vex the subdean, Purcell instructed a 
poetaster to write the following mock eulogium on 
his friend's favourite instrument, which he set in the 
form of a round for three voices : — 

" Of all the instruments that are, 
None with the Viol can compare : 
Mark how the strings their order keep 
With a whet, whet, whet, and a sweep, sweep, sweep. 
But above all this still abounds 
With zingle, zingle, zing, and a zit, zat, zounds." 



X 



kztxon IB.— ^he ltd tit Italg. 



CHAPTER I. 

"TT was in Italy that the essential qualities which 
distinguish the modern from the mediaeval 
world was developed. Italy created that new 
spiritual atmosphere of culture and of intellectual 
freedom which has been the life-breath of European 
races ; as the Jews are called the chosen people of 
Divine Revelation, so may the Italians be called the 
chosen and peculiar vessels of the prophecy of the 
Renaissance. In art, in scholarship, in science, in 
the mediation between antique culture and the 
modern intellect, they took the lead, handing to 
Germany, and France, and England the restored 
humanities complete."* 

It would be difficult to find, throughout the 
many volumes which have appeared from time to 
time, relative to Italy's part among the arts and 
sciences, a more appropriate passage than the above 
to illustrate the extent and character of the work 
achieved by that nation in the art of music. The 
distinction between mediaeval and modern culture is 
* Symonds' " Renaissance in Italy," 1875, P- 33- 



THE VIOL IN ITALY. 131 

well marked, and the exact position taken up by the 
Italians clearly defined. 

It has often been the endeavour of the musical 
historian to make Italy the one and sole point from 
whence all progress emanated, frequently perverting 
history to give colour to cherished theories and 
prejudiced opinions : much of this has doubtless 
arisen from the fact of Italy having taken the lead 
in the restoration of polite letters. It does not 
follow, however, that because her people rescued the 
forgotten and abandoned manuscripts of the Greek 
and Latin authors, they must necessarily have been 
alone instrumental in recovering the arts in general. 
As regards the art of music in particular, it must 
be remembered that, even though a very Poggio 
in music manuscripts had unearthed all the notes the 
Greeks and Romans ever penned, they could not 
possibly have charmed fifteenth century ears, neither 
was it practicable to assimilate the ancient and 
modern systems. This being so, there could not 
have been a Renaissance in music. The art as 
found in the fifteenth century was the outcome from 
a state of barbarism in distant ages, and not a re- 
creation. Sir William Temple has said, "It is 
'agreed by the learned that the science of music so 
admired of the ancients is wholly lost in the world, 
and that what we have now is made up out of 
certain notes that fell into the fancy or observation 
of a poor friar, in chanting his matins, so as that the 
divine excellencies of music and poetry are grown, 
ic 2 



I32 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

in a manner, to be little more but the one Fiddling 
and the other rhyming ; and are indeed very worthy 
the ignorance of the friar, and the barbarousness of 
the Goths that introduced them among us." # It 
is undeniable that the art of music was greatly 
benefited by the effects and surroundings of the 
Renaissance in Italy, though prior to the advent of 
Palestrina it was the advantage of refinement rather 
than that of creation. 

The Italians were, perhaps, deeper in the pit of 
ignorance at the beginning of the fourteenth century 
than their neighbours, and therefore less likely to 
concern themselves with the humanities. Hallam 
tells us, " the manners of the Italians were rude. A 
man and his wife ate off the same plate ; there were 
no wooden-handled knives, nor more than one or 
two drinking cups in a house. The pride of men 
was to be well provided with arms and horses ; that 
of the nobility to have lofty towers, of which all the 
cities of Italy were full." It must also not be for- 
gotten that when the Italians manifested such extra- 
ordinary zeal in the cause of art, it sprung from 
the courts, and not from the people as in the 
Netherlands and Germany. t 

* Sir William Temple's " Essay on Ancient and Modern Learning." 

f Burckhardt, in his " Civilisation of the Period of the Renaissance 
in Italy" Vol. IL, p. 154, remarks, "Out of Italy it was still hardly 
allowable for persons of consequence to be musicians ; at the Flemish 
Court of the young Charles V. a serious dispute took place on the 
subject. (See Hubert Leod. de Vita Frid. 1 1. , Palat. I., 1 1 1.) Henry VIII. 
of England is an exception, and also the German Emperor Maximilian, 
who favoured music as well as as all other arts. John Cuspinian in his 
'Life of the Emperor' calls him, 'Musices singulari amator.'" 



THE VIOL IN ITALY. I 33 

There were undoubtedly intances of intense art 
devotion among the princes of Italy, but on the 
other hand there was an extraordinary amount of 
display which fostered rivalry in the number of poets, 
painters, and musicians employed in connection with 
their courts, which renders it unsafe to conclude that 
the patronage bestowed upon the arts indicated 
exceptional knowledge on the part of all who 
encouraged them, or that exceptional skill by the 
nation at large is to be implied therefrom. 

Macaulay, writing of this period, says, "To 
collect books and antiques, to found professorships, 
to patronise men of learning, became almost uni- 
versal fashions* amongst the great." " Indeed, it 
would be difficult to mention an Italian of eminence 
during the period of which we speak, who, whatever 
may have been his character, did not at least affect 
a love of letters and of the arts." t 

Abreast of this craving for culture by the Italian 
despots was crime of the blackest dye. In their 
palaces, into which had been gathered the choicest 
fruits of all that was refined and elevating in art, lived 
a host of men who made assassination a profession. 
When we compare this state of social existence with 
the serene and peaceful lives led by the burgher 
classes of Germany and the Netherlands, upon which 
art — however crude — had shed its light for two 
centuries, we are better able to apportion the merit 

* The liberty of italicising is mine, 
f " Essay on Machiavelli." 



134 THE VIOLIN AND ITS. MUSIC. 

belonging to each in the revival of art, and to 
distinguish antique culture from that " spiritual 
atmosphere of culture" created by the Italians. 

It would hardly be possible to over-estimate the 
marvellous achievements of the Italians in the arts 
and sciences ; but those nations which contributed to 
them must not be deprived of their just share of the 
work. In both music and painting the Italians 
acquired much from others, both at the dawn of the 
Renaissance and immediately afterwards. Their 
courts were teeming with foreign musicians, instruct- 
ing them in the art they themselves were so soon to 
ornament. In painting, although not so much 
dependent on foreign aid as in music, yet there is 
nevertheless evidence of foreign influence. It is 
recorded that the Duke of Urbino, one of their 
earliest art patrons, could not succeed in discovering 
among his countrymen a master worthy to execute 
his commissions, and that he sent to Flanders for 
one to paint the philosophers and poets of the time. 
This being so, it is well to remember though Italy 
had its Raphael, its Palestrina, and its Aldus, the 
Netherlanders had their Van Eycks, their Josquin, 
and the Germans their Gutenberg and Hofhaimer. 

In seeking for knowledge of the part played by 
the Viol in Italy, we need not begin with the Chant 
of Saint Gregory, but may pass over in silence 
seven centuries, which brings us to the days of 
Petrarch and Boccaccio. That the former was both 
a poet and musician is attested by his having 



THE VIOL IN ITALY. 1 35 

bequeathed his "good Lute to Master Thomas 
Bambasio of Ferrara, that he may play on it, not for 
the vanity of a fleeting life, but to the praise and 
glory of the eternal God." At the coronation of 
Petrarch, in 1341, in accordance with the custom of 
honouring great ability, it is related there were " two 
choirs of music, one vocal and the other instrumental, 
employed in the procession, which were constantly 
singing and playing in turns in sweet harmony!'* 
This slight reference to harmony has been cited as 
implying progress in counterpoint and singing and 
playing in concert, t A slight glance at the instru- 
ments in the hands of the Italians even a century 
later than the time of the poet's coronation, 
strengthens me in the opinion that there could not 
possibly have been "sweet harmony" extracted from 
such a discordant family, or that counterpoint of the 
most infantile description could have been applied to 
such mediums of sound. 

The paintings of Filippo Lippi, Cosimo Tura, 
and Fra Giovanni Angelica, all of which belong to 
the fifteenth century, furnish many instances of the 
character, use, and manner of combining the instru- 
ments of that period. Setting aside the technical 
and confused nomenclature belonging to these 
instruments among different peoples, and adopting 
popular names, we find there were Psalteries of 

*Dr. Burners History, Vol. II., p. 337, quoting account published at 
Padua in 1549. 

t Dr. Burney. 



I36 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

various kinds, instruments which may be likened to 
a lyre, or a child's abacus without the balls. 
Tambourines in great variety, side drums, postillion's 
and huntsmen's horns, the pipes of Pan and other 
shepherds. Lutes, single, double and triple Flutes, 
and a rude corded instrument of varied form, played 
with a bow, from which a sustained droning sound 
was drawn. Upon comparing these sound-mediums 
with those in England in the reign of Edward IV., 
and bearing in mind that Burney has told us, 
" melody itself, the child of fancy, was still held in 
Gothic chains " in Italy, I am unable to discover 
that the Italians were musically less barbarous than 
ourselves at this period ; indeed it is not improbable 
that our minstrels from an artistic point of view may 
have claimed to rank first. 

The Decamerone of Boccaccio has long been 
regarded as a work in which the manners and 
customs of the Italy of his time have been faithfully 
delineated ; and doubtless this is mainly so ; but a 
loose description of a musical instrument is most 
misleading, and there is abundant evidence of the 
greatest authors and painters having had very misty 
notions concerning them in general, and of Viols in 
particular.* 

* In the Bible the translators have called the Nebel — which was 
a Hebrew instrument of the Harp kind — a Viol. Dr. Burney has 
even named the " Lira Grande " a Viol da Gamba ; in fact, with few 
exceptions, the whole family of corded instruments have answered to 
the name of Viol at different times among authors. 



THE VIOL IN ITALY. I 37 

Boccaccio mentions in the Decamerone both the 
Lute and the Viol ; and Dr. Burney decides that the 
latter instrument was identical with that so much 
used in England two centuries later, relying evidently 
on the name alone. The bowed instruments of the 
Italians at this date were clearly very different to the 
Viol of the madrigal, whatever name it may have 
passed under. They were apparently mere boxes 
or sound chambers, shaped in endless variations of 
squares and triangles, and consequently deviated 
much from the curves a century and a half later. 



Section 1.— lite Wiol in Italy. 



CHAPTER II. 

A MONG the Princes of Italy at the time of the 
Renaissance, none equalled Lorenzo de Medici 
as an art patron ; his patronage was at once lavish, 
opportune, and judicious. Truly has it been said, 
'• everything great and excellent in science and art 
revolved round Lorenzo de Medici."* Though it 
does not appear that he was himself a musician, 
there is ample evidence of his interest in the art. 
He made himself the centre of an association entitled 
a School of Harmony ,t consisting of fifteen members, 
all of whom were men pledged to further music's 
cause. It was to the songs of Lorenzo that 
Heinrich Isaac set his music, and thus first joined 
the arts of poetry and music in a new and loftier 
sphere. The same early and highly gifted composer 
wrote the music to his patron's religious drama, "San 
Giovanni e San Paolo " for performance within the 
family circle of the Medici, and it was he who was 

* Burckhardt, "Renaissance of Italy," Vol. II., p. 157. 
f Roscoe's preface to his " Life of Leo X." 



THE VIOL m ITALY. 1 39 

chosen by Lorenzo as the instructor in music to his 
children. At the festivals and the processions at 
Florence, Lorenzo evinced much interest in their 
organization, exerting himself to make them that 
which they had never before been, mediums for 
the education of the populace in much that pertained 
to art, frequently commissioning Francesco Granacci, 
the fellow-student of Michael Angelo, to superintend 
their preparation. Rightly was this accomplished, 
gifted, and generous art patron named "Magnificent." 
The gardens of his villa he appropriated for 
the reception of the long-hidden treasures of past 
ages collected by his family, and yet further enriched 
by himself. Here he instituted a School of Art, 
to which the greatest geniuses of the age flocked. 
I cannot withhold from the reader the following 
vivid and beautiful description of this spot and its 
associations : — 

" In a villa overhanging the towers of Florence," 
writes the austere Hallam, moved to more than usual 
eloquence by the spirit-stirring beauty of his theme, 
"on the steep slope of that lofty hill crowned by the 
mother city, the ancient Fiesole, in gardens which 
Tully might have envied, with Ficino, Landino, and 
Politian at his side, he delighted his hours of leisure 
with the beautiful visions of Platonic philosophy, for 
which the summer stillness of an Italian sky appears 
the most congenial accompaniment. As we climb the 
steep slope of Fiesole, or linger beneath the rose- 
trees that shed their petals from Careggi's garden 



T40 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

walls, once more in our imagination 'the world's great 
age begins anew ' ; once more the blossoms of that 
marvellous spring unclose. While the sun goes down 
beneath the mountain of Carrara, and the Apennines 
grow purple golden, and Florence sleeps beside the 
silvery Arno, and the large Italian stars come forth 
above, we remember how those mighty master spirits 
watched the sphering of new planets in the spiritual 
skies. Savanarola in his cell below once more sits 
brooding over the servility of Florence, the corrup- 
tion of a godless Church. Michael Angel o, seated 
between Ficino and Poliziano, with the voices of the 
prophets vibrating in his memory, and with the 
music of Plato sounding in his ears, rests chin on 
hand, and elbow upon knee, like his own Jeremiah, lost 
in contemplation, whereof the after-fruit shall be the 
Sistine Chapel and the Medicean tombs. Then, 
when the strain of thought, 'unsphering Plato from his 
skies,' begins to weary, Pulci breaks the silence with 
a brand-new canto of Morgante, or a singing boy is 
bidden to tune his mandoline to Messer Angelo's last 
made ballata!'* In this word-painting we have before 
us the world-famed gardens of Lorenzo de Medici, 
towards the close of the fifteenth century, with a few 
of the illustrious men who studied, and created, and 
spent there their leisure hours, feasting on refine- 
ment. It was the art-laden atmosphere of these 
gardens that Lorenzo's son Giovanni inhaled, and 
which he breathed anew as Leo X. upon his Roman 

* Symonds, " Revival of Learning." 



THE VIOL IN ITALY. 141 

court — " a society to which the history of the world 
offers no parallel."* 

Before quitting Florence and the associations of 
the Medici, I must ask the reader to return once more 
to the descriptive scene of the gardens of Lorenzo, 
where Poliziano is seen seated beside Michael Angelo, 
for it was he who wrote the Orfeo in two days, and 
which forms the subject of the earliest represented 
drama, not of a religious character, in a modern 
language, and which has been called the first example 
of the Italian opera.t 

There yet remains to notice, in connection with 
the city of Florence, one of the most accomplished 
and gifted men of the age — painter, author, scientist, 
and musician — Leonardo da Vinci, whose extra- 
ordinary skill in every branch of art excited the 
admiration of all Italy. That Da Vinci was much 
interested in music admits of no doubt whatever, 
and he is said to have possessed great ability as 
an improvisatore. As at this period improvisation 
fulfilled all the requirements in connection with 
instrumental music, it is possible he was as musically 
learned as any Italian dilettante of his time. 

We will now turn to Ferrara, and the court of 
Hercules its Duke. Ferrara has been described as 

* Burckhardt. 
f Hallam, with his usual exactness, remarks, " Roscoe has called it 
the first example of the Musical Drama or Italian Opera ; but though 
he speaks of this as by general consent, it is certain that the Orfeo was 
not designed for musical accompaniment, except probably in the songs 
and chorus."—" Literature of Europe," Vol. I., p. 214. 



142 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

the first really modern city in Europe where by the 
concentration of the official classes and promotion of 
commerce was formed for the first time a true capital, 
where wealthy fugitives from all parts of Italy, 
Florentines especially, settled and built their palaces.* 
In such a city music could not but be practised 
and advanced. Borso, Duke of Ferrara, was one of 
the most distinguished princes of his age : he was a 
great patron of the arts ; and they progressed rapidly 
during his rule ; his people being contented 
politically, they were free to give to them that 
attention and encouragement which was not always 
easy where the violence of parties and opinions was 
strongly felt as in other parts of Italy. It is, 
however, Hercules I., the successor of Borso, that 
awakens our interest. Like his predecessor, he 
was fond of the arts, but the circumstance cf music 
receiving more of his attention gives his name a 
foremost place in the musical records of his country. 

It was the court of Duke Hercules that the great 
Josquin honoured with his presence, and to that 
famous musician probably was owing much of its 
musical fame. A mass of Josquin's bears the title 
" Hercules dux Ferrariae," in which composition the 
terior singer has the subject, Re ut re ut re fa mi re, 
the vowels in these syllables corresponding with 
those in the words " Hercules dux Ferrariae." 

The apartments devoted to music in the Ducal 
Palace are described as having been singularly 

* Burckhardt. 



THE VIOL IN ITALY. 1 43 

beautiful, and particularly the large hall where 
the concert was given. The arrangements were 
evidently of an admirable description ; nothing seems 
to have been wanting to render the music as perfect 
as its then infantile state (instrumentally) would 
permit. The Duke had in his service a great 
number of musicians, many of whom were foreign, 
an extensive musical library for that period, and 
special servants to attend to the music and the 
instruments. It is in connection with this court that 
we have probably the earliest instance of a collection 
of musical instruments being formed, for we are told 
the Duke had a museum in which was collected the 
musical contrivances of past ages. Whenever a 
concert was to take place, letters were despatched 
to the several performers selected by the Duke 
himself, to attend a rehearsal, which was repeated 
again and again until the music was executed to 
the satisfaction of the Duke and his director, 
Ippolito Fiorino.* 

Glancing at the instruments used at this court,, 
among them we find Flutes, Trumpets, Viols, Rebecs, 
Lutes, Harps, Cornets, Trombones, Cithares, Dulci- 
mers, &c, &c. The Viols here mentioned I can- 
not but think were among the first intsruments 
of their kind used in Italy, and that they were no 
other than the type of instrument made by Duiffo- 
prugcar, Dardelli, and others, and were of an 
altogether different form to those which have passed 

* Artusi's Account. 



144 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

as Viols among the Italians at an earlier date. 
These are what I have called madrigal Viols. Now, 
although Duke Hercules had these instruments 
mentioned among others, we are not to conclude that 
they were all played at the same time. No composer 
or musical director was bold enough to arrange his 
music for such a medley of instruments in the 
fifteenth century, nor has such a daring feat been 
attempted since. There can be no doubt they were 
used as before described ; each class of instrument 
had its particular province of accompaniment, and if 
they ever were used together it could only have 
been in processions, where noise was needed rather 
than music. 

Leaving the court of Hercules, we will pass to 
that of Gonzaga, at Mantua, where the arts were 
much cultivated and encouraged. It was here that 
Jacques- Berchem, the Netherlander, passed thirty 
years of his life writing masses, motetts, and 
madrigals. It was here that Dardelli, the Viol- 
maker, italianised the Viol of the Mastersingers, and 
at Mantua the first sounds of these instruments 
were heard in the madrigals of Berchem and a few 
others. There yet remains to notice the crowning 
event in the musical history of old Mantua. At 
Cremona was born Claude Monteverde, in the year 
1568, a period when Andrea Amati and his sons 
Antonius and Hieronymus were busy there with 
the art of Viol and Violin making. The Viol was 
the instrument that Monteverde delighted in, and 



THE VIOL IN ITALY. 1 45 

he early became famous as one of the greatest 
players. The fame of Monteverde reaching the 
ears of Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, led to 
the engagement of the Violist by the Duke. This 
Duke Vincenzo, noted as a lover of music and the 
arts, is perhaps best remembered as having mur- 
dered his tutor, the Admirable Crichton, in 
the streets of Mantua in 1582 ; mention of which 
serves to remind us of that strange blending of 
crime and culture, common to the age of the Italian 
despots. 

Claude Monteverde appears to have entered the 
duke's service shortly after Vincenzo succeeded 
to the dukedom, and he remained until the year 
161 2, the date of the duke's death. He was 
instructed in composition by Ingegneri, the Court 
Chapel-master, who discovered in his pupil re- 
markable abilities, which he exerted himself to 
develope. He succeeded to the position of his 
master at the Mantuan Court in 1603, when he 
seems to have fixed his attention upon opening 
up new ground in relation to composition, which 
contributed much to the complete transformation of 
the art. His opera L'Orfeo was the first of its 
order ever printed with music, and contains the 
earliest known reference to the Violin as an orchestral 
instrument. The structure of this infantile Musical 
Drama, so unlike that of the modern Opera, is well 
worthy of our attention. Accompaniment, in the 
sense in which we understand that term, there was 

L 



I46 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

none. The airs sung by the different singers were 
sustained by the following instruments : — 

Personaggi : Stromenti : 

La Musica Prologo Duoi Granicembani 

Orfeo Duoi Contrabassi de Viola 

Eurydice Dieci Viole da brazzo 

Choro di Ninfe e Pastori Un Arpa doppia 

Speranza Duoi Violini piccoli alia Francese 

Caronte Duoi Chitaroni 

Chori di Spiriti infernali Duoi Organi di legno 

Proserpina Tre Bassi da Gamba 

Plutone Quattro Tromboni 

Apollo Un Regale 

The overture consists of eight bars for a trumpet 
and other instruments. In these eight bars — but 
they are long ones — are two movements. After the 
close of this introductory music, the cloth or 
curtain is drawn aside, and the opera begins. La 
Musica Prologo, personage number one, who is 
none other than the Genius of Music, stands forth 
and makes five speeches in recitative, during the 
deliverance of which he is accompanied by two primi- 
tive harpsichords. These speeches, like the move- 
ments of the overture, are remarkable for their brevity. 
In them is comprised the arguments and sundry exhor- 
tations to order, not only addressed to the audience, 
but to the birds of the air. Then follows a shepherd's 
speech in recitative, succeeded by a chorus of five 
parts, sung to the sound of all the instruments. 
There are Ritornellos, Trios, and Duets, the whole 
concluding with an instrumental composition in five 



THE VIOL IN ITALY. 



H7 



parts, termed a Moresca, a kind of Moorish dance. 
In the list of accompanying instruments we have 
Contrabassi di Viola, the Viola de brazzo, and Duoi 
Violini piccoli alia Francese. 

To Monteverde we owe the introduction of 
pizzicato in its relation to bowed instruments, and also 
rapid staccato bowing. He informs us that the novel 
and formidable appearance of the latter passages in 
his music so alarmed the members of his orchestra, 
that they at first declined to attempt to render them. 




It will readily be seen that this staccato, appor- 
tioned between four Violists, was singularly juvenile in 
comparison with De Beriot's tremolo variations oh 
the Thema in Beethoven's Septuor ! But when we 
think of a space of upwards of two centuries 
between the examples, we are well able to under- 
stand the feeling of alarm the sight of such a 
passage would create in the minds of Monteverde's 
Violists. 

The mention of the two Violins in this opera, 

with a reference to France, has served to convert 

them into a bone of contention among Fiddle 

historians. M. Fetis apparently gathers from it that 

L 2 



148 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

the Violin originated in France. A slight enquiry 
will, in my opinion, be sufficient to show that this 
belief has nothing to support it. In a work 
of Lanfranco's, printed at Brescia in 1533, the 
name Violino is seen; whether it refers to a four- 
stringed' instrument tuned in fifths cannot be 
affirmed. Leaving this an open question we will pass 
to the makers. Here we have Gaspard di Salo at 
work during the last half of the sixteenth century; in 
Brescia also was Matteo Bente, Budiani, and 
Maggini, all working before its close. Turning to 
Cremona we find Andrea Amati making Rebecs 
and Viols prior to 1550, and that he made Violins 
shortly after that date is evidenced by those made 
for the court of Charles I X., whose reign dated from 
1560 to 1574. Returning again to printed matter 
relative to the instrument, we see the compass of it 
given in a work of Zacconi's, printed at Venice in 
1596, namely, from open G to B in the first position. 
What have we to put beside this evidence of use 
and manufacture in Italy on the part of France ? 
In manufacture, nothing whatever. As regards use 
of the instrument there is no lack of evidence. We 
find it at the courts of Charles IX., Henry III., and 
Henry IV. ; at the latter the king's band of twenty- 
four Violins being used for dancing. At a f£te at 
Bayonne in 1565, dances were introduced with 
appropriate instruments, among them the Violin; and 
again in 1 579 at the marriage of the Duke de Joyeuse 
Violins were introduced to play the dances which 



THE VIOL IN ITALY. 1 49 

were arranged by an Italian, the famous Baltzar. 
The family connection of these kings of France with 
the Medici, together with the intercourse between 
the Courts of Italy and that of France, throws some 
light upon the passing of the Violin into France. 
Returning once more to Monteverde's Opera 
played at Mantua in 1607, an d the Duoi Violini 
piccoli alia Francese, I am inclined to think the 
reference to France therein meant nothing more than 
that Violins were to be used in the fashion of the 
French, but, in place of accompanying a dance as at 
Bayonne, the Character indicated in the opera 
was accompanied by two Violins in a particular part 
of its music. 

It is now necessary to refer again to the family 
of the Medici. The encouragement given to music 
by Lorenzo's son Giovanni, both as Cardinal de 
Medici and Pope Leo X., developed the art rapidly. 
Pietro Aaron, a Florentine musician and writer 
of Leo's time, says, "though he had acquired 
knowledge in most arts and sciences, he seemed to 
love, encourage, and exalt music more than any 
other." We recognise this desire to encourage music 
and musicians in his having conferred the title 
of Count on a Violist named Giovan Maria Sanse- 
condo. As Cardinal de Medici he had his house filled 
with singers and musicians. In the year 1499 he 
determined to leave Italyand pass some time in travel- 
ling through the chief European kingdoms. This 
resolve it is said was taken chiefly on account of the 



1 50 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

unsuccessful efforts which had been made to effect 
the restoration of his family to their native city ; but 
whatever may have been the cause of this journey 
among foreign nations, the effects of it were 
certainly felt at Rome, when Giovanni de Medici 
became, as Leo X., the central and ruling figure in 
the famous art circle which had formed about him. 
The Cardinal informed his cousin Giulio of his 
intention, and it was arranged to form a party of 
twelve friends for the journey. Throwing aside the 
insignia of their rank, they passed through the States 
of Venice, and visited most of the German cities. 
On their arrival at Ulm their appearance excited 
the suspicions of the authorities there, and led to 
their detention ; but when their quality and purpose 
was made known, they were immediately sent under 
a guard to the Emperor Maximilian, who received 
the Cardinal with the attention to which the celebrity 
of his ancestors and is high position in the Church 
entitled him. The Emperor furnished him with a 
passport through the German States, and also with 
letters to his son Philip, then governor of the Low 
Countries. In Flanders they were received by 
Philip with much hospitality and magnificence. 
The Cardinal and his friends afterwards passed into 
France, visiting every place deserving of notice, and 
examining whatever was remarkable. 

The knowledge he obtained of the manners and 
customs of the different nations on this journey, from 
personal observation, could not have been otherwise 



THE VIOL IN ITALY. 151 

than most valuable to him. In passing through the 
States of Venice it is more than probable he saw- 
much that was worthy of imitation in relation to art, 
for it was then the Venetians were proving them- 
selves able to encourage and appreciate all that the 
Renaissance had brought with it ; their hitherto 
apparent indifference to its teachings was then being 
atoned for in their eagerness to accept them in all 
their fulness. In music this was singularly so, and 
Cardinal Medici at Venice doubtless listened often to 
finished combinations, resulting from those elements 
with which he was familiar in boyhood, when Isaac, 
Josquin, and Obrecht visited Florence. The part 
played by the Venetians in relation to the Viol will 
be noticed later. It is only necessary to remark 
here that it was of a character sufficient to strike 
an observer as superior to anything with regard to 
it outside the Venetian States. 

In visiting Germany and the Court of the 
Emperor Maximilian, the Cardinal was made 
familiar with the depth and extent of German 
musical progressiveness : whether it was brought 
about more by the influence of the musicians of the 
Netherlands than of Germany, we need not stay to 
enquire. It is sufficient to know that all that was 
great in music was more or less associated with the 
Viennese Court at this period. I have seen it some- 
where said that the presence at the University of 
Vienna of the young Duke Francesco Sforza of 
Milan contributed to the cultivation of music at that 



I5 2 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

seat of learning.* I am inclined to believe, how- 
ever, that the young Duke received there more 
valuable musical knowledge than he himself intro- 
duced among the Viennese. In taking this view of 
the condition of German music as compared with 
that of Italy at this period, the assumption neces- 
sarily follows that the Cardinal de Medici at Maxi- 
milian's Court increased his acquaintance with the 
art. In Flanders again the Cardinal could not have 
failed to observe the high cultivation of the art, the 
grouping and use of instruments, its social and 
ecclesiastical music. In his round of courtly visits 
it is highly probable he presented himself at the 
Court of Rene, the second Duke of Lorraine, where 
Music would seem to have ruled continuously. 

That his acquaintance with the condition of 
music throughout the different European Courts 
must have been greatly increased on this journey, 
scarcely admits of doubt, and it is reasonable to 
suppose that he, as an admirer of the art, would take 
particular note of anything in connection with it he 
may have deemed worthy of imitation. Upon his 
return, and immediately after his elevation to the' 

* The Milanese Court, at this period, over which Francesco's 
father, Ludovico, ruled, is said to have been the most brilliant in 
Europe since that of Burgundy had ceased to exist. The presence 
there of scholars, poets, artists, and musicians, has served perhaps, to 
. give colour to the assumption that Duke Francesco carried to Vienna 
much of this culture ; but whatever may have been the condition of 
the -arts in general at Vienna, I do not think] music was less 
cultivated there than at Milan. 



THE VIOL IN ITALY. 1 53 

Papal chair, there seems to have been a great 
addition made to the body of foreign musicians in 
Italy, and a general stir in musical life there. Unfor- 
tunately the records of the Pontifical Chapel were 
destroyed at the burning of the city by the army of 
Charles V.-; we are thus deprived of much valuable 
information which these documents would have 
supplied relative to music of the time of Leo X. ; 
nevertheless, the information we have — disjointed, 
and often but slightly bearing upon the art — points 
to a development in which Leo took nO unimportant 
part, and also to his journey amid Courts where 
music flourished having influenced such develop- 
ment. 

Leaving the subject of the Papal Court and its 
music, with the intention of returning to it later, we 
will travel to Venice, which the historian Sansovina, 
writing about the middle of the sixteenth century, has 
rightly described as one of the most musical cities of 
Italy. Throughout the Venetian States generally 
at this period music was much cultivated. At 
Vicenza, some forty miles from Venice, in 1565 there 
existed a Philharmonic Society, which was later incor- 
porated with another at Verona, where a sumptuous 
edifice was raised specially for the meetings of the 
Society, which were attended by the nobility and 
gentry of the city. 

Upon setting foot in the city of the Doges, our 
first enquiry, like that of most visitors, is for the 
famous Piazza of St. Mark : there is, however, an 



1 54 7 HE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

essential difference of motive between the enquiry 
of a non-musical and a musical visitor; the one 
regards the Square as a centre of sights, the other 
as having on its east side a pile of buildings teeming 
with historic music-lore, round and about which have 
moved men whose memories will never die whilst 
music lives. The palace of the Duke and the 
Doge, the granite columns of St. Mark and St. 
Theodore, are all as nothing to him who seeks the 
basilica of St. Mark, there to muse over the 
musical worthies who trod the pavement of the 
sacred edifice, and shed such lustre upon their art. 
Here it was that Adrian Willaert ruled as Chapel- 
master, and made his choir envied throughout Italy. 
It was here that Willaert's pupil Zarlino succeeded 
to the Chapel-mastership in 1565; and the same 
post was held by Monteverde in 1613. In and 
around the edifice must have often wandered 
Stradella, Lotti, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, and many more 
whose names it would be easy to recall were it not at 
the risk of fatiguing the reader : there is, however, 
one other which must not be omitted, namely, 
Domenico Dragonetti, who played in the Chapel 
orchestra, and where at this hour is the Gaspard 
di Salo Contra-bass, the tones of which men now 
living remember to have heard frequently sounded 
by Dragonetti in the sonatas of Corelli, in conjunction 
with our Robert Lindley. Having quaffed some- 
what deeply of the cup of sentimentality supplied by 
the memories of those associated with the interior of 



THE VIOL IN ITALY. 155 

the building, it is full time to continue our course of 
enquiry outside, in relation to the musical past of 
Venice. Upon reaching the square of St. Mark, 
and turning again to look upon the sacred pile, its 
architectural beauties momentarily deaden our 
musical ardour, and reminds us of Ruskin's verbal 
harmonies in which the wondrous building is likened 
unto a vision rising out of the earth, " and all the 
great square seems to have opened from it in a kind 
of awe, that we may see it far away — a multitude of 
pillars and white domes, clustered into a long, low 
pyramid of coloured light ; a treasure heap, it seems, 
partly of gold, and partly of opal and mother-o' -pearl, 
hollowed beneath into five great vaulted porches 
ceiled with fair mosaic, and beset with sculpture 
of alabaster, clear as amber and delicate as ivory."* 



" Stones of Venice." 



kztion 19.— ^hc Siri in Italg. 



CHAPTER III. 

T N Coriat's Crudities we have an interesting 
account of music the author heard at Venice in 
1608, and therefore five years prior to Monteverde 
becoming master of the Chapel of St. Mark. At 
St. Mark's Church, he tells us, he heard " the music 
of a Treble Viol, so excellent that no man could 
surpass it." He also relates that he was present at 
a musical performance in Venice, given in honour of 
St. Roche, which so delighted him that he would 
have gone a hundred miles to hear it : he quaintly 
proceeds to inform us that " This feast consisted 
principally of music which was both vocal and 
instrumental, so good, so delectable, so rare, so 
admirable, so super-excellent, that it did even ravish 
and stupefy all those strangers that never heard the 
like. But how others were affected with it I know 
not ; for my own part I can say this, that I was for 
the time even rapt up with St. Paul into the third 
heaven. Sometimes there sung sixteen or twenty 
men together, having their master or moderator to 
keep them in order ; and when they sung, the 



THE VIOL IN ITALY. I 57 

instrumental musicians played also. Sometimes six- 
teen played together upon their instruments, ten 
sackbuts, four cornets, and Viols da Gamba of a 
extraordinary greatness ;* sometimes ten, six sack- 
buts and four cornets ; sometimes two, a cornet and 
a Treble Viol. Of these Treble Viols I heard three 
several there, whereof each was so good, especially 
one that I observed above the rest, that I never 
heard the like before. Those that played upon the 
Treble Viols sung and played together, and some- 
times two singular fellows played together upon 
Theorboes (a lute with two necks), to which they 
sung also, who yielded admirable sweet music, but 
so still that they could scarce be heard but by those 
that were very near them. These two Theorboists 
concluded that night's music, which continued three 
whole hours at the least, for they began about five 
of the clock, and ended not before eight. Also it 
continued as long in the morning ; at every time 
that every several music played, the organs, whereof 
there are seven fair pair in that room, standing all 
in a row together, played with them." 

It was at Venice that the Aldo of music, Petrucci, 
•set up his press for printing from moveable 
type, about the year 1495 : the beauty of the work 
executed by this first of music printers is seen in the 
masses of Josquin, Obrecht, Isaac, and others, which 
are preserved in the chief European national 
libraries. The music bibliographer idolises the 

* He refers, no doubt, to the full-sized Italian Double-bass. 



158 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

editions of Petrucci in the same degree as the 
bibliographer does those of his contemporary Aldo 
Manuzio. It is, however, the great impetus this press 
gave to music which mainly concerns us. The same 
complaint must have been uttered by the lovers of 
music as that of the lover of books, before the inven- 
tion of printing, as to the great cost and inconvenience 
of manuscript copies. By the aid of Petrucci com- 
posers reached the multitude, and thus caused 
a new life to be given to the social branch of the 
art. 

The publication of social vocal music, from the 
pens of eminent composers whose abilities had 
hitherto been devoted to ecclesiastical works, at once 
extended the cultivation of this home music. These 
publications were soon followed by others in con- 
nection with instruments. In 1507 and 1508 the 
Venetian press printed four books in tablature on 
the Lute, and in 1509 vocal music with tablature for 
Tenors and Double Bass, a fac-simile of which is 
given in this volume. 

This tablature appears to me to be of some 
historical value, since it is the earliest of the kind I 
have found any account of. The Tenors referred to 
may be Tenor Viols of the Viol da Gamba form, but 
I am inclined to believe the instruments indicated were 
the large tenors with deep sides resembling diminutive 
Violoncellos.* I am not aware that any of these 

* In Monteverde's Opera, L'Orfeo, mention is made of Contrabasse 
de Viola, and may refer to these instruments. 



Specimen of Tablature 
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M. Fdtis, in his Notice of Petrucci, says :— " Dans l'annee 1 509, on 
ne trouve qu'un 'seul ouvrage sorti des presses de Petrucci ; il a pour 
titre : ' Tenori e contrabassi intabulati col sopran' in canto figurato 
per cantar e sonar col lauto Libro Primo. Fraiicisci Bossinensis 
Opus;' Ce qui signifie que la partie de soprano est e'crite en notation 
ordinaire pour Stre chante'e par la voix, tandis que le te'nor et la basse, 
Merits en caracteres de tablature sont joue's sur le luth; enfin, que 
l'ouvrage a €t€ compose' par un certain Francois ni dans le Bosnie, 
et dont le nom de famille n'est pas indiqueV' 

I am unable to understand the term " Contrabassi " being applied 
to the voice, and cannot but think the reference is to instrurnents 
collectively of the type of the Violono and the Accordo. The tablature 
is interesting as evidence of its application to instruments earlier 
than noticed in the work of Ganassi, 1543 ; which is nineteen years 
earlier than Wolf Heckel's book on the Lute, published at Strasburg 
in 1 562 ; which again is eight years earlier than that of Adrian 
Le Roy. 



THE VIOL IN ITALY. 1 59 

instruments have come down to us in their original 
state. Many have been destroyed for the purpose 
of repairing old Italian Violins, and others have 
been converted into Violas by reducing their sides 
and removing their heads, which were made to carry 
five or even more pegs, but beyond this the head- 
piece was, in Fiddle physiology, pre-Adamite, and 
therefore wholly unsuited to pass current with others 
• of a higher development. Returning to the subject 
of the tablature, the reference on the title-page to the 
Double Bass is perfectly clear, and I am inclined to 
believe relates to an instrument larger than the 
Violone, which name has long been associated with 
the Double Bass of the Italians. We have ocular 
proof of the existence at an early period in Italy of 
Double Basses of two sizes in the instruments them- 
selves, the smaller of which I regard as the Violone 
of the sixteenth century. 

It is here that our enquiries lead us into a field 
of Italian Viol history, from which we get more than 
a glimpse of Italian Viol development. With the 
opening of the sixteenth century appears to be 
associated that which, for the want of a better name, 
I will call the Italian Reformation of bowed instru- 
ments. The rapid spread of this reformation speedily 
caused the crop of incongruities which sprung from 
the Gothic Viol germ to run to seed in museums 
like that of Hercules, Duke of Ferrara. That this 
bowed instrument reformation had its rise in the 
coming to the States of Venice of the Netherlander 



l6o THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

and his Madrigal, is the opinion I have formed after 
tracing the course taken by both instruments and 
music at this date. Very shortly after the madrigal 
appeared in Italy, the Viol manufacture — which had 
been chiefly carried on at Mantua, and consisted in 
reproducing Viols of the class common among 
Germans and Lowlanders — gave way to the Viols 
wholly of Italian design. The original of this 
type of instrument appears to have been the large 
Italian Double Bass, in which we see clearly the 
curves afterwards common to the Violin family of 
instruments. In the upper, lower, and middle bouts,* 
we observe the lines which have been retained for 
nearly four centuries. It is rare to see an Italian 
Double Bass with the upper sides shaped as here 
indicated, but they were all made so unquestionably, 
and were altered to the shape we now see them 
when frets were dispensed with, and the higher 
positions of the instrument began to be used. In 
the sound-hole again we discover evidence of new 
ideas. No longer is its back turned to the bridge — 
as seen in the Viol da Gamba to the end of its days — 
but it faces that important member of the body with 
an air of grace and ease. Neither is it cut like that 
of the Viol da Gamba, simply as a hole for the 
emission of sound, regardless of the shape and 
manner of setting having considerable influence on 
the quality of tone. It was shaped with a singular 
power of elegance, utility, and design : a combination 

Sides. 



THE VIOL IN ITALY. l6l 

of greatnesses solely belonging to the Italians at 
the period of the Renaissance. 

The next creation appears to have been the 
Tenor for the knee, of two or more sizes, with deep 
sides and backs, frequently modelled. The largest 
of these instruments were reduced to Violas in many 
ways. ' Next came the averaged-sized Italian Tenor, 
followed very .shortly after by the Violin in its 
Italian form. The Viol da Gamba seems to have 
been the only instrument belonging to what I term 
the Gothic branch in Italy, not laid aside, since ; 
it is evident the Viol da Gamba was made in 
Italy until towards the end of the seventeenth 
century. This at last gave way to the Violoncello, 
which was not introduced until long after the smaller 
Italian Tenors had been in use. It seems to be clear 
that these were the instruments used by the Italians 
in their Churches and in their homes, and that they 
made but little use of the Gothic type of Viol, 
with the exception of the Viol da Gamba, which was 
common to the end of the seventeenth century in 
England, and probably later in France, Germany, 
and the Low Countries. 

In seeking for music published in Italy, early in 
the sixteenth century, relative to Viols, we have 
mention of a most interesting work, which serves 
to enlighten us upon the condition and character 
of these instruments. The book I refer to is that of 
Silvestro Ganassi on the art of playing the Viol, 
published at Venice in 1 543. It is divided into two 

M 



1.62 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

parts ; the first treats of the fretted Viola, which at 
once proves that Violas, like Lutes and Guitars, had 
frets at this date. The second part teaches how to 
play the fretted Double Bass, which shows that the 
notes on "these instruments were also mechanically- 
divided ; but on the title of this curious work we 
have yet further interesting information, for it states 
the book treats of the effect of the false, just, and 
middle string* which I take to mean the back, 
natural, and first position on the finger-board. 
Here we have a distinct indication of progress in 
the knowledge of positions. It further states that 
the work teaches how to place the frets in different 
ways, which points to different methods of tuning the 
open strings, t but the last few words on the title are 
even more interesting : these are, that the book is 
suitable also to those who play the Viola without 
frets. Here we have a distinct reference to Violas 
Fiddle-fashion, and therefore an indication of the 
coming of the Fiddle to the Viol. In the early pages 
of my book I have remarked in effect that it may 
seem but a flight of the imagination to regard the 
juggler's Fiddle as having been instrumental to the 
domination of the Viol, and likewise as having 
dethroned it, and becoming itself the king of 
instruments ; but it is here that we appear to 
have evidence bearing on this change of fortune. 

* The words used are corda falsa, giosta, et media, 
f In England we appear to have had, a century later, a repetition 
of this variety of tuning, in Viols tuned " Lyra way " and for 
"consort." 



THE VIOL IN ITALY. 1 63 

The book of Ganassi has reference mainly to 
fretted Viols, but notices Viols without frets in a 
manner indicative of their having been but recently 
used. Now, although the book is dated 1543, we 
may conclude the adoption of Viols without frets 
probably took place about the beginning of the 
century. In taking this view, much weight is given 
to the opinion that the Italian Violin made its 
appearance early in the sixteenth century, since the 
Viol without frets was but the introducer of the 
wandering Fiddle — from whom it borrowed its 
finger-board — to the refined society of the Viols. 
To render association possible, however, it was 
necessary to re-habilitate the wandering Fiddle, and 
this was accomplished by giving it the garb of the 
Italian Viola, and henceforth it took its place beside 
it as its diminutive, The Violin. 

In continuing our enquiry relative to early 
Italian music, the writings of the famous Contrapun- 
tists, Andrea and Giovanni Gabrielli, next claim 
our attention. These composers occupy a prominent 
place in the annals of their art. Andrea was the 
pupil of Willaert, and became organist of St. Mark's. 
Giovanni, the nephew and pupil of Andrea, also held 
the same post. To them appears to belong the 
honour of having been the earliest Italian composers 
who gave back to Germany and the Low Countries 
their music polished with the musical art of Italy, 
or through themselves and their pupils, Heinrich 
Schiitz, Michael Prsetorius, and others. 

M 2 



164 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Andrea Gabrielli published at Venice, in 1 565, a 
collection of sacred songs or motetts for five voices 
and instruments. This appears to be one of the 
earliest sets of compositions of this character specially 
adapted to instruments ; but long prior to this date 
the madrigals of his master, Adrian Willaert, were 
used instrumentally in connection with the reformed 
Viol of the Venetians, though specially written for 
voices. The same composer published, in 1586, a 
Sonata for five instruments, and, in conjunction with 
Giovanni Gabrielli, a collection of nine books for 
several instruments ; but our interest is chiefly 
awakened in a composition consisting of Church 
madrigals of Giovanni Gabrielli's, in which we have 
mention of the Violin. This collection was pub- 
lished at Venice in 1587, and it has already been 
noticed in Section I ; we thus appear to have 
an earlier reference to the Violin than is furnished 
in Monteverde's UOrfeo. Besides the works 
mentioned in connection with instruments, there 
were others by Marini, Gastoldi, Rovigo, Trussio, 
and others. 



§zc&tm $ .— %\it 1ml itt Italg. 



CHAPTER IV. 

"\^7"E must now return to Rome, over which a 
* " sea of troubles " had swept since we left it 
with Giovanni de Medici in the Papal Chair. The 
Vatican no longer resounded with song and music, 
the echoes of which were heard through the 
city as a call to joy and gladness. Its doors 
were no longer open to all the poets, scholars, 
singers, and buffoons of Rome. Raphael was no 
longer immortalizing his munificent patron and his 
Cardinals by painting their portraits on its walls. 
Pomp and pagentry had given place to woe and 
desolation. Amid the worldliness of Leo's Court 
insufficient heed was taken of the storm-laden clouds 
which had been gathering in Germany and Switzer- 
land. Leo's successor, however, the ship carpenter's 
son of Utrecht, who ascended the throne as Adrian 
XL, failed not to observe that they were fast rolling 
towards the Eternal City, and hoped to avert the 
threatened danger by reversing the course of his 
predecessor. Painters, poets, and musicians, together 
with the vast retinue of servants belonging to the 



1 66 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Vatican, were with a stroke of Adrian's pen dismissed. 
The art galleries of Rome were closed and barred, 
and thus it was sought to re-kindle that spiritual life 
of which few embers remained, and silence the roar 
of Luther's thunder.* Such sweeping reforms, how- 
ever, were not in conformity with the taste and 
feelings of the Roman citizens, and when another 
Medici succeeded Adrian as Clement VII., they 
looked forward to a return to a court like that of his 
relative. Meanwhile the storm had been lashed into 
a tempest, and burst over Rome in the year 1527, 
when, for more than nine long months the city was 
abandoned to some thirty thousand brigands 
bearing arms in the name of the Emperor Charles V. 
The Pope, a prisoner in the Castle of St. Angelo, 
from the windows of which he could see the flames 
shooting high into the air, from some of the grandest 
monuments of European art. Benvenuto Cellini — 
artist and musician — a soldier, defending the city 
walls and killing the Duke of Bourbon in his 

* Carlyle, in speaking of this period of Italian history, was not 
likely to do so without saying something indicative of his want 
of sympathy for the arts. " Italy put up silently with practical lies 
of all kinds ; and, shrugging its shoulders, preferred going into Dilet- 
tantism and the Fine Arts. The Italians, instead of the sacred service of 
Fact and Performance, did music, painting, and the like : — till even 
that has become impossible for them ; and no noble nation sunk from 
virtue to virtH, ever offered such a spectacle before. He that will 
prefer Dilettantism in this world for his outfit, shall have it ; but all 
the gods will depart from him ; and manful veracity, earnestness of 
purpose, devout depth of soul, shall no more be his." — " History of 
Frederick the Great." 



THE VIOL IN ITALY. \6"J 

attempt to scale them. Raphael, who had lived, 
loved, and laboured amid the city churches and 
palaces, and who fed on the hope of seeing Rome 
raised again to all its pristine splendour, was happily 
spared the sight or knowledge of this terrible 
scene. 

The Sack of Rome precipitated the counter 
Reformation, in the heat of which the art of music 
passed through one of the most critical periods of 
its history : hence the interest which belongs to this 
exciting page of history from a musical point of 
view. The reaction had the effect of shaking the art 
to its very foundation. The desire of the counter 
reformers to appease the wrath levelled at their 
Church by Zwingli, Luther, and Calvin, seemed 
likely to lead them to extremes in the matter of the 
reform of their musical service. What might have 
been the action of the counter reformers at Rome 
had the German protestant leader been of the same 
mind as those of Switzerland with regard to music, 
is not difficult to perceive. With Calvin's model of 
Church government alone before them, with neither 
organ nor choral service, they would in all probability 
have brought about in Rome a return to the barbarous- 
ness of the music which, as before said, " fell into 
the fancy or observations of a poor friar, in chanting 
his matins." Happily Luther regarded music as 
"one of the fairest and most glorious gifts of God," 
and near allied to divinity, " and was not ashamed 
to say that, except theology, no art is comparable to 



1 68 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

music," and he adhered to the use of the organ and 
other instruments in the service ; which not only 
effectually checked the retrograde steps at Rome in 
relation to music, but largely influenced the opening 
up of a new school of Italian musical art. 

As before remarked, the records of the Pontifical 
Chapel were lost at the burning of the city ; leaving 
us therefore in ignorance of much concerning the 
music of the Papal States at this period. Certain 
it is, however, that Goudimel, in opening the music 
school at Rome, about the middle of the sixteenth 
century, was making ready the cradle for the recep- 
tion of the wreck of Ecclesiastical Music, launched 
and manned by Netherlanders in a past age. Right 
well did he perform his task ! When the wreck was 
cradled, it fell to the genius of the immortal 
Palestrina to modify its original design in accord- 
ance with the spirit of the times. 

About the period of the Venetian transformation 
of the Fiddle into the Violin, Palestrina was 
pursuing his studies in the school of Goudimel, and 
teaching the choir boys of St. Peter's. Among the 
fellow-students of Palestrina were Nanini, and 
Alessandro Romano, surnamed Alessandro della 
Viola from his great skill upon that instrument. 
Later he became a member of a monastic order, 
choosing the martial name of Julius Csesar — surely 
that of Nero would have been a better selection, 
since he was both martial and musical, and it is even 
said played the Fiddle, a statement I am unable to 



THE VIOL IN, ITALY, 1 69 

reconcile with the condition of Roman music in the 
early years of the Christian Era. 

Our journey through the cities of Italy in search 
of information relative to our subject must end at 
Naples, a city rich in music-lore, but of a character 
far less interesting to us than that of those we have 
already visited. It was here that the Netherlander 
Tinctor came, at the call of King Ferdinand, in 
1487, and founded the School of Music. The 
outcome of this event in the musical history 
of Naples, during the next hundred years, we 
need not enter upon, but pass on to the Prince of 
Venosa, who, though an amateur, was one of the 
earliest of Neapolitan composers. His madrigals 
were not only popular in Naples, but throughout. 
Italy. He was skilled in the use of several instru- 
ments, but more particularly of the Lute. In his 
palace he founded an academy, and in many ways 
contributed to the progressiveness of the art he 
loved. It was in the neighbourhood of Naples that 
the painter, poet, satirist, and musician, Salvator 
Rosa, was born. That this extraordinary man 
exercised his musical abilities to some purpose is 
gathered from the popularity of his music, which 
the "spinners and knitters in the sun did use to 
chant." This serves to remind us of the reference 
Evelyn makes to the Neapolitan's love of music. 
He says, "The country people are so jovial and 
addicted to music that the very husbandmen almost 
universally play on the guitar." 



I 70 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

For information relative to the progress of 
instrumental music at Naples, the work of Scipione 
Cerreto, entitled " Delia Prattica Musica, Vocale e 
Strumentale," published in 1601, contains much 
that is interesting. This work was issued but six 
years prior to the production of Monteverde's opera 
UOrfeo, in which, as already noticed, the Violin is 
used ; and earlier instances of its use have also been 
given. Yet Cerreto makes no reference to the 
instrument, from which it would seem that it had no 
place in the music of Naples, unless it was in that 
of street minstrelsy, and therefore beneath the 
writer's notice. 



gcction: W— %kt Wiolin in Italp. 



CHAPTER I. 

T T ITHERTO our references to the music of the 
Violin have been but tentative. It is not until 
we reach the early; years_jofjthe ^seventeenth century 
that we are able to gather information of the Violin 
taking a part in any way worthy of the title Solo. It 
is now that its great future begins to be foreshadowed 
in the works of men whose names are for the most 
part unfamiliar to us. How few Violinists have 
heard the name of _Paolo Quagliati ! Yet to him is 
traceable probably the first solo for the instrument, 
which he called a Toccata, having an accompaniment 
for a large Lute. To describe this Toccata as a Violin 
solo is, perhaps, not unlike calling the Marquis of 
Worcester's infantile engine a locomotive, since the 
disparity is as . marked between Quagliati's Violin 
composition and the solos of Corelli, as between the 
machine of the Marquis of Worcester and that of 
George Stephenson ; yet, withal, the Toccata is the 
earliest known example of the Violin solo. 

Biagio Marini, a native of Brescia, appears to have 
written specially for the Violin, and to have aided the 



172 TME VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

development of its music greatly. It is, however, 
j^arlo F arina , of Mantua, born about 1 580, to whom we 
\ seem to owe the earliest instance of solo- writing from 
pen of a Violinist. Farina held the position of solo- 
Violinist at the Court of Saxony, and in 1627 pub- 
lished at Dresden a collection of Galliards, Courants, 
&c.,* the best portion of which is appropriately 
named " Capriccio Stravagante," wherein the Violin 
is made to imitate the braying of . an ass and other 
sounds peculiar to the animal kingdom, as 
well as the fife of the soldier and the twang- 
ing of guitars. This, it must be confessed, is not 
high art, and points to a disposition on the part 
of the Violin to return to its old companions of the 
Fiddle. Perhaps we ought not to expect to find at 
this stage of its independence that punctiliousness 
associated with its behaviour when in the company 
of the Viols, and we must also bear in mind that 
Corelli had not yet taught it to be dignified even 
though engaged in playing a jig. 

Giovanni- Ba^tista Fontana supplies us with the 
earliest indication of the removal of the Violin as a 
solo instrument to a higher sphere of composition. 
In 1 64 1 was published at Venice eighteen sonatas 
with accompaniment for two or three Violins with 
Bass. This work is noticed by Wasielewski in "Die 
Violine," Bonn, 1873, as also many others I shall have 
occasion to refer to. Mauritio Cazzati, a native of 
Mantua, is mentioned by Roger North as the com- 

* Copy in the Dresden Library. 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. I 73 

poser whose writings were imported into England in 
Charles II.'s time by "divers societies of a politer 
sort, inquisitive after foreign consorts." The follow- 
ing work with others is mentioned by Dr. Rimbault 
as preserved at Oxford : " II secondo libre delle 
Sonate a tre, due Violini e Violone, con il sue Basso 
continuo, Bologna, 1648." 

Gi ovann i Legrenzi, born at Bergamo, about 

1625, Chapel-master of St. Mark's, Venice, com- 
posed several sonatas in connection with the Violin. 
It was Legrenzi who remodelled the Chapel 
orchestra of St. Mark's about 1670, in which he 
introduced eight Violins, eleven small Violas or 
Violettes for the second and third parts, two ordinary 
Tenors, three Viols da Gamba, and Double Bass. 
Passing to Gi ovanni Battista Vitali, born at 
Cremona about 1644, we have several compositions 
for stringed instruments from his pen, fourteen of which 
are published, and others left in manuscript ; these 
are chiefly interesting from their early dates and 
titles. Op. 1, published in 1666, Balletti, Corrente- 
gighe, Allemando, which is an early mention of 
such movements. Op. 3 we have besides Balletti- 
Correnti alia francese ; and again, Op. 10, Varie 
Sonate alia francese ed all'Itagliana. These 
references to French music point to the style being 
popular out of France," and evidence an appre- 
ciation of that light kind of music which Lulli 
introduced in his operas to gratify the taste of 
Louis XIV, Vitali is another of the Italian com- 



1 74 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

posers whose writings were introduced here in the 
reign of Charles II. 

Tomasso Antonio JVital i^ born at Bergamo about 
1650, was the . famous Violinist, and must not be 
confounded with Giovanni. It was Tomasso who 
wrote the chaconne which Joachim first played at 
the Monday Popular Concerts in 1870. 

It is Gregorio_ Allegri, the pupil of Nanini, who 
next claims our notice. Nanini was the pupil of 
Goudimel, and fellow-student with Palestrina, men- 
tion of which serves to heighten our interest in 
Allegri, the composer of the earliest string quartett. 
This composition, Dr. Burney remarks, " does not 
manifest any great progress which the Violin tribe 
had made towards perfection. The celebrity and 
importance which this family has acquired, since it 
may be said to have got up in the world and made 
so much noise everywhere, may excite curiosity in 
its admirers about its manner of going on and passing 
its time." On this account alone the quartett is 
valuable. Mr. Hullah, in his published lectures,* has 
given the Andante in modern notation. 

__Giuseppe _Colpmbi, of Modena, published Sonatas 
for two Violins and a Bassetto in 1676, besides other 
compositions in which the Violin is concerned. This 
Bassetto I am inclined to regard as the small Violon- 
cello, which most of the great Italian makers made 
together with -large ones. It was Colombi who 
succeeded Bononcini, the father of Bononcini the 
* " Transition period of Music." 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 1 75 

opponent of Handel, as Chapel-master to the Duke 
of Modena. Another composer for the Violin, who 
held the same office at Modena, was Marco 
Uccellini, to whom is given the credit of having 
developed the powers of the bow in a mariner before 
unknown. Giovanni Nicolai, an Italian musician, 
connected with the court of the Duke of Wurtem- 
burg, published at Augsburg, in 1675, twenty-four 
caprices for four Violins with thorough-bass, besides 
other Violin works. Bassani, born at Padua about 
1657, was the conductor of the Cathedral music at 
Bologna for some time, and also at Ferrara. His 
compositions consist chiefly of operatic and sacred 
music. Among those for the Violin are " Sonate da 
Camera, cioe balletti, correnti, gighe e sarabande, a 
Violino a beneplacito, opera prima, Bologne dodici 
Sonata a due Violini e Basso op. 5." Giuseppe Torelli, 
born at Verona, introduced the Concerto da Camera, 
the form of composition in which Corelli and Handel 
were so successful. He also published chamber 
caprices for Violin, Tenor and Lute, and his brother 
published a year after Torelli's death the famous 
" Concerti grossi con una pastorale per il Santissimo 
natale." Anthony Veracini, the uncle of Francesco 
Veracini, composed a set of sonatas for two Violins, 
Bass, Organ, or Lute, and others of a similar kind, 
published about 1662 ; with the mention of which 
we are brought to the end of our list of patriarchal 
Violin music. 

I am aware of the absence, in the preceding pages,. 



I 76 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

of manynames and particulars not without interest, yet 
had I noticed them the sections would have been 
drawn out to an inordinate length, besides sinking my 
simulated narrative in a dictionary of musical events, 
to avoid which has been my earnest wish from the 
commencement of my undertaking. I have endea- 
voured to follow to the best of my ability the advice 
•of him who reminds us of " the proverb of old 
Hesiod, that half is often more than the whole. 
The policy of the Dutch, who cut down most of 
the precious trees in the Spice Islands, in order to 
raise the value of what remained was a policy 
which poets would do well to imitate." This is, I 
imagine, equally applicable to prose writings of all 
kinds. If I have followed too closely the example 
■of the Dutch it has not been done with a desire to 
sacrifice instruction at the shrine of entertainment, 
but from a wish to combine the advantages of 
both. Having unbosomed myself of these remarks 
touching the shortcomings gone before, I have only 
to add that I wish them to apply to those which 
follow. 



§tttton WL—Wkt liolin in 1Mb. 



CHAPTER II. 

OIDNEY SMITH was certainly right in saying, 
" That man is not the discoverer who first 
says the thing, but he who says it so long, and 
so loud, and so clearly, that he compels mankind 
to hear him." 

It was Corelli who spoke so long, so loud, and 
so clearly with regard to the Music of the Violin ; it 
was Galileo who did so for experimental science ; and 
it was Bacon who did likewise for experimental philo- 
sophy. Indeed, their utterances were so peculiarly 
distinct as, if not to drown the voices of their pre- 
decessors, to at least render them all but inaudible. 
That this should have been so may seem remarkable 
when we reflect that the clearing of the ground 
upon which true genius was to exert itself was the 
task these all but forgotten men set themselves to 
perform. Material was at hand ; but the ability to 
utilize it in forming a foundation upon which their 
followers might depend, was wanting. It was this 
skilful work which these master-minds undertook, 
and succeeded in accomplishing ; and thus it comes 

N 



I 78 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

that, although we are unable to say, to Galileo, to 
Bacon, and to Corelli we are indebted for all that 
belongs to the early stages of knowledge in science, 
philosophy, and music, yet we can and do delight 
in naming them fathers to their respective studies. 

It happens that the labour needed to make ready 
for the reception of the impress of genius is not 
of a character to give distinctive fame to those 
engaged in the work. Collective efforts are merged 
into those made by the possessors of minds capable 
of transforming incongruous atoms into a symmetrical 
whole, and when this transformation is accomplished, 
the art, be it useful or ornamental, is rapidly de- 
veloped — so much so indeed as to often deprive 
those whose work mainly conduced to this result, of 
that merit which is rightly theirs. 

Imitators and followers tread closely on the heels 
of originators, adapting their chief ideas, and adding 
to them as fancy dictates, whilst keeping abreast of 
the period. The productions of originators become 
antiquated ; their merit is oftentimes miscalculated' in 
being tested by a false standard, which is that of 
drawing a comparison between their works and those 
resulting from them, instead of subjecting them to 
their own particular gauge ; the result of which is 
to press them into a state bordering on oblivion, to 
be now and again sought out by the sage and the 
antiquary. In listening even to the music of Corelli, 
how often is astonishment expressed that such 
primitive writing could give pleasure, forgetting that 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 1 79 

its very primitiveness is its charm ; that in short, it is 
nature in notes, forming the foundation upon which 
the imposing superstructure of modern instrumental 
music has been raised. When Roger North said, 
" if music can be immortal, Corelli's will be so," the 
oldest note Corelli had penned could scarcely have 
reached its thirtieth year, but the immortal life fore- 
shadowed by King James's Attorney- General when 
the gigs and sarabands of Corelli wore all the 
freshness of novelty, runs peacefully on, unaffected 
by the deafening trumpetings proclaiming theories 
of higher development in the art of music. 

Happy in the possession of exceptional executive 
skill, together with creative abilities, Corelli possessed 
an advantage over his contemporaries and predeces- 
sors of great importance. As a player, he clearly 
recognised the possibility of using stringed instru- 
ments in concert with better results than had hither- 
to been attained, and successfully accomplished his 
task of reforming the music of the Violin, and 
placing the instrument at the head of its race. 

According to Adami,* Corelli received his early 
instructions in composition from Matteo Simonelli, 
the pupil of Allegri. Laurenti of Bologna is also 
said to have instructed him — a statement resting on a 
tradition current at Rome many years after Corelli's 
death. Bassani has likewise been mentioned as a 
master of the famous Violinist. Whether Corelli was 

* " Osservationi per ben regolare il coro dei Cantori della Capella 
pontificia, &c, Rome, 171 1." 
N 2 



l8o THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Bassani's pupil or not is a question impossible to 
decide ; if so, the pupil was the master's senior ; 
though an unusual circumstance, it does not prove 
anything. It is, however, the date of their respec- 
tive compositions which throws some light upon the 
matter, and particularly that of Corelli taking Bassani 
as his model. The date of the first edition of Bassani's 
sonatas does not appear to be known, and there is no 
evidence to prove they were issued before Corelli's ; 
but it is said Corelli took for a model of his graver 
sonatas the first and third set of those of Bassani ;* 
and again, that the first and third sonatas of Corelli 
are apparently formed after the model of Bassani's 
Op. 5-t That this could not have been so is seen 
from the date of Corelli's Op. i, 1683, and Bassani's 
Op. 5, 1700. 

The information we have of Corelli's life is both 
meagre and unsatisfactory. As regards the anec- 
dotal portion, I am inclined to regard it as mainly 
apocryphal ; but of that later. The earliest recorded 
event of any interest is Corelli's visit to Germany, 
about the year 1680, where he is said to have 
remained two years, during which time he was 
patronised by the Duke of Bavaria and other 
German princes. Subsequently we find him 
settled at Rome, where he published, in 1683, his 
first twelve sonatas before-mentioned. In 1685 
appeared the second set, which gave rise to a 
controversy between the composer and Giov. Paolo 

* Burney. f Hawkins. 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. l8l 

Colonna, Chapel-master at Bologna, touching the 
vexed question of consecutive fifths — Corelli having 
committed the then unpardonable sin in his third 
sonata. According to the learned in the science of 
music the greatest luminaries in the art have been 
guilty of this dire offence with wondrous results. 
Whether the_Jather of Violin-music contrived to 
extract good from evil I must leave the learned 
to decide ; but I think it highly probable that 
Colonna is better remembered from his associa- 
tion with Corelli in relation to consecutive fifths, 
than from any musical work he himself left behind 
him. 

In the year 1686, we have it from Guidi, an 
Italian poet, that Corelli led the music of an 
allegorical opera given at Rome, in honour of the 
Earl of Castelmaine, the ambassador of King 
James II., the music of which "was^ composed by 
Bernardo Pasquino, a celebrated organist, and the 
words by the poet above-named. Its allegorical 
nature is seen from its characters : London — Thames 
and Fame brought under the influence of the 
inevitable good and evil geniuses. The orchestra 
which Corelli led is said to have numbered one 
hundred and fifty bowed instruments ; it must be 
confessed an extraordinary number, considering the 
character of the entertainment, and sufficient to 
throw doubt upon the correctness of the record. 
John Evelyn describes a similar operatic performance 
in France in 1 651, where there were "29 Violins 



1 82 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSlC. 

-vested a 1'antique,"* one fifth the number over' which 
Corelli is said to have been placed in Guidi's opera, 
but the same as he led at the Church of St. Lorenzo. 
Anyhow, it would be interesting to know what was 
the character of the music allotted to this army of 
Fiddles and Viols. This entertainment took place 
at the Palace of Christina, the daughter of the great 
Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, who, Macaulay 
says, " had finally taken up her abode in Rome, 
where she busied herself with astrological calcula- 
tions and with the intrigues of the conclave, and 
amused herself with pictures, gems, manuscripts, 
and medals. A splendid assembly met in her palace ; 
her verses, set to music, were sung with universal 
applause." 

Returning again to the music of Corelli, we find 
that the second set of sonatas, called Balletti da 
Camera, published in the year 1685, were dedicated 
to Cardinal Panfilio or Pamphili, from which we 
infer the composer received some attention from his 
Eminence, who was a great lover of music and the 
arts. It was Cardinal Panfilio who became one of 



* " To the Palais Cardinal, where ye master of ceremonies plac'd 
me to see ye royal masque, or opera. The first sceane represented a 
chariot of singers composed of the rarest voices that could be procui J d, 
representing Cornaro and Temperance ; this was overthrown by 
Bacchus and his Revellers ; the rest consisted of several entries and 
pageants of excesse by all the Elements. The conclusion was an 
Heaven whither all ascended. But the glory of the Masque was the 
greate persons performing in it, the French King (Louis XIV., age 13), 
his brother the Duke of Anjou, and others." 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 1 83 

the foremost admirers of Handel, and who wrote 
the poem on the power of time, which the immortal 
composer of the " Messiah" set to music. Among the 
patrons of Corelli, however, none equalled Cardinal 
Ottoboni ; it was he who raised the father of 
Violinists to the high position he so long held at 
Rome. The connection of the Cardinal and the 
Violinist was above that of simple patronage, it was 
one of sincere friendship. Corelli conducted the 
music given every Monday evening- at Ottoboni's 
palace, besides being retained at the Cardinal's 
expense in connection with the music at the Church 
of St. Lorenzo. In the pages of Pepys is a letter 
written in 1699, from the author's nephew, in which 
both Corelli and Cardinal Ottoboni are mentioned. 
The letter also contains a description of the cere- 
monies relative to the Christmas season. " In the 
meantime, others of the Cardinals, &c. in cavalcade 
'went to the Campidoglio, and there divided, to 
go to the other churches, to open each of the 
Holy Gates also ; but of this I saw nothing. 
The chief' English here were my Lord Exeter 
and Lady, Lord Mountheimer, Mr. Cecil, 
Mr. Bruce, &c. I afterwards saw the Cardinal's 
supper in the Vatican Palace, which both for form 
and substance was very singular ; and from hence 
went to the midnight devotions at St. Lorenzo, 
where I heard most ravishing music suited to the 
occasion ; Paluccio, an admired young performer, 
singing, and Corelli, the famous Violin, playing in 



184 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

concert with above thirty more, all at the charge of 
Cardinal Ottoboni, who assisted." 

Some account of the position, tastes, and habits 
of Corelli's friend and patron, Cardinal Ottoboni, can 
hardly fail to interest the reader ; I therefore extract 
the following from the " Gentleman's Magazine," 
March, 1740 : " Cardinal Olftoboni died on February 
17th, aged 72. He was advanced to the purple at 
the age of 22. He died possessed of nine abbeys 
in Ecclesiastical States, five in that of Venice, and 
three in that of France He was Dean of the 
Sacred College, and in that quality Bishop of 
Velletri and Ostia, Protector of France, Archpriest of 
St. John de Lateran, and Secretary of the office of 
the Inquisition. He had a particular inclination, 
when young, to music, poetry, and classical learning, 
composing airs, operas, and oratorios.* He made 
the greatest figure of any of the Cardinals, or 
indeed, of any other person in Rome, for he had 
the soul of an emperor, nor was there any princely 
nation but what he endeavoured to imitate, enter- 
taining the people with comedies, operas, puppet 
shows, oratorios, academies, &c. He was magnificent 
in his alms, presents, and entertainments at festivals. 
In the ecclesiastical functions he likewise shewed 
great piety and generosity, and his palace was the 
refuge of the poor, as well as the resort of the 
virtuosi. In his own parish he entertained a 

* It is doubtful whether his musical knowledge went this length. 
I have failed to find any account of these compositions. 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 1 85 

physician, surgeon, and apothecary for the use of all 
that wanted their assistance." 

It was not until the year 1700 that Corelli's 
famous solos appeared, the work above all others 
which has influenced the art of Violin playing. 
They were dedicated to Sophia Charlotte, Electress 
of Bradenburg, the grandmother of Frederick the 
Great, and were probably composed during Corelli's 
stay in Germany, but their publication deferred until 
he had gained renown. That he played them himself 
publicly on special occasions is known, and that he 
regarded them with feelings of satisfaction seems 
clear from his having taken three years to revise 
and correct them. Giardini expressed himself to 
Dr. Burney in the following words, relative to these 
solos : " That of any two pupils of equal age and 
disposition, if the one was to begin his studies by 
Corelli, and the other by Geminiani or any other 
eminent master whatever, I am sure that the first 
would become the best performer." That Giardini 
was correct in his judgment on this point there is 
not a shadow of doubt. 

We now reach the period of Corelli's visit to 
Naples, about the year 1 708 ; it was here that he 
met Scarlatti. Dr. Burney, upon the authority of a 
nameless friend, in whose judgment and probity he 
tells us he had the most perfect reliance, gives an 
account of Corelli at Naples, which is said to have 
been furnished to the Doctor's anonymous acquaint- 
ance by Geminiani five or six years before that 



1 86 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

famous Violinist's death. This conversation, together 
with the whole of the anecdotal portion of Dr. 
Burney's account of Corelli, has been faithfully- 
copied into all notices of the master down to the 
present time, casting a shade over his artistic reputa- 
tion, which, if not wholly removable, may at least be 
made less sombre. Mr. Carlyle might well exclaim, 
" Alas ! go where you will, especially in these 
irreverent ages, the note-worthy dead is sure to be 
found lying under infinite dung, no end of calumnies 
and stupidities accumulated upon him." 

First noticing the Neapolitan anecdote : it seems 
the great Violinist was entreated by Scarlatti to play 
some of his concertos before the King ; this he for 
some time declined ; at length, however, he consented, 
and in great fear performed the first of them. 
Afterwards he was desired to lead in the perform- 
ance of a masque composed by Scarlatti ; this he 
undertook ; but from Scarlatti's little knowledge of 
the Violin, the part was somewhat awkward and 
difficult ; in one place it went up to F, and when 
they came to that passage, Corelli failed, and was 
unable to execute it. A song succeeded this in 
C minor, which Corelli led off in C major. " Let us 
commence once more" said Scarlatti, good-naturedly. 
Still Corelli led off in C major, till Scarlatti was 
obliged to call out to him and set him right. So 
mortified was poor Corelli with this disgrace, and the 
general bad figure he imagined he had made at 
Naples, that he stole back to Rome in silence. It 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 1 87 

was soon after this that a oboe player, whose name 
Geminiani could not recollect, acquired such applause 
at Rome, that Corelli, disgusted, would never play- 
again in public. All these mortifications, joined to the 
success of Valentini, whose concertos and perform- 
ances, though infinitely inferior to those of Corelli, 
were become fashionable, threw him into such a 
state of melancholy and chagrin as was thought, said 
Geminiani, to have hastened his death. Further 
we are told that Corelli " availed himself much of 
the compositions of other masters, particularly of the 
Masses in which he played at Rome ; that he acquired 
much from Lulli, particularly in the method of 
modulating in the legatura; and from Bononcini's 
Camilla." I cannot but think anecdotal matter of 
this flimsy character is out of place in an important 
" History of Music." In justice to Corelli's pupil 
Geminiani — who is made the narrator — Dr. Burney's 
authority should not have been nameless. 

Turning to the History of Sir John Hawkins, 
a personal friend of Geminiani's ; we find a more 
extended and interesting account than Burney 
gives us, but not a word of these anecdotes, which 
is at least remarkable, since it may be inferred that 
Geminiani knew his friend was engaged in writing a 
history of music, and that he would value any 
information relative to Corelli coming from a pupil ; 
but setting aside this as inexplicable, the anecdotes 
in themselves have not the genuine ring. That 
Corelli should perform a concerto in great fear ; that 



1 88 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

he failed to execute a passage because it extended 
to F, one note higher than he had been playing 
in his own solos ; that he was unable to distinguish 
between C major and C minor, would alone seem 
sufficient to stamp their character ; but when we see 
Burney's own estimate of Corelli's executive powers, 
we can hardly be longer in doubt : he tells us Corelli 
" was gifted with no uncommon powers of execution. 
He condescended to aim at difficulty, and manfully 
did all he could in rapidity of finger and bow in the 
long unmeaning allegros of his first, third, and sixth 
solos ; where, for two whole pages together, common , 
chords are broken into common divisions, all of one 
kind and colour, which nothing but the playing with 
great velocity and neatness could ever render toler- 
able"* 

" What ? " says a writer on plagiarism, t " the 
great, the original, the elegant Corelli pilfering much 
from the compositions of other masters, much from 
Lulli, much from Bononcini ? And his scholar to 
stand up with a grave face, and with the most 
unblushing effrontery to make such a statement! 
Away, then, with the eulogiums of his learned 
advocate Burney : well may he say ' the concertos of 
Corelli seem to have withstood all the attacks of 
time and fashion with more firmness than any of his 
other works. The harmony is so pure, so rich, and 
so graceful ; the parts are so clearly, judiciously, and 

* Burney's " History," Vol. III., p. 558. 
t "Quarterly Musical Review," 1822. 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 1 89 

ingeniously disposed ; and the effect of the whole 
from a large band so majestic, solemn, and sublime, 
that they preclude all criticism, and make us forget 
that there is any other music of the same kind 
existing.' " 

Before leaving the subject of Corelli and his 
detractors, I cannot withhold from the reader the 
opinion of a musical critic, who, in his time, com- 
manded universal respect for sound judgment. I 
refer to George Hogarth, the father-in-law of the 
author of " Pickwick." He says, " Dr. Burney, in his 
estimate of Corelli's character as a musician, hardly 
does him justice. His praise is somewhat too cold 
and faint." At the time of Corelli's greatest reputa- 
tion, Geminiani asked Scarlatti what he thought of 
him ; he answered that, " he found nothing greatly to 
admire in his composition, but was extremely struck 
with the manner in which he played his concertos, 
and his nice management of his band, the uncommon 
accuracy of whose performance gave his concertos 
an amazing effect even to the eye as well as the ear." 
For, continued Geminiani, '" Corelli regarded it 
essential to the ensemble of a band, that their bows 
should all move exactly together, all up or all down ; 
so that, at his rehearsals, which constantly preceded 
every public performance of his concertos, he would 
immediately stop the band if he discovered one 
irregular bow." It has been well remarked that, 
" this opinion shows Scarlatti to have been a pre- 
judiced judge, a trifling critic." None but such a 



I90 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

critic could have found nothing in Corelli's music or 
performance worth notice, except his making his 
band draw their bows in one way. As to Geminiani's 
opinion, some feeling of jealousy must have warped 
the judgment of one so well qualified to form a 
sound one. He hardly allows Corelli to possess 
fancy or invention ; but ascribes the delightful effect 
of his music to a nice ear and delicate taste, which 
led him to select the most pleasing melodies and 
harmonies. From whence did he select them ? 
From the stores of melody and harmony contained 
in the contemporary composers ? To some extent 
he certainly did so : but no more than other great 
and most original composers ; not more than Purcell 
from Carissimi, Haydn from Emanuel Bach, or 
Mozart from Gluck, and the Italian dramatic com- 
posers. The best proof of the force and originality 
of Corelli's genius is, that the appearance of his 
works forms one of the most remarkable eras in 
music. All other compositions for the Violin, produced 
either before or during his time, are either totally 
forgotten, or remembered as matters of history ; 
while his simple and natural strains still live, and 
are still heard with delight. 

Leaving the reader to judge whether these 
statements attributed to Geminiani were worthy of 
Dr. Burney's notice, I will pass to the close of 
Corelli's life. Corelli died at Rome on the 1 8th of 
January, 171 3, possessed of about six thousand 
pounds, a sum of money about equal to twenty 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. It) I 

thousand in England at the present time, besides 
leaving a collection of pictures, many of which were 
presented to him by artists of celebrity with whom 
he was upon terms of friendship. He made his 
great friend and patron, Cardinal Ottoboni, his sole 
legatee, who generously distributed the legacy among 
the testator's relatives, with the exception of the 
pictures, which he retained. He was buried in the 
Church of Santa Maria della Rotunda, (the ancient 
Pantheon) in the first chapel on the left hand of the 
entrance ; over the place of burial is a marble bust, 
erected at the expense of Philip William Count 
Palatine of the Rhine, near that of Raphael. The 
bust represents him with a roll of music in his hand, 
on which is engraven a few notes of what appears to 
be the famous jig in the fifth sonata : — 




There is also the following inscription — 

D. o. M. 

Archangellio Corellio a Fusignano 

Philippi Willelmi Comitis Palatini Rheni 

S.R.I. Principis ac Electoris, 

Beneficentia, 

Marchionis de Ladensburg, 

Quod eximiis animi dotibus, 

Et incomparabili in musicis modulis peritia, 

Summis Pontificibus apprime cams, 

Italiae atque exteris nationibus admirationi fuerit 

Indulgente Clemente XI. P. O. M. 



192 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Petrus Cardinalis Ottobonus S.R.E. Vic. Can., 

Et Galliarum Protector, 

Lyristse celeberrimo. 

Inter familiares sous jam diu adscito, 

Ejus nomen immortalitati commendaturus, 

M. P. C. 

Vixit annos LIX. Mens X. Dies XX. 

Obiit IV. Id. Januarii Anno Sal. MDCCXIII. 

For many years a musical performance was held in 
the Pantheon, on the anniversary of his death, upon 
which occasion his concertos were performed by a 
numerous band. 

Sir John Hawkins mentions a portrait of Corelli, 
painted by Mr. Hugh Howard for Lord Edgcumbe, 
who is said to have been a pupil of his. The picture 
was painted between 1687 and 1700, according to 
Horace Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting. The 
engraving by Smith is from this picture. 

Having marshalled all the information likely to 
interest the reader relative to Corelli, it is time to 
turn to his published works ; but stay, I have yet to 
notice a piece of intelligence of interest to the lovers 
of Italian Violins, contained in the pages of Roger 
North, an author you will think I am never tired of 
quoting ; but I have, at least, good authority for 
depending upon his authorship, in one opposed to 
him politically, since it is Macaulay who says, he was 
" a most intolerant Tory, a most affected and pedantic 
writer, but a vigilant observer of all those minute 
circumstances which throw light on the dispositions 
of men." It is from the pen of this vigilant observer 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 1 93 

that we learn that " most of the young nobility and 
gentry that have travelled into Italy affected to learn 
of Corelli, and brought home with them such favour 
for the Italian music, as hath given it possession of 
our Parnassus. And the best utensil of Apollo, the 
Violin, is so universally courted, and sought after, to 
be had of the best sort, that some say England hath 
dispeopled Italy of Violins. And no wonder, after the 
great master made that instrument speak as it were 
a human voice, saying to his scholars, " Non udite lo 
parlare." We therefore appear to have carried off 
the Fiddles of the Amatis in the life-time of the 
makers. Whether we did so to a like extent with the 
Strads, Josephs, and Bergonzis, matters but little ; 
certain it is, the majority is with us, and it is as true 
now as in the days of Roger North, that, " England 
hath dispeopled Italy of Violins." 

( ^RELLl'g LCOMPOSITIONS. 

Op. 1, XII Suonate a tre, due Violini e Violoncello, 
col Basso per l'Organo. Rome, 1683. 

Of these sonatas it may be remarked that the first 
and third operas consist of fugues and slow move- 
ments, without any intermixture of airs ; these are 
termed Suonate da Chiesa, in contradistinction to 
those in the second and fourth operas, which are 
styled da Camera. The former, we are told by 
Mattheson, were usually played in the churches 
abroad, after divine service, and the whole four 
operas for many years furnished the second music 
o 



194 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

before the play at both theatres in London.t Mr. 
Chappell, in his " Popular Music of the Olden Time," 
explains the meaning of second music. " Down to 
the time of the 'Beggar's Opera' it had been the 
custom to perform three movements of instrumental 
music, termed ' first, second, and third music,' before 
the commencement of each play. A story is told of 
Rich, the manager, who, when the customary music 
was called for by the audience at the first perform- 
ance of the ' Beggar's Opera,' came forward and said, 
' Ladies and gentlemen, there is no music to an 
opera (setting the house in a roar of laughter) ; I 
mean, ladies and gentlemen, an opera is all music* " 

Op. 2, XI I Suonate da Camera a tre, due Violini, 
Violoncello, e Violone o Cembalo. Rome, 1 685. 

There were two editions of this work published 
in Amsterdam, the last under the title of " Balletti da 
Camera." 

Op. 3, XII Suonate a tre, due Violini e Archelluto, 
col Basso per l'Organo. Bologna, 1690. 

A second edition of this work was engraved at 
Antwerp, and a third at Amsterdam. The Arch- 
Lute was an instrument used in common with the 
Double Bass. 

Op. 4, XII Suonate da Camera a tre, due Violini 
e Violone o Cembalo. Bologna, 1694. 
The following curious advertisement relative 
to these sonatas, is from the London Gazette, 

t Drury Lane, and the one in Lincoln's Inn Fields. 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 1 95 

1695. " Twelve sonatas (newly come over from 
Rome), in three parts, composed by Signeur Arch- 
angelo Corelli, and dedicated to his Highness the 
Elector of Bavaria, this present year, 1694, are to 
be had, fairly prick'd (copied) from the true original, 
at Mr. Ralph Agutter's, musical instrument maker, 
over against York Buildings, in the Strand, London." 
The above clearly evidences the interest taken 
by the English musical public in good music at this 
period, for the enterprising Mr. Ralph Agutter to 
have copied the work within twelve months of its 
being published in Bologna. I am not aware that it is 
possible to give an earlier instance of the circulation 
of Corelli's music than this. The earliest mention of 
Corelli's works in an English catalogue is that of 
Walsh, 1705. In the catalogue of Britton's sale we 
see mentioned the MSS. of Corelli's works in 
Italian writing, and since his concerts were held 
between 1678 and 1714, it is likely he had them 
direct from Italy ; at any rate, I think it may be said 
that at the Small-Coal- Man's music meetings the 
music of Corelli was first heard in England. 

Op. 5, XII Suonate a Violino e Violone o Cembalo, 

parte prima; parte secunda, preludi, alle- 

mande, correnti, gighe, sarabande, gavotte, e 

follia. Rome, 1700. 

T he ninth ^ _sonat a of this set is the general 

favourite, and the one so often played by Dragonetti 

and Lindley. The twelfth is the " Follia," being 

divisions on a ground or air by Farinelli, a musician 

o 2 



I96 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

of the Hanoverian Court, and a friend of Corelli's. 
M. Alard and Herr Helmsberger have published 
editions of the^ first sona ta with pianoforte accom- 
paniment, and the twelve sonatas were arranged as 
trios by George Piggot. 

The following remarks from Mr. Chorley's pen are 
singularly apt in reference to these solos.* "Rococo, 
this music sounds, no doubt, to ears that prefer the 
free forms of modern art, yet its proportion and 
stately beauty are no less remarkable than the 
variety of the ideas, if they be stripped of their old 
Italian clothing; such a melody, for instance, as the 
^rabajidfi_iri^No. 7, would be fresh in any age of 
the world's music — must have been little short of 
daring when it was written." 

Op. 6, Concerti Grossi, con due Violini e Violon- 
cello di Concertino obbligati, e due altri Violini, 
Viola, e Basso di Concerto grosso ad arbitrio, 
che si potranno radoppiare. Rome, December, 
1712. 
In the list of Tom Britton's collection of music 
no mention is made of Op. 6, pointing to the correct- 
ness of the statement that they were first heard in 
England at Needler's music meetings. 

This was the last work of Corelli's, and written 
some years before publication. Thejaastorale from 
its eighth concerto, written for Christmas Eve, 
entitled "Fatto per la Notte di Natale," is considered 
one of the finest of his compositions. " Nothing 

* " Athenaeum," No. 1607, 1858. 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. igj 

can exceed in dignity and majesty_th e openin g of 
the first concerto , nor, for its plaintive sweetness, 
^the_wholeof the third_; and he must have no 
ears, nor feeling of the power of harmony, or the 
effects of modulation, who can listen to the eighth^ 
without rapture."* These concertos were frequently 
performed at the Concerts of Ancient Music as sym- 
phonies for a large orchestra, and the effect was very 
great. Recently, a revival has set in, in favour of 
bringing forth the treasures of the old masters. 
Corelli's music has not been forgotten in this move- 
ment, and it is not impossible we may yet hear a 
modern orchestra perform these grand old composi- 
tions, and thus carry us back to the days of the 
Ancient Concerts. It is, however, doubtful whether 
the performance on a large scale of Corelli's 
concertos is within their meaning. 

The introduction into England of these concertos 
is curious and interesting ; Mr. Henry Needier, an 
amateur Violinist, a pupil of Purcell for composition, 
and of John Bannister for his instrument, was in 
the habit of attending the weekly private music 
parties held at the houses of the Earls of Burlington 
and Essex, and others ; upon these occasions he 
often played the music of Corelli, in the rendering 
of which he was regarded as superior to any Violinist 
of his time. It happened that Needier was acquainted 
with a bookseller in the Strand, who frequently 
received consignments of books from Amsterdam. 

* Hawkins' " History of Music." 



198 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Upon one occasion Corelli's concertos were included 
in a parcel of books ; well knowing Mr. Needler's 
interest in music, the bookseller immediately started 
in search of him, discovering him at the house of a 
musical friend, engaged in the performance of 
chamber music. The sight of the bookseller's 
newly imported treasure threw Needier into an 
ecstacy of delight, the parts were at once allotted to 
the different performers, and not until the whole 
twelve concertos had been played did they rise from 
their seats. Admirable enthusiasm ! ! 



Section $1.— ^hc liolin tit Italg. 



CHAPTER III. 

OIX years prior to the performance of the 
Allegorical Opera, at the Palace of the Queen 
of Sweden, at Rome, upon which occasion, as before 
mentioned, Corelli led the orchestra ; Alessandro 
Scarlatti was superintending the representation of 
one of his earliest operas in the same palace, and 
appears to have remained in the service of the 
Queen as musical director and composer, until the 
year 1688, when he became master of the Royal 
Chapel at Naples. It will thus be seen that Corelli 
and Alessandro Scarlatti, the foremost Italian 
musicians of their time, and to whom is distinctly 
traceable that development of instrumental music 
which gave to it a new and higher life, were often 
in each other's society. It is said that in the opera 
of " Laodicea e Berenice," played in 1701, Scarlatti 
composed an obbligato Violin accompaniment to a 
charming air allotted to the tenor voice, which he did 
specially for Corelli. It is clear that Scarlatti was 
resolved to developfe the Violin in his field of work, 
as Corelli had done in his. He gave to the instru- 



200 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

ment a distinct part to perform as an accompaniment 
to the voice. His orchestra was composed of 
Violins, Tenors, Violoncellos, Double Basses, two 
Hautboys, and two Horns, a combination before 
unknown. It is unnecessary to make here other 
than passing reference to the changes effected by 
Scarlatti in .operatic compositions ; they were of 
a character and solidity sufficient to make the 
School of Naples the foremost in Italy, and served 
in a great measure to give to the works of the 
immortal Handel that melodious richness which 
is at once bold and pathetic. 

Leaving Scarlatti, we will notice his famous 
_r^piLJ£orpora : although like his master, a prolific 
composer of operas, he is associated with the history 
I of the music of the Violin. Had he alone written 
| the Sonata selected by David, in " Die Hohe 
I Schule," he would have achieved lasting fame among 
'■ Violinists ; he left, however, other compositions of 
the kind, interesting, if not so good. It was Porpora 
who came to England in the year 1733, to conduct 
the opera in opposition to that of Handel, and 
remained here some few years. Frederick, Prince 
of Wales, for some time was in this opposition 
camp ; and thus we find Porpora's six Sinfonia da 
Camera, for two Violins and a Bass, dedicated to his 
Royal Highness in 1736. These trios, Burney 
says, " like the' instrumental music of vocal com- 
posers — except that of Handel and J. C. Bach — are 
fanciless, and no more fit for one instrument than 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 201 

another." Fetis follows in the same tone of criticism. 
To mention Porppra and omit the traditional 
anecdote relative to Haydn's menial performances 
about the person of the Neapolitan singing-master, 
is like sending a dish to table without the customary- 
sauce. A Venetian nobleman was at Vienna, as 
Ambassador for the Venetian Republic;, Porpora was 
staying at the Embassy, when Haydn resolved to 
attach himself to the Ambassador's suite, in order 
to gather musical knowledge from the Maestro. 
Haydn, indifferent to everybody but Porpora, 
employed every means to make a favourable impres- 
sion upon him, and thus gain his patronage. He 
rose betimes, brushed Porpora' s boots, and arranged, 
to the best of his ability, the musician's wig. 
Porpora, frequently in ill humour, acknowledged 
these little attentions on the part of Haydn by 
calling him a fool. At length, however, the perse- 
verance of his young attendant overcame the 
seeming insurmountable obstacles, and Haydn not 
only received the instruction he sought, but a pension 
of three pounds per month. Haydn, now inde- 
pendent, purchased a black coat and attached himself 
to the service of the Church of the Fathers of 
Mercy, as one of the Violinists, and filled up his 
spare time in the study of composition. 

Gio3njm__^aUisla_JPergolesi, though chiefly 
known as a composer of music for the Church, wrote 
thirty trios for two Violins and a Bass, two-thirds of 
which were printed in London and Amsterdam. I 



202 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

have not met with any critical remarks in reference to 
these trios, neither am I able to give any clue to the 
whereabouts of any copies. Judging from the 
character of Pergolesi's ecclesiastical music, they 
are doubtless graced with melody in its tenderest 
mood. Pergolesi gained lasting fame when he 
composed his " Stabat Mater," and secured for himself 
a place among the curiosities of musical literature 
when he sold it for a trifle less than half the pittance 
Milton received for his " Paradise Lost," some 
thirty-five shillings ! ! 

Again it is necessary to turn to Venice. The 
reader is already acquainted with much of the great 
work accomplished by the musicians of the Venetian 
States. Each step we take in our enquiries, 
Venetian excellence in composition, executive ability, 
and instrument manufacture, becomes more manifest. 
In scanning the list of Italian musicians, and glancing 
at the accounts furnished of their careers, Venice 
and the Chapel of St. Mark, Brescia, Bergamo, and 
Mantua recur again and again. Baptista Vivaldi, the 
father of Antonio Vivaldi, Corelli's famous contem- 
porary, was a Violinist at St. Mark's; Antonio 
ViyaLdi, after passing some time in the service of 
Philip, Elector of Hesse Darmstadt, returned to 
Venice in 171 3, and obtained the appointment of 
director of the Musical Academy, which he held to 
the end of his life in 1743. He is said to have 
been an excellent Violinist ; the name of Vivaldi is 
yet green in the memories of our country cousins as 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 203 

the composer of the Cuckoo solo — often given the 
still higher title of Cuckoo concerto — a composition 
which owes its popularity, like many a book, to its 
title. I am disposed to think the association of 
Vivaldi's name with this ornithological composition, 
has deprived him of the credit which he is entitled 
to, his abilities having been gauged by this solo, and 
found wanting ; his meritorious writings are passed 
over in consequence. To remove all doubt as to 
Vivaldi's talents, I need only mention that Sebastian 
Bach admired them sufficiently to arrange two 
concertos from Vivaldi's third work as a quintet. 
Besides instrumental music, Vivaldi was the com- 
poser of twenty-eight operas, all published at 
Venice. 

In Venice the Violinist and dramatic composer, 
Tomasso Alb inpni, was born, and passed his life. 
Like Vivaldi, he was a prolific operatic composer ; 
but his chamber music is best appreciated. In his 
sonatas for the Violin there is much that is historically 
interesting; the date of their publication is 1700. 
Sebastian Bach selected some of the themes of this 
composer for his learned treatment. 

Carlo AntonioJVIarini, born at Bergamo, Violinist 
and composer for his instrument. The dates of his 
compositions were all prior to the close of the 
seventeenth century. 

FrancescoJVIancini, a Neapolitan composer, born 
in 1674, is known chiefly from his operatic works. 
There is, however, a set of twelve solos for a Violin 



204 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

and Bass, dedicated to the English Consul at Naples, 
(Hon. J. Fleetwood), revised by Geminiani, which 
were published in London by Walsh. Among 
these solos were several of no little merit, and not 
unworthy of being issued in a modern edition. 

Count Albergati, a distinguished amateur of 
BolognaTcomposed works for stringed instruments, 
consisting of sonatas for Violins and Basses, pub- 
lished in Bologna in 1682, 1683, 1685 and 1687. 

Francesco Montanari, pupil of Corelli, born at 
Padua. In 171 7 he was solo Violinist at St. Peter's. 
He published at Bologna twelve sonatas for his 
instrument, which were reprinted at Amsterdam. 

At Naples there flourished about 1700, Pedrillo, 
said to have held high rank as a Violinist. There 
also was born Michele Mascitti, who, after travelling 
through Italy, Holland, and Germany, settled in 
Paris, where he died about 1750. There were 
English editions of some of Mascitti's compositions. 

Another Venetian composer for the Violin, was 
J. ]VL^Ruggeri ; nearly all his instrumental com- 
positions were published before the close of the 
seventeenth century. 

Scherzi geniali ridotti a regolo armonica in dieci 
Sonate da Camera a tre, cioe due Violini e 
Violone o Cembalo, Op. 2, 1690. 
Sonate da Chiesa, a due Violini e Violone o Tiorbo, 
con il suo Basso continuo per l'Organo, 1693, 
Op. 3. Do., do., Op. 4, 1697. 

12 Cantate con e soure Violini, Op. 5, 1706. 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 20$ 

_Tonini was born at Verona about 1668. His 
Violin compositions were published at Amsterdam 
and Venice, 

_Bitti^a Violinist at the Court of the Grand Duke 
of Tuscany, published twelve sonatas for two Violins 
and a Bass. 

When Corelli had reached the topmost stave of 
Fame's ladder, and in the year when his solos were 
engraved, Francesco IVtaria Veracini, a Violinist of 
extraordinary genius, was nearing his twentieth 
birthday, and presumably pursuing his musical 
studies at Florence, the place of his birth, under the 
guidance of his uncle Antonio Veracini, whom I 
have already noticed as a Violinist and composer of 
sonatas. It will therefore be seen that Francesco 
Veracini was not under the direct influence of the 
writings or playing of Corelli during his early life, 
however much he may have been at a later period. 
. It was Veracini whom Tartini heard at Venice in 
the year 1 714, and with whose abilities he was so 
impressed. He readily detected the introduction of 
novel and interesting effects in the writings of 
Veracini, which convinced him that a new path in 
Violin music had been taken. 

In looking over the sonatas of Veracini it is not 
difficult to discover the effects which pleased Tartini ; 
\ that in E minor, which David makes use of in " Die 
Hohe Schule," teems with novel passages. The 
minuetand gavotte — which, by the way, belongs to a 
distinct work — cannot fail to leave an impression on 



206 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

the listener, of its being wholly original. Again, in 
the jig of the first sonata, we have the galop and the 
whip of the postilion admirably portrayed in notes : 
none but a master of his art could make use of such 
trivial effects without vulgarity, but with Veracini 
they are neither vulgar or common-place. In a later 
sonata he introduces an echo with the same results. 
Effects like these may seem unworthy of a great 
musician's notice ; we have, however, to bear in mind 
the infantile condition of Violin music at the time : in 
so doing we are better able to appreciate such 
efforts at giving additional strength, and particularly 
when accompanied with contrapuntal excellence. In 
whatever light we view these writings of Francesco 
Veracini, we can scarcely fail to see in them the 
heralds of those of Tartini and his Devil's Trille 
most notably. 

The year 17 14, besides being associated with the 
coming of the first of our four Georges to England, 
figures in musical history as the period of Veracini's 
appearance before an English audience, which took 
place at the Opera House, when Veracini played 
between the acts of the opera, as was then and long 
after the custom for soloists to do. His reception was 
marked with singular cordiality. The same year 
Geminiani came to London, but whether he preceded 
Veracini I know not, but am inclined to think the 
visit of Geminiani was owing to the flattering recep- 
tion accorded to his brother musician and countryman. 
In 1720 Veracini was at Dresden, where he was 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 207 

appointed as solo Violinist to Augustus, at once 
Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, famous as 
a great patron of the arts ; indeed, a very German 
Louis XIV. To this German Prince and Polish 
King the charming sonatas of Veracini were 
inscribed. 

Veracini, like the rest of original-minded men, did 
not succeed in escaping the attacks of those Mr. 
Carlyle describes as " flunkies doing saturnalia below 
stairs." Ostentation, jealousy, and vanity were 
the sins placed to his account ; all instanced by 
anecdotes of the average twaddling description. The 
essence of one only I intend to notice. Pisendel, a 
native of Carlsburg, magnified for the occasion into 
the greatest Violinist of his age, is said to have 
resolved upon lowering Veracini's conceit of his own 
abilities. I n true Quixotic fashion, Pisendel challenges 
his brother musician to combat, happily not mortal, 
but to play a concerto which Pisendel had composed. 
Veracini, like a true knight, picked up the glove, or 
rather the bow, and somewhat ^concerted his 
antagonist by executing the concerto, with, if not as 
much precision as William Tell with his bow brought 
to bear on the apple, yet with much skill, considering 
he did it at first sight. Pisendel, contrary to the 
laws of chivalrous Fiddling, had previously given the 
concerto to a mere scraper to conquer by sheer hard 
labour for days and nights ; Veracini, having fought 
his battle as described, the scraper was led into the 
arena to re-attack the already executed concerto, 



208 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

which, in. accordance with the spirit of the anecdote, 
was done in such a masterly manner that Veracini 
was humbled, and Pisendel of course victorious. 
Veracini, after this dire event, is represented to have 
quitted Dresden — the scene of the combat — and was 
attacked with fever ; the result of the exciting events 
already noticed. In a fit of delirium he opened 
his window, from which he leaped and broke his leg. 
How such musical book-making material as this 
could be used over and over again, during a century 
and ,a half, I am at a loss to understand. That 
Veracini broke his leg by leaping from a window 
in an unconscious condition, is easily understood ; 
but that Pisendel and his concerto was the primary 
cause of the disaster, seems, to say the least, absurd. 
Veracini was a composer of several operas ; his 
" Adriano " was performed in London by command 
of the king in 1735. Dr. Burney tells us he heard 
Veracini play in 1745 at Hickford's Concert Room, 
in Brewer Street — the Hanover Square Rooms of 
the early part of the eighteenth century — Veracini 
would then be about sixty years of age. According 
to Dr. Burney he led the band in a bold and 
masterly manner, such as he had never heard before. 
Shortly after this, the famous Violinist was ship- 
wrecked, and lost his two precious Stainer Violins, 
which he named St. Peter and St. Paul, from which 
we see that the Continental and British ideas of 
profanity with regard to Fiddle nomenclature are 
not quite the same. In 1747 Veracini retired to 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 209 

Pisa, where he died in 1750. There are two sets of 
sonatas by Veracini, Op. 1 and Op. 2. The first 
set was engraved by Roger, of Amsterdam, and 
re-published by Walsh. The second set was 
published in Dresden. 

The achievements of Giuse ppe Tartini in rela- 
tion to the Violin and its music next claims our 
attention, regarding him as a follower in the footsteps 
of Francesco Veracini. The position of Tartini in 
the annals of the king of instruments is indeed a 
proud one ; not only was he a remarkable Violinist 
and composer for his instrument, but an accomplished 
and highly cultured man, possessed of that modesty 
which is rarely absent where exceptional genius 
reigns. Tartini was born at Pirano on the twelfth 
of April, 1692. His parents wishing him to follow 
a monastic life, his early years were passed in a 
monastery. In his eighteenth year, however, he 
appears to have been occupied in the study of 
Italian jurisprudence; but, like his great German- 
contemporary, George Frederick Handel, he probably 
discovered the science of the law to be one unresolv- 
able discord, and therefore unsuited to a musically 
harmonious temperament. We scarcely require the 
musical historian to tell us this, since it is written in 
the " suites " of the German, and the sonatas of the 
Italian. 

That Tartini had found his true vocation before 
the year 1721, is seen from his appointment as solo 
Violinist and conductor to the church of St. Anthony 



2IO THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

at Padua. In 1728 we find him at the head of a 
Violin school in Padua, where Bini, Nardini, Ferrari 
Pagin, and other eminent Violinists received instruc- 
tion, through whom was carried onward the art of 
Violin playing which Veracini introduced, and Tartini 
enriched with musical learning and much executive 
development. Although frequently importuned to 
leave his Paduan home and visit the chief European 
capitals, Tartini could not be induced to exchange 
the peaceful life he led there, acquiring and imparting 
knowledge of his art, for One of everlasting conten- 
tion with the famous Violinists of his time. The 
spirit of rivalry had no place in his amiable and 
gentle disposition ; to be a successful public performer 
and avoid contention in some shape or other is 
difficult, and when it presents itself it needs the 
quality of combativeness to wrestle with it. 

Tartini died at Padua in the month of February, 
1 7 70, deeply mourned by the citizens among whom 
he lived nearly half a century. He was buried in 
the Church of St. Catherine ; a requiem, composed 
by Valotti, was performed at the Church of St. 
Anthony. 

The melody and harmony of Tartini's music 
reminds us of the words of Campbell on the poetry 
of Spenser : " beautiful, in its antiquity, and, like 
the moss and ivy on some majestic building, covers 
the fabric of his ' music' with romantic and venerable 
associations." In Mainwaring's Memoirs of the Life 
of Handel, published in 1760, eighteen years before 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 211 

Burney wrote of Tartini, we read of him that " all 
his melody is so truly vocal in its style and character, 
that those parts of it which do not exceed the 
compass and powers of a voice, one would almost 
imagine were intended to be sung : the most difficult 
passages bear the same character, which was very 
apparent when they were executed by himself ; and 
all the Italians were so strongly sensible of this, that 
in speaking of his manner of playing, they often 
made use of the following expression : ' non suona, 
canta ful Violino! The reason why the compo- 
sitions of this great master are admired by so few 
people in England, is that the performers of them 
neither enter into the true character of the music, 
nor play it according to the intention of its author. 
The more any piece of music is delicate and 
expressive, the more insipid and disagreeable must 
it appear under a coarse and unmeaning execution : 
just as the most delicate strokes of humour in 
comedy, and the most affecting turns, of passion in 
tragedy, will suffer infinitely more from being 
improperly read than a common paragraph in a 
newspaper." 

It is interesting to find Dr. Burney writing in 
1788, "The productions of Boccherini, Haydn, 
Pleyel, Vanhall, and others, have occasioned such a 
revolution in Violin music and playing, by the fertility 
and boldness of their invention, that compositions 
which were generally thought full of spirit and fire, 
appear now totally tame and insipid." From these 
p 2 



2 I 2 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

remarks it would seem that the music of Tartini was 
gradually collecting on the topmost shelves of second- 
hand book and music sellers. With what amazement 
would Dr. Burney and his contemporaries view this 
" tame and insipid " music lying on Chippendale 
desks and tables in our modern houses of a type of 
architecture common in England when Tartini gave 
his works to the world ! How surprised they would 
be to learn that the original writings of Corelli, 
Handel, Tartini and others had caused the demand 
to so far exceed the supply that sarabands, jigs, and 
bourees were made to order of Brummagem texture ! 
Their astonishment would be still further heightened 
when they beheld on the same Chippendale desks 
and tables the compositions of Brahms, Raff, and 
Rubinstein; the boldness, if not the fertility of 
Vanhall and Pleyel would be probably less striking, 
though better understood. 

The compositions of Tartini comprise : Op. i, 
Twelve Concertos, in two books, published by Roger, 
Amsterdam, in 1734, with accompaniment for two 
Violins, Tenor, and Violoncello, and Thorough-bass 
for the Clavecin. Fetis remarks, that " of these 
Concertos three were published long after in Paris." 
Op. 2, A set of Six Sonatas for Violin, with Bass, 
engraved at Rome, 1745. Op. 3, Twelve Sonatas 
for Violin with Bass. The first six of this set, Fetis 
remarks, are identical with Op. 2. Op. 4, Six 
Concertos with accompaniments. Op. 5, Six Sonatas 
for Violin and Bass, dedicated to Pagin. Op. 6, 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 213 

ditto. Op. 7, ditto. Op. 8, ditto. " The Art of 
Bowing," consisting of fifty variations on Corelli' s 
Gavotte : — - 



■ mr rTr-^t 



te 



m 



« 



Ferdinand David has edited these Variations 
with accompaniment for the Pianoforte ; and 
Leonard has selected Nine Variations, to which 
he has added a Pianoforte accompaniment. 

He left, in manuscript, forty-eight Sonatas for 
Violin and Bass, a Trio for two Violins and Bass, and 
other works ; among which appears to have been the 
famous " Sonata du Diable," which we are told was 
published about 1805. Be that as it may, Michael 
Kelly relates that he heard Nardini play the 
" Devil's Sonata " at Florence at the house of Lord 
Cowper, in 1779; it must have, therefore, been 
circulated in manuscript. 

It was upon this occasion that Mr. Jackson, an 
English gentleman, asked Nardini whether the 
anecdote relative to this Sonata, which M. de la 
Lande had assured Burney that Tartini had related 
to him, was true ? Nardini replied that he had often 
heard his master mention the circumstance : "He 
said that one night he dreamed that, he entered into 
a contract with the devil, in fulfilment of which his 
Satanic Majesty was bound to perform all his 
behests ; he placed his Violin in his hands and 



2I 4 



THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 



asked him to play, and the devil played a Sonata 
so exquisite, that in the delirium of applause which 
he was bestowing, he awoke, and flew to the 
instrument to retain some of the passages, but 
in vain ! They had fled ! Yet the Sonata haunted 
his imagination day and night, and he endeavoured 
to compose one in imitation which he called ' The 
Devil's Trill.' " 




The truth of the anecdote is engraven in the 
Sonata itself, and needs no confirmation. From 
beginning to end it evidences the desire of a power- 
ful musical genius to record the remembrances of 
sounds heard in a gnomish dream. The wondrous 
force and spirit which pervades the whole compo- 



THE VIOL/N IN ITALY. 



215 



sition is indicative of its being the reflexion, .in 
notes, of a mind deeply impressed with ghostly- 
musical recollections : the charming larghetto, 
with its dreamy, measured, spectre-like utterances, 
gently whispering, as it were, to the sleeper to 
hearken unto a demon's music : — 

Larghetto affettuoso. 



i^ 



^^m. 



& 



TTJ- 



dolce. 




W fcgjJ^jH^ 



The exquisite melancholy character of this intro- 
ductory music is momentarily interrupted with a 
a demoniacal Ha! or laugh, in the form of tenths, 
seemingly uttered to remind the dreamer of the 
Satanic character of his visitor : — 

J-JL 



1 ? 1-^fr- 



at+z 



s 



-1 T\—l 

These are shortly followed by other unexpected 
fiendish cachinnations, in thirds, of grating shrill- 
ness : — - 




216 



THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 



With the termination of this graceful movement 
the demon is apparently satisfied with the spell he 
has wrought, and gives full vent to his hilarity in a 
change of movement : — 

Tempo giusto. 




The repetition of his fiendish Ha I Ha ! Ha ! 
a third higher, well marks his delight, and he at 
once enters upon his spirit-stirring theme, " The 
Devil's Trill." 




==^ 



Again he laughs ! 



=51 



=*=* 



P^^f 



m 






Ha! Ha! 



Ha! 



and trills again and again ! 

Suddenly, as though fearful of having over- 
excited the dreamer, in an under-tone and in slow 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 



217 



measured notes, he gives utterance to music at once 
melancholy, soothing, and melodious : — 



Andante. *f- 




His hiliariousness, however, speedily returns, the 
change of movement being suggestive of the 
performer marching to the sound of his Violin, in 
front of the sleeper : — 



Allegro assai. 



fei 



w=* 



f 



-#-#■ 



t=£ 



-#-#- 



LULT fTM 



And now trill follows upon trill with wondrous 
speed, until its duration seems interminable ; but 
again — he marches, with quickened step — 
to the same subject, a fifth higher than before. 

Allegro. 



m 



^3 



p 



m 



The trill is yet once more intensified, but the end is 
near. All is hushed as the sounds of the trill die 
away, when the sleeper half awakens, and, with 
vacant eyes, he looks in vain for his talisman ; he 
listens! and hears receding sounds of soft muted music, 



2l8 



THE VIOLIN AN~D ITS MUSIC. 



and fancies he sees him, enveloped in vapour, retreat- 
ing, and vanish with the last long-drawn chord, 
echoing his bewildered thoughts, gone ! gone ! 



± 



mM 



&- 



% 



U- 



m 



J^S 



p&- 



m. 



fW^f: 



B-* 



^r 



F- 



L^ 3 






3 



=- — »- 



wm 



■ei sF 



"pFlNE. 

We have seen that Francesco Veracini and 
Geminiani were rivals in London in the year 1714. 
According to the accounts furnished by musical 
historians the fame of Veracini soon evaporated in 
its contact with the genius of Geminiani. This is a 
phenomenon traceable alone to that fickle element, 
fashion, since it may be said that Geminiani was the 
spirit of Corelli much diluted, whilst Veracini was 
the essence of the great master fortified with I'eau 
de vie. In music, as in most things, faction and 
fashion often render dim, genius and ability; but the 
scythe of Time, as it truly and surely mows its crop 
of celebrities, destroys all artificial barriers ; and 
therefore to time we turn for independent judgment. 

Musicians' works, like books, are often super- 
seded, but withal the valuable live — though sometimes 
quiescent — the indifferent linger, the bad die almost 
as soon as born. Remembering all the pages which 
have been filled with the fame of Geminiani, 
it may seem bold criticism to class his writings with 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 219 

the indifferent, and therefore of a lingering reputation ; 
but such, I believe, is their true position. Notwith- 
standing that they figure in new editions of the 
works of the old masters, there does not appear to 
be any eagerness shown to perform them, which is a 
a sure sign of their failure to satisfy, beside the 
compositions of Veracini and Tartini. It would 
seem to be the anomalous place they hold in the 
music of the instrument that renders them mainly 
unpopular, coming as they do midway between the 
old and the new. The Violin compositions of 
Geminiani consist of solos, sonatas, and concertos, 
an instruction book, and a treatise on good taste in 
the art of music. 

Another and greater pupil of Corelli was Pie tro 
Locatelli, born at Bergamo about the year 1693. 
From Rome he went to Amsterdam, where he 
seems to have passed his life, dying there in the 
year 1764. His abilities were greatly valued by 
those around him ; but our Burney evidently failed 
to appreciate them, since he tells us he was "a 
voluminous composer of music that excites more 
surprise than pleasure." This opinion was penned 
long before Locatelli's peculiarly original style of 
composition had become a power in the art of Violin 
playing. Louis Spohr had not made the ear familiar 
with intricate chromatic passages; the genius of 
Paganini had not been dedicated to the development 
of the extraordinary, the embryo of which lay in the 
studies and sonatas of his famous countryman. In 



2 20 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

remembering these things the criticism of Burney is 
better understood. 

It is in the works of Locatelli we find instances 
of raising the pitch of the first string; but this 
innovation is traceable to another Violinist named 
Pritsk, the composer of three sonatas, in which the 
first string is raised.* This practice was very 
properly discountenanced by Pugnani and Viotti, but 
adopted by Lolli and Paganini. The first work of 
Locatelli's was published at Amsterdam in 1721, 
consisting of Twelve Concertos in the style of those 
of Corelli. Op. 3 forms the " L'Arte del Violino," 
comprising Concertos and Caprices for two Violins, 
Tenor, and Violoncello. The next work consists of 
Six Concertos, followed shortly after by the Six 
Sonatas for two Violins and a Bass. Op. 6 forms 
the Twelve Sonatas for Violin alone. Op. 7, Six 
Concertos. Op. 9, L'Arte di Nuova Modulazione, 
known to Violinists as Caprices or Studies, the 
twenty-third of which is the famous " Le Laby- 
rinthe de 1' Harmonic" 

Giuseppe Val entin i, a native of Florence, born 
about 1690, was a Violinist of considerable renown, 
and a composer of much stringed instrument music : 
which Dr. Burney tells us has been " long since 
consigned to oblivion, without any loss to the public 
or injustice to the author." The greatest Violoncellist 
of the present age — Signor Piatti — is evidently not 
of the same opinion, since he recently adapted 
* Lavoix fils, " Histoire de l'lnstrumentation,'' p. 50. 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 221 

one of Valentini's sonatas for his instrument, and 
has played it publicly on several occasions. Among 
his works we find Trios for two Violins and Violon- 
cello, called sinfonies and fantasias, concertos and 
sonatas. 

Alberti of_ _Bologna , born in 1685, pupil of Man- 
zolini, wrote and published concertos ; also Twelve 
Sonatas for Violin with an accompaniment for a 
Bass ; and, lastly, Twelve Symphonies for String 
Quartett with Organ. 

We have now to refer to another pupil of Corelli, 
P ietro Castru cci, born at Rome about the year 1690. 
In 1 715 Castrucci appears to have entered the 
service of that great music patron the Earl of 
Burlington, whose concerts were often directed by 
Handel, and attended by Pope, Gay, and Arbuthnot, 
and other celebrities. It was Gay who wrote, in 
passing the Earl's house in Piccadilly, 

" There Handel strikes the strings, the melting strain 
Transports the soul, and thrills through every vein ; 
There oft I enter." 

And it was Pope, who, after listening to Handel's 
exquisite harpsichord playing, declared he had 
given him no pleasure, that his ears were of that 
untoward make and reprobate cast to receive his 
music with as much indifference as a common 
ballad. But let us leave the poet without an 
ear for music, and return to the musician. Castrucci 
was long thought to be the original of Hogarth's 



2 22 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

" Enraged Musician," but the idea has no founda- 
tion in fact, since the portrait is traced to Michael 
Festing, the immortal friend of British indigent 
musicians. The "Daily Post" of February the 
22nd, 1732, contains a curious announcement with 
regard to Castrucci, namely that he would play 
a solo, " in which he engages himself to execute 
twenty-four notes in one bow." This piece of 
charlatanism, so misplaced in a truly able musician, 
was excellently capped on the following day by a 
fameless Fiddler advertising his intention to play 
twenty-five notes in one bow. 

The sonatas of Castrucci, Ops. 1 and 2, published 
by Walsh, are rich in pathos and originality. 
Sonatas 5 and 8, Op. 2, are written in imitation of 
the sounds of a Viol d' Amour, and are particularly 
interesting and effective. It was Castrucci who 
played publicly on an instrument which he named 
the Viola Marina. The sonatas referred to point 
to an admiration for the sounds of the Viol 
d'Amour, and in all probability the Viola Marina 
was but another name for the same instrument. 
Dr. Busby,* speaking in praise of these sonatas, 
remarks " from their stamina Handel and Corelli 
deigned to cull many a blossom," but fails to inform 
us how they accomplished the botanical musical 
feat of culling the blossom before it was in bloom, 
for Corelli's compositions were published long before 
Castrucci's. 

* Busby's " History of Music," Vol. 2, p. 508. 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 223 

The King of Sardinia's chapel-master, L orenzo 
Somis,, held a high position among the Violinists of 
his time. He was born at Piedmont towards the 
end of the seventeenth century, and was the instruc- 
tor of his nephew Charbran, and Pugnani, also of 
Giar dini, t o whom we will now refer. This famous 
player was born at Turin in the year 1716. He 
studied music at Milan, where he was a chorister at 
the Cathedral. Ultimately selecting the Violin as 
his instrument, he studied the solos of Corelli, under 
his master, Somis. In the year 1750 Giardini 
arrived in London, and played at a benefit concert 
at the " Little Theatre in the Haymarket," a solo by 
San-Martini ; of this performance Dr. Burney 
remarks, that " the applause was so long and 
loud, that I never remember to have heard such 
hearty and unequivocal marks of approbation at 
any other musical performance whatever." Received 
by the British musical public with such warmth, 
Giardini decided to pursue his art among his ardent 
admirers. Four years after his arrival he secured 
the post of leader of the opera orchestra, and 
shortly after shared the management of the whole 
undertaking. After remaining in England thirty- 
four years, Giardini went to Naples, under the 
patronage of Sir William Hamilton, but returned to 
this country a few years after, to find the field 
occupied by others. In ill health, and rendered 
weaker by disappointment, he was no longer able 
to compete with talented artists fresh from their 
studies and full of ambition. 



224 THE VI0LIN AND irs MUSIC. 

It was at this period, when Haydn was in 
London, monopolising the attention of the musical 
world, that Giardini is said to have evinced a 
particular spite against the great German master; 
when urged to visit Haydn, he remarked, within 
hearing of the composer, " I don't want to see the 
German hog ; " Haydn writing afterwards in his 
diary that " Giardini played like a pig." In turning 
to the translation of the diary extracts from Greis- 
singer's " Life of Haydn," we find simply, " On the 
21st of May, 1 791, Giardini had a concert at 
Ranelagh," the simplicity of which harmonises with 
the character of Haydn, better than the comparison 
of the playing of an eminent brother artist to a pig. 
In 1793, he left St. Petersburg, and later visited 
Moscow, dying there in his eightieth year. 

Bartolozzi, the famous engraver, executed a 
portrait of Giardini, a copy of which is seen on the 
title-page of his Twelve Solos, dedicated to the Duke 
of Brunswick. His Violin music consists of: Twelve 
Quartetts, Op. 20 and 29 ; Six Quintetts, Op. 1 1 ; 
Violin Solos, Op, 1, 7, 8, 16, 19 ; Six Violin Duetts; 
Six Sonatas for Piano and Violin, Op. 3 ; Twelve 
Violin Concertos, Op. 4, 5, 15 ; Trios for Stringed 
Instruments, Op. 6, 14, 20. 

It is Tartini's greatest s cholar, Pjetro_JN[ardini, 
whom we must now notice. Nardini was born at 
the village of Fabiana, in Tuscany, in 1722, and 
received his earliest instructions in music at Leghorn, 
where his parents went to reside shortly after his 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 225 

birth, ultimately completing his studies with Tartini, 
at Padua. He entered the service of the Duke of 
Wurtemburg at Stuttgard ; his patron was an 
excellent musician, and had in his orchestra three 
of the foremost Violinists in Europe, Ferrari, 
Nardini, and Lolli, with Jomelli to conduct, 
Nardini afterwards returned to Leghorn, which 
he again left to occupy the post of Solo- Violinist 
to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, where he died in 
1 793. Leopold Mozart says, in a letter written in 
1793, the year of Nardini's death: "I have heard 
a Violin player, named Nardini, who, in beauty, 
equality, and purity of tone, and in a certain singing 
taste, is not to be surpassed : he, however, plays no 
difficulties."* The compositions of Nardini consist, 
according to Fetis, of Six Concertos, Op. i ; Six 
Sonatas, Violin and Bass, Op. 2 ; Six Trios 
for Flute ; Six Violin Solos, Op. 5 ; Six Quartetts, 
published at Florence ; and Six Duos for two 
Violins. In David's " Die Hohe Schule des 
Violinspiels " we have a rare specimen of Nardini's 
powers as a composer for his instrument. The 
opening movement is an adagio in D major, 
full of pathos. This is followed' by an allegro in 
the same key, of great brilliancy, and of a character 
much in advance of the Violin music of the period. 
The larghetto movement here made use of, belongs 
to a distinct sonata. The editor has, perhaps, 
given to it a meaning, which, though it must be 

* "MozarfsLife," p. 24. 
Q 



226 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

admitted is extremely beautiful, appears somewhat 
beyond the intention of the composer. The 
masterly manner in which Ferdinand David has 
transformed the original Basses of the old Violin 
composers into delightful Pianoforte parts is beyond 
all praise, but I cannot but think he has* over-edited, 
in some instances, the solo parts, rendering it 
difficult to discover where the old master ended 
and the editor began. Chaucer, in the language 
of the nineteenth century, might be both readable 
and instructive, but it is open to doubt whether 
Master Geoffrey would either know or be pleased 
with himself in a modern verbal dress. 

We have now to mention another pupil of 
Lorenzo Somis — Gaetano_ _Pugnan i— who, besides 
distinguishing himself as a great executant, founded 
a school for Violinists at Turin. He was born in that 
city in the year 1727, according to the account 
furnished by Fetis. After visiting the chief con- 
tinental cities, Pugnani came to England, and 
remained for a long period. It was in the year 
1770 that he returned to Turin and became the 
leader of the orchestra at the chief theatre, and 
shortly afterwards opened the school which Viotti 
entered as one of its earliest scholars, and proved 
himself the greatest. Many of Pugnani's composi- 
tions are yet in manuscript. He died in 1803. His 
published works for the Violin consist of : Sonatas, 
Ops. 1, 3, 6, 11 ; Duetts, Ops. 2, 13; String Trios, 
three books ; String Quartetts, Op. 7 ; six Sym- 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 



227 



phonies for strings and wind, and six Quintetts with 
two Flutes. 

Emanuele Barbella was a Violinist of the school 
of Tartini. He commenced the study of his instru- 
ment in his seventh year, under the guidance of his 
father, Francesco Barbella, afterwards becoming a 
pupil of Bini. He was a friend and correspondent 
of Dr. Burney's, and supplied the musical historian 
with much interesting information relative to Italian 
music and musicians. In one of his communications 
to Burney he gave a short account of his musical 
life, after naming the eminent masters under whom 
he had studied he ends with singular modesty, 
saying, "Yet, notwithstanding these advantages, 
Barbella is a mere ass, who knows nothing." I 



Tinna nonna, per f render sonno. 



Barbella. 




Sempre legato e sotto voce 



have before remarked, genius is rarely unaccom- 
panied with modesty, and Barbella is an instance of 
its truth. The exquisite "Lullaby," or Cradle Song, 
an extract from which I have here inserted, helps us 
to gauge the depth of his musical soul and learning. 
The French Violinist, Deldevez — he who first directed 
the attention of Violinists to the forgotten treasures 
Q 2 



228 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

of the old masters — has used this Lullaby in his 
collection of early and famous Violin writings, trans- 
forming the Bass into an accompaniment for the 
Pianoforte. The Violin compositions of Barbella 
comprise Six Duetts for two Violins, Op. 1,3; and 
Six Sonatas, an example of which is contained 
in M. Alard's " Les Maltres Classiques." 

At Bergamo was born in the year 1728, the 
clever though eccentric Violinist, Antonio^Lolli, the 
master of Jarnowick and Waldemar. In 1762 Lolli 
entered the service of the Duke of Wurtemburg at 
Stuttgard, where he remained about nine years. His 
appearance at the court of the Duke has been made 
to serve the purpose of associating him with one of 
those seemingly inevitable romantic Fiddle contests 
which occupy so much of the historical notices 
of Violinists, that often after subjecting the whole 
to a gentle sifting, all else but the name and date 
have escaped through the "interstices between the 
intersections " of my sieve. This particular contest 
appears to have had its origin in Lolli's meeting with 
Nardini, whom the eccentric Violinist discovered to 
be an antagonist of no slight parts. With commend- 
able judgment he came to the conclusion that he was 
not in form to do battle, and requested leave of 
absence from his patron the Duke. This conceded, 
he retires to a secluded village — a step in perfect 
harmony with that in vogue with the professors of the 
noble art of self-defence — and undergoes a course of 
training. This concluded, Lolli returns to his post at 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 220. 

Stuttgard, and challenges Nardini. It is needless 
to add, that according to his biographers, he defeats 
him. Poor Nardini, thus stripped of the honours of 
a life-time, quits the service of his estimable patron, 
and retires to Italy. That any Violinist, acquainted 
with the compositions of Nardini, and accepting the 
judgment of his contemporaries with regard to his 
executive abilities, could realize his discomfiture 
as above related, is, in my humble judgment, 
impossible. 

Continuing the notice of Lolli, we are told he 
visited St. Petersburg, Paris, and Madrid, and came 
to London in the year 1785, where, Burney says, 
" by a caprice in his conduct equal to his performance, 
he was seldom heard, and then, so eccentric was his 
style of composition and execution, that he was 
regarded as a madman by most of his hearers ; yet 
I am convinced that in his lucid intervals he was, in 
a serious style, a very great, expressive, and 
admirable performer. In his freaks, nothing can be 
imagined so wild, difficult, grotesque, and even 
ridiculous as his compositions and performance." 

The compositions of Mestrino and Locatelli 
have been cited as having furnished Paganini with 
effects which that extraordinary Violinist developed 
so wondrously : undoubtedly this was the case, but 
the compositions of Lolli should be associated with 
them as having suggested much in the same direction; 
indeed, it may be said that with Lolli began the 
virtuosi of the type of which Paganini became the 



23O THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

chief. In the sixth Sonata of Lolli's, Op. 9, we 
cannot fail to recognise the curious blending of 
absurdity and sentiment which touches our hearts 
and excites our risible faculties almost at the same 
moment, reminding us greatly of the achievements 
of Paganini of the same character. 

The compositions of this Violinist are mentioned 
by Fetis as Six Sonatas, Ops. 1, 3, 9, and 10; Two 
Concertos, Op. 2, with Orchestra; Concertos 3, 4, 5, 
6, 7, 8, Ops. 4, 5, and 6 ; Violin School with accom- 
paniment for Tenor and Violoncello. 

Mestrino, born at Milan, in 1750, composed 
some Caprices for the Violin, which are rightly 
regarded by those artists who have the good 
fortune to possess them (for they are very rare), as 
exceptionally clever compositions. He also wrote 
Twelve Concertos with Orchestra, Op. 1 ; Sonatas, 
with Bass, Op. 5 ; Duetts for two Violins, Op. 2, 3. 
It was Mestrino who held the post of first Violin, 
about 1 767, at Esterhaz, when Haydn was director 
of the Orchestra. Mestrino and Dragonetti were 
great friends in their youth, and practised together 
music outside the province of their instruments, in 
order that passages of extraordinary difficulty might 
be encountered. The marvellous executive skill of 
Dragonetti, and the singularly difficult formation of 
Mestrino's passages, point to a training of the kind. 
In the Violin instruction book of Leopold Mozart 
we have a clever arpeggio movement, from the 
pen of Mestrino, unpublished by the composer. 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 23 1 

From Carlo Te ssarini, of Rome, born about 
1690, we appear to have had a work on the art of 
modulating in the form of Concertos, with accom- 
paniments, Op. 6, and " A Musical Grammar," 
dedicated to the Marquis Gabrielli, of Rome, which 
is a high-sounding title for a small Violin instruction 
book. 

Raimondi, a pupil of Barbella, published at 
Amsterdam three Concertos, six String Quartetts, 
and three String Trios. 

Giornovichi, better _known_ as Jarnowick, pupil 
of Lolli, was a Violinist of much renown, and, prior 
to Viatti's appearance in Paris, he was the principal 
artist there ; the superior style of the former, 
however, caused him to leave the French capital, 
and accept a position in the Royal Orchestra at 
Potsdam ; he was at a later period in England for 
some time. He published in Paris a few Sonatas, 
Duetts, Concertos, and Quartetts. 

Lucchesi, a pupil of Nardini, published some 
Duetts for two Violins, Op. i, which passed through 
two editions. Another set comprises Op. 2 and 
Op. 4, Six Sonatas for Violin and Piano. 

Andrea Lucchesi, the composer of several large 
works, also wrote six Sonatas for Piano and Violin, 
and also a Trio with Piano. 

Traver sa, a pupil of Pugnani, published six 
String Quartetts ; six Sonatas for Violin and Bass, 
Op. 2 ; and a Concerto, Op. 5. 

The highly sentimental player Joseph Puppo, 



232 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

born in 1749, published two Concertos, with 
Orchestra; eight Fantasias, or Studies; and three 
Duetts for Two Violins. 

Johannes Bapjista^Noneri, of whom but little 
appears to be known, published several Violin 
compositions in Amsterdam, Berlin, and London. 
Deldevez gives an extract from the Seventh Sonata, 
published in 1763. 

Tomasini, a Violinist in the Orchestra of Prince 
Esterhazy, published three Violin Duetts, and 
Variations for Violin alone, and left in manuscript 
several other compositions. 

Anthony and Bernardo Lorenziti published several 
Sonatas, Duetts, Trios, and Quartetts. Anthony 
was a pupil of Locatelli. 

Tomaso_GJordani, of Naples, published Quintetts, 
Quartetts, and Trios in London and in Offenbach. 

Jose ph Mosel, of Florence, born in 1754, 
belonged to the school of Tartini, published at 
Paris and Venice, Violin Duetts, and String Quartetts. 

Polledro, born in 1776, was a pupil of Pugnani. 
His works consist of three Violin Concertos, Airs, 
and Variations, Op. 3, 5, 8 ; String Trios, Op. 2, 
4, 9 ; Violin Studies and Duetts, for two Violins, 
Op. 11. 

Francesco Vaccari, of Modena, pupil of Nardini, 
composed Duetts for two Violins, Op. 1 and 2, Paris; 
" God Save the King," with variations and Piano 
accompaniment, and other pieces of a similar 
character. 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 233 

R?4icati, of Bologna, pupil of Pugnani, published 
several Quintetts, Quartetts, Trios, etc. 

Jjiovanm..Jkmoiicjni, born at Modena, in 1672, 
was admitted as a Violoncello player in the Emperor 
Leopold's band at Vienna at the age of 23. The 
fame of Bononcini, as an operatic composer, spread 
far and wide, after the production of his opera 
Camilla; the Duke of Marlborough and his party, 
at the Royal Academy of Music,* invited him to 
England, when began the rivalry which gave rise to 
the epigram attributed to Dean Swift : — 

" Some say that Signor Bononcini, 
Compared to Handel, is a ninny ; 
Whilst other say, that to him, Handel 
Is hardly fit to hold a candle ; 
Strange that such difference should be, 
'Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee." 

As the Dean of St. Patrick's had no ear for music 
his opinion musically is valueless ; we must therefore 
turn to the musical historian for an estimate of the 
difference noted by the Dean. Sir John Hawkins 
says : " the merits of Bononcini were very great, 
and it must, be thought no diminution of his 
character to say that he had no superior but Handel, 
though, as the talents which each possessed were 
very different in kind, it is almost a question whether 

* In 1730 a plan was formed for patronising and supporting Italian 
Operas in England ; a fund of £50,000 was raised, to which King 
George I. subscribed ,£1,000. This establishment was named the 
Royal Academy of Music. 



234 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

any comparison can justly be made between them. 
Handel's excellence consisted in the grandeur and 
sublimity of his conceptions;" " Bononcini's genius 
was adapted to the expression of tender and 
pathetic sentiments." Dr. Burney,* in noticing his 
" Divertimenti di Camera," remarks : " The Adagios 
are the best movements in them, and have notes of 
taste, and passages of expression, which must have 
been new to English ears. Bononcini, however, 
like other composers of his time, is very sparing of 
his passages, and indulges idleness and want of 
invention by frequent Rosalias,t which Handel 
seems always to avoid, more than any other com- 
poser of this period." Bononcini retired upon a 
pension of five hundred pounds, granted him by the 
Marlborough family. 

His compositions in connection with the Violin 
include : Twelve Sonatas or Chamber Airs for 
two Violins and a Bass, London, 1732; "Diverti- 
menti di Camera," dedicated to the Duke of Rutland, 
London, 1722; and four Symphonies, published at 
Bologna, between 1685, and 1687; and Duetti da 
Camera, Op. 9, 1691. 

With the notice of Fiorillo, the composer of the 
famous Violin Studies or Caprices, we reach the last 
representative of th e Old -Italian^ School. Though 
born at Brunswick, Fiorillo's parentage was Italian, 
and his style of composition distinctly so. His father 

* Vol. IV., p. 322. 
t Repetition of a phrase or passage with the pitch raised each repeat. 



THE VIOLTN IN ITALY. 235 

was a Neapolitan musician of some celebrity, and 
became chapel-master at Cassel in 1762. His son 
Frederick, the subject of this notice was born in 
1753. After visiting Poland, he went to Paris in 
1 785, and played with much success at the Concert 
Spirituel. Three years later he came to England, 
and remained here many years. He played upon the 
Tenor very frequently, both in Salomon's quartett 
party and at the Ancient Concerts ; at the latter he 
performed a Tenor concerto in 1794. He composed 
Six Trios for two Violins and Violoncello, Op. 1, 
published at Berlin and Paris ; Eighteen Duetts for 
two Violins ; Twelve String Quartetts ; Four Violin 
Concertos ; Nine Sonatas for Piano and Violin ; the 
Thirty-Six Caprices or Studies ; and many other 
works. 



§ittion $£.— Ihe Violin in ItelB. 



CHAPTER IV. 

A BOUT the middle of the eighteenth century we 
"^^ are brought to the threshold of the School of 
Instrumental Music, which is named Modern, in 
contradistinction to that of Corelli and his immediate 
followers. 

Joseph Haydn, the musician destined to take the 
lead in this new departure, had but just come into 
the world. Luigi Boccherini, who played no un- 
important part in the work, was a boy of ten years, 
learning the Violoncello and his musical alphabet at 
Lucca. Domenico Cimarosa — Italy's Mozart in 
Opera — was in his cradle, and Viotti followed three 
years later. 

In music as with all the arts and sciences there 
is a period of transition which is often so gradual as 
to render it impossible to draw a separating line 
between that which is regarded as ancient, and that 
which is accepted as modern. The one merges into 
the other like a dissolving view. We can, however, 
without difficulty, recognise the foremost men of the 
time, and among them one whose style is certain to 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 2tf 

be in advance of the rest. In Italian instrumental 
music it is San Martini whose style is indicative of 
advancement. The style of San Martini has been 
called the father of that of Haydn, and Boccherini 
has been named the wife of Haydn ; if we accept 
this musical relationship, Martini must necessarily 
have been Boccherini's father-in-law in music, and 
therefore it is the Violoncellist we will next notice. 

This truly original composer of chamber music 
studied at Rome both composition and the Violon- 
cello, and secured there much renown. In 1768 he 
journeyed in company with Nardini's pupil Manfredi 
to France, and played at the Concert Spirituel. It 
was at this period that the Spanish Ambassador 
induced Boccherini to visit Madrid, promising him 
high patronage in the Spanish capital, a promise 
which was not altogether redeemed. After spending 
some seventeen years there, his patron, the Infanta 
Don Luigi, died, when he obtained the post of 
chamber composer to Frederick William II. of 
Prussia, which he held until the death of Frederick 
in 1797. Troubles now came thickly upon poor 
Boccherini ; in those days, when a composer's 
existence was dependent on having a distinguished 
patron, he found himself without one, in ill health, 
and straitened circumstances. At this critical 
juncture of his career, Lucien Buonaparte, the 
French Ambassador at Madrid, paid the unfortunate 
musician some attention, in acknowledgment of which 
Boccherini dedicated six Pianoforte Quintetts to the 



238 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

French Republic ! which is probably unique in the 
annals of music as an instance of wide-range 
inscribing. 

Whether Boccherini, like Beethoven, was an 
admirer of the First Consul, matters little ; perhaps 
his inability to retain that monarchical patron- 
age, which his great ability rendered him entitled 
to, drove him into the arms of Republicans. 
It would seem, however, that the Ambassadors of 
France at this disturbed period were exerting 
themselves to obtain for their government music 
title-page immortality. It was but the year before this 
particular dedication of Boccherini's, that Bernadotte 
at Vienna suggested to Beethoven the propriety of 
writing a Bonaparte Symphony. The suggestion 
met with the illustrious composer's approval, and six 
years later a manuscript lay on Beethoven's writing 
table, on the first page of which were the words 
" Napoleon Buonaparte." On the 18th of May, 
1804, Napoleon exchanged the simple title of First 
Consul for that of Emperor. When the fact was 
made known to Beethoven, he tore away the title of 
his glorious manuscript, accompanying the action 
with a torrent of execration against the "New 
Tyrant," and re-named his imperishable work " Sin- 
fonia Eroica." 

To return to our subject, after this dedicatory 
digression, the influence Boccherini exercised over 
his art was of an important kind. His Trios and 
Quintetts, though lacking the variety which distin- 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 239 

guishes the chamber music of his German contem- 
poraries, mark an era in the History of Music 

Bailliot, as remarked by Louis Spohr, was an 
admirer of the Quintetts of Boccherini, which 
evidently astonished the great German Violinist, 
since he writes : " I was desirous of hearing Bailliot 
in these Quintetts, with about a dozen of which I 
am acquainted, in order to see whether he could 
make one forget the poverty of the compositions." 

That Bailliot's judgment differs from Spohr's is 
perfectly clear, for he says : " There is a species 
of composition which seems to have been created 
for the Violoncello ; it is the Quintetto, such as 
conceived by Boccherini. In the happy idea of 
making this instrument perform a two-fold part, 
both as an accompaniment, and as giving the leading 
melody, he has known how to impart to it a double 
charm ; herein he has displayed a creative genius, 
similar to that of Haydn for the Symphony, and 
Viotti for the Concerto. In point of style, abound- 
ing as his does with originality, grace, freshness, and 
purity, and marked by an expression peculiarly its 
own, this composer may be cited as a model for those 
who study the Violoncello, and who are desirous of 
making it speak its true language." After describing 
the qualities of the quick movements of Boccherini, 
Bailliot next refers to an Adagio in language rich 
in expression if excessive in praise : " Nothing can 
surpass the charm which accompanies this move- 
ment, in the music of the great master of whom 



240 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

we speak. When he allows it to be heard alone, 
it breathes a sensibility so profound, a simplicity so 
noble, that all ideas of art and imitation vanish ; 
and, penetrated with a religious feeling, we imagine 
some celestial voice is whispering to our bosoms : 
so far is its expression removed from everything 
that wounds the heart ; nay, on the contrary, so 
intimately is it allied to everything that is gentle and 
soothing to the spirit. When he bids all the five 
instruments discourse together, it is with a harmony 
so full, so august and effectual, that our senses 
are lulled with contemplation and repose, and our 
imagination is wrapped in a sweet reverie." 

Mendelssohn, describing a Quartett evening at 
Bailliot's, says : " They commenced with a Quintett 
by Boccherini — an old fashioned perruque, but a 
very amiable old gentleman underneath it." 

Boccherini was a singularly prolific composer, 
his works reaching the astonishing number of three 
hundred and sixty-six, of which seventy-four are 
unpublished. As a Violoncellist, he must have been 
in possession of exceptional executive power and 
knowledge of the finger-board, judging from the 
character of his writings. Six of his Sonatas have 
been edited by Signor Piatti, each of which is a 
monument to the ability of the composer. He died 
at Madrid, in which city he passed fifty years of his 
life, May 28th, 1805, aged 65. The list of his pub- 
lished works is as follows : Six Sonatas for Piano and 
Violin ; Six Sonatas for Violin and Bass ; Six Duetts 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 2 4 1 

for two Violins ; Forty-two Trios for two Violins 
and Cello ; Twelve Trios for Violin, Viola, and 
Cello; Ninety-one String Quartetts ; Eighteen 
Quintetts for Flute or Oboe, Two Violins, Viola and 
Cello; Twelve Quintetts for Piano, two Violins, 
Viola, and Cello ; One Hundred and Thirteen 
Quintetts for two Violins, Viola and Cello ; Twelve 
Quintetts for two Violins, two Violas and Cello ; 
Sixteen Sextetts, for various instruments ; Two 
Octetts, etc. 

Whilst Boccherini was at Madrid, there lived 
there a pupil of Nardini's, named Gaetano Brunetti, 
of whom M. Picquot,* gives some account. It was 
Brunetti who is said to have supplanted Boccherini 
in the estimation of the Spanish Court, which 
M. Fetis truly characterises as base ingratitude 
towards his benefactor ; well might Mozart call him 
coarse and mean. He published Six Sextetts for 
Strings; Thirty-two String Quintetts; Six Quintetts 
with Bassoon and Strings ; Fifty-eight String 
Quartetts ; Twenty-two Trios ; Eighteen Sonatas 
for Violin and Bass, &c. 

Though Brunetti was singularly fortunate in 
publishing so much chamber music, it is questionable 
whether he secured that immortality in his works 
which an accidental coupling of his name with young 
Mozart's nether garments brought him. " The 
breeches belonging to the iron-gray coat," Leopold 
Mozart wrote to his son in 1777, "have been 

* " Notice of Boccherini and his Works," Paris, 1851. 
R 



242 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

left behind ; if I find no other opportunity of sending 
them, I shall give them with some country dances, 
and the Adagio and Rondos composed by Brunetti 
to the messenger, &c." But again Brunetti's name 
is indissolubly connected with that astonishing feat 
of Mozart's of writing for himself and the Violinist, 
a sonata in sixty minutes. 

Though Cimarosa cannot be said to have been a 
prominent contributor to instrumental progress, yet 
he certainly had a share in it ; his charming melody 
alone entitles him to some notice here. The 
Emperor Napoleon enquired of the witty and 
brilliant Grdtry, what was the difference between 
Mozart and Cimarosa. " Sire," said Grdtry, " Cima- 
rosa places the statue on the stage, and the pedestal 
in the orchestra ; whilst Mozart puts the statue 
in the orchestra, and the pedestal on the stage ;" so 
much of this is true as regards Cimarosa, but 
no further. Notwithstanding the slightness of 
Cimarosa's orchestral accompaniments, they sur- 
pass those of his Italian predecessors and contem- 
poraries in variety of effects. 

Bartolomeo Campagnoli was born at Cento, near 
Bologna, September 10th, 1751. He went to 
Modena in 1763 in order to receive instruction 
from a professor there, who had studied in the 
school of Tartini. He benefited greatly from the 
teaching he received, and thus laid the foundation 
upon which he reared the stately pile of instructive 
works for his instrument. Remaining in Modena 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 243 

about three years, he returned to Cento and accepted 
an engagement to play in the orchestra of the 
theatre there. After visiting Padua, Venice, and 
Rome, he decided upon journeying to Florence, that 
he might hear the great Nardini, who was then at 
the zenith of his fame. He remained in Florence 
some years, and became intimately associated with 
the great master, receiving, if not actual lessons 
from him, remarks and advice sufficient to influence 
greatly his executive skill and compositions. 

We have, here two instances of direct influence 
brought to bear on the musical education of 
Campagnoli, namely, that of his earliest instructor, 
who was a follower in the school of Tartini, and 
the advice he received from Nardini ; but there 
remains to mention another valued musician, whose 
influence was scarcely less than that of those 
referred to, viz., Cherubini, whose friendship he 
enjoyed. Between 1775 and 1787 he travelled much, 
visiting the chief Continental cities. From 1 788 to 
the time of his death, his time was chiefly spent 
in Dresden and Leipsic conducting secular and 
sacred music. He died November 6th, 1827, aged 
seventy-six. 

The amount of good the writings of this master 
have done it would be difficult to over-estimate. As 
compositions, the chief objection is, doubtless, a 
mannerism wffich pervades them, not found in the 
works of the highest genius ; but it is from an 
educational point of view they deserve consideration, 
r 2 



244 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

and mention of a few of these compositions will be 
sufficient to call to the minds of those familiar with 
them their singular merit. First, the Studies on the 
Positions ; in these the display of ingenuity coupled 
with effects of modulation, are unsurpassed by any 
work having a similar aim. The student is at once 
interested with the numerous devices the composer 
adopts in order to develop a knowledge of each 
position, and charmed with the graceful modulation. 
In the work on the " Art of Improvising Fantasias 
and Cadences," Op. 17, we find the knowledge of 
the positions brought into use without restriction 
to any particular one, but the student is carried 
through all with great skill. The Thirty Preludes 
in all the keys, Op. 1 2, a work designed for making 
the player correct in intonation, is another valuable 
addition to music of the educational class. The 
Studies for the Viola, Op. 22, is a work of import- 
ance in the meagre catalogue of Viola music. 
The collection of 101 Easy Pieces for two Violins, 
Op. 20, contains much that is valuable for teaching; 
and lastly the Instruction Book. Passing to the 
compositions of Campagnoli of another character, Six 
Fugues ; Concerto with Orchestra ; Sonatas for 
Violin and Bass, Ops. 1 and 6, may be mentioned. 

Luigi Borghi, a pupil of Pugnani, was long in 
London. We find him mentioned as leader of the 
Second Violins at the Handel Commemoration, in 
1784, at Westminster Abbey. The Duetts and 
Sonatas of Borghi were long popular among 



THE VIOUN IN ITALY. 245 

English amateurs. His compositions consist of 
Six Sonatas for Violin and Bass, Op. i ; Three 
Concertos, with accompaniment, Op. 2 ; Six Solos, 
Op. 3 ; Twelve Duetts, Op. 4, 5 ; Six Duetts, Violin 
and Viola, Op. 6 ; Six Duetts for Violin and Violon- 
cello, Op. 7 ; Six Concertos for Violin Solo. 

In Bruni, Pugnani had another famous scholar. 
He was born in Piedmont, in 1759. He passed his 
life chiefly at Paris, where he became conductor of 
the Opera Comique, himself composing several light 
operas. He is known to Violinists chiefly as the 
composer of many agreeably-written string Trios 
and Duetts, and as the author of an Instruction 
Book for the Tenor. 

Alessandro Rolla composed much interesting 
and valuable music for the Violin at this period. 
He made the Viola a special study, and was famous 
as a soloist on that instrument. He composed 
Three Violin Concertos with orchestra, and Four 
Tenor Concertos, also with orchestra ; Several 
Quartetts, Quintetts, and Trios, besides some Duetts 
for Violin and Tenor and two Violins. 



§tc6mt WL— <9Che Violin in Italg. 



CHAPTER V. 

"\1[7"ITH Giovanni Battista Viotti begins the 
Modern school of the Violin. He was born 
in Piedmont on the 23rd of May, 1753 ; his father 
was a horn player, and from him he received his 
early musical knowledge. He ultimately became a 
pupil of Pugnani at Turin, and entered the orchestra 
of the Royal Chapel there as a Violinist. In 1780 
he left Turin, visiting Germany, Russia, Poland, and 
this country.* Here he was importuned to remain ; 
he, however, went to Paris, where he made his debut 
at the Concert Spirituel in 1782. He played one 
of his own concertos, the striking originality of 
which, combined with the composer's splendid tone 
and elegant style, made an extraordinary impression 
upon his audience. In most biographies of Viotti, 
the account of this performance is followed by one 
of those anecdotes in which the artist figures as 
vanquished, vain, or contemptible ; in this instance 

* M. Fe"tis states that Viotti accompanied Pugnani on his tour, 
tut this must be an error, as Pugnani left London in 1770 for Turin, 
where he remained afterwards. 



THE yjOL/JV IN ITALY. 247 

it is the offence of contemptuousness with which 
the artist is associated : " Commanded to play a 
concerto at the Court of Louis XVI. at Versailles, 
the virtuoso appeared there in obedience to the 
summons, and had proceeded about half-way through 
the composition, when the attention of his distin- 
guished audience was suddenly taken from the 
.performer and the concerto, to an illustrious fresh 
arrival. Noise and confusion ruled where silence 
and attention before reigned. Viotti, indignant, 
removed the music from the desk and departed, 
leaving the concert and their Majesties to the 
reproaches of the audience." That some slight 
interruption may have caused Viotti to cease 
playing during its continuance is both probable 
and reasonable, but that the admitted possessor of 
a highly cultivated and refined mind should behave 
as above related, is, to say the least, unlikely ; and 
more so, when the same biographer tells us that in 
his intercourse with those high in social position, he 
never forgot the dignity of his own character, or of 
their rank. After spending a short time in Italy, 
Viotti returned to Paris in 1784, when he became 
one of the distinguished members of the chief 
musical circle of the French capital. 

Viotti seems chiefly to have passed his time in 
Paris as Tartini did at Padua, ignoring public 
performances, and benefiting the art of music by 
conveying to others musical knowledge of inestim- 
able worth. In 1788 Viotti was induced to accept 



248 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

the onerous post of director of an Italian opera 
company. In a few months he had completed the 
necessary arrangements, and in 1789 the company 
made its first appearance at the Tuilleries, achieving 
great success. It was in connection with this 
operatic scheme that we first hear of Cherubini in 
Paris, and his association with Viotti. All went well 
until 1 792, when the Reign of Terror began ; the 
members of the company wisely disbanded and 
escaped from the tumultuous scene. Poor Viotti 
quitted France for England pecuniarily ruined. In 
London he appeared at Salomon's Concerts, playing 
his concertos with marked success. He subsequently 
became the leader of the Italian Opera, and was 
apparently steadily recovering from his recent up- 
heavings, when he was suddenly ordered by the 
British Government to leave our shores. The 
anti-Gallic spirit was at this period in a very inflam- 
mable condition, and Viotti came to be regarded as an 
agent of the revolutionists, sent here to propagate 
their tenets under cover of his Violin. It was 
certainly a wild conclusion to come to on the part of 
our officials, but the darkened state of the European 
atmosphere cast a shade over all foreigners, formerly 
resident in the French capital, from their point of 
view. The sensitive nature of Viotti must have 
made him feel deeply this expulsion from England. 
He went to Holland, and lived in a retired place 
near Hamburgh, occupying himself with composition. 
It was here that many of his best works were 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY.. 249 

written. In 1801 Viotti returned to London, it 
having been clearly proved that he ought never to 
have been subjected to the treatment he received 
from our Government. 

He ultimately embarked his capital in the 
purchase of wine in bond, a transaction in his case 
about on a par with that of Goldsmith's Moses and 
the gross of green spectacles. That poor Viotti's 
trading capacity was of a very different character to 
that of his Violin playing, is not difficult to imagine : 
to buy wine was one thing, to sell it another. His 
next step was to rent an office in the neighbourhood 
of Pali-Mall, which he attended daily for the purpose 
of submitting his wine samples to the public. His 
patrons, unfortunately, seem to have been all tasters 
and no buyers, since he finally closed his ledger all 
on one side, and that the wrong one. After this 
commercial calamity, he again went to Paris and 
received from Louis XVIII. the appointment of 
manager to the Grand Opera ; from this position he 
retired with a pension. Again he returned to 
London, but his failing health prevented his taking 
any active part in our musical world. He took 
much interest in the formation of the Philharmonic 
Society, founded in the year 181 3, and during the 
opening season shared its leadership with Salomon, 
Spagnoletti, Yaniewicz, Francois Cramer, and 
Vaccari. 

Viotti died in London, 3rd of March, 1824, 
according to the account given in the Gentleman's 



25O THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Magazine, Vol. xciv. p. 280. The " Nouvelle Biogra- 
phie Universelle," states he died at Brighton, and 
has often been quoted in the notices of Viotti. I 
have, however, made every possible enquiry at 
Brighton as to his burial there without succeeding 
in learning anything with regard to it. We may 
therefore conclude the father of the modern school 
of Violin-playing was interred in some London 
churchyard, and if discoverable, a tablet would add 
lustre to the edifice, even though it were the Abbey 
of Westminster. 

Of his moral qualities it is written, "There never 
was a man who attached such great value to the 
simplest gifts of nature ; there never was a child 
who more ardently enjoyed them. A violet, found 
under the grass would transport him with joy ; or 
the gathering of fresh fruit render him the happiest 
of mortals ; he found in the one a perfume ever 
new, in the other a flavour always more and more 
delicious. His organs thus delicate and sensitive, 
seemed to have preserved the impressibility of early 
youth, whilst stretched on the grass he would pass 
hours in admiring the colour or inhaling the odour 
of a rose. Everything that belonged to the country 
was, for this extraordinary man, a new object of 
amusement, interest, and enjoyment ; all his senses 
were excited by the slightest impressions ; everything 
around him affected his imagination ; all nature 
spoke to his heart, which overflowed with senti- 
ment." 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 25 1 

The style of Viotti's Violin-playing was, in 
the estimation of Pierre Bailliot, perfection ; and 
accordingly he made it a model from which to form 
his own. The impression it made upon him when 
only twelve years of age, was such as time could 
never efface. Twenty years later he wrote, after 
again hearing Viotti, " Je le croyais Achille ; mais 
c'est Agamemnon." 

The Violin writings of Viotti include : Twenty- 
nine Concertos ; Three Quartetts, Books i and 2 ; 
Three Quartetts, Op. 22 ; Quartetts in the form of 
Airs with Variations ; String Trios ; Violin Duetts ; 
and also Sonatas for Violin and Bass. The popu- 
larity of Viotti's music at the time of its publication 
and since, is evidenced by the arrangements of some 
of the Concertos for the Piano, and by Dussek and 
Cherubini's arrangements of the Trios as Sonatas 
for Pianoforte and Violin. 

Although Cherubini's contributions to the music 
of the Violin had no marked influence on its progress, 
the high character of his writings generally renders 
the little he did in the field of Violin music 
interesting. Reference has already been made to 
the meeting of Cherubini and Viotti in Paris. The 
friendship that existed between these artists was of 
the strongest kind ; Viotti took the greatest interest 
in the welfare of his friend, and the many services 
Cherubini received at his hands were gratefully 
remembered to the end of his life. Cherubini was 
born at Florence in 1760. He became a pupil of 



252 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Giuseppe Sarti at Bologna, with the aid of the 
Grand Duke of Tuscany, who volunteered to pay 
the cost of his tuition, so much did he admire the 
youthful composer's abilities. His first opera, "II 
Qtiinto Fabia" was played at Alessandria in 1780. 
In 1784 he assisted at the Handel Commemoration 
in Westminster Abbey. He remained in England 
two years, during which time he was often in 
the society of the Prince of Wales, afterwards 
George IV., who was delighted with his abilities. 
Cherubini, however, failed to please the British 
public with his opera, " Giulio Sabino," which much 
vexed him, and ultimately led to his taking up his 
residence in Paris. In the year 1795 the Conserva- 
toire was founded, and Cherubini was appointed one 
of the " Inspecteurs des Etudes," and professor of 
Counterpoint ; amongst his pupils was Bailliot. 
Passing over references to the production of Cheru- 
bini's important operatic works, we will notice the 
marked coolness manifested by Napoleon Buonaparte 
towards him, an instance of which is furnished by 
his having declined to appoint him as his Chapel- 
master. Mehul, to whom the post was offered by 
Napoleon, generously suggested the propriety of its 
being filled by his friend Cherubini ; " Do not speak 
to me about that man, said Napoleon, I want a 
maestro who will make music, not noise," from 
which remark it would seem that the First Consul's 
idea of what constituted noise differed from that of 
musical men. Certain it is, however, Cherubini's 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 253 

noise is both musical and learned, and it is regret- 
able that he did not make more. In 1805 he 
went to Vienna, where he made the acquaintance 
of Beethoven and Haydn, but returned, after a 
short stay, to France. 

Spohr, in one of his letters dated from Paris, 
writes, " From the frequent opportunities I had of 
playing before Cherubini at private parties, I 
conceived a very ardent desire to have all my 
quartetts and quintetts heard by that master, so 
highly esteemed by me ; but in this I succeeded with 
very few only ; for when Cherubini had heard the 
first quartett (No. 1, Op. 45), and I was on the point 
of producing a second, he protested against, it and 
said, ' Your music, and indeed the form and style of 
this kind of music, is as yet foreign to me, that I 
cannot find myself immediately at home with it. 
I would, therefore, prefer that you repeated the 
quartett just played.'" Spohr tells us this re- 
mark surprised him, but that he afterwards dis- 
covered that Cherubini was ignorant of the works of 
Mozart and Beethoven, and that he had heard a 
Haydn quartett but once. This information seems 
startling, remembering that Cherubini was often in 
the company of Viotti and Bailliot, the latter a 
famous quartett player, and giver of quartett 
concerts, and that he made the personal acquaintance 
of Haydn and Beethoven sixteen years before Spohr 
wrote in his diary of Cherubini's ignorance of Ger- 
man music. .That he had written a quartett at least 



254 



THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 



two years before Spohr visited Paris, is certain, the 
Quartett in E flat having been composed in 1819. 
If this work was composed without any knowledge 
of those of Haydn or Mozart, we must agree with 
Mr. Bellasis,* who says in effect that our estimation 
of it is increased thereby. 

The chamber compositions of Cherubini consist 
of the Quartett in E flat ; No. 2, in C, from a Sym- 
phony with a new adagio ; No. 3, in D, composed 
in 1834 ; No. 4, in E ; No. 5, in F ; No. 6 in A 
minor ; and a Quintett for Strings in E minor. 

The Quartett in E flat is referred to by 
Schumann who speaks of the " Scherzo," with its 
fanciful Spanish subject, 

± 



p r 1 



m 



3£ 



mm 



the extraordinary trio, 



m 



gfotftrcr P^fe 



and, lastly, the finale, sparkling like a diamond when 
you shake it. 



Allegro assai. 



3 



S 



22 



=fi*= 



The reception of the Quartett in E fiat (written 
in the year 18 19, though not performed until 1827), 

* " Memorials of Cherubini," 1874. 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 255 

induced Cherubini to his Symphony in D, which he 
arranged as a quartett with a new adagio. Of this 
work Schumann says, " A few dry bars, the work 
of the intellect alone, there are, as in most of 
Cherubini's works ; but even in these there is always 
something interesting in the passage, some ingenious 
contrivance or imitation, something to think about. 
There is most spirit in the Scherzo and last move- 
ment, which are both full of wonderful life. The 
adagio has a striking individual A minor character, 
something romantic and Provencalish. After hearing 
it several times its charms grow, and it closes in 
such a manner as to make you begin listening again, 
though knowing the end is near." These two 
quartetts, together with the third in D minor, were 
published and dedicated to Bailliot in 1835. There 
still remain three unpublished. 

Bailliot wrote a letter to his brother-in-law, 
M. Guynemer, dated April 9th, 1842, in which 
he says, " I was well assured that you would share 
in our sorrow on the occasion of the loss we 
have sustained in the venerable Cherubini. I can 
say nothing in addition to what you already think 
and feel on this subject; the loss to the musical 
world is immense ; but it falls yet heavier on those 
who had the opportunity of knowing, under the 
somewhat rough exterior, the genuine intrinsic worth 
of him who was also perhaps the 'last and noblest 
Roman ' in the purely classical style." 

It has been said handwriting reflects the disposi- 



256 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

tion of the writer. That an orderly man-would make 
no blots, cross his t's, and dot his i's may be granted,, 
but little beyond. Music, however, is a far superior 
reflector of the character of its composer, and 
Cherubini is an instance of its delineating power. . 
Mendelssohn, referring to Cherubini, once re- 
marked to his friend, Ferdinand Hiller, " What 
an extraordinary creature he is ! You would 
fancy that a man could not be a great composer 
without sentiment, heart, feeling, or whatever else 
you call it ; but I declare I believe that he 
makes everything out of his head alone." The 
disposition and manner of Cherubini we find 
described as stern, reserved, scrupulously observant 
of duty, every act was performed by rule. If he 
made a blot he cut round it with his knife, and neatly 
fitted a new bit of paper in its place. His scores 
resembled engraving rather than penmanship. 

Haydn was particularly methodical, and would 
not even attempt to compose without having donned 
his wig, and habited himself in full dress, all of 
which niceties are reflected in his writings ; but in 
place of the quality of sternness and reserve marked 
in the bearing of Cherubini, "looking like a dry 
screwed-up little man, with heavy eyebrows," we 
have the dark grey eyes of Haydn, beaming with 
benevolence, and his own estimate of himself, " Any 
one can see by the look of me I am a good-natured 
sort of fellow." That the world recognises this 
portrait in almost every page of his music admits of 
no doubt. 



Station W.—%ht Hiriin in Italg. 



CHAPTER VI. 

' I "HE great and essentially legitimate school of 
Violin playing raised by Viotti, had for its 
foundation the solid musical masonry of Corelli and 
his predecessors, and, like all honest work, best 
withstands the wear and tear of time. Very different 
are the results when schools rest upon unstable 
material from designs originating in frenzied fantasy. 
It was Pietro Locatelli who helped to develope the 
phrenetical School of Violin-playing ; it was Lolli 
who made the ridiculous a prominent feature, and it 
was left to the prince of virtuosi, Nicolo Paganini, 
to crown the work of both. 

" So pla/d of late to every passing thought 
With finest change (might I but half as well 
So write ! ) the pale magician of the bow, 
Who brought from Italy the tales, made true, 
Of Grecian lyres ; and on his sphery hand, 
Loading the air with dumb expectancy, 
Suspended, ere it fell, a nation's breath ; 

" Of witches' dance, ghastly with whinings thin, 
And palsied nods — mirth, wicked, sad, and weak ; 
And then with show of skill mechanical, 
Marvellous as witchcraft he would overthrow 
That vision with a show'r of notes like hail : 



258 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

" Flashing the sharp tones now, 
In downward leaps like swords ; now rising fine 
Into some utmost tip of minute sound, 
From whence he stepp'd into a higher and higher 
On viewless points, till laugh took leave of him. 

" Then from one chord of his amazing shell 
Would he fetch out the voice of quires, and weight 
Of the built organ ; or some twofold strain 
Moving before him in sweet-going yoke, 
Ride like an Eastern conqueror, round whose state 
Some light Morisco leaps with his guitar ; 
And ever and anon o'er these he'd throw 
Jets of small notes like pearl." 

Leigh Hunt. 

Paganini was born at Genoa on February 18th, 
1784. His father traded on a small scale, and 
amused himself in playing on the Mandoline ; his 
knowledge of music was sufficient to make his boy 
acquainted with its elements, and he knew enough of 
the Violin to teach him its rudiments. After receiv- 
ing tuition from Costa, a Violoncello player, at Genoa, 
his father was advised to place him under Alessandro 
Rolla. Paganini is said to have received from Rolla 
several months' tuition ; this, however, Paganini in 
after years would not acknowledge, and the contra- 
diction is illustrated with one of those extraordinary 
anecdotes so frequently met with in his detached 
Autobiography. The substance of this particular 
one is, that Paganini, whilst waiting for an inter- 
view with Rolla relative to taking lessons, took up a 
Violin and played the professor's last concerto at 
sight, which so astonished Rolla in the adjoining 



THE VIOLIN IN IT A IV, 259 

room, that he confessed he had nothing to teach 
him. 

Paganini, after suffering much from the harsh 
and cruel treatment of his father, succeeded in 
releasing himself from his bondage. At this time 
he was about fifteen years of age, maintaining 
himself by his public performances. Left to his 
own resources, with no lack of money, but half 
educated, with neither parent nor guardian to advise 
him, he soon fell a prey to gamblers. It was at 
Leghorn that he sacrificed his Violin to his passion 
for gaming ; the loss, however, resulted in ultimate 




gain, since a French merchant, M. Livron, presented 
him with the Joseph Guarnerius made in 1743, 
which he publicly used to the end of his career. 
This world-renowned Violin is now in the Municipal 
Palace at Genoa, in accordance with Paganini's 
testamentary directions. In the year 1875, through 
the kindness of my friend Signor Sacchi, I succeeded 
in obtaining permission to photograph the instru- 
ment, which enables me to place before my readers 
the accompanying impression. Upon one occasion 
s 2 



260 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

even this splendid instrument was all but sacrificed. 
Paganini being deeply in want of money to pay his 
debts of honour, and remembering a certain Prince 
had long wished to possess his Guarnerius, he was 
on the point of gratifying his desire, when he 
received an invitation to a card party at a friend's 
house ; hastening thence with but thirty francs at his 
disposal, . he risked his all ; resolving, if fortune 
proved fickle, to sell to the Prince his Violin and 
travel to St. Petersburg to begin anew. His 
.venture, however, yielded him some few pounds, 
and his Guarnerius was saved, to him. From that 
moment he renounced gambling. 

About this period .Paganini is said to have 
composed his first studies, included in the twenty- 
four published as Op. i, the character of which is 
similar to those of Locatelli in his " Arte di Nuova 
Modulazione," but far surpassing them in point of 
difficulty. These studies were taken to Paris by 
Andreozzi long before the extraordinary skill of the 
composer was known to French Violinists. Their 
appearance there created a deep impression ; the 
difficulties they presented were so problematical, 
and under forms so peculiar, that many doubted 
the possibility of their execution, and looked upon 
the publication as a work of mystification. The 
famous French Violinist, Habeneck, endeavoured 
to solve these musical enigmas, but at length 
abandoned them, failing to discover their applica- 
tion to the pure music of the great composers; 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 26 1 

an opinion, I am inclined to think, few legitimate 
Violinists will disagree with. Blangini, on his return 
from Italy, spoke of the author with enthusiasm, 
and attested that his art bore no affinity to the 
manner of playing the Violin that all great masters 
had propagated until his day ; that all was the inven- 
tion of his talent, and that he was destined to 
revolutionize the art of Violin playing. Paganini 
and revolutionary Violin-playing was for years a 
subject much dwelt upon ; it was the bogey of the 
principal Violinists of the day. Mendelssohn, 
writing to his sister, said, " I don't at all approve of 
your hearing Lafont, to speak of the revolution in 
the Violin since Paganini, for I don't admit that 
any such thing exists in art, but only in people 
themselves ; and I think that very same style would 
have displeased you in Lafont if you had heard him 
before Paganini's appearance." Mendelssohn, in 
another letter, reverts to the subject : " Reformation 
is that which I desire to see in all things, in life and in 
art, in politics and in street pavement. Reformation 
is entirely negative against abuses, and only removes 
what obstructs the path ; but a revolution, by means 
of which all that was formerly good is no longer to 
continue, is to me the most intolerable of all things, 
and is in fact only a fashion. Therefore, I would 
not for a moment hear that Lafont's playing could 
inspire no further interest since the revolution 
effected by Paganini ; for if his playing ever had 
the power to interest me it would still do so, even if 



262 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

in the meantime I had heard the angel Gabriel on 
the Violin." 

In 1805 Paganini again performed in several 
Italian cities, after a rest of about four years. It was 
at this period that he perverted his extraordinary- 
abilities to uses which gave his detractors good 
ground for naming him a charlatan. He has recorded 
that he was induced to extend his discoveries of novel 
effects upon the Violin. One of these pretended 
discoveries was to remove the second and third 
strings and simulate a dialogue between the first and 
fourth. Paganini was not slow to recognise the 
sensational advantages this new departure in Violin- 
playing afforded him. If the retention of but two 
strings be regarded with such wonder, how much 
greater the marvel will be if but one is used ; such 
appears to have been the sum of Paganini's calcula- 
tions. The excitement produced by Paganini on one 
string is scarcely hushed in 1881. It was well said 
at the time, " To effect so much on a single string is 
truly wonderful ; nevertheless, any good player can 
extract more from two than one. If Paganini really 
produces so much effect on his single string, he 
would certainly obtain more from two. Then why 
not, therefore, employ them ? We answer, because 
he is waxing exceedingly wealthy by playing on 
one." 

At Milan he met with extraordinary enthusiasm. 
In 181 3 he gave thirty-seven concerts in that city. 
It was there that he heard some ballet music of the 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 263 

composer Siissmayer, from which he took the theme 
for his famous " Witches' Dance." 

In 1 8 14 he became acquainted with Rossini at 
Bologna. It was Rossini who, upon being asked 
how he liked the new Violinist, replied, " I have 
wept but three times in my life ; first, on the failure 
of my earliest opera ; the second time, when in a 
boat with some friends, a turkey stuffed with truffles 
provided for our dinner fell overboard ; and thirdly, 
on hearing Paganini for the first time." 

At Milan, in 1816, Lafont imprudently ventured 
to give a concert in conjunction with Paganini, at 
the great Theatre La Scala. The suggestion, 
according to Paganini, met with his disapproval, he 
remarking " that the public invariably looked upon 
such matters as duels, in which there was always a 
victim, and that it would be so in this case." Lafont 
arranged the programme, which included the " Sym- 
phonic Concertante " of Kreutzer in F, and a solo 
for each, of their own composition. For several 
days they rehearsed the duett together with the 
greatest care, and it was performed on the day of 
the concert as it had been rehearsed. Paganini said, 
" Lafont probably surpassed me in tone, but the 
applause which followed my efforts convinced me I 
did not suffer by comparison." That Paganini was 
regarded as infinitely superior to Lafont is easily 
understood. Each artist, no doubt, received his 
share of applause ; however, fourteen years after the 
event, a pamphlet appeared, purporting to be an 



264 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

account of the celebrated Violinst Paganini, written 
by M. J. Imbert de Laphaleque, on every page of 
which the .musical ignorance of the author is visible. 
Herein the author took upon himself to refer to the 
concert at Milan, given by Paganini and Lafont, 
and mentioned that all the passages performed by 
Lafont in tenths were repeated by Paganini in 
fourteenths and sixteenths ! Lafont wrote, to a 
journalist, pointing out the erroneous statements, 
remarking, " I was not beaten by Paganini, nor was 
he by me." 

Louis Spohr relates that Paganini paid him 
a visit when in Venice, in 18 16. He says: "I 
have at length made the personal acquaintance 
of this wonderful man, of whom, since I have 
been in Italy, I have heard some story or other 
every day. No instrumentalist ever charmed the 
Italians so much as he." The next day Spohr 
writes : " Paganini called to compliment me upon 
my concert ; I urgently solicited him to play some- 
thing, but he bluntly refused." Several years after 
this, Spohr had an opportunity of hearing Paganini. 
He writes : "In June, 1830, Paganini came to 
Cassel and gave two concerts, which I heard with 
great interest. His left hand and his constantly pure 
intonation were, to me, astonishing ; but in his 
compositions and his execution I found a strange 
mixture of the highly genial and childishly tasteless, 
by which one felt alternately charmed and dis- 
appointed." 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 265 

After an uninterrupted series of triumphs in 
Austria, Prussia, and elsewhere, Paganini reached 
Paris, and gave his first concert, March 9th, 1831, 
at the opera. The enthusiasm he created was 
extraordinary. After spending two months there 
he came to London. Very shortly after his arrival 
he called upon Moscheles, having received marked 
attention from Mr. Emden (Mrs. Moscheles' father), 
some time before his visit to England, and to whom 
he was indebted for securing an engagement of 
importance. " On his first visit to us " — Moscheles 
writes — " his gratitude found vent in such exagge- 
rated expressions as are known only to an Italian 
vocabulary : we were the children of his ' onoratis- 
simo, etc.', and he took down from the mantel- 
piece a miniature portrait of his benefactor, covered 
it with kisses, and addressed it with the most high- 
flown epithets. Meantime we had leisure to study 
those olive-tinted, sharply-defined features, the 
glowing eyes, the scanty but long black hair, and 
the thin, gaunt figure, upon which the clothes hung 
loosely ; the deep-sunken cheeks, and those long 
bony fingers." We read later on : " My assistance 
is of use to him here, and I am paid as many 
honeyed epithets as' my father-in-law received. 
This face of mine is as much kissed as my father- 
in-law's painted one. We receive him well, although 
I suspect he is rather too sweet to be genuine." 

The following is an interesting account of the 
great artist written at the time : " The sensation 



266 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

which the Violinist has caused among all classes 
in London is so universal that we really feel 
embarrassed in taking up the pen on the present 
occasion. The daily and weekly journals have 
been full of Paganini this fortnight and more. 
Paganini has been the all-absorbing topic of con- 
versation in every circle, from the salon to the 
tap-room, and the speculations upon Reform in 
the national representation yielded for a time to 
the universal clamour for reform in the prices of 
admission at which the most opulent city of the 
universe was to enjoy the magic of a solitary Fiddle." 
The prices of admission demanded certainly appear 
extortionate, amounting to nearly ,£4,000 in the 
event of all the seats in the opera-house having been 
taken. This, however, was the manager's affair, 
and not Paganini's, since he came to England at the 
invitation of Laporte, fettered by a contract which 
ensured to the said manager a large proportion of 
the profits of his performances. Peace was ulti- 
mately made with the British public, and Paganini 
was heard at a reduced rate of charges. 

" His first concert took place on the 3rd of June, 
1 83 1. After a symphony by Beethoven had been 
played, and ' Largo al Factotum ' sung by Lablache, 
a tall haggard figure, with long black hair strangely 
falling down to his shoulders, slid forward like a 
spectral apparition. There was something awful, 
unearthly, in that countenance ; but his play ! our 
pen seems involuntarily to evade the difficult task 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 267 

of giving utterance to sensations which are beyond 
the reach of language. If we were to affirm that 
we have heard many celebrated Violinists of various 
countries, and that Paganini did everything which 
their performance had taught us to consider possible 
on the instrument, we should fall greatly short of 
the impression we could wish to convey. If we 
were to declare, as some of our colleagues have 
maintained, that Paganini has advanced a century 
beyond the present standard of virtuosity, the 
assertion would be equally incorrect, for we believe 
that all the centuries in the womb of time will not 
produce a master spirit, a musical phenomenon,, 
organised like Paganini. But what, we have been 
asked, in the midst of our ecstacies, what are these 
excellencies, these wonders, so unattainable by the 
rest of his competitors ? 

" These excellencies we reply, consist, in the com- 
bination of absolute mechanical perfection of every 
imaginable kind, perfection hitherto unknown and 
unthought of, with the higher attributes of the 
human mind, inseparable from eminence in the fine 
arts; intellectual superiority,. sensibility, deep feeling 
poesy — genius !" * 

It was upon the occasion of Paganini's memor- 
able performance on the 3rd of, June, 1831, that 
John Cramer, of pianoforte-study renown, who is 
represented sitting in front of the Pianoforte in the 
accompanying woodcut, exclaimed, after hearing the 

* "New Monthly Magazine," July, 1831. 



268 



THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 



extraordinary performance of the virtuoso, " Thank 
Heaven I am not a Violin player ! " and Mori held 
up his Violin and jocularly offered it to the musicians 
of the orchestra for eighteenpence. 




ROBERT LINDLEY. MORI. FRANCOIS CRAMER. DRAGONETTI. 

JOHN CRAMER. PAGANINI. 



Macready, the tragedian, in his diary, tenders 
a somewhat different opinion : "July 17th, 1833 — 
Went to Drury Lane to see Paganini. His power 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 269 

over his instrument is surprising ; the tones he draws 
from it might be thought those of the sweetest 
flageolet and hautboy, and sometimes of the human 
voice ; the expression he gives to a common air is 
quite charming. His playing of ' Patrick's Day/ 
was the sweetest piece of instrumental music I ever 
heard — but he is a quack." 

The poet, Thomas Moore, remarked that. 
Paganini " abuses his powers. He could play- 
divinely, and does so sometimes for a minute or two, 
but then comes his tricks and surprises, his bow in 
convulsions/and his enharmonics like the mewlings 
of an expiring cat." 

Macready and Moore doubtless refer to one of 
those performances which George Hogarth, the 
musical critic, described as : " running up and down 
a single string, from the nut to the bridge, for ten 
minutes together, or playing with the bow and the 
fingers of his right hand, mingling pizzicato and 
arcato notes with the dexterity of an Indian juggler."' 
"It was not, however," Hogarth continues, "by 
these tricks, but in spite of them, that he gained 
the suffrages of those who were charmed by his 
truly great qualities — his ' soul of fire,' his boundless 
fancy, his energy, tenderness, and passion : these 
are the qualities which give him a, claim to a place 
among the greatest masters of the art." 

Paganini appeared for the last time in England 
in 1833, returning to the Continent, in possession of 
considerable wealth, which he invested in landed 



270 THE VIOLIN AXD ITS MUSIC. 

property. He died at Nice, May 27th, 1840, 
aged 56. 

Fetis gives the following list of his compositions : 
— Op. 1, Ventiquattro Capricci per Violino solo, 
dedicati agli artisti ; Op. 2, Sei Sonati per Violino 
•e Chitarra ; Op. 3, Sei Sonati per Violino e Chitarra ; 
Op. 4 and 5, Tre gran Quartetti a Violino, Viola, 
Chitarra, e Violoncello. 

The above are the .compositions published in his 
lifetime. 

Op. 6, Concerto in E flat; Op. 7, Concerto in B 
minor ; Op. 8, Le Streghe (Witches' Dance) ; Op. 9, 
Variations on "God save the King"; Op. io, Le 
Carnival de Venise ; Op. 11, Moto Perpetuo ; Op. 
1 2, Variations, " Non Piu Mesta"; Op. 13, Variations, 
" Di Tanti Palpiti"; Op. 14, Sixty Variations in all 
the keys, on the air, " Barucaba." 

M. Fetis remarks, " Paganini was aware that the 
interest which his concerts created would diminish 
materially if he published the compositions he 
performed." He only travelled with the orchestral 
accompaniments, and no one ever saw the solo 
parts. 

It may not be generally known to Violinists that 
a few of the studies of Paganini .were adapted to 
the Pianoforte by Schumann and Liszt, and that the 
former has left on record remarks relative to the 
composer and the adaptors. He tells us " Paganini 
is said to have rated his merit as a composer more 
highly than his talent as a virtuoso. If general 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 27 1 

opinion has not, until now, agreed with him, it must 
at least be allowed that his compositions contain 
many pure and precious qualities, worthy of being 
firmly fixed in the richer setting required by the 
Pianoforte. This is especially true of his Violin 
Caprices, which are imagined and carried out with 
rare freshness and lightness." 

Of the arrangement by Liszt, Schumann remarks, 
"' This collection consists of five numbers from the 
Caprices. Here there is, of course, no question of 
any pedantic innovation, or a bare harmonic filling 
out of the Violin part ; the Pianoforte is effective 
through other means than those of the Violin. It 
must be highly interesting to find the composi- 
tions of the greatest Violin virtuoso of our century 
in regard to bold bravura — Paganini — illustrated by 
the boldest of modern Pianoforte virtuosi — Liszt. 
This collection is probably the most difficult ever 
written for the Pianoforte, as its original is the most 
difficult work that exists for the Violin. Paganini 
knew this well, and expressed it in his short dedica- 
tion, 'Agli Artisti,' that is to say — I am only 
accessible to artists." 

Camillo Sivori, we are told, was a pupil of 
Paganini. He was born at Genoa in 1815. His 
first lessons were received from a Violinist named 
Costa. It is needless to relate in these pages the 
achievements of this world-renowned Violinist. As 
a soloist, quartett-player, and composer for his 
instrument he has been long held in the highest 



272 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

esteem. Mention is made of Paganini composing- 
six sonatas for Sivofi, with accompaniment for 
Guitar, Tenor, and Violoncello ; and that Paganini 
played the Guitar part upon several occasions at 
musical parties, whilst that of the Violin was played 
by the boy Sivori. Sivori has composed a Taran- 
telle ; Two Concertante Duetts for Piano and Violin ; 

.several Fantasias ; and a Duett for Violin and 
Double Bass, in conjunction with Bottesini. 

Another famous Italian Violinist and composer 
is Antonio Bazzini, born at Brescia in 181 8. His 
compositions are of a marked and effective character. 
The " Danse des Gn6mes;" Five Concertos, the 
favourite of which is the " Concerto Militaire," are 
among his chief works ; he has also written much 
Violin music of an elegiac kind of great merit. 

Giovanni Bottesini, one of the most gifted of 
living musicians, was born in Lombardy in 1823. 
Though known chiefly to the public as the greatest 
player on the Double Bass the world has seen since 
the days of Domenico Dragonetti, he is rightly 
regarded by musicians as a composer of extra- 
ordinary ability. In his boyhood the Violin was 
his instrument, but he relinquished the study of 
it upon his entering the Milan Conservatoire. His 
compositions for the Double Bass are numerous, and 
of exceptional difficulty. His Instruction Book 
for that instrument is a large work of an ex- 

, haustive character. The only published composi- 
tion associated with his name in connection with the 



THE VIOLIN IN ITALY. 273 

Violin — with the exception of two String Quintetts — 
appears to be the "Grand Duo," for Violin and 
Double Bass,* which was publicly performed by 
Wieniawski and the composer. 

Luigi Arditi, native of Crescentino, in Piedmont, 
born July 16th, 1825, made the Violin his chief 
study early in life ; he began to wield the baton 
in 1843. He has written a Sestett in the bravura 
style for two Violins, two Tenors, Violoncello, and 
Double Bass ; Fantasias for the Violin, &c. 

Both Rossini and Verdi have composed chamber 
music, though not of a kind likely to live beside the 
works of the great German masters. It must be 
admitted that the quartett of Verdi's introduced at 
the Monday Popular Concerts, (season 1879,) is by 
no means an unimportant work, but when thought 
of beside those of Cherubini the truth and force of 
Bailliot's words are felt, and serve as an apt tailpiece 
to this Italian section of my work, namely, that 
Cherubini, in the purely classical school, was the 
" Last and noblest Roman." 



* The inclusion of a Duett for these instruments, among the 
compositions of Sivori, was an inadvertence. 

T 



hctxon WI. — ^llxe liolitt iit Jrana. 



CHAPTER I. 

' I V AKING up the thread of stringed instru- 
merit progress in France, where we left it 
in the age of Francis I., we cannot do better 
than begin this new Section with the mention of 
the most original and most eminent author of the 
same period, Frangois Rabelais, the jolly Vicar of 
Meudon. It has been said, there is not a question 
of importance that has not been touched upon, in 
" La vie tres-horrifique du grand Gargantua, pere 
de Pantagruel." Music must be included with these 
subjects, and his references to it are both curious 
and valuable. 

M. Albert de Lasalle, in his notice of Rabelais,* 
gives much of the information, relative to music, 
to be met with in the pages of the old French 
Author. I extract the following reference to the 
Violin from his notice : " Panurge jette aux avides 
chats-fourres (aux gens de justice) une bourse pleine 
d'ecus qui tombe devant eux sur le parquet ; et au 
son de la bourse commencent tous les chats-fourres 
Pougin's Complement "Biographie Universelle des Musiciens,' - 1880. 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 2J$ 

jouer des gryphes, comme si feussent Violons deman- 
ches." There is also given a list of instruments, 
among which is the Rebec, la Vielle, and la Guiterne. 
It is, however, the mention of Violins which interests 
us. The reference may only be to the Rebec, 
and not to the Italian Violin ; however this may be, 
it is certain that twenty years later than the publica- 
tion of Rabelais' book, Charles IX. purchased from 
Cremona, Violins, since in the " Archives Curieuses 
de 1'Histoire de France" is the following: — "27 
Octobre, 1572, A. Nicolas Delinet, jouer de Fluste 
et Violon dudict Sieur, la somme de 50 livres to urn, 
pour luy donner moyen d'achepter ung Violon de 
Cremonne pour le service dudict Sieur." But Charles' 
Violin buying did not end here, for he ordered from 
Andrew Amati the famous twenty-four Violins of two 
sizes, six Violas, and eight Basses, which, it is said, 
were kept in the Royal Chapel at Versailles until 
October 1790, when they were dispersed with many 
other treasures. It is interesting to note that at this 
period (1570) Charles issued letters patent for a new 
Academy of Music, the precursor of which was 
doubtless that held at the house of Jean Antoine de 
Baif, to which the King resorted and assisted in his 
own person.* There was, evidently, a great musical 
movement occurring at this date, since 157 1 is the 
year given when the King invited Lassus to his 
Court. Adrian le Roy, the author of the book on 
the Lute already noticed, appears to have entertained 

* Hawkins, p. 833. 
T 2 



2 j6 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Lassus, and remarks in a dedication to Charles IX., 
"When Orlando di Lassus lately entered your- 
presence to kiss your hand, and modestly and 
deferentially greet your Majesty, I saw plainly as 
eyes can see the honour you were conferring on 
music and musicians."* The influence of Lassus 
undoubtedly contributed greatly to the development 
of music in France, and Charles showing his 
appreciation of the composer's abilities lastingly 
benefited his people. That the Netherlandefs were 
the leaders in this onward movement, is gathered 
from the circumstance of Rabelais mentioning, sixty 
musicians whom he had heard perform, mostly 
Netherlanders. 

The French composers at this period appear to 
have been chiefly occupied with songs and dances. 
The earliest known music printed in France for 
stringed instruments, namely Viols, is a collection of 
such pieces composed by Claude Gervaise.t 

D'Etree, an Oboe player in the service of Charles 
IX., published four books of dances, writing down 
the common lively tunes which had previously been 
learned by the ear. The date of this book is given 
as 1564. 

Claude Le Jeunne, Goudimel, and Bourgeois 
were composers of music set to the psalms of the 
Calvinists ; some of these were used for voices or 
Viols. The title of the book of Bourgeois is, 

* J. R. Sterndale Bennett's Notice of Lassus. 
t See "Histoire de l'lnstrumentation," par H. Lavoix fils, p. 171. 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 277 

" Quatres-vingt-trois Psalmes de David en musique 
(fort convenable aux instruments) a. quarte, cinq et 
six parties," dated 1561. 

The earliest Violinist in France appears to have 
been Baltazarini, an Italian from Piedmont. He 
was sent to Henry III. by the Marshal de Brissac, 
and pleased the Court, not only by his Violin per- 
formances, but in inventing dances, music shows, 
and representations. There is every reason to 
believe that the Violin, when introduced, was only 
used in connection with dancing in France. Henry 
IV. had his band of twenty-four Violins, which in 
all probability only played dance music. Several 
instruments by Antonius and Hieronymus Amati 
were made expressly for the band of Henry IV., on 
the backs of which are the arms of France and 
Navarre. 

Jacques Cordier, sometimes called Bocan, dis- 
tinguished himself as a, performer on the Violin and 
Rebec, and as a professor of dancing. He lived in 
the reign of Louis XIII., and came to England, 
when Charles I. often heard him play with pleasure. 
Mersenne mentions Cordier in terms of praise: It 
was, perhaps, this early player who caused Mersenne 
to prefer the Violin to all other instruments. The 
preference he gave to it must have appeared curious 
to many of his readers, the instrument being chiefly 
in the hands of the vulgar. 

Remembering how bright appeared the prospect 
of music in France in the time of Francis I., it is 



278 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

disappointing to discover the little progress that was 
made by the French nation during the wide space of 
a century. The cause is not difficult to seek ; it is 
not found in any paucity of musical genius or ability 
to continue a work so well commenced ; it is 
discovered amid the ruins occasioned by religious 
warfare, the worst enemy music has had. Churches 
and monasteries, in which the art was practised 
with skill, and where was reverentially kept the 
rich stores of written and printed music, were 
made the scenes of destruction and profanation. 
Musicians were murdered in the open street ;* 
musicians, deprived of their peaceful avocation, 
sunk under their load of anxiety, or sought refuge 
in foreign lands. Remembering these things, we 
have no cause to wonder that at the threshold of 
the reign of Louis XIV. we fail to recognise a 
representative of French music. 

If Louis XIV. and his Court succeeded to 
a barren musical heritage, the deficiency was 
more than counterbalanced by the succession to a 
nation's intellectual riches, the equivalent of which 
has rarely fallen to a king and people. To mention 
Racine and Moliere, Boileau and Fdndlon, La 
Fontaine and Pascal, at once stamps the character 
of the mental wealth that surrounded him whom 
Bolingbroke said, was, "If not the greatest king, 
the best actor of majesty at least, that ever filled a 

* Claude Goudimel was killed at Lyons, in the massacre on St. 
Bartholomew's Day, August 24th, 1572. 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 2jg 

throne." Le Brun was his painter, Perrault and 
Mansard made his palaces, the Louvre and Versailles; 
and, with excellent judgment, he chose an Italian — 
Jean Baptiste Lulli — to make his music. 

Voltaire remarks,* " Lulli astonished the world 
by his exquisite taste and skill. He was the first in 
France who regulated music. His compositions, 
which at present appear so simple and easy, could 
not be executed at first without some difficulty. 
There are a thousand persons in France now, who 
understand music, for one that understood it in the 
time of Louis XIII. ; and the art, by degrees, has 
been brought to perfection. There is not a con- 
siderable city in the kingdom without its public 
concerts ; whereas, even Paris itself had none at 
that time. Four-and-twenty Violins belonging to 
the King was all the music we then had in France." 
Lulli is frequently associated with the Violin in a 
manner altogether disproportionate to the part he 
actually played in connection with its progress. The 
name of Lulli, in consequence, is often supposed 
to have belonged to an extraordinary Violinist, and 
originator of a school of Violin playing; this was 
certainly not the case. Jean Baptiste Lulli was a 
musician of great ability, and, as M. Chouquet 
remarks, " II ecrivit d'inspiration." He acted well 
and danced admirably, to do which was in no way 
derogatory in a composer, since " La danse alors 
occupait une place essentielle dans 1'education d'un 
* " Steele de Louis XIV." 



280 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

gentilhomme ; "* and lastly, he in all probability 
played the Violin after the manner of a dancing- 
master, though, be it understood, with superior 
judgment. Style, in its relation to the Violin, is 
formed in early youth, and a cook's kitchen is the 
most unlikely place to engender a good one. 

When Lulli was at the head of his band, called 
" Les petits Violons," to distinguish it from the chief 
band of twenty-four Violins, he appears not to have 
been competent to render any of its members 
capable of playing music they had not learned by 
heart. That this incompetency lasted a considerable 
time, is shown from it being found impossible to 
gratify the wish of the Regent Duke of Orleans 
to hear the sonatas of Corelli.t 

In justice to Lulli, however, it must not be 
forgotten that he was compelled to fashion his 
musicians and his music in accordance with the 
taste of his royal master, which appears to have 
been utterly opposed to the music of Corelli, since 
it is said that Baptiste Anet,| — probably the 
first good French Violinist — upon his return from 
Rome was commanded to play to the King, 
and performed a sonata of Corelli, which Louis 
listened to without showing any signs of pleasure. 

* " Histoire de la Musique Dramatique en France," Gustave 
Chouquet, 1873. This admirable work contains much new and 
interesting matter relative to Lulli. 

f Michael Corette, Preface to his " Mdthode d' Accompaniment." 

t Anet published three sets of Sonatas with Thorough-Bass in 1724. 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 28 I 

The sonata ended, Louis sent for a Violinist of his 
own band, and desired him to play an air from 
Lulli's opera of " Cadmus et Hermione" which 
was complied with, from memory : " Que voulez- 
vous, messieurs," said the King, " voila mon gout, a. 
moi, voila mon gout." 

It will therefore be seen that Lulli cannot be 
looked upon as having contributed much to the 
progress of the Violin. The celebrity acquired by 
his band in connection with light French music, and 
its popularity with Louis XIV., surrounded the 
then vulgar instrument out of Italy with an amount 
of interest and attention far exceeding that which 
arose from the knowledge Lulli brought to bear 
upon it. 

Mersennus' description of the band of twenty- 
four Violins is interesting : he says, " Whoever 
hears the twenty-four Fidicinists of the King, with six 
Barbitons to each part, namely, the Bass, Tenor, 
Contra-Tenor, and Treble, perform all kinds of 
cantilenas and tunes for dancing, must readily 
confess that there can be nothing sweeter and 
pleasanter. If you have a mind to hear the upper 
part only, what can be more elegant than the play- 
ing of Constantius ? what more vehement than 
the enthusiasm of Bocanus* ? what more subtle 
and delicate than the little percusseans or touches 
of Laxarinus and Foucardus ? If the Bass of 
Legerus be joined to the acute sounds of 

* Noticed previously as Cordier or Bocan. 



282 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Constantius, all the harmonical members will be 
completed."* 

Among early French Violinists must be men- 
tioned Joseph Marchand and Francois Duval, 
both of whom were connected with the music 
establishment of the King. From the pen of the 
former came Twelve Sonatas for the same instru- 
ments for which Handel adapted his Violin Sonatas, 
namely, Flute, Hautboy, or Violin. Their publica- 
tion was sufficiently successful to cause them to run 
to a second edition. Duval also published Seven 
books of Sonatas. 

Jean Baptiste Senaille, born in Paris, in 1687, 
like his predecessor, Anet, turned to the Italian 
School, rightly regarding it as the true basis of 
sound Violin playing. After receiving tuition from 
Queversin, one of the members of Louis XIV.'s 
band, he went to Modena to continue his studies, 
returning to Paris in 1719, when he entered the 
service of the Duke of Orleans. He published 
two books of Sonatas for Violin and Bass, one of 
which M. Deldevez has introduced into his collection 
of early Violin works. 



* See Note " Hawkins' History," p. 603. 



Station: IK— 'the Violin in Jraitce. 



CHAPTER II. 

"\ li 7TTH the establishment of the Lenten Concerts 
'* ' in' Paris, to which the name Spirituel Concert 
was given, music in France entered upon a new and 
wider field. The abilities of musicians, had hitherto 
been exercised in connection with the Court, where 
oftentimes they failed to receive that recognition 
they merited, in consequence of the influence of 
officials and others having possession of the royal 
ear. The Spirituel Concert enabled the musician 
to appeal to the suffrages of a musical public, which 
was at once beneficial to him and to his art. It was 
Anne Danican Philidor, the son of the famous 
Musician and Chess player, who obtained permis- 
sion, in 1725, to give these concerts during Lent. 
The first programme, dated March 18th, 1725, 
contains Corelli's Eighth Concerto, which admirably 
marks the earnestness of Philidor's purpose in lead- 
ing the public taste in the right direction. The 
concerts were given in the Salle des Suisses of the 
Tuileries. In the year 1733, the Italian Violinist, 



284 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Giambatista Somis, the pupil of Corelli, played at 
the Concert Spirituel, and met with great success. 

Le Clair, born at Lyons, in 1697, and who 
contributed greatly to the development of the 
study of his instrument in France, had some 
years previous to the appearance of Somis at 
the Concert Spirituel received lessons from that 
master when in Turin. Le Clair returned to 
Paris in 1728. In 1731 he received an appoint- 
ment in the Court band : this position he ultimately 
gave up, and appears to have henceforth centred, 
all his attention upon composition and giving 
lessons. Although Le Clair studied under an 
Italian master, he did not abandon the character- 
istics belonging to the early French school of Violin 
playing, or the style of music Lulli had made 
familiar to French ears ; in short, Le Clair proved 
himself again and again a composer richly en- 
dowed with originality and sentiment. The roll 
of famous French Violinists is a long and glorious 
one, and the name of Le Clair should head it in 
letters of gold. 

His works for the Violin are Op. 1, First Book 
of Sonatas, with Bass. Op. 2, Second Book of 
Sonatas, with Bass. Op. 3, Six Sonatas for two 
Violins. Op. 4, Six Sonatas for two Violins and 
Bass. Op. 5, Third Book of Sonatas for Violin, 
with Bass. Op. 6, Easy pieces for two Violins and 
Bass. Op. 7, Concertos for three Violins, Tenor, 
Bass, Organ, and Violoncello. Op. 8, Second 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 285 

set of Easy Pieces, for two Violins and Bass. 
Op. 9, Fourth Book of Sonatas for Violin, with 
Bass. Op. 10, Six Concertos for three Violins, 
Tenor, Bass, Organ, and Violoncello. Op. 12, 
Second Book of Sonatas for two Violins, without 
Bass. Op. 13, Overtures and Sonatas for two 
Violins with Bass. Op. 14, Posthumous Sonata, 
second edition, engraved by Cousineau, Paris. 

Pierre Gavinies is the next Violinist of the old 
French school to be noticed. His knowledge 
of the fingerboard was greater than that of Le 
Clair, but his predecessor surpassed him in breadth 
of style — judging from the compositions of 
each master, without reference to their own par- 
ticular manner of playing. All the Violin writings 
of Gavinies are eminently French in style ; they teem 
with piquant phrases, which, when rendered with 
the short and light bowing belonging to Gavinies' 
time, are remarkably pleasing and striking. In 
playing these early French Violin compositions, as. 
indeed the works of all periods and nationalities, 
the mind of the performer must ever be centred in 
the peculiar style of the period to which the work 
belongs. To apply the vigour and breadth of style 
which was developed by Viotti, and still more so by 
his followers, to the sonatas of Le Clair or Gavinies, 
affords but a very faint idea of the invention of the 
composer. Gavinies' bow was a puny, much rounded 
contrivance, containing about half as many hairs as 
are found in a modern one, and consequently the tone 



.286 7 HE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

■drawn from the instrument must have been so much 
less. It is, of course, no more possible to convert a 
modern Violin player into one of Gavinies' age, in 
order to play his music, than it is to convert a grand 
Pianoforte into a Clavecin, that we may play the 
sonatas of Bach and the suites of Handel ; but, 
notwithstanding delicacy of touch on both, the 
Violin and Pianforte will take us back a consider- 
able distance. 

The naming of Gavinies, the French Tartini, 
by Viotti, admirably conveys an idea of much that 
he accomplished in the field of French Violin playing, 
and the comparison was equally well chosen as it 
unintentionally happened with regard to his well- 
informed mind, for, like Tartini, Gavinies was 
literary as well as musical, and enjoyed the friend- 
ship of Jean Jacques Rousseau. The chief work of 
Gavinies is undoubtedly the Twenty-four Studies in 
all the keys, a plan which Rode followed in his 
Twenty-four Caprices. The studies of Gavinies are 
full of ingeniously-constructed passages, needing 
considerable executive skill to render them ; many 
forms of passages are given which are never likely 
to be required, yet the study attending the unravel- 
ling of them is highly beneficial to the student. 

The direction of the Concert Spirituel was shared 
in 1773 by Gavinies and Gossec, and in 1795, u P on 
the formation of the Conservatoire de Musique by 
the French Government, Gavinies was appointed 
Violin professor to the institution, a position he held 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 287 

until his death m 1800. Among his published 
Violin works are Six Concertos; Six Sonatas for 
Violin, with Bass ; Six ditto, Op. 3 ; and the 
Twenty-four Studies. There is also a posthumous 
set of Three Sonatas, published by Naderman in 
1801. 

Andre Noel Pagin, born in Paris 1 721, was a 
Violinist of some celebrity. He was a pupil of 
Tartini's, and was, no doubt, imbued with the style 
of his great master. That he delighted in Tartini's 
music is evident from his determination to publicly 
perform it upon every occasion ; this gave his 
brother musicians in Paris great offence, and caused 
them to degrade themselves and their art by hissing 
Pagin at the next concert at which he appeared. 
This conduct naturally wounded the feelings of 
Pagin, and led to his retirement from public playing. 
I find in Mozart's Violin School, revised by Wolde- 
mar, an Air with Variations by Pagin, the character 
of which is in advance of the French music of his 
time. 

Among early French Violinists Francois Hippo - 
lite Barthelemon attained considerable renown, 
though quite apart from the chief players of France, 
his artistic life having been chiefly pursued in 
London.. He was born at Bourdeaux in 1741, 
paternally French, maternally Irish. In 1765 he 
came to England and led the Opera Orchestra. 
The following year he composed a serious Opera, 
which was played at the King's Theatre. Kelly, 



288 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

in his " Musical Memoirs" says, " Barthelemon was 
recommended to David Garrick to compose music 
to a piece of his. At their first interview Garrick 
sat down to write out one of the songs for him to 
compose by the next day. Barthelemon, looking 
over Garrick's shoulder whilst he was writing, set 
the music to it. When Garrick had finished he 
turned to Barthelemon, saying, ' There, sir, is my 
song.' ' And there, sir,' said Barthelemon, ' is my 
music to it,' Dr. Burney, in a summary of the 
talents of musicians known to him, speaks of 
the powerful hand and truly vocal adagio of this 
Violinist. Among his published Violin works 
is a Concerto ; Six Violin Duetts ; Six String 
Quartetts. 

It is now necessary to notice another institution 
which helped greatly to develop a sound musical 
taste in France: I refer to the Concert des Amateurs. 
This institution was founded by the Belgian, 
Francois Joseph Gossec in 1770. In 1771 a sym- 
phony of Gossec's was played with stringed 
instruments, two Oboes, two Clarionets, two Horns, 
and two Bassoons. The role of artists' names 
belonging to the orchestra of the Concert des 
Amateurs was indeed a famous one ; le Chevalier 
de Saint Georges, Mestrino, La Houssaye, Blasius, 
were some of the Violinists ; Duport and Crossdill 
were among the Violoncellists. The notable French 
Violinists in connection with this early and famous 
orchestra, deserve more than a passing notice. Le 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 289 

Chevalier de Saint Georges was born in 1745. He 
was possessed of abilities of a varied and diverse 
kind ; indeed, he might be described as a Crichton 
among Violinists. As a fencer he gained the title 
of L'inimitable ! In athletics he was an Achilles ! 
In horsemanship he was perfection ! As a dancer, 
a model ! In bearing and manners, a D'Orsay ! 
In politics, an intriguer ! And last, a fine Violinist 
and worthy pupil of Le Clair. Surely no Violinist, 
before or since, ever cut such a figure ! But 
stay ! — -in athletics Ole Bull might have entered the 
arena with many a Cumberland or Westmoreland 
hero ; his muscular power was, to use Dominie 
Sampson's well-worn exclamation — prodigious ! — and 
he knew how to use it scientifically. I remember, 
upon one occasion, after his having spent several 
hours in my workshop fitting bridges and sound- 
posts to his Violins — an occupation he pursued 
daily, with but few exceptions, during his visits to 
London — his turning to me and expressing himself 
somewhat wearied with his task, and that he would 
continue it later. Returning a few hours after- 
wards, he remarked that he was in excellent " form," 
having had some exercise with the proprietor of 
the gymnastic establishment in Soho Square. 
Taking up his Violin, and playing with the utmost 
finish, executing legions of notes without giving the 
least indication of changing the stroke of his bow, I 
felt astonished at the command he had over his 
muscular power, remembering the direction in which 
u 



29O THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

it had but recently been exerted ; I was, however, 
more convinced than before that great Violin -playing 
is inseparable from muscular development, and 
the greatest artists are those who best succeed in 
rendering it subject to their will ; but let us return 
to our subject, le Chevalier de Saint Georges, whose 
athletic propensities led us away from it. He 
frequently played solos in public with great success, 
and mention is made of his performance of his own 
concertos. He published the following composi- 
tions : — Sonatas for Violin and Bass, Op. 1 ; Four 
Concertos for Violin with accompaniments ; Sonatas 
for two Violins and Bass, Op. 5 ; Two Concertante 
Symphonies for two Violins and Orchestra, 
Op. 6 ; Concerto Violin and Orchestra, Op. 6 ; 
and a few other works mentioned by Fetis. 

Pierre La Houssaye, born in 1735, was a pupil 
of Pagin, and at a later period received instruction 
from Tartini. He long occupied a foremost place 
among the Violinists in Paris. In 1769 he appeared 
in London, where he remained three years. On his 
return to Paris he became the leader of the Opera 
Orchestra, and connected with the Conservatoire. 
He published a set of Sonatas, and left several com- 
positions in manuscript. 

Mathieu Frederic Blasius, born in 1758, was 
another distinguished Violinist, and published many 
of his compositions, which include Three Con- 
certos ; several String Quartetts and Trios. 

Amongst French Violinists of celebrity prior 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 2QI 

to the opening of the Conservatoire, Michael 
Woldemar held a high position. He was born at 
Orleans, in 1750, and became a pupil of Lolli, and 
imbibed from his master his love for the eccentric 
in Violin-playing ; indeed, he appears to have taken 
greater liberties with his instrument than Lolli ever 
contemplated doing, since we are told he added a 
fifth string to enable the performer to descend 
five notes lower, and composed a Concerto for his 
questionably improved Violin. This idea was 
resuscitated by Chretien Urhan some years later, 
who played solos upon an instrument he named the 
Violon-alto at the concerts of the Conservatoire. 
In passing, it may be mentioned that Urhan was a 
skilful performer on the Viol d'Amour, and it was 
for him that Meyerbeer wrote the solo for that 
instrument in the First Act of The Huguenots. 

It was Woldemar who edited the Violin Method 
of Leopold Mozart, published by Pleyel, at the end 
of which are several rare and ingenious Violin 
compositions introduced by the editor. Among 
these is a Scale Fugue by Woldemar, and also a 
Caprice from the same pen. Here also is found the 
enigmatic study of Locatelli, known as the Labyrinth 
of Harmony, with an explanatory guide in notes to 
instruct the player how to extricate himself from 
the musical maze, which, if I remember rightly, is the 
earliest known key to the mystery. Mention 
of a few of Woldemar's compositions will serve to 
display his eccentricity in that direction : Op. 8 is 
u 2 



292 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

entitled " Sonates fantomagique" containing four 
pieces named " The Ghosts of Lolli, Pugnani, 
Tartini, and Mestrino." I have not seen a copy of 
this visionary work, but it is doubtless far less 
repulsive than its title implies. Another work is 
entitled " Le Nouveau Labyrinthe Harmonique " ; 
besides these he wrote a Violin Method, and also 
one for the Tenor, three Violin Concertos, and 
other compositions. 



§tctwn UH— Ifte Violin xn Jraitce. 



CHAPTER III. 

PHE formation of the Conservatoire de Musique 
in 1795, has already been passingly referred 
to ; it now remains to notice the Institution at 
greater length. The Conservatoire from the begin- 
ning became the centre of all that was great in 
French music and musicians. It attracted the 
musical ability of France in every department, and 
no section surpassed that of the Violin. When its 
doors were opened, Gavinies, Guenin, Kreutzer, 
and La Houssaye became its Violin professors. 
Some five years later, Bailliot and Rode added 
their names to its roll of masters. Mention of 
these half-dozen names is all-sufficient to mark the 
character of the generalship which was brought to 
bear upon the Violin classes of the Institution, with- 
out enumerating the players who acted in subor- 
dinate capacities. No such leaders in a body, 
before or since, have been attached to a Violin 
School, and the beneficial results of their leadership 
are recognised either directly or indirectly in the 
performances of the' foremost Violinists of the 



294 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

present time, be they French, German, or Italian. 
It must, however, be borne in mind that the merit 
of this teaching belongs not wholly to its French 
exponents. It had its origin in a fortunate set of 
circumstances, like most good things, the chief of 
which was undoubtedly the presence of Viotti in Paris. 
In Viotti were centred all the important results 
which had accrued from the teachings of the 
Legitimate School of Italian Violin-playing, and in 
him was found its last notable native exponent.* 
Although several French Violinists have already 
been mentioned, whose style was undoubtedly 
influenced by Italian tuition, yet none of them 
succeeded in completely engrafting the salient 
features of the Italian School on to that of the Old 
French. This was left to be accomplished by the 
example Viotti set before Bailliot, Kreutzer, and 
Cartier, and the direct tuition Rode received from 
the Italian Violinist. 

Another circumstance which lent to Viotti's 
influence such weight, was the wondrous galaxy of 
French artists ripe to emulate his finished style and 
manner of playing. Neither Germany nor Italy 
could have put forward such a trio of Violinists as 
Rode, Bailliot, and Kreutzer, to imbibe and develop 
the teachings of the great and legitimate artist, 
Giovanni Battista Viotti. 

In 1801 a committee was formed to decide upon 

* Fiorillo, though born in Brunswick, was Italian in parentage and 
style, and worthily represented the school of Tartini. 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 295 

the best means of introducing an entirely new 
method in the form of a Violin Instruction Book. 
On this notable committee sat Cherubim, Kreutzer, 
Bailliot, Rode, Blasius, and others. To Bailliot 
was given the direction and superintendence of the 
undertaking. The following year brought the now 
well-known work to which is attached the names of 
Rode, Bailliot, and Kreutzer ; very shortly after its 
publication, it was translated into German, English, 
and Italian, the latter being the work of Rolla, the 
master of Paganini. The accompaniments to the 
exercises are the work of Cherubini. 

Rodolphe Kreutzer was born at Versailles, in 
1766. He was a pupil of Anton Stamitz, a 
Violinist in the Chapel Orchestra at Versailles. 
His progress had been so rapid, that when but 
sixteen years of age he was appointed one of the 
first Violins in the King's Chapel. It was at this 
period that he often heard Viotti, whose style of 
playing he wisely made the model to form his own. 
In the twenty- fourth year of his age he produced his 
first opera, which was quickly followed by others 
of more or less merit. Shortly after the opening of 
the Paris Conservatoire, Kreutzer visited Italy, 
Germany, and Holland, and gave concerts with 
much success. In 1798 he was at Vienna, in the 
service of the French Ambassador, Bernadotte, 
when it is supposed he made the acquaintance of 
Beethoven, which led to his being honoured with 
the dedication of the famous Sonata, Op. 47, a 



296 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

few years later. Upon his return to Paris, he took 
the post of leader at the Italian Opera, succeeding 
Rode, who had gone to Russia. During this period, 
namely, 1 801 to 1825, Kreutzer was occupied in Paris 
composing Operas, Violin Concertos, and the famous 
Forty Studies, besides attending his class at the 
Conservatoire, and leading the Opera Orchestra. 
In 1825 he ceased playing publicly, in conse- 
quence of an accident which deprived him of the 
use of his arm ; he died at Geneva in 183 1. His 
greatest work in connection with the Violin is 
beyond all question the Forty Studies. No work of 
the kind has passed through so many editions. 
Though its age is more than three-score years and ten, 
it is as fresh and vigorous as when it came into the 
Fiddling world. What Cramer's Studies have been 
and are likely to be to the Pianist, Kreutzer's 
Studies have been and will be to Violinists. There 
hardly appears more chance of a Violin student 
dispensing with his Kreutzer, than his mathematical 
brother shelving his Euclid. These are the only 
notable Violin Studies, with the exception of 
Paganini's, to which a Pianoforte accompaniment has 
been added.* 

Another important work is found in the Con- 
certante Symphonies for two Violins : it was one of 

* Kreutzer's Studies with accompaniment, published by Hofmeister, 
Leipzig. Paganini's Studies with accompaniment for Piano, by J. L, 
Hatton, published by Hart & Son, London ; and the David edition 
published by Breitkopf and Hartel. 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 297 

these which Paganini and Lafont played, as already- 
noticed. We have also nineteen Violin Concertos 
from his pen ; that in E minor, No. 19, is regarded 
as the best. The Concertos of Kreutzer teem with 
passages of an instructive character, but fail to 
excite interest in the listener in consequence of a 
poverty of subject-matter. Fifteen Trios for two 
Violins and Violoncello'; a Concertante Symphony 
for the same instruments ; Fifteen String Quartetts, 
and a few Airs with variations, complete the list of 
Kreutzer' s Violin music. 

In allotting to Pierre Bailliot the chief work 
attending the arrangement and composition of the 
New Violin Method, the committee expressly 
organised in reference to it performed an admirable 
service to all Violinists and at once secured complete 
success to the undertaking. Bailliot possessed, to 
a degree far beyond his fellow- workers, the requisites 
needed for such a task ; for, besides being a com- 
petent Violinist and musician, he was a man of 
superior education, and attached to literary pursuits, 
thus enabling him to give expression to his thoughts 
through his pen, in a manner which neither Rode 
nor Kreutzer could have succeeded in doing ; 
nor indeed has any Violinist, engaged on a similar 
work equalled him in this department down to the 
present time. 

Pierre Bailliot was born at Passy, near Paris, 
in 1 77 1. His father at one time practised as a lawyer, 
but at the period of Pierre's birth, he opened a 



298 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

school ; a few years later he held a Government 
appointment, dying shortly after entering upon 
it. A friend undertook the education of Pierre, 
sending him to Rome. It was in that city he first 
received lessons on the Violin worthy of the name. 
His master was a pupil of Nardini's. Though the 
tuition was of short duration, yet it could not have 
been otherwise than valuable to him, connected as 
it was with the great Italian School of Violin- 
playing. In 1 79 1 Bailliot returned to Paris, when 
Viotti, ever ready to aid a brother artist, procured 
him a place in the orchestra at the opera. This 
position, however, he soon retired from in order to 
enter the office of the " Ministere des Finances." 
For several years he retained this position, occupying 
much of his leisure time with the practice of music 
and the Violin. In the year 1795, his passion for 
the Violin led him to enter the musical profession. 
About this period he received lessons in composition 
from Cherubini. In 1802 he entered the private 
band of Napoleon Buonaparte. 

In 1 8 1 4 he carried out his long-cherished desire to 
establish a series of concerts for the performance 
of the chamber compositions of the great masters. 
His coadjutors were Guynemer, Tariot, St. Laurent, 
de Lamare, Norblin (the famous Violoncellist) ; 
and at a later period Vidal, Sauzay, Urhan, and 
Vaslin. Spohr, writing from Paris in 1821, mentions 
Bailliot in that tone which he invariably adopted 
in reference to the ability of a brother artist, be- 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 299 

ginning by gently touching the notes of praise, and 
ending by drowning them in censure. He says : 
" Bailliot is, in the technical scope of his play, almost 
as perfect as Lafont, and his diversity of manner 
shows that he is so, without resorting to the same 
desperate means. Besides his own compositions, 
he plays almost all those of ancient and modern 
times. On one occasion he gave us a Quintett of 
Boccherini, a Quartett of Haydn, and three of his 
own compositions. He played all with the most 
perfect purity and with the expression which is 
peculiar to his manner. His expression nevertheless 
seemed to me more artificial than natural, and indeed 
his whole execution has the appearance of manner- 
ism. His bow-stroke is skilful, and rich in shades 
of expression, but not so free as Lafont's, and there- 
fore his tone is not so beautiful, and the mechanical 
process of the up and down stroke is too audible. 
His compositions are distinguished above all those 
of any Parisian Violinist by their correctness, but 
being somewhat artificial-mannered, and out of 
date in style, the hearer remains cold and without 
sense of emotion." It is refreshing to turn to 
Mendelssohn's enthusiastic admiration, expressed in 
one of his letters written in' 1832, after wading 
through Spohr's windy critical estimate of the 
eminent French artist's abilities. "After the re- 
hearsal," remarks Mendelssohn, " Bailliot played my 
Octett in his class, and if any man in the world can 
play it, he is the man. His -performance was finer 



3°° 



THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 



than I ever heard it." In another letter he remarks 
of Bailliot, " He played beautifully. It was the 
greatest possible delight to me to hear my Quartett 
in E flat major performed in Paris by Bailliot's 
quartett, and they executed it with fire and spirit. 
The company then asked for a Sonata of Bach's ; 
we selected the one in A major. We urged each 



SONATA II. 



*fe 



dolce. 



m 



w^s 



^-^~*f 



- i 
i i i 



ZfrtjL 



E 



other on, the affair became animated, and so 
thoroughly amused both us and our audience that 
we immediately commenced the one in E major, and 



SONATA III. 



M 



adagio. 



m 



^-» -#o*^ 



=fqc 



W- 



:3b*: 



P ere 

next time we mean to introduce the four others." 
The Sonatas referred to are the Six Grand Sonatas 
with Violin obbligato, composed between the years 
1 718 and 1722, but not published in Bach's lifetime. 
Besides visiting Holland and Belgium, in 1815 
and 1816, Bailliot came to England and performed 
at the Philharmonic Concerts, acting sometimes as 
leader of the Orchestra. At the first concert of the 
season 18 16, he introduced a Concertante of his 
own, and played in a Quartett of Mozart. His 
quartett playing was regarded at this period, and 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 3OI 

long after, as a model of classical purity, not only 
in France, but in Germany and England. On 
Bailliot's return to France he held the post of leader 
of the Royal Orchestra, and also at the Opera. H e 
died in 1842. His Violin works as given by Fetis, 
comprise Twenty-Four Preludes ; a number of Airs 
with Variations ; Nine Concertos ; Three String 
Quartetts ; Sonata for Piano and Violin ; Twelve 
Violin Studies ; Six Duetts for two Violins ; and 
Fifteen String Trios. 

Pierre Rode was a native of Bordeaux, where he 
was born in 1774. He early became a pupil of 
Viotti. Although Rode was attached to the 
Conservatoire, his influence over the Violin playing 
of his time was effected more by the example he 
set in his public performances than by direct 
tuition. His professional engagements caused him 
to be long and frequently away from Paris, 
giving concerts in all the chief European cities. 
Teaching under these circumstances was not likely 
to benefit either master or pupil. His own solo- 
playing was, however, a most valuable lesson to 
advanced Violinists, and through them it has left an 
imperishable impression upon their art. The most 
notable instance of this is found in Louis Spohr. 
From Rode the great German Violinist obtained his 
earliest and best ideas of phrasing and polished 
playing generally. Remembering this fact, and the 
development that attended the School of Violin 
playing which Spohr may be said to have inaugu- 



302 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

rated in Germany, the merit belonging to Rode in 
the work is better understood. 

The feelings of admiration manifested for each 
other's abilities by Rode and Bailliot was worthy of 
the two artists who, by their labours and example, 
contributed more to the advancement of classical 
Violin playing than has been accomplished by any 
Violinist during the present century. Whether 
their work lay in the Conservatoire, in the " Violin 
Method," or in the performance of chamber music, it 
was entered upon with no other desire than the 
furtherance of their art. Rivalry was unknown to 
both. Merits denied to one were possessed by the 
other, and the favourable conditions under which 
their respective qualities were thus developed, gave 
to their teaching and example a force which would not 
otherwise have existed. 

In 1800 Rode was appointed solo Violinist to 
Napoleon ; three years later he went to Russia. It 
was upon the occasion of this journey that Spohr 
heard him in Brunswick, and we read in his auto- 
biography : " The more I heard him play the more 
was I captivated. Yes ! I had no hesitation to 
place Rode's style (then still reflecting all the 
brilliancy of that of his great master, Viotti) above 
that of my instructor Eck, and to apply myself 
sedulously to acquire it as much as possible by a 
careful practice of Rode's compositions." At St. 
Petersburg Rode was appointed solo Violinist to the 
Emperor Alexander, a post he held for five years, 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 303 

when he returned to Paris. In 1811 he again went 
to Germany, and shortly afterwards returned to his 
native Bordeaux. Rode died in 1830. M. Fetis 
remarks, " There are few living who have heard the 
talent of Rode in all its beauty, but the artists who 
have enjoyed that pleasure will never forget the 
perfection attending it." His compositions include 
Ten Concertos, the most admired of which is the 
seventh in A minor, so frequently played by Spohr, 
and introduced into his Violin School ; Duetts for 
two Violins, two books, Op. 18; Cavatine and 
Rondeau, Op. 28 ; Fantasia, Op. 29 ; several Airs 
with variations, among them the famous one in G, 
— which Spohr called his hobby-horse — and the varia- 
tions to the " Harmonious Blacksmith," which are 
admirable ; a few solo Quartetts ; and the famous 
Caprices. Rode was a great composer for his 
instrument, but was deficient in theoretical know- 
ledge, which caused him to be assisted by Boccherini 
and others in the orchestral accompaniments. 

Jean Baptiste Cartier, born at Avignon in 1765, 
was an excellent Violinist. Early tutored in the 
the great Italian School of Violin-playing, he 
manifested the utmost love and admiration for the 
compositions associated with it, which prompted him 
to issue new editions of the more important writings 
of Corelli, Tartini, Nardini, and others, thus placing 
before his countrymen models of the highest 
excellence in relation to his art. He is best known 
by his admirable work, " L/Art du Violin," published 



304 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

in 1798 and 1801, wherein he gives examples of 
famous Violin compositions from the pens of Italian, 
French, and German masters. His own composi- 
tions include Airs with variations, Studies, &c. 
He died in 1851. 

It is now necessary to notice the famous pupil of 
Bailliot, Francois Antoine Habeneck, upon whom 
devolved the duty of maintaining the high character 
belonging to the Violin classes of the Conservatoire, 
which his great master and his coadjutors succeeded 
in giving to them. 

Habeneck was born in 1781. His first lessons 
on the Violin were received from his father, a 
musician in a military band. He entered Bailliot's 
class in 1801, and obtained the first Violin prize in 
1804. Shortly afterwards he was appointed to a 
sub-professorship, He succeeded Kreutzer as leader 
of the opera orchestra upon that Violinist's appoint- 
ment to the conductOrship, becoming himself con- 
ductor in 1821. In 1828 Habeneck established the 
Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire," which he 
conducted for twenty years. Prior to the formation 
of this society, Habeneck had been conducting an 
orchestra formed of the best pupils of the Institu- 
tion. It was here that he introduced the Sympho- 
nies of Beethoven to the French musical public, a 
most honourable distinction, and one which, had he 
achieved nothing more in relation to his art, would 
have secured him a notable place in the musical 
annals of his country. 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 305 

Reverting to the foundation of the Societe des 
Concerts du Conservatoire, it appears Habeneck 
invited his musical friends to dinner on St. Cecilia's 
day ; the Eroica Symphony was played, but not 
appreciated. It was subsequently performed upon 
several occasions, when at length its wondrous 
beauties dawned upon the executants, and Habeneck's 
cherished wish to awaken enthusiasm in France for 
the . orchestral masterpieces of Beethoven was on 
the point of being gratified. The news of Habe- 
neck's proselytizing success reached the ears of 
Cherubini, who consented to the Concerts in future 
taking place at the Conservatoire. A govern- 
ment grant was at length obtained of £Zo per 
annum towards the expenses of the Society. 
Cherubini became the President, and Habeneck 
Vice-President and conductor. That the founder's 
main object was not lost sight of, namely, the 
familiarizing the orchestra and audience with the 
works of Beethoven, is seen from the number of 
times they were performed. 

I cannot withhold from the reader the substance 
of an anecdote related by Berlioz, in his Memoirs, 
relative to Habeneck, though it necessitates stepping 
from the sublime to the ridiculous. " At a public 
performance of the Requiem of Berlioz, the 
composer had arranged with Habeneck to conduct 
the music, Berlioz taking his seat close behind 
the conductor. The work was commenced, and 
had been proceeded with some little time, when 
v 



306 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Habeneck (presumably taking advantage of 
what appeared to him a favourable moment) 
placed his baton on the desk and took out his snuff- 
box and calmly took a pinch. Berlioz, aware 
of breakers ahead, rushed to the helm and saved 
the wreck of his work by beating time with his 
arm. Habeneck, when the danger was passed, said 
' what a cold perspiration I was in ! Without you 
we should have assuredly been lost.' Yes, said the 
composer, I know it well," accompanying his words 
with a facial expression betokening suspicion of 
Habeneck's honesty of purpose. The Violinist 
little dreamed that his weakness for snuff-taking 
would be construed in the pages of Berlioz's 
Memoires into having been indulged in from base 
motives. 

The mention of Berlioz serves to remind me of 
his claim to be noticed as the composer of a 
Reverie and Caprice for Violin and Orchestra, 
which composition partakes largely of that remark- 
able character belonging to all his works. An 
anecdote in connection with this Reverie is perhaps 
worth relating. Some forty years since, Berlioz 
was in Leipzig, when, at Mendelssohn's suggestion, 
a concert was given in his honour in the Gewand- 
haus. Among the works given was the Reverie 
and Caprice, which was entrusted to one of the 
greatest German Violinists. After the piece was 
ended, amid the most enthusiastic applause, the 
Violinist turned to Mendelssohn and whispered, " I 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 307 

am glad enough I have got through it, for I never 
had such a task in my life ; I have not the remotest 
idea what I have been playing, or what the piece 
can be about." Scarcely were the words out of the 
bewildered Fiddler's mouth, when Berlioz exclaimed 
to Mendelssohn, " Never have I heard my composi- 
tion so divinely rendered ! Never have I heard an 
artist who has so completely caught my meaning, 
and so wonderfully interpreted it ! " Now that the 
music of Hector Berlioz is in the ascendant, the 
relation of this anecdote may serve to draw the 
attention of Violinists to his forgotten Reverie. 

Probably no chamber compositions after those 
of Boccherini afforded the French musical public 
greater pleasure than those of George Onslow, at a 
period when the earliest Quartetts of Beethoven 
were just beginning to be appreciated by musicians 
possessing superior judgment. They apparently 
served the purpose of supplying the lovers of 
chamber music with singularly clever and interest- 
ing novelties of a type as different from the 
pure classic writings of Haydn and Mozart as 
they were from the later and more majestic works 
of Beethoven. 

Although it cannot be said that Onslow's creative 
power belonged to that high order which interests 
posterity as much as and often more than it does 
its immediate admirers, yet it was undoubtedly 
far above that of the average composers of chamber 
music. 

v 2 



308 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 



\ 



Onslow was born at- Clermont (Puy-de-D6me) 
July 27th, 1784. He was a grandson of the first 
Lord Onslow, and descended maternally from the 
family of Brantdme. It is at least remarkable, if 
not wholly exceptional, to find that Onslow in 
childhood showed no particular love for music, 
and yet should have manifested such remarkable 
enthusiasm with regard to it in after life, and com- 
posed so many meritorious works. In his boyhood 
he studied the Pianoforte under Dussek and Cramer, 
and also received lessons on the Violoncello ; but all 
this was done as part of his education, and not 
because he desired it. His passion for music was 
awakened upon hearing an overture of Mehul's ; 
henceforth he devoted his life to the study and 
production of music. Having returned to his native 
Auvergne, he gathered about him a few amateurs 
of chamber music, and began the long series of 
Quartetts and Quintetts, works that were played 
with infinite delight by himself and friends ; Onslow 
playing the Violoncello, an instrument he was 
tolerably well acquainted with, judging from the 
character of the parts he allotted to it. His earlier 
Quintetts were written for two Violoncellos. The 
substitution of a Double Bass for the second Violon- 
cello arose somewhat curiously. Onslow being in 
England at the time of the performance of one of 
his Quintetts, upon which occasion the second Bass 
player failed to put in an appearance, Dragonetti 
very kindly volunteered to play the part on his 



THE VIOLIN IJV FRANCE. 309 

Double Bass. Onslow positively refused to listen 
to the proposal, remarking that the effect would be 
dreadful ; evidently proving that Onslow had either 
not heard the extraordinary Contrabassist play the 
Violoncello part of Corelli's Sonatas, or that if he. 
had done so he completely failed to appreciate the 
grand effect of the performance. However, Onslow 
at length consented, and his Quintett was played as 
proposed, and delighted the composer, causing him 
to arrange all former Quintetts with Violoncello and 
Double Bass. 

The following estimate of Onslow's works, is 
from the pen of Henry F. Chorley, written in 1853, 
the year of Onslow's death. " The large mass of 
chamber music furnished by Onslow well merits the 
epithet of remarkable. It is thoroughly original 
without being extraordinarily striking — delicate and 
interesting, without sickliness, or the absence of 
occasional vigour — suave in phrases, ingenious in 
structure — not always, it may be, sufficiently varied 
by happy strokes of episode, but always thoroughly 
well reasoned out, and interesting to the players, 
from the closeness of attention, and readiness in 
dialogue, reply, and imitation which it demands. 
During later year — as frequently happens with those 
whose first thoughts are more pleasing than powerful 
— Onslow, in straining after novelty and contrast, 
became only affected and fragmentary. This may 
have done its part in abating the zeal and sympathy 
of his admirers ; but enough remains from his pen 



3IO THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

to be referred to, to be returned upon, to be per- 
formed and partaken of with pleasure, so long as 
music is bound by its present laws, and as those 
who enjoy it retain their present canons of judg- 
ment. It would be superfluous to single out any 
of the well-known Quintetts which have won for 
Onslow an European celebrity, or to do more than 
mention his Pianoforte Sextuor ; his Pianoforte 
Duetts in F minor and E minor ; his Pianoforte 
Trio in G major (a singularly sweet and gracious 
specimen of his style) ; his Pianoforte Sonatas with 
Violin in G minor and E major, and with Violoncello 
in F major and G minor. The above are all 
classical works, having a beauty, an intricacy, and 
an expressiveness totally their own, appealing to the 
thoughtful, as opposed to the sensuous musician, 
happily conceived, and carefully finished." 

In looking at the large number Of published 
works for the chamber by Onslow, it has probably 
crossed the mind of many persons that the composer 
took the risk of publication on his own shoulders, 
which his independent social position easily per- 
mitted ; that, however, was probably not the case, 
judging from a letter of Mendelssohn's, dated Paris, 
February, 1832, wherein he says, speaking of 
French publishers, " They have made advances to 
me here, and proposed to take my music, which they 
seldom do ; as all the others, even Onslow has 
been obliged to offer his compositions." These 
words point to the high position he held in the 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 3 1 1 

French musical world, and as being sought for rather 
than himself seeking. Mendelssohn seems to have 
felt interested in his compositions, for we find in 
another letter, dated November, 1837, addressed 
to Moscheles, " Has Onslow written anything 
new ? " 

The following is given as a list of Onslow's 
chamber compositions : — Thirty-Four Quintetts for 
two Violins, Tenor, Violoncello, and Double Bass ; 
Thirty-Six String Quartetts ; Trios for Pianoforte, 
Violin, and Violoncello, Op. 3, 14, 20, 24, 26, 27 ; 
Sextett with Pianoforte, Op. 30 ; Duetts for Piano 
and Violin, Op. 11, 15, 21, 29, 31; Sonatas for 
Violoncello and Piano, Op. 16 : these are also 
adapted for Viola. 

Although the fame acquired by Lafont as a 
Violinist is remembered only by a few venerable 
musicians, it was of a character sufficiently remarkable 
to call for notice in these pages. He was born in 
1781J and received tuition from Rode and Kreutzer. 
He, however, departed from the path of his in- 
structors, and entered to some extent upon that 
which his contemporary Paganini pursued to its end. 
I am not aware that Lafont went the length of 
raising the pitch of his strings, or indulged in the 
freaks which many of Paganini's imitators did ; yet 
with Lafont there came a new departure in the 
great French School of Violin playing, to be 
regretted in some respects, and praised in others. 
Solidity gave way to lightness and frivolity ; 



312 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

cherished melodies were racked to death on 
tortuous variations, manufactured in pizzicato, 
staccato, tremolando, and single and double har- 
monics, all of which is traceable to the influence 
Paganini exercised over Parisian Violinists. There 
was, however, much that was novel, graceful, and 
effective in Lafont's style of playing and compo- 
sition, which, combined with the influence of the 
brilliant German School of Mayseder, Maurer, 
and Kalliwoda, had the effect of opening up a large 
and important field of composition for the Violin, 
wherein the greatest French, Belgian, and Polish 
artists have successfully laboured. 

Jacques Fereol Mazas was a pupil of Bailliot. 
As a Violinist and composer for his instrument he 
proved himself a worthy pupil of his great 
master. He was born in 1782, and died in 1849. 
His compositions include many of a highly instruc- 
tive kind, and are valued as such at the present 
time ; among these may be noticed his Violin 
School, followed by a treatise on harmonics ; also a 
Method for the Tenor. German translations of 
both these works have been made. He published a 
Violin Concerto ; a Fantasia on the Fourth String ; 
" La Babillarde," a clever piece in the style of 
Paganini's " Moto Perpetuo ; " and several Duetts 
and brilliant Quartetts. 

Lambert Joseph Massart was another eminent 
professor at the Conservatoire. He was born in 
1 80 1. From his master, Rodolphe Kreutzer, in 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 3 1 3 

whose family he lived for a long period, he acquired 
that sound knowledge of Violin playing which 
admirably fitted him to take a leading position as 
a teacher. From Massart the famous Violinist 
Wieniawski obtained that knowledge of his art 
which helped greatly to make him one of the fore- 
most artists of his time. 

The eminent Violinist, Prosper Sainton, was 
born at Boulogne in 1814. His love of music and 
the Violin in particular manifested itself — as it rarely 
fails to do where exceptional ability exists — at an 
early period : notwithstanding, however, this indica- 
tion of the bent of his genius, he was sent to the 
College of Toulouse, to prepare for the study of the 
law. In the meantime occurred the commercial 
crisis of 1830, causing the loss of his father's 
fortune, which was embarked in extensive commercial 
transactions. His legal studies were relinquished, 
and his passion for music was given full scope to by 
sending him to pursue his musical studies at the 
Conservatoire, where he was at once placed in 
M. Habeneck's famous class. His progress was 
singularly rapid, obtaining the second prize in 1833, 
and the highest in the following year. He then 
visited the chief Continental cities. In 1844 M. 
Sainton appeared at the concerts of the Philharmonic 
Society. This was indeed a remarkable season in 
the annals, of the famous Society. Herr Ernst, 
Signor Piatti, Joseph Joachim (then a boy of thirteen 
years), all appeared for the first time during this 



314 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

eventful season. M. Sainton became shortly after- 
wards leader under Costa, a position he holds, with 
undiminished vigour, at this date. The post of 
chief professor of the Violin, at the Royal Academy 
of Music, has been held by him for more than thirty 
years. The number of Violinists he has instructed 
during this long period form quite a little army, 
throughout which he is held in that esteem which 
accompanies great talent, sound teaching, and 
affability of manner. Myself an old pupil, I feel 
proud to speak thus of a valued master. 

M. Sainton has composed, among other works, 
Two Concertos; Solo de Concert; Three Romances; 
and an effective Tarantelle. 

Ernest Deldevez, was another famous pupil of 
Habeneck's, and obtained the first prize at the 
Conservatoire in 1833, the year before M. Sainton 
secured the same reward. Deldevez was born 
in Paris in 181 7. Besides distinguishing himself 
as a Violinist, he has proved himself a sound 
theoretical musician. I have had occasion several 
times to refer to his admirable " GEuvres des Com- 
positions des Violonistes Celebres," the parent of 
"Les Maitres Classiques," and "Die Hohe Schuledes 
Violinspiels." It would be impossible to bestow too 
much praise on the skill and judgment M. Deldevez' 
has shown in his treatment of the compositions of 
the old masters in relation to the Violin. He has 
approached them with evident feelings of sanctity, 
and all Violinists disliking restorations of the works 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 3 1 5 

of their beloved old composers, leading inevitably to 
heterogeneity, have reason to be grateful to him. 
Mr. Chorley reviewed the work in the Athenceum, 
at the time of its publication, in terms of the highest 
praise. 

We have now to notice another eminent pupil of 
Habeneck's, in M. Alard, born at, Bayonne in 1815. 
As a soloist, quartett player, and composer, he has 
long occupied a distinguished position. Many of 
his pupils at the Conservatoire have become famous, 
Sarasate being the greatest. The works of M. 
Alard in connection with the Violin are many and 
varied. His " Ecole du Violon" is a valuable work 
and many of his original compositions are much 
esteemed. 

Charles Dancla, born in 181 8, has contributed 
many works to the list of Violin music ; Solos, 
Studies, Duetts, &c, numbering upwards of one 
hundred and forty distinct compositions. His 
brother Leopold has also written Three Quartetts, 
Studies, &c. 



§tttitm HH.— ^he Iwlitt in Jranrc. 



CHAPTER IV. 

"DELGIUM and its Violinists next claim our 
notice. The important character of the part 
played by the people of Flanders in relation to 
music has been lightly touched in the second 
Section of my book, and its vast consequences to the 
development of the art in Italy, Germany, France, 
and England, referred to whilst following the 
history of our subject in those several countries. 

To draw a separating line between the Violinists 
of France and those of Belgium may appear need- 
less. I am not, however, unmindful of the existence 
of similar ideas and pursuits among the two peoples 
at this period, which have necessarily resulted from 
contiguity and past and present political connection, 
but I am unable to believe this intercourse has 
wholly deprived a people small in number, compared 
with their great and powerful neighbour, of that 
difference of character, which I have before said, is 
as marked in the Fine Arts of a nation as its 
language. That the Belgians have been tutored 
in Violin-playing by means different from the 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 3 I 7 

French, is not to be supposed ; both found their first 
great master in Italy, and each have been equally 
influenced by the example of Rode, Bailliot, and 
Kreutzer ; but, withal, there remains that distinc- 
tive tone of thought and action which follows 
upon difference of origin, and which is not without 
its effects upon the art of Violin-playing and 
composition. 

In entering upon this branch of our subject, we 
cannot do better than begin with Francois Joseph 
Gossec, he who is so prominent amid the little 
group of musicians whose labours served to open up 
the path of modern instrumental music. The part 
Gossec played in this important work was both 
curious and unfortunate ; as far as regards the credit 
it brought him, inasmuch as he found himself in 
the position of an author who, after dedicating his 
genius to the composition of a book, and fixing 
upon its title, discovered that a literary brother 
had been engaged upon the same undertaking. 
The reader will recognise the truth of the illus- 
tration when he is informed that Gossec, in the 
middle of the last century, held the post of 
conductor to the private band of the Fermier- 
general La Popeliniere in Paris, and clearly recog- 
nising the slight character of French instrumental 
music, was led to compose symphonies, the first of 
which was played in 1 754, five years previous to the 
date assigned to Haydn's first. Again, in the field 
of quartett writing he was an early contributor; 



3 1 8 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

some of his quartetts were published in 1 759, and were 
received with much delight by the then small section 
of chamber music lovers in France. 

The subject of this notice is associated with an 
orchestral effect of an ingenious kind. At St. Roch, 
in 1760, at the performance of one of his masses, 
he employed two orchestras for a particular portion 
of his work, dividing them into wind and strings, 
concealing the former outside the church, whilst the 
latter accompanied sotto voce within. I have not 
dived into the history of invisible orchestras, but the 
idea of Gossec's evidently has precedence over that 
carried out at the Bayreuth Festival. It is needless 
here to follow Gossec through his important musical 
career ; it is enough to know that he founded the 
Concert des Amateurs in 1770, that he gave new 
life to the Concert Spirituel three years later, and 
that he was associated with Cherubini in the founda- 
tion of the Paris Conservatoire in 1795. Gossec 
was born in 1733, at a village in Belgian Hainault, 
where his countrymen have raised a monument to 
his memory in the shape of a fountain, whereon is 
placed his bust ; this worthy act was accomplished 
in 1877. He died in 1829, at Passy, at the age of 
ninety-six. At his funeral M. Fetis delivered an 
oration. The music of Gossec includes Twenty- 
Nine Symphonies, several Quartetts, Trios, and 
Violin Duetts. 

Among the early Belgian Violinists Francois 
Cupis is not unworthy of mention. He was born at 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 319 

Brussels in 1719, and published a few Quartetts and 
Sonatas. Henri Jacques Croes, a native of Brussels, 
was both a Violinist and composer of chamber 
music. Mention is made of Six Symphonies for 
two Violins, Tenor, Bass, and two Oboes ; Six Trios 
for two Violins and Bass. Chartiani, a Violinist 
and composer, was born at Liege, and published 
String Quartetts, Ops. 1, 4, 5, 8 ; Three Violin 
Concertos ; Symphonies in eight parts ; Six Duetts 
for Violin and Tenor ; and a few Trios. All these 
works were published in Paris. Eugene Godecharle, 
born at Brussels in 1 742, was admitted at an early 
age to the Royal Chapel as a singer in the choir. 
Sent to Paris to receive lessons on the Violin, he 
returned to Brussels, and ultimately held important 
posts as leader and conductor. He published 
Sonatas for Violin and Bass, Symphonies in several 
parts, and other works. His chief pupil appears to 
have been Vander Plancken. 

With the Violinist Vander Plancken we approach 
the period when the style and teaching of Viotti 
began to be emulated by the Belgian artists. Viotti 
appears to have had a high opinion of the talent of 
Vander Plancken. That it was of a superior order 
may be inferred from the important positions he 
held at Brussels. Among his pupils was Joseph 
Francois Snel, Robberechts, and Meerts. He is 
said to have left several Violin Concertos in 
manuscript. 

Francois Snel was born at Brussels in 1793: 



2,20 ' THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

after being tutored by Vander Plancken, he was 
admitted into the class of Pierre Bailliot, at the 
Paris Conservatoire. As a Violinist and composer 
he achieved much renown, and was equally cele- 
brated as a teacher, numbering among his pupils 
Artot and Haumann. For the former he specially 
composed a Violin Concerto. His compositions are 
many and varied, among them several in connection 
with the Violin. 

Contemporary with Snel we have mention of 
the family of Blumenthal, consisting of three brothers, 
Joseph, Casimer, and Leopold, all composers of more 
or less ability in the field of Violin music. 

The prolific and learned musical litterateur, 
Francois Joseph Fetis, born 1784, must be mentioned 
as a contributor to the music of the leading instru- 
ment, although it cannot be said his compositions 
reach that standard of excellence which serves to 
render them ever-green in our memories. If he did 
not succeed in immortalizing himself in musical 
composition, he has certainly done so as a writer 
on music. His musical library,* and his " Bio- 
graphie Universelle des Musiciens," have alone 
secured him lasting fame, notwithstanding the 
shortcomings and errors of the last-named great 
work, of which M. Chouquet has well said, it is 
" easy to find fault, but impossible to do without." 

* Purchased by the Belgian Government. An admirable work 
has been published (1877), which forms a catalogue to this remarkable 
library. 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 32 I 

His published and unpublished works in relation to 
our subject consist of Sextetts, Quintetts, Trios, &c. 

Andre Robberechts was a pupil of Vander 
Plancken, and later of Baillot* and Viotti. He was 
born at Brussels in 1797. He distinguished himself 
both as an executant and as a sound teacher. The 
names of his eminent tutors at once point to his 
legitimate training, and his artistic career proved his 
ability to carry onwards the principles his masters 
had introduced and developed. He published 
several Violin Solos, Two Concertante Duetts for 
Violin and Piano, and other works. His composi- 
tions furnish us with early Belgian examples of 
those after the style of Lafont, and may be regarded 
as heralding those of De Beriot. It is said De 
Beriot received a few lessons from Robberechts. - 

We must now turn to the important work 
accomplished by Lambert Joseph Meerts in rela- 
tion to Violin music. This accomplished artist was 
a pupil of Lafont, and doubtless acquired from him 
that elegance of style for which Lafont was so 
distinguished. Meerts, however, had been made 
acquainted with the compositions of the Italian 
Violinists in his early youth, which, together with 
his studies of the principles of teaching laid down 
by Baillot and Habeneck, served to give him 
advantages which he did not fail to make ad- 
mirable use of, as evidenced in his " Mecanisme du 
Violon," "Le Mecanisme de l'Archet," and his Studies 

* Baillot has previously been mis-spelt Bailliot. 
W 



322 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

on Rhythm in its application to the styles of the great 
masters. M. Meerts has clearly made the student 
aware of the important fact that no little study is 
needed to properly interpret a composer's crescendo, 
and diminuendo, his fortes and pianos ; in short, that 
light and shade, to be successfully accomplished, is a 
work of the utmost delicacy, and impossible without 
sound judgment and exceptional executive skill. 

Nicholas Lambert Wery, born in 1781, was 
another famous Belgian professor, and, like Meerts, 
held the post of Violin-master at the Brussels 
Conservatoire. He has published much Violin 
music, among which are Three Concertos, Fifty 
Variations on the Scales, and Violin Studies. M. 
Singelee, the well-known and prolific composer of 
Fantasias, was a pupil of M. Wery. 

It is now necessary to refer to representative 
Belgian Violinists whose style seems to have had 
its origin in the teaching- of Francois Snel. We 
have mention of a famous pupil of that master in 
Theodore Hauman, born in 1808. He was highly 
thought of in Paris as a soloist, and is represented 
in the well-known lithograph published there many 
years since of leading Violinists, in company with 
Habeneck, Baillot, and others. Hauman, however, 
scarcely merited this distinction as a Violinist. His 
compositions consist of Fantasias, and Airs with 
Variations. 

In Snel's pupil, Artot, we have mention of a 
Violinist of the highest order as a soloist. I do not 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 323 

know that I could better describe this artist than by 
naming him the Belgian Ernst. Passion and 
sentiment he possessed to a degree surpassing that 
attained by any Violinist of his time in his own 
school. The instruction he received from Francois 
Snel was valuable to him, but his subsequent 
lessons at the Conservatoire, from Kreutzer, per- 
fected his style. Artot died at the early age of 
thirty ; had his life been spared, he promised 
to have become one of the greatest of modern 
players. He died in 1845. His compositions 
consist of several Fantasias of an elegant character. 
Among those unpublished, reference is made to 
several Quartetts, and a Pianoforte Quintett. 

Francois Hubert Prume was born in a small 
town in the Province of Liege. He became a 
scholar in M. Habeneck's class at the Conserva- 
toire, where he highly distinguished himself. Prume 
was another clever artist whose career was a brief 
one, dying in his thirty- third year, in 1849. His 
best known Violin composition is that entitled " La 
Melancolie," so frequently played by Sivori during the 
past thirty years. He also published Six Grand 
Studies, Op. 2 ; a Concertino ; and a Polonaise. 

The eminent Belgian Violinist, Charles Auguste 
De Beriot, was born at Louvain in 1802. Few 
composers for the leading instrument have exercised 
greater influence than De Beriot in his particular 
field of writing. His Concertos, Fantasias, and 
Airs with variations, teem with graceful and effec- 
w 2 



324 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

tive passages. Whilst a few of his compositions 
have been thought not unworthy of being publicly 
played by great artists, the larger number have 
furnished amateurs possessing but a moderate amount 
of executive ability with a store of graceful and 
pleasing music, well within their compass. De 
Beriot has published Ten Concertos ; Twelve Airs 
with Variations, Nos. 5, 6, 7, and 8 having long 
been the most popular. His Tremolo Variations, 
Op. 30, is equally famous. He has also published 
an important Violin School, in three parts, and 
many excellent Studies, among the latter the collec- 
tion entitled, " Ecole Transcendante du Violon," Op. 
123, containing many well-written exercises, wherein 
novel forms of passages are introduced. De Beriot 
died at Louvain in' April, 1870. 

With M. Henri Vieuxtemps we enter that select 
circle of Violinists which numbers within it the 
greatest of modern times in relation to our subject. 
Not only does he there hold the proud position 
of being the most eminent representative of the 
Belgian School of Violinists, but is esteemed as 
possessing the qualities necessary for composing for 
the Violin as a solo instrument, equal to his 
executive abilities. Since the time when Louis Spohr 
manifested this rare double gift, I am not aware 
that any artist has achieved so much as Henri 
Vieuxtemps in the same direction. His composi- 
tions are very numerous, and of great variety. His 
Concertos take high rank as works admirably 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. 325 

displaying the beauties and effects peculiar to the 
instrument, and the accompaniments bear the im- 
press of the musician. His Fantasie- Caprice, the 
Ballad and Polonaise, and other works of a similar 
character, are valued by eminent artists as composi- 
tions of singular merit. His shorter pieces, consist- 
ing of Romances, Chansons, &c, form a valuable 
addition to the catalogue of high-class solo Violin 
music. The Six " Etudes de Concert," with Piano- 
forte accompaniment, is another esteemed set of 
compositions. 

Unfortunately, a few years since, the musical 
world was deprived of the pleasure of hearing this 
famous Violinist, in consequence of his health 
having become enfeebled. He has for some time 
been living in Algiers, where, happily, he enjoys in 
retirement his love of composition and the sounds 
of his Violin. 

Hubert Leonard is another distinguished Violin- 
ist and composer for his instrument, belonging to 
Belgium. He was born in 1819, and long held a 
professorship at the Brussels Conservatoire. He is 
now residing in Paris. His compositions and 
arrangements are numerous and valuable, consisting 
of Concertos ; Studies ; a Violin School ; the famous 
Fantasia, " Souvenir de Haydn ; " several light and 
effective pieces ; and " L'Ancienne Ecole'Italienne," 
consisting of selections from the works of Corelli, 
Tartini, and others. 

It is convenient here to refer to the Norwegian 



326 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Violinist, M. Ole Bull, born at Bergen in 18 10. 
Probably no Violinist since Paganini has succeeded 
in gaining so much celebrity as a virtuoso as M. 
Ole Bull. Many romantic and curious anecdotes 
are recorded of this artist ; the substance of 
which may be seen in a well-written notice- 
entitled, a " Norwegian Musician."* Purity of 
tone, great execution, faultless bowing, and a 
splendid position, were the attributes belonging 
to this artist. He was an excellent linguist, 
the greatest traveller among Violinists, and a 
passionate admirer of Cremonese Violins, of which 
he was a thorough connoisseur. Mention of the 
whereabouts of a rare " Strad " or " Joseph," was 
sufficient to cause Ole Bull to make a journey 
expressly to see the instrument. When in England, 
in 1862, I remember how interested he became 
upon hearing for the first time of the collection 
of Mr. Joseph Gillott. Without staying to enquire 
as to the possibility of seeing the instruments, he 
journeyed to Birmingham. Arrived there, he found 
the family of Fiddles reposing at the Steel Pen Works, 
and that their owner was not willing to remove them 
from the cases in which they had slumbered so 
long. After doing all possible to gain the 
object of his mission, he was at length compelled to 
abandon the idea and return to London. Ole Bull 
died at Bergen in 1880. He composed several 
Violin solos, some of which have been published. 

* " Cornhill Magazine," Vol. VI. 



THE VIOLIN IN FRANCE. $ 2 7 

With the mention of a few Polish compositions 
in relation to our subject we are brought to the close 
of this Section of my book. From the pen of 
Chopin we have a Trio for Pianoforte, Violin, and 
Violoncello, in G minor, Op. 8 ; and two Duetts for 
Violoncello and Pianoforte. 

Karl Joseph Lipinslci, born at Radzyn, in 
Poland, in 1790, was an eminent Violinist, and 
composed much music for his instrument, including 
Concertos, Fantasias, &c. He was for a long 
period at Dresden as Concert-master, and obtained 
there much renown as a teacher and promoter of 
sound musical taste and principles. Lipinski was an 
excellent quartett player, and a lover of the works 
of Bach and Beethoven. 

Henri Wieniawski, the Prince of Polish Violin- 
ists, has left a few pieces for the Violin of great 
merit and wide popularity, the chief of which are 
the two Polonaises, and the " Legende." He died 
at Moscow in April, 1880. 



Station DEE3E.— the Violin in Germans. 



CHAPTER I. 

"AT WHEREVER German Art, in those forms 
of it which need no interpreter, has 
addressed us immediately, our recognition of it 
has been prompt and hearty — from Diirer to 
Mengs, from Handel to Weber and Beethoven. 
We have welcomed the painters and musicians of 
Germany, not only to our praise, but to our 
affection and beneficence." " The horrors of the 
Thirty Years' War, followed by the conquests and 
conflagrations of Louis XIV., had desolated the 
country ; French influence, extending from the 
courts of princes to the closets of the learned, 
lay like a doleful incubus over the mind of 
Germany ; and all true nationality vanished from 
its literature, or was heard only in faint tones, 
which lived in the hearts of the people, but could 
not reach, with any effect, to the ears of foreigners!' 
"Not that the Germans were idle, or altogether 
engaged, as we too loosely suppose, in "the work of 
commentary and lexicography ; on the contrary, 
they rhymed and romanced with due vigour as to 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 329 

quantity, only the quality was bad." Much of 
what Mr. Carlyle has here said with regard to the 
state of German literature at the close of the Thirty 
Years' War, is applicable to German music at the 
same period. The work of Orlando Lassus at the 
Bavarian Court of Albert V., of Heinrich Isaac at the 
court of Maximilian, and the labours of other skilled 
musicians in the chief German cities, prior to that 
eventful struggle, were rendered all but abortive. In 
music, as in literature, the Germans were not idle, 
but the quality of their work was bad. 

There appears to have been, however, one musical 
genius, the character of which serves to render it an 
exception, and at the same time to take us back to 
our subject. I refer to Thomas Baltzar, born 
at Lubeck, in 1632. The information we have 
relative to him is wholly connected with England. 
John Evelyn says : *" I was invited by Mr. Roger 
L'Estrange to hear the incomparable ' Lubicer,' 
on the Violin. His variety on a few notes and 
plain ground, with that wonderful dexterity, was 
admirable. Though a young man, yet so perfect 
and skilful, that there was nothing, however cross 
and perplexed, brought to him by our artists, which 
he did not play off at sight with ravishing sweetness 
and improvements, to the astonishment of our best 
masters. In sum he played on a single instrument 
a full concert, so as the rest flung down their instru- 
ments, acknowledging the victory. As to my own 

* Diary, Vol. I., p. 298. 



330 THE VIOLIN ANQ ITS MUSIC. 

particular, I stand to this hour amazed that God 
should give so great perfection to so young a person. 
There were at that time as excellent in their 
profession as any were thought to be in Europe, 
Paul Wheeler, Mr. Mell and others, till this prodigie 
appeared." 

Johann J. Walther was in the service of the 
Elector of Saxony at the period when Corelli was 
in Germany, and it is probable the Violinists were 
personally acquainted with each other. The titles 
of Walther's compositions* point to their having 
been curious, and quite opposed to those of his 
great Italian contemporary. 

The departure from Hesse Cassel of Henri 
Schiitz (Sagittarius) for Venice, about the period 
of the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, marks 
the beginning of a new era in the history of German 
instrumental music. At Venice, Schiitz became the 
pupil of Giovanni Gabrielli, a circumstance of much 
interest to us, Gabrielli having been the earliest 
Italian composer connected with the Violin, accord- 
ing to our present knowledge. After an absence 
of three years Schiitz returned to his native country 
with a system of instrumentation so entirely new 
to Germany, that his contemporaries named him the 
father of German instrumental music. When it 

* " Serenata a un coro di Violini, organo tremolante, chitarrino 
piva, due trombe e timpani, lira tedesca, e arpa smorzata, per un 
Violino solo. Scherzi di Violino solo, con il basso continuo per l'organo 
o cembalo ; accompagnabile anche con una Viola liuto." 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 33 I 

is remembered that he was conversant with the 
musical tactics of such men as Gabrielii, Caccini, 
and above all Monteverde, it is easy to understand 
how capable he was to engraft a new school of 
music on the old German stem. 

Though the Violin, in the form we now have it, 
was probably used in Germany at the end of the 
fifteenth century, and certainly a few years after its 
close,* it was not until after the return from Italy of 
Schiitz, that the instrument appears to have made 
way. 

Johann Schopp, or Schoope, a native of Ham- 
burg, where he was living in 1642, figures as one of 
the earliest German Violinists and composers for 
his instrument. In 1658, Matthias Kelz published 
little Sonatas, Ballets, Allemandes, Galliards, etc., 
and also, in 1669, music for Violin and Viol da 
Gamba. 

Chapel-master Johann P. Krieger, born at 
Nuremberg, in 1649, published Twelve Sonatas for 
two Violins, Tenor, and Bass, in 1687, and others 
for the same instruments in 1693. It is well to note 
that Kerl, Kelz, and Krieger studied in Italy, and 
that the latter was personally acquainted with the 
most eminent Italian musicians of his time. 

Nicolaus Hasse, organist of Rostock, published 
about 1650, "Deliciae Musicae Allemanden, Cour- 
anten und Sarabanden, auf 2 roder Drei Violinen, 

* Prastorius, in his " Theatrum Instrumentorum, etc., 1620," gives a 
drawing of a Violin. 



332 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC, 

Violone, Clavycimbel oder Teorbe zu Musiciren," 
and other works of a similar character in 1658. 

Conrad Steneken, of Bremen, an amateur, pub- 
lished, in 1662, a collection of short pieces for two 
Violins, Tenor, and Bass. 

About the year 1657, when the Emperor 
Leopold was driving the Turks from Moravia, 
Gottfried Finger came into the world at Olmiitz 
in that country. He came to England in 1685, 
and became King James II.'s Chapel-master, better 
known to us as Mr. Godfrey Finger, the composer of 
twelve Sonatse " pro diversis Instrumentis, Opus 
Primum, 1688;" Six Sonatas, three for Violin and 
three for Flute, 1 690 ; Sonatas, Ayres, etc., for 
Violins, in conjunction with John Banister 1691 ; 
and other compositions. 

After spending about seventeen years here, 
Mr. Finger quitted our shores, displeased in 
having been awarded the fourth prize for a compo- 
sition in which Weldon, Eccles, and Purcell preceded 
him. We next hear of Finger in the service of 
Queen Sophie Charlotte at Berlin, our First 
George's sister. 

Though — 

" The surly drums beat terrible afar, 
With all the dreadful music of the war," 

the Emperor Leopold's love of Music's harmony was 
in no way cooled. Early in his reign he interested 
himself with the art, and, it is said, set to music his 
own poetry. He retained the services of Draghi, 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 333 

the Italian dramatic composer, and Minato, the 
Italian lyric poet. The famous Violinist, Biber, a 
"Bohemian, born - abou -fe- 1638, was another of Leo- 
pold's proteges. Biber, like his contemporary 
Walther, and the few German Violinists of that 
period, followed almost entirely a section of the 
Italian School of playing, and of composition 
anterior to Corelli. Biber's writings for his instru- 
ment display no small amount of ingenuity ; double 
stops are greatly used, and a dexterous right hand 
is needed to execute the bowings.* 

Soon after the restoration of peace, the Emperor 
Leopold again turned his attention to the human- 
ising arts, and more particularly that of music. 
Fully alive to the superiority of Italian music at 
this date, to Italy he looked for that aid which he 
felt was needed to develope the art among his 
people. 

Leaving Leopold, the lover of Italian music, 
we will turn to its eminent hater, Prince Frederick 
(afterwards Frederick the Great), in whose time 
Violin playing in Germany was started on its true 
national path. Music was regarded by Prince 
Frederick's father as a most unnecessary appendage 

* Biber supplies us with an early instance of departure from the 
usual system of tuning the Violin. In one of his Sonatas the G and 
D strings are raised to A and E, with the E string lowered to D. His 
published Violin music comprises, Six Sonatas with Bass, dated 1681 ; 
a set of Sonata's, 1676 ; " Fidieinium sacro-prafanum," being twelve 
Sonatas in parts ; " Vesperae longiores ac breviores," for four voices, 
two Violins, two Tenors, and three Trombones ad lib. 



334 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

to general education, and he opposed in every way 
his son becoming - a musician. The Prince, however, 
aided by his mother the Queen, contrived to obtain a 
considerable knowledge of music, and to have much 
of it about him by stealth. In 1728 he was learning 
the Flute from Quantz, the greatest flautist of his 
time, who expressly journeyed from Dresden every 
year to instruct him. Upon the death of Quantz's 
patron the King of Poland, he entered the service 
of Prince Frederick, in which he passed some 
thirty-two years. 

At Rheinsberg Prince Frederick passed perhaps 
the happiest hours of his eventful life. Of his 
music there, Mr. Carlyle tells us, "Daily, at a fixed 
hour of the afternoon, there is a concert held." " If 
the artists entertained here for that function were 
enumerated (high names not yet forgotten in the 
Musical world), it would still more astonish readers. 
I count them to the number of Twenty or Nineteen, 
and mention only that the two brothers Graun and 
the two brothers Benda were of the lot, suppressing 
four other Fiddlers of eminence and a Pianist who 
is known to everybody. The Prince has a fine 
sensibility to Music, does himself, with thrilling 
adagios on the Flute, join in these harmonious acts ; 
and no doubt, if rightly vigilant against the Non- 
senses, gets profit now and henceforth, from this 
part of his resources." 

It is with one of these brothers Benda, whom 
Mr. Carlyle associates with four nameless "Fiddlers," 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 335 

that we now have to do. The term Fiddler is, I 
imagine, a good unvarnished word of Saxon origin ; 
but it is one which nineteenth century instrumentalists 
connect with a very different type of man to Franz 
Benda, the founder of a special school of undoubted 
Violin -playing. 

> Franz Benda was born in 1709, and received 
musical instruction from both Graun and Quantz. 
He became Concert-master to Frederick the Great 
upon the death of the first-named master. In 1723 
he was a chorus singer at Prague. The Concertos 
of Vivaldi were the compositions he studied, and, 
like Bach, he learned much from them. Burney 
remarks, " His style is not that of Tartini, Somis, 
Veracini, nor that of the head of any one school or 
musical sect : it is his own." This is high praise, 
and goes far to prove his title to the foundership of 
the German School of the Violin. 

Franz Benda was the instructor of F. W. Rust, 
born in 1739. Rust was famous as a Violinist, a 
player on the Harpsichord, and gifted composer. 
His Violin Sonata in D minor, familiar to many of 
my readers, together with other Violin compositions, 
were left in manuscript. 

Upon the death of Frederick William, in 1740, 
his son's happy days at Rheinsberg ended. With a 
powerful army at his command, desirous of military 
glory, he entered upon that brilliant career which 
changed the face of Europe, and earned for him the 
title of Frederick the Great. The thunders of war 



2, $6 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

however, did not render him deaf to the concord of 
sweet sounds, for six years after his accession, and 
a year after the termination of his second war, Carl 
Philipp Emanuel Bach, John Sebastian's third son, 
was appointed cemballist and director of the Court 
chamber-music, and special acccompanist to the 
Great Frederick and his Flute. But of Emanuel 
Bach later ; it is his father who first claims our 
notice. In 1747, the year following Emanuel's 
appointment, Frederick the Great sent John 
Sebastian Bach an invitation to his court. On the 
7th of April, Bach, then in his sixty-second year, 
reached the palace just as Frederick was about to play 
a Flute Concerto with his Orchestra. When Bach's 
arrival was made known to him, putting his Flute 
aside, he turned to the assembled musicians and 
said, " Gentleman, Old Bach has come." Bach, who 
had gone to his son's chambers, was summoned to 
the music room. Not having had time to exchange 
his travelling costume, he appeared before his Royal 
Highness in a condition, to say the least, uncourtly, 
which gave rise to some slight titterings on the part 
of the gentlemen of the orchestra, which were speedily 
silenced by a reproachful look from Frederick. The 
coming of Bach put an end to the Flute Concert for 
that evening. The King, anxious to hear the great 
musician, asked him to play a fugue ; Bach complied 
by extemporising on a theme chosen by the King. 
Frederick, amazed at Bach's masterly performance, 
exclaimed, " Only one Bach ! only one Bach ! " 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 337 

In availing myself of the opportunity afforded 
by the presence of Sebastian Bach at Frederick's 
Court, to bring under the notice of the reader the 
information regarding him which bears upon our 
subject, I have over-stepped the bounds of chrono- 
logical narration, by referring to an event at the close 
of the great composer's life before mentioning the 
facts belonging to his earlier years : I must therefore 
hasten to remark that John Sebastian Bach was 
born at Eisenach in the year 1685. He entered 
upon his musical education by learning from his 
father the Violin. Becoming an orphan in his tenth 
year, he lived with his brother the organist at 
Ohrdruff, and began under his guidance the study 
of the Clavier. In his fifteenth year Bach entered the 
" Michaelis" School at Liineburg, where he greatly 
extended his knowledge of vocal music by singing 
the soprano part in the Church. At a later period 
he gave much time to the study of the Organ, 
gaining renown both as a performer and composer 
for the instrument. In 1714, when Bach was 
twenty-nine years of age, he was appointed Sub- 
Concert-master at Weimar. In 171 7 he became 
Chapel-master to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen, 
who was a passionate lover of music. 

About this period he composed many of his 
instrumental works. Six years later he received 
his appointment at the famous Thomas-Schule at 
Leipsic, which he held to the end of his life, July 
1 750. Bach's character may be summarized as 
x 



338 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

modest, kind, and sympathetic, free from preten- 
tiousness, vanity, and ambition. Had he possessed 
the last quality in some slight degree, perhaps the 
world might be richer in musical master-pieces. 
Pursuing his profession contentedly at small German 
Courts, where he had not the advantage of an 
orchestra, he had not the means of giving full play to 
his mighty genius : could he have commanded one, 
his Cantatas and large works might have been quad- 
rupled in number. The Clavichord at home, and the 
Organ at the Church, were the instruments to which 
he almost exclusively devoted his genius. Happily, 
his early knowledge of the Violin led him to 
enrich the music of the king of stringed instruments. 
His writings for the Violin consist of Six Clavier 
Sonatas with an obbligato Violin accompaniment, 
before mentioned in connection with the notice 
of Baillot ; several Concertos for Clavier with 
stringed instruments ; Six Sonatas for Violin alone, 
including the Chaconne which was first introduced 
by Ferdinand David at Leipsic in 1839, at one of 
his Quartett Evenings, when Mendelssohn impro- 
vised an accompaniment — to which circumstance 
we owe the masterly arrangement published by 
Mendelssohn at a later period. These Sonatas will 
long be remembered, apart from their own imperish- 
able nature, as having been among the last works 
upon which Schumann was engaged, namely, that 
of adding a Pianoforte part in 1853. Fetis mentions 
Five Violin Duetts published by Haslinger, Vienna ; 



7 HE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 339 

whether these are' original or adaptations I am 
unable to state. He also names a Concerto for 
Violin, Flute, Hautboy, and Trumpet, with accom- 
paniments for two Violins, Violoncello, and Double 
Bass. A Concerto for three Violins, three Tenors, 
and three Violoncellos, with Clavecin Concerto for 
Violin and two Flutes, with stringed accompani- 
ments. Concerto in A, for Violin with stringed 
instruments. A Symphony Concertante for two 
Violins with accompaniments, in MS. ; and other 
works. The German Bach Society, published 
several important Violin works in 1859. It is said 
that on the autograph manuscript of the Three 
Violin Sonatas in F, A minor, and C, now in the 
Berlin Library, is the following note : — " This 
admirable work, in J. S. Bach's own hand-writing, 
I found among old papers, intended to be sent to the 
butter-shop, in the leavings of the Pianist Polchau, 
at St. Petersburg, 18 14. — George Polchau." 

When it is remembered that the MS. of the 
Forty-eight Preludes and Fugues was sold by auction 
in 1824 for half-a-guinea, and that a score of a Mass 
is said to have been given to a gardener to bind 
round grafted fruit-trees, we have every reason to feel 
grateful that the MS. of the Three Violin Sonatas 
reposes in the Library at Berlin, far removed from 
the hands of buttermen and the liners of trunks. 



x 2 



§ation UHEI.— <5Fhc Uiolin in Germans. 



CHAPTER II. 

T li 7"E must now return to Frederick the Great at 
his Potsdam Palace. Around and within that 
royal residence we shall find much that is histori- 
cally interesting in relation to music and musicians. 
Here are apartments appropriated to the use of 
almost every branch of the Royal Family in suites, 
in each of which a room is dedicated to music, well 
supplied with books, desks, and instruments. But 
let us take a peep at the Great Frederick's concert 
room. Here are mirrors of immense proportions ; 
sculpture by Martin of Paris ; Clavier by Silber- 
mann, beautifully embellished ; a tortoise-shell music 
desk, richly inlaid with silver, used by the King 
himself for his Flute performances. On the table is 
a catalogue of Concertos, and a book of manuscript 
Solfeggi, or Preludes, which Frederick adapted to 
his favourite instrument. These implements of 
music make us curious to learn something of the 
Royal performances : fortunately we have an emi- 
nent informant in Dr. Burney, ready to enlighten 
us. He says, " Visiting the Potsdam Palace to hear 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 34 1 

the Royal music, I was carried to one of the 
interior apartments, in which the gentlemen of the 
King's band were waiting for his commands. This 
apartment is contiguous to the Concert room, where I 
could distinctly hear his Majesty practising Solfeggi 
on the Flute, and exercising himself in difficult 
passages previous to his calling in the band. Here 
I met with M. Benda, who was so obliging as to 
introduce me to M. Quantz. The figure of this 
veteran musican is of an uncommon size : 

The son of Hercules he justly seems, 

By his broad shoulders and gigantic limbs, 

and he appears to enjoy an uncommon portion of 
health and vigour for a person arrived at his seventy- 
sixth year. He told me that both his Majesty 
and scholar played no other Concertos than those 
which he had expressly composed for his use, which 
amounted to three hundred, and these he performed 
in rotation. Whilst I was conversing with M. 
Quantz we were interrupted by the arrival of a 
messenger from the King, commanding the gentle- 
men of the band to attend him in the next room. 

"The Concert began by a German Flute 
Concerto, in which his Majesty executed the solo 
parts with great precision : his embouchure was 
clear, and even his finger brilliant, and his taste 
pure and simple. M. Quantz bore no other part in 
the performance of the Concertos of to-night, than 
to give the time with the motion of his hand at the 



342 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

beginning of each movement, except now and then 
to cry out 'bravo!' to his Royal scholar, which seems 
to be a privilege allowed to no other musician of 
the band." 

Leaving Frederick and his Flute, we will next 
notice his musical director. 

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was born at Vienna 
in 1 714 ; his appointment at the Court of Frederick 
was held by him until 1767, when he went to 
Hamburg, where he lived until his death, in 1788. 
Emanuel Bach, as a composer, stands between 
his father, John Sebastian Bach, and Joseph Haydn. 
Though the latter is regarded as the parent 
of modern instrumental music, Emanuel Bach 
first gave the Symphony and the Sonata a modern 
dress, and that an artistic one, which Haydn 
acknowledged he studied with great profit. Mozart 
said of him " He is the father, we are his children." 
Had Emanuel Bach manifested more vigour and 
earnestness in his work, it would be impossible to 
withhold from him the title of father of modern 
instrumental music, as applied to Haydn. The list 
of his compositions is of remarkable length, and 
the Violin is much associated with it. 

Whilst the brothers Benda and the brothers 
Graun were about the Court of Frederick, several 
remarkable Italian musicians were Italianising 
German music at the Court of the Duke of 
Wurtemburg, at Stuttgard. The Duke, like the 
Emperor Leopold, was a lover of the music of the 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 343 

Italians, and filled his Court with Italian musicians 
of great renown. At his Summer Palace he 
established a school for the education of 200 poor 
children, many of whom received musical instruction. 
This, together with other musical expenses, much 
deranged the exchequer of the Duchy of Wurtem- 
burg, and led to the Court musicians being placed on 
half-pay. Here was Ferrari, Nardini, and the 
eccentric Lolli, with the great Jomelli, to compose, 
and a host of others of less renown. Royal music on 
such a scale could not but be financially a failure, and 
loud were the Wurtemburgers' denunciations as to 
the Duke's lavishness on music ; but viewed at this 
distance of time we are better able to appraise its 
artistic worth, and look upon the Duke's investment 
as having been a sound one for German posterity. 

Italian influence was doing its work at this 
period at the Court of Maximilian Joseph III., 
Elector of Bavaria. The Elector was himself an 
excellent Violinist, besides possessing some executive 
skill on the Violoncello and Viol da Gamba. 

Since German musical genius was fed mainly 
upon German Court patronage, it is necessary to still 
further continue our course among these centres of 
the art. Outside the Palaces and Chapels of 
Teutonic Grand Dukes and Electors, the musicians 
of Germany could hope to draw but little nourish- 
ment. That which they obtained within was of 
the slenderest kind, and raised them but little above 
the domestic. The menial chains of servitude, by 



344 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

which these at once high, mighty, and petty 
potentates held the foremost musical men of their 
or any age, were far stronger than those by which 
Temple, Chesterfield, and Walpole held our men 
of letters, but withal there is a striking similarity. 
If we think of Haydn at Esterhaz and of Swift at 
Moor Park, we have at once an illustration of 
this. The man who was destined to " stir the 
laughter and rage of millions," by giving to the 
world the " Travels of Gulliver," attended Sir 
William Temple as an amanuensis, for board and 
^20 a year, and dined at the second table. He 
who possessed the power of leading musicians into 
new fields of their art, waited on Prince Esterhazy 
for a pittance little better than that received by 
Swift, and laboured for his master ten times harder, 
solacing himself with the satisfaction that he was 
cut off from the world, and had no one to confuse 
him, and thus was obliged to be original. 

It is worthy of note that these patronage 
manacles in music and book learning were loosened 
by two remarkable men, possessing strong indepen- 
dent spirits — Handel and Dr. Johnson. When 
Handel quitted the service of Elector George at 
Hanover, that his talents might be exercised 
with greater freedom, he demonstrated the practi- 
cability of a highly-gifted musician living on a 
community in the place of a great patron. When 
the lexiographer proved to the literary world that a 
work of merit could live without the approval of 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 345 

a Chesterfield, he performed a like service to his 
brother authors. It must not, however, be forgotten 
that the service rendered to music and literature 
by the wealthy was of inestimable value, coming as 
it did at a time when neither the one nor the other 
had spread among the people. 

At the Hanoverian Court of Elector George 
Louis we are told there was plenty of music, profane 
and pious ; a round dozen Trumpeters, four French 
Fiddlers, an Organist, and a Bugler are mentioned 
as having been in the pay of the Court. This is 
truly a combination of instrumentalists we might 
expect in the palace of him who, when he became 
our First George, confessed he had no admiration 
for " Boets and Bainters" ; nevertheless I am inclined 
to think the above list does not give all the instru- 
mental power of Hanover's Court music : if so, we 
need not wonder that his Organist accepted the 
post conditionally, namely, that he might have much 
leave of absence. That George Frederick Handel 
— it was none other — could have remained satisfied 
with the sound of four Fiddles, twelve Trumpets, 
and a Bugle, was hardly to be expected. 

Although the compositions of Handel, in 
relation to our subject, are less important than those 
of his great contemporary Sebastian Bach, to fail 
to notice them in any account of the Violin and 
its Music would be an unpardonable omission. 

" Remember Handel ! who that was not born 
Deaf as the dead to harmony, forgets, 
Or can, the more than Homer of his age ? " 



346 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

It is at least remarkable that Bach and Handel, 
of equal fame, and of whom it may be said, to 
mention one is to think of the other, should have 
come into the world in the same year, and within a 
month of each other. Handel was born at Halle, 
Lower Saxony, February 23rd, 1685. Though 
inferior as a prodigy to Mozart, Handel neverthe- 
less was a musical phenomenon, and, like Mozart, 
was an exception to prodigies in general, where 
youthful genius burns with such vitality, that, when 
manhood is reached, nothing remains for the flame 
to feed upon. His powers of improvisation on the 
Organ were extraordinary ; the difficulties of the 
Harpsichord, the Hautboy, and the Violin, were, to a 
great extent, overcome in his teens. On the death 
of Handel's father, the youthful musician suddenly 
found himself dependent on his own exertions for 
his maintenance. He decided to quit Halle for 
Hamburg, where he hoped to obtain some employ- 
ment in his profession, that would enable him to 
spend some time among the musicians of Italy. At 
Hamburg he entered the orchestra of the theatre 
as a Violinist; three years later he found him- 
self in possession of means to carry out his long- 
wished-for visit to Italy. Though importuned long 
before this by Prince Gaston de Medici, brother of 
the Grand Duke of Tuscany, to accompany him to 
Florence, Handel, with that spirit of independence 
which manifested itself throughout his career, 
declined, preferring to be neither under restraint 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 347 

nor obligation. After spending a short time at 
Florence, he visited Venice, which he reached at 
Carnival time. On the evening of his arrival he 
attended a masked f6te, at which he played the 
Harpsichord, with his visor on, astonishing his 
listeners with his bold and majestic style, at once 
so impressive and new to them. Among his 
audience was the greatest performer on the Harp- 
sichord the world had seen— Domenico Scarlatti 
— who exclaimed, " 'Tis the Devil, or the Saxon 
of whom every one is talking." The acquaint- 
ance of these remarkable men, thus formed, early 
became of a rapturous kind. Mention of Scarlatti 
brought from Handel expressions of unqualified 
admiration for the genius of the Italian, and 
Scarlatti crossed himself when the name of the 
Saxon was uttered. 

Upon quitting Venice, Handel visited Rome, 
where his fame had preceded him. The musical 
life of the city was then in the (eighteenth century) 
hey-day of its glory. Virtuosi and dilettanti were 
giving that aid which love of the art alone could 
furnish. Here was the Marquis de Ruspoli, at 
whose palace Handel spent some time; Cardinal 
Ottoboni, the friend of Corelli ; Cardinal Pamphili, 
who wrote poetry to which Handel set his notes- 
Among the virtuosi, immortal names are found : 
including Alessandro Scarlatti, the father of 
Domenico, the composer of more than a hundred 
Operas, of two hundred Masses, and some ten 



34§ THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Oratorios ; a musician whose influence on his art 
was rife with important results. It was at Rome 
that Handel composed, in 1708, his Oratorio, "II 
Resurreczione," in which he made use of the follow- 
ing instruments : Violins, Violas, two Flutes, two 
German Flutes, two Bassoons, two Trumpets, and 
a Harpsichord, together with a Viola da Gamba, 
a Theorba (an Arch- Lute), two Violoncellos, . and 
two Double Basses. This list marks the progress 
of instrumentation. 

In 1709 Handel returned to Germany, and 
accepted the post of Chapel-master to the Elector 
George of Brunswick, at a salary of ^300 per 
annum, conditionally that he should be allowed to 
visit England. At the close of 1710 he arrived 
in London, where Opera, after the manner of the 
Italians, was becoming the fashion for the fashionable. 
Only three years prior to Handel's coming to 
England, the British musical public was content to 
be led into the operatic line by one Clayton, a 
Violinist and an obscure member of William and 
Mary's state band, who having passed a short time 
in Italy, persuaded his countrymen that he was able 
to perform the astonishing feat of converting rustic 
English music into finished Italian Opera. Fur- 
nished with the means to make the attempt, 
Clayton simply distorted and mangled some Italian 
melodies almost beyond recognition, and adapted 
them to the words of an English Drama. 

Addison, who was associated with Clayton's 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 349 

venture, tells us it was the first Opera that gave 
the English a taste for Italian music. This was 
probably the case, for having tasted of Clayton's 
rank Italian decoction, his audience craved for the 
real article, and its appetite was satisfied by .the 
production of Bononcini's Opera " Camilla" the 
success of which caused the introduction of its 
composer's airs into every Opera, down to the 
coming of Handel, in 1710. It will thus be seen 
that the time was in every way opportune for 
Handel to display his abilities in dramatic music. 
The musical training he had received in his native 
country was supplemented with a knowledge of 
Italian operatic art acquired at Venice, Rome, 
and Naples. Commissioned to compose an Opera 
for the new Haymarket Theatre,* Handel, with 
that wondrous fertility which remained to the 
end of his days, produced, in two short weeks, 
" Rinaldo," the first representation of which took 
place February 24th, 1 7 1 1 . Its success was complete. 
Addison, smarting under the failure of his Opera,, 
produced, in 1707, the music of which was the 
work of the pretentious Clayton, handed to the 
" Spectator," (then but five days old,) the first 
poisoned arrow to be directed at "Rinaldo" : " How 
would the wits of King Charles' time have laughed 
to have seen Nicolini exposed to a tempest in robes 
of ermine, and sailing in an open boat upon a sea 
of pasteboard ! What a field of raillery would they 
* On the site of the present Opera House. 



35° THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

have been led into, had they been entertained with 
painted dragons spitting wildfire ; enchanted chariots 
drawn by Flanders mares, and real cascades in 
artificial landscapes ! " 

Ten days later, Richard Steele, with his friend 
Addison's approval, wrote : " I observe that Mr. 
Powell and the undertakers of the Opera had 
both the same thought, of introducing animals on 
their several stages, though indeed with very different 
success. The sparrows and chaffinches at the 
Hay market fly, as yet, very irregularly over the 
stage, and instead of perching on the trees, and 
performing their parts, those young actors get into 
the galleries, or put out the candles ! " As to the 
mechanism and scenery : " I was not a little 
astonished to see a well-dressed young fellow in a 
full-bottomed wig appear in the midst of the sea, 
and without any visible concern taking snuff." 

The success of " Rinaldo " was, however, com- 
plete, for it had a run of fifteen nights, about equal 
to one hundred in these times. It was played in 
Hamburg, Naples, and elsewhere. Our Life 
Guards played the March every day upon parade 
for forty years, and long after the same March 
figured as the " Robber's Chorus " in the " Beggars 
Opera" of Pepusch. Walsh, the publisher, realised 
a little fortune from the sale of the Opera, causing 
Handel to suggest that Walsh should compose the 
next Opera, and he be its publisher. 

It is needless to refer in these pages to Handel's 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 35 I 

subsequent career in England. It forms the subject 
of much interesting matter, printed again and again, 
and is accessible to every musical reader ; we will 
therefore hasten to notice the music of Handel for 
the Violin. It is interesting to find that the first 
work from his pen is that known as " Sonates pour 
un Traversiere,* un Violon, ou Hautbois." Schcel- 
cher, in his " Life of Handel," says, " These Violin 
Sonatas were published in 1732, and not in 1724."! 
He appears, however, to have mistaken Walsh's 
edition for the original. I have in my possession 
a copy published by Roger, Amsterdam, which is 
undoubtedly the first edition. Over Roger's name 
was pasted the label of Walsh, and it would there- 
fore seem that he, without any reference to Handel, 
reprinted the work from Roger's edition. 

In all probability Handel published these Sonatas 
when at Hamburg between 1705 and 1708. The 
statement that they were composed for the Prince 
of Wales is therefore as void of truth as that which 
associates the charming Air in the " Suites de Pieces 
pour le Clavecin " with the anvil of an Edgware 
blacksmith,| mention of which reminds me of an 

* Flute. Bach used the same term to distinguish it from a Flute 
played with a mouthpiece. 

t Schcelcher gives the " Suites de Pieces pour le Clavecin " as 
Op. 1, but these Violin Sonatas preceded them. 

X It is related that Handel, on his way to Cannons, was overtaken 
by a shower of rain, and sheltered in the shed of Powell the black- 
smith ; and that Handel received his idea of the Air from hearing the 
measured sounds of the anvil. , 



352 



THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 



incident perhaps worth recording. In 1879 the 
veritable anvil from Edgware was sent for sale by 
auction, together with a large collection of Handel - 
ian curios. On the morning of sale I strolled into 
Sir Joshua Reynolds's old picture gallery in Leicester 
Square, wherein the reminiscences of the mighty 
composer were on view. Observing a group of 
people, evidently much interested in a particular 
object, my curiosity led me to elbow my way 
among the bystanders to catch a glimpse of it. 
Whilst thus engaged, a ringing sound, common to a 
farrier's shop, made me aware that I was in the 
neighbourhood of the anvil of anvils. Orations, 
whisperings, and confidential communications seemed 
to be in full swing, when the blows became measured, 
and a voice was heard humming : 



rt§=^rfi=i- ^i h r^ =j^ 



m 



^ 



2 



S 



s=2 




The performance was interrupted now and again 
with such observations as, " How like ! How sug- 
gestive ! " 

" Since knowledge is but sorrow's spy, 
It is not safe to know," 

thought I, and left the group, fortified with another 
illustration of how 

" Great floods have flown from simple sources." 

To have interrupted the palpable pleasure of the 
little party by venturing to explain that the Air 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 353 

known as the " Harmonious Blacksmith " had no 
connection whatever with Powell's anvil, a shower 
of rain, or any extraordinary harmonic phenomena — 
would have been cruel, and more so from the 
facts surrounding the origin of the title being 
singularly unromantic. To pull down the idol in 
Powell, the Edgware blacksmith, and attempt to 
set up a Bath music publisher in Mr. Lintott, whose 
father was a blacksmith, and happened to delight in 
the Air in question, causing his son to publish 
it years after Handel died as the " Harmonious 
Blacksmith," in memory of his parent, would, in 
all probability, have been received , with signs of 
disapprobation.* 

Returning to the subject- of Handel's music in 
relation to the Violin, we have Six Sonatas for 
two Violins, two Hautboys, or two Flutes, published 
in 1732, Op. 2. A set of Six Sonatas appears 
to have been lost. A set of Seven Sonata Trios 
was published in 1739. In the same year the 
Twelve Grand Concertos were composed. In the 
London Daily Post, October 29th, 1739, is the 
following notice : — "This day are published, pro- 
posals for printing by subscription, with his Majesty's 
royal license and protection, Twelve Grand Con- 
certos, in seven parts, for four Violins, a Tenor, 
a Violoncello, with a Thorough- Bass for the 
Harpsichord, composed by Mr. Handel. Price to 

* I believe we are indebted to Dr. Rimbault for the correction 
of this popular musical error. 
Y 



354 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

subscribers, two guineas. Subscriptions are taken 
by the author, at his house in Brook Street, Hanover 
Square, and by Walsh." Other notices in April, 
1740, inform the public of the publication of the 
Concertos, and that they were performed at the 
Theatre Royal, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and " played 
in most public places with the greatest applause." 

Besides the above-mentioned works must be 
noticed, a Sonata for Hautboy, Violin, and Tenor ; 
Sonata for two Violins. The famous "Water Music " 
was expressly composed for the occasion of a fete 
given by King George on the Thames. The music 
consists of twenty-five pieces for the following 
instruments : four Violins, one Tenor, one Violon- 
cello, two Hautboys, two Bassoons, two French 
Horns (first time these instruments were used), two 
Flageolets, one Flute, and a Trumpet. Turning to 
another series of elemental music composed for the 
occasion of the Royal fireworks in 1749, Handel, in 
place of adding fuel to fire, calls on ^Eolus to aid 
him with wind. In the Overture he uses -twenty- four 
Hautboys (a favourite instrument of his), twelve 
Bassoons, nine Trumpets, nine Horns, a Serpent, 
three pairs of Kettle Drums, and one Double Bass. 
What became of this solitary Contra- Bassist or his 
instrument, wrapt in a cloud of sulphur during a 
raging tempest, it is impossible to learn ; had he 
been of the dimensions of Daniel Lambert, and his 
Double Bass in proportion, he could scarcely have 
escaped annihilation. 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 355 

Handel, in using this powerful wind force, kept 
steadily in view the character of the entertainment, 
and that his music-room had no roof or walls but 
those provided by nature ; but what must have been 
the effect produced by the performance of a Concerto 
Grosso, the work of a contemporary of Handel's at 
the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, in 1744, in which 
were 24 Bassoons, accompanied by Signor Caporale 
on the Violoncello, with Duetts by four Double 
Bassoons accompanied by a German Flutel If it 
was common to use wind instruments with such little 
judgment, well might Scarlatti say to his pupil 
Hasse, who was desirous of introducing Quantz — 
Frederick the Great's Flautist- — to him, "My son, 
you know I hate wind instruments, they are never 
in tune." 

Mention of Hasse serves to remind me of his 
not only having been a popular composer of Operas, 
but also of much chamber music for wind and 
stringed instruments. His music is remarkably 
melodious, but wants what may be called that 
bone and sinew without which it cannot live. Dr. 
Burney appears to have had a somewhat high 
opinion of his abilities, since he says, " Hasse may 
be regarded as the Raphael, and Gluck the Michael 
Angelo of living composers. If the affected French 
expression of le grand simple can ever mean any- 
thing, it must be when applied to the productions of 
such a composer as Hasse, who succeeds better, 
perhaps, in expressing with clearness and propriety 
y 2 



35^ THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

whatever is graceful, elegant, and tender, than what 
is boisterous and violent ; whereas, Gluck's genius 
seems more calculated for exciting terror in painting 
difficult situations, occasioned by complicated misery 
and the tempestuous fury of unbridled passions."* 

Another composer of chamber music living at 
Vienna at the period when Hasse resided there, was 
Vanhall. The Symphonies of Vanhall for two 
Violins, Tenor, Bass, two Hautboys, and two 
Horns, served to make Burney say that he " should 
not hesitate to rank them among the most complete 
and perfect compositions, for many instruments, of 
which the art of music can boast." Posterity has 
not been in harmony with the opinion of the 
musical Doctor, the compositions of Vanhall having 
been long out of sight, and almost out of mind. 

Johannes Carl Stamitz, born in 1719, both as a 
composer and Violinist held high rank among the 
musicians of his time. His Violin studies, though 
all but forgotten, testify to his knowledge of the 
instrument. His Sonatas for Violin and Bass are 
good, though not great. Stamitz left in manuscript, 
Twenty-one Concertos for Violin with accompani- 
ments ; Ten Symphonies — these works were not 
Concertos or Symphonies in the sense we now 
use those terms, but as applied to such writings 
prior to the time of Haydn. Stamitz also left Nine 
Violin Solos in manuscript. 

I have now to notice Leopold Mozart, the father 

* " Present State of Music," Vol. I., p. 353. 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 357 

of him who made the name imperishable. Leopold 
was the son of a bookbinder at Augsburg, born 
December 14th, 1719. As a composer he is known 
chiefly by his Violin School, which was a great 
improvement on that of Geminiani, and for upwards 
of half a century was the great text-book on Violin 
playing. It was published at Augsburg in 1756, 
the year his son Wolfgang was born, and contains a 
portrait of the author. " A second edition was pub- 
lished in 1770, much enlarged, and other editions 
were published at Vienna and Paris. Wolfgang 
Mozart writing to his father from Paris in 1778, 
says, " I must not forget to tell you that I had the 
satisfaction of seeing your ' School for the Violin ' 
translated into French ; I believe it is about eight 
years since the translation appeared."* 



* " Mozart's Letters," Vol. I., p. 209, Longman & Co., 1865. 



hctian HHf. — %ht liolitt in Sermanp. 



CHAPTER III. 

"PAR back in the fifteenth century the Hun- 
garians were famous for the encouragement 
they gave to the arts. Painters, goldsmiths, and 
others flocked to them in great numbers, chiefly 
from Italy, and luxury of every kind was paramount. 
Such was the splendour of the King's table that the 
Pope's nuncio declared it would take no less than 
fifty carriages to contain the plate of massive gold 
adorned with precious stones. 

A century later we meet with the name of 
Esterhazy, familiar alike to the lovers of diamonds 
and music. The position of the Esterhazy family 
in the annals of Hungary, in point of magnificence, 
may be likened to that of the Medici at Florence. 

The first musical Esterhazy worthy of note was 
Prince Paul, who was rewarded by the Emperor 
Leopold with the consficated estates of his country- 
men, for the support he gave to the Emperor's 
cause. With such wealth, we are not surprised that 
its inheritor, Prince Nicolaus, could build a palace 
which has been described as second only in magnifi- 
cence to Versailles. 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 359 

This famed palace of Esterhazy was erected in 
the centre of a marsh, far removed from the paths of 
humanity. Canals and dykes were necessarily made 
to render the place habitable. The dense wood 
behind the castle was transformed into a deer park, 
flower gardens, summer-houses, grottos, hermitages, 
and temples. Near the castle was erected a spacious 
and elegant theatre. The orchestra was formed 
from the band of the Prince's Chapel. Travelling 
virtuosi frequently played with the regular members. 
Special days were, set apart for the performance of 
chamber music, and for orchestral works, and in the 
intervals the musicians and singers assembled at the 
Cafe, and made one harmonious family. Here, at 
Esterhaz, the recognised father of modern instru- 
mental music, Joseph Haydn, passed thirty years of 
his life as Chapel-master. Here Haydn composed 
nearly all his operas, Thirty Symphonies, Six String 
Trios, a few of the Piano Trios, the first of which 
tells its tale of associations in the last movement, 
known as the Hungarian Rondo : — 



„ Presto, 



gtgt ^muz^ m 



The possession of an orchestra composed of 
talented musicians, ever ready to follow the instruc- 
tions of their much-loved conductor, was an advan- 
tage Haydn appreciated, and failed not to use for 
the benefit of his art. 



360 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Before making reference to Haydn's labours in 
the field of stringed instrument music, a word or two 
must be said of his early life. When Handel was 
in his forty-seventh year, Haydn was in his first : 
like Handel he played the Violin in his boyhood. 
Of Haydn's connection with Porpora, the reader 
has already been informed. His early acquaintance 
with Herr von Fiirnberg, a rich and enthusiastic 
amateur, was productive of results of much musical 
importance, since it was at the instigation of Fiirn- 
berg that he composed, in 1755, his first quartett, 
which was followed by seventeen others within 
twelve months. 

In 1759 Haydn became Count Morzin's music 
director at Lukavec, near Pilsen, at the modest 
salary of £20 per annum with board and lodging. 
At Lukavec he composed his first Symphony, a 
work of three movements for two Violins, Tenor, 
Bass, two Oboes, and two Horns. After remaining 
in the Count's service nine years, Haydn entered 
that of Esterhazy in 1761. It was for Prince 
Nicolaus Esterhazy that he composed so much 
music for the Baritone — a bowed instrument of a 
complicated character, and much used in Germany 
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Haydn 
appears to have admired the qualities of this instru- 
ment, for he practised it with great assiduity , but 
finding his patron desirous of being left to shine 
alone, he relinquished altogether all idea of playing it. 

In 1 78 1 Haydn, with the assistance of General 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 36 I 

Jerningham, entered into an arrangement with 
William Forster, the Violin-maker, then living in 
Duke's Court, St. Martin's Lane, contracting to 
send him certain Sonatas, Trios, and Symphonies 
for the sum of seventy pounds. -It is interesting to 
find that a well-known English maker of Violins 
was among the earliest publishers of Haydn's works, 
and thus helped to spread the fame of the illustrious 
composer in Great Britain. 

There was, however, one man who conferred 
greater benefits on Haydn and the whole musical 
world, than Forster, Artaria, and all Haydn's pub- 
lishers combined : I refer to Johann Peter Salomon, 
the Violinist, born at Bonn in 1745. Shortly after 
his arrival in London he found himself the chief of 
an influential circle of amateurs and musicians, and 
resolved to use his position to the advancement of 
the musical art in England by instituting concerts 
for the performance of high-class music. The 
project, boldly conceived, was carried out with 
proportionate vigour. In December 1790, Salomon 
went to Vienna, and engaged Haydn to compose 
and conduct Six Symphonies for his forthcoming 
concerts. It happened that Haydn's patron, Prince 
Nicolaus Esterhazy, died a few weeks previous to 
Salomon's visit to Vienna : the composer was thus 
free to act as he liked. Haydn, prior to this, had 
received a pressing invitation to London from 
W. Cramer, offering to engage him at any cost. 
Salomon decided upon trying what a special 



362 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC, 

messenger might do, and sent Bland, the music 
publisher, to Vienna in 1787. When admitted 
to the presence of Haydn, the great master 
was in the act of shaving, and exclaimed, " I 
would give my best quartett for a good razor ; " 
Bland at once went to his lodging and fetched his 
own, which he presented to Haydn, and received in 
exchange the quartett often called the " Rasie- 
messer."* 

"The genius of Haydn, in place of being mainly 
exercised for the benefit of German Courts, was 
now about to be at the disposal of the whole 
musical world, and the composer rendered in- 
dependent of his mercenary and niggardly pub- 
lishers. By the aid of Salomon's enterprise, and 
the commercial estimate set upon the composer's 
abilities, Haydn was about to obtain, in three 
years, a greater reward than he received from his 
patron Prince, and his publishers, during a service 
of thirty years. 

In a letter of Haydn's, written from London, 
we read, " I had a kind Prince, but was obliged at 
times to be dependent on base souls. I often 
sighed for release, and now I have it in some 
measure. The consciousness of being no longer a 
bond-servant sweetens all my toils ; but, dear as 
liberty is to me, I do hope on my return to enter 
the service of Prince Esterhazy (this refers to 
Prince Anton) solely for the sake of my poor 

* Herr C. F. Pohl's " Notice of Haydn." 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 363 

family. I doubt much whether I shall find this 
desire realised, for in his letter my Prince complains 
of my long absence, and exacts my speedy return in 
the most absolute terms, which, however, I cannot 
comply with." 

On the day of Haydn's departure for London 
with Salomon, Mozart dined with the travellers, and 
saw them seated in the lumbering old German 
coach that conveyed them on the road to Calais. 
A' similar engagement was made between Salomon 
and Mozart to that which had now commenced with 
Haydn. Twelve months after bidding his master 
farewell, poor Mozart died, and thus the English 
nation was deprived of the honour of being 
associated with the Symphonies of another of 
Germany's greatest musicians. 

In the letters of Haydn we read of his stormy 
passage from Calais to Dover ; of the excitement 
his arrival in London created throughout the musical 
world ; of his lodgings in Great Pulteney Street, 
Golden Square. In his diary he writes of his 
visit to Dr. Herschel, the great astronomer, but 
originally a professor of music. Of his presence at 
the Lord Mayor's banquet on the 9th of November — 
his description of which strangely contrasts with 
that all-important city dinner of to-day, on the 
morrow of which Europe is, in stirring times, on the 
tip-toe of curiosity to hearken to a British Cabinet's 
revelations— he writes, "After dinner there was 
dancing in three rooms. In that set apart for the 



364 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

nobility, minuets only were danced. I could 
scarcely remain here a quarter of an hour, partly 
on account of the heat, and partly on account of 
the bad music, for the orchestra consisted of but two 
Violins and a Violoncello, and the minuets were more 
like Polish than German or Italian. In another 
room, which resembled a subterraneous cavern, 
the music was rather better, owing to the addition 
of a drum, which drowned the scraping of the 
wretched Fiddlers. In the great hall the band was 
more numerous and rather better ; here the gentle- 
men were sitting at the dinner-table, drinking. One 
part of the company danced without hearing a note 
of the music, while the songs were roared out, and 
healths drank with the greatest clamour, flourishing 
of glasses, and cries of Hurrah ! hurrah ! hurrah !" 
On the 24th of November 1791, he tells us he was 
invited by the Duke of York to his seat at Oatlands, 
where he met the Prince of Wales, who loaded him 
with civilities, and expressed a wish to have his 
portrait.* In a letter reference is made to this par- 
ticular visit. He says, " No compositions were played 
but Haydn's," and that he directed the Symphonies 
at the Pianoforte. The Prince of Wales sat on his 
right hand, and accompanied him " pretty tolerably " 
on the Violoncello. He appears to have grown 
warm over the fourth George's personal appearance, 
and his musical taste, writing that " The Prince of 

* Haydn sat to Hoppner, who produced an excellent portait, which 
is at Hampton Court. 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 365. 

Wales is the handsomest man on God's earth ; he 
has an extraordinary love of music and a great 
deal of feeling, but very little money" taking the 
precaution to add, in reference to the last piece 
of information, " Nota bene, this is entre nous." 
He visited the Prince of Wales at Carlton 
House a great number of times without receiving 
any immediate remuneration. Upon his return to 
Vienna poor Haydn sent in his modest bill of one 
hundred guineas, which sum divided by the number 
of his attendances upon his Royal Highness, would 
be about five pounds each. This, however, was 
at least a monetary return for musical services, and 
one which Beethoven wholly failed to obtain from 
the same Royal Patron, when, in 1813, he dedicated 
to him his Symphony commemorating Wellington's 
achievements at Vittoria, an honour which did not 
even bring an acknowledgment of any kind. 

During Haydn's stay in London, the Quartetts, 
Op. 73 and 74, were partly written. The Austrian 
National Air, the " Emperor's Hymn," which he i»- 
troduced in his seventy-seventh Quartett, had its 
origin in Haydn's admiration for our National Air, 
deciding him to compose one for his own people to 
sing the praises of their ruler. Dr. Burney, in a letter 
to Haydn, dated Chelsea College, Aug. 19th, 1799, 
says, " I had the great pleasure of hearing your new 
Quartetts, Op. 76, well performed before I went 
out of town, and never received more pleasure from 
instrumental music ; they are full of invention, fire, 



366 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

good taste, and new effects, and seem the produc- 
tions, not of a sublime genius who has written so 
much and so well already, but of one of highly 
•cultivated talents who had expended none of his 
fire before. The Divine Hymn, written for your 
Imperial master, in imitation of our loyal song 
' God save the King,' and set so admirably to 
music by yourself, I have translated and adapted 
to your melody, which is simple, grave, supplicating, 
and pleasing." Burney's admiration for the com- 
positions of Haydn was of the highest kind. 
He remarks " the admirable and matchless Haydn, 
from whose productions I have received more 
pleasure late in my life, when tired of most other 
music, than I ever received in the most ignorant 
and rapturous part of my youth, when every- 
thing was new, and the disposition to be pleased 
undiminished by criticism or satiety." Another 
musical authority has said that after listening 
to the works of Haydn, he always had the 
pleasurable feeling of wishing to perform a 
good act. These extracts serve to shew how 
greatly Haydn's writings were esteemed in his 
lifetime. That he had his detractors need hardly 
be said. It is curious to read at this moment when 
the music-loving public is being invited to ascend 
higher and higher developments in music, that 
Papa Haydn's ideas were considered so new and 
so varied, as to cause the German critics to regard 
with fear and trembling the serious consequences 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY, 367 

to the maintenance of the art within the bounds 
of reason. One said, "the genius, fine ideas, and 
fancy of Haydn were praised, but, his mixture of 
serious and comic was disliked, and as for rules, he 
knew but little of them." Others said he was 
" hasty, trivial, and extravagant." 

It is, however, questionable whether Haydn's 
detractors honestly believed what they wrote, since 
Haydn was neither a revolutionist nor a prophet 
in his art ; his marvellous achievements rested 
on the foundation of that rule and reason which 
had taken ages to develope : whilst he steadfastly 
declined to bind art in theoretical chains, he 
made it subject to the voice and opinion of those 
with educated ears; in short, his language in notes, 
like the language of a people, was regulated by the 
taste and feelings of the educated. 

Herr C. F. Pohl, the musical litterateur and 
biographer of Haydn, tells us that he, "like many 
creative artists, disliked sestheticism, and all mere talk 
about art," and that " he was no pedant with regard 
to rules, and would acknowledge no restriction on 
genius." Haydn's own opinion of his works he gives 
in these words — " Some of my children are well-bred, 
some ill-bred, and here and there there is a change- 
ling among them." He was perfectly aware of how 
much he had done for the progress of art; "I know" 
he- said, " that God has bestowed a talent upon me, 
and I thank Him for it ; I think I have done my 
duty, and been of use in my generation by my 



368 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

works ; let others do the same." Haydn died 
May 31st, 1809. 

Among his compositions in relation to the Violin 
may be mentioned One Sextett, " Echo," for four 
Violins and two Violoncellos; Nine Violin Con- 
certos; Two Trios for Lute, Violin, and Violoncello; 
Six Duetts for Violin and Tenor ; Twenty Trios for 
■two Violins and Bass; One Trio for Violin, principal 
Tenor, and Bass ; Two Trios for Flute, Violin, and 
Bass ; Trio for a huntsman's Horn, Violin, and 
Violoncello ; the collection of Quartetts for two 
Violins, Tenor, and Violoncello ; Thirty-eight 
Piano Trios, seven of which are unpublished ; and 
a few Sonatas for Violin and Pianoforte. 

Joseph Haydn's brother, Johann Michael, con- 
tributed a Concerto, three Quartetts, and a Sextett 
to the music of the Violin. He was in the service 
of Mozart's tormentor — Archbishop Hieronymus of 
Salzburg. Upon one occasion, Haydn was suffering 
from a severe attack of illness, which rendered him 
unable to attend to his professional duties ; his Prince 
Archbishop however commanded him to compose 
some Duetts for Violin and Tenor in a given time, 
and was threatened with dismissal in case of failure. 
Mozart, who visited Michael daily, became aware 
of this, and the amiable soul set to work and com- 
posed the two' well-known Duetts for Violin and 
Tenor, on the title-page of which appeared the 
name of Michael Haydn, and thus silenced the 
Archbishop. These Duetts, which originated in 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 369 

an act of humanity and friendship, were long 
unclaimed by Mozart. 

Joseph Haydn's pupil, Ignatius Pleyel, com- 
posed much interesting music for stringed instru- 
ments, though now rarely heard. Mozart appears 
to have admired Pleyel's writings ; he says, in a 
letter written in 1 784 : — ■" Some Quartetts. have just 
come out by a certain Pleyel, a pupil of Joseph 
Haydn's. If you do not yet know them, you ought 
to try and get them, for they are worth the trouble, 
being very well composed and pleasing; you will 
at once recognise his master by the style of the 
music. It will be a good and happy thing if Pleyel 
in his day is able to supply Haydn's place for us." 
Master and pupil came into collision in London in 
1792, and the British musical public rightly decided 
that Pleyel was no match for Haydn. In a letter 
of Haydn's, dated London, 1792, he says, "At 
present I am working for Salomon's concerts, and 
feel bound to take all possible trouble, for our rivals 
of the Professional Society* have sent for my pupil 
Pleyel from Strasburg, to direct their concerts. So 
a bloody harmonious war will now commence 
between master and scholar. All the newspapers 
have begun to discuss the subject, but I think an 
alliance will soon ensue, my reputation here being 
so firmly established. Pleyel, on his arrival, dis- 
played so much modesty towards me, that he gained 

* A series of Concerts called " The Professional," were given at 
the Hanover Square Rooms in opposition to those of Salomon. 
Z 



370 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

my goodwill afresh. We are often together, which 
is much to his credit, and he knows how to appre- 
ciate his ' father.' We will share our laurels fairly, 
and each go home satisfied." This harmonious war 
was brought to a termination — not by an alliance, 
but by the burning of the Pantheon, where the 
Professional Concerts were held. 

Ignatius Pleyel was born in the year 1757, 
at Ruppersthal, in Lower Austria. He resided with 
Haydn for about five years. In 1776, when Pleyel 
had nearly completed his musical studies, Gluck 
returned to Vienna. He paid a visit to Haydn, 
who played to him his Quartett in F minor, then 




newly composed, with which Gluck was charmed. 
Haydn then introduced to his notice a composition 
of his favourite pupil Pleyel. This also was praised 
by Gluck, who remarked, " My young friend, you 
understand very well how to put notes on paper — 
you have now only to learn how and when to blot 
them out again." 

Johann Ludwig Dussek contributed several com- 
positions to the music of the Violin. His Sonatas 
and Sonatines for Pianoforte and Violin are his best 
known compositions in relation to our subject. The 
Sonata in B flat major, Op. 69, with the charming 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 



371 



Adagio entitled, " Les Soupirs," is the general 
favourite. 



con anima. 



mm 



n 



*^ 



^ 



Franz Krommer, born in 1759, in Moravia, was 
a prolific composer of chamber music. Although 
his works are comparatively forgotten — like many- 
others containing much that is good — they at one 
period were widely popular. Himself a Violinist, 
he wrote for stringed instruments with full know- 
ledge of their powers and effects. He published 
Four Violin Concertos ; Eighteen String Quintetts ; 
Sixty-nine Quartetts ; Grand String Trio ; and 
several Violin Duetts. 



z 2 



Station 1III.— ^hc liolin in Gkrntanp. 



CHAPTER IV. 

/^\ U R wanderings among the German Courts of the 
^^^ eighteenth century have made us more or less 
familiar with the position and surroundings of Court 
musicians. We have seen the Bachs and Haydns 
leading lives of artistic serfdom, yet withal content 
with their lot. Their patrons, though often pain- 
fully exacting and mean, were sincere in their 
admiration for music and musicians ; and thus a 
reciprocity of feeling existed between master and 
servant which undoubtedly served to counterbalance 
the musicians' weight of humiliation. In Count 
Colloredo, Archbishop of Salzburg we have an 
instance of a patron without a particle of musical 
taste or knowledge of the art, with a disposition 
haughty and sullen. Unfortunately the tyranny and 
wretchedness which such an anomalous state of 
things created, fell upon the greatest musical genius 
the world had seen. " Mozart ! Immortal Mozart ! 
how many and what countless images of a brighter 
and better world hast thou stamped on our souls ! " 
wrote Franz Schubert in his diary; to which we 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 1>72> 

might add, — how many more beautiful images he 
might have given to the world had the character 
of Hieronymus Archbishop of Salzburg been in 
harmony with that of his unfortunate youthful 
dependent ! When we reflect upon the cruel and 
heartless conduct of this Salzburg governor towards 
a boy fired with the burnings of a mighty genius, 
we cannot but marvel that its ardour was not 
irreparably damped, and his abilities wholly extin- 
guished. Happily, young Mozart knew his own 
strength, and that knowledge alone saved him. 

At the age of nineteen, Mozart was receiving 
from his Prince Archbishop a sum equivalent to 
about five pounds per annum, in return for which 
he composed for the Church and for the chamber, 
played the Organ, the Violin, and the Clavier ; 
forfeited his liberty ; and for a time meekly bore 
the cruel insults of his master, who not only persis- 
tently refused to be convinced of the wondrous 
talent of the boy musician, but never lost an oppor- 
tunity of wounding his pride by telling him that 
he knew nothing of music. It seems almost in- 
credible that the primary cause of this fiendish 
conduct on the part of the Archbishop originated 
in a wish to prevent Mozart from believing that 
he was entitled to better remuneration — but such 
was the case. Poor Mozart made herculean efforts 
to soften the heart of his patron, by producing in 
rapid succession, Masses, six Violin Concertos, 
Clavier Concertos, and other important composi- 



374 THE VJOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

tions, but all to no purpose. In the year 1781, the 
link connecting him with the Archbishop's house- 
hold was severed. Summoned to Vienna by his 
tormentor, insult followed injury too rapidly for his 
highly sensitive nature to patiently bear. He was 
consigned to the society of his employer's valets, 
confectioners, and cooks. At the table below stairs 
his social position was defined as coming midway 
between the cooks and valets, since he was placed 
above the former and below the latter at the 
domestics' board. 

In the month of May, 1781, he writes to his 
father : " I am still filled with the gall of bitterness ; 
and I feel sure that you, my good, kind father, will 
sympathise with me ; my patience has been so long 
tried that at last it has given away. Three times 
already has this — I know not what to call him — 
said the most insulting and impertinent things to my 
face, and I only refrained from taking my revenge 
on the spot because I always had you, my dear 
father, before my eyes. He called me a knave and a 
dissolute fellow, and told me to take myself off; and 
I endured it all." A few days later he appears to 
have gone to the Archbishop to inform him of 
his intended departure, when he again abused him, 
saying, " 'Well ! when are you going, young fellow ? ' 
I replied, I intended leaving to-night. Then came 
all in a breath that I was the most dissipated fellow ; 
no man had served him so badly. At last my blood 
began to boil, and I said, ' Your Grace does not 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 375 

appear satisfied with me.' ' How ! do you dare to 
threaten me, you rascal ? There is the door, I will 
have nothing more to do with such a low fellow ! ' 
And I said, ' Nor I with you.' He answered, ' Be- 
gone!" This resolute action decided his future 
career ; freed from the depressing influence of the 
tyrant Archbishop, his powerful genius breathed anew. 
Before noticing the results of this new life, the 
achievements of Mozart's childhood in connection 
with the leading instrument claims our attention. 
In the year 1762 Mozart had reached his sixth year. 
About this period his father was visited by Wenzl, a 
Violinist, for the purpose of trying some new Trios ; 
little Wolfgang begged that he might be allowed to 
play the second Violin part ; his father, at first, 
declined to gratify his wish, remarking upon the 
seeming impossibility of the part being rendered by 
one who had not received instruction. After again 
and again endeavouring to persuade his parent to 
allow him to make the attempt, without success, 
the poor boy cried bitterly, and placing his tiny 
Fiddle under his arm he turned to leave the room, 
when Herr Schachtner — who held the post in the 
Trio the boy musician craved for — pleaded that he 
and the child might be allowed to play together. 
" Well then," said Leopold to his son, " you may play 
with Herr Schachtner, but remember, so softly that 
nobody can hear you, or I must immediately send 
you away." Herr Schachtner tells us, " We played, 
and the little Mozart with me, but I soon remarked, 



376 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

to my astonishment, that I was completely super- 
fluous. I silently laid my Violin aside and looked 
at the father, who could not suppress his tears. 
Wolfgang played the whole of the six Trios through 
with precision and neatness, and our applause at the 
end so emboldened him that he fancied he could 
play the first Violin. For amusement we encouraged 
him to try, and laughed heartily at his manner of 
getting over the difficulties of the part, with 
incorrect and ludicrous fingering indeed, but still, in 
such a manner that he never stuck fast." 

It is interesting to note that little Mozart had a 
predilection for a particular Violin, even at this early 
period of his life. To manifest discrimination in 
relation to tone so early, is almost as extraordinary as 
the executive and creative talent he displayed. His 
favourite Violin was that belonging to his kind 
friend Schachtner, which, from its smooth and soft 
quality of tone, the child named " The Butter 
Fiddle." This Butter Fiddle served to exemplify 
the wondrous correctness of ear with which the boy 
was endowed. Mozart was one day working away 
on his own little Fiddle, when Schachtner presented 
himself. " What have you done with your Butter 
Fiddle," asked Mozart, and went on playing ; 
suddenly he stopped and added, " If you have not 
altered the tuning of your Violin since I last played 
upon it, it is a quarter of a tone flatter than mine 
here." Upon the instrument being examined, it 
was found to be as the child had stated. To give 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. T>77 

place to all that is recorded relative to Mozart's 
marvellous precocity, would increase the length of 
this notice far beyond its due limits. In saying that 
in his eighth year he played publicly the Clavier, the 
Organ, and the Violin ; that he sang, played, and 
composed extempore, transposed at sight, accom- 
panied from the score, and improvised on a given 
bass, the reader is able to judge of his musical 
powers without going into the details of the 
events in connection with these manifestations. 

It is pleasing to find that the first published 
works of Mozart had a part assigned to the leading 
instrument, viz., the Two sets of Sonatas for the 
Clavier with Violin accompaniment, published in 
Paris in 1764, Ops. 1, 2 ; Six Sonatas with accom- 
paniment, Op. 3, were published in London by 
Bremner, in the Strand, the following year, and 
another Six, Op. 4, at the Hague in 1766. The 
works of Mozart besides those already mentioned 
between his seventh and twelfth year, wherein the 
Violin figures, are as follows : — a Quodlibet entitled, 
" Glimathias Musicum," for two Violins, Tenor, 
Bass, and wind instruments. 

About the year 1773, Leopold accompanied his 
son to Vienna, and remained two months. It was 
at this period that he composed the first six 
Quartetts, for two Violins, Tenor, and Cello ; in 
the same year was written his first String Quin- 
tett at Salzburg. In 1775 he produced many 
compositions of a new kind for Church purposes, 



378 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

which he named " Epistle Sonatas," Violins being 
associated with the Organ without other instruments 
in some cases ; in others, the Violoncello and 
Double Bass together with wind instruments being 
added. At this date Mozart appears to have 
studied the Violin with much assiduity to please his 
father, his own inclination tending rather to its dis- 
continuance. The Viola became a favourite instru- 
ment with him.* The charming parts given to the 
Viola in more than one Quintett of Mozart's, 
evidence his admiration for the instrument. 

The year 1 78 1 was truly an auspicious one for 
music. No longer the slave of Hieronymus, but 
now breathing the air of freedom, the composer 
busied himself with the beauties of his art, un- 
trammeled with the whims and fancies of his late 
master. His conception of instrumental composi- 
tion, hitherto manifested in a fragmentary manner, 
became more and more denned. This is exemplified 
in the successive steps which led up to that labour 
of love, the six Ouartetts with which he was 
occupied in 1782 and 1783, They were completed 
in January, 1785. The following dedication evi- 
dences the artistic character of his task, although 
its tone is pitched somewhat high : — 

" To my dear friend Haydn. A father, having 

* Moscheles mentions in his Diary, " On the 27th of January, 
1846, the centenary of Mozart's birth was celebrated at the Gewandhaus.'' 
" Concerto for Violin and Viola, composed in 1778, played by Herr 
Dreyshock and David." (Doubtless he refers to one of the Violin and 
Viola Duetts.) 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 2)79 

resolved to send forth his children into the wide 
world, is anxious to confide them to the protection 
and guidance of a man who enjoys much celebrity 
there, and who, fortunately, is moreover his best 
friend. Here, then, are the children I entrust to a 
man so renowned, and so dear to me as a friend. 
These are, it is true, the fruits of a long and labori- 
ous study ; but my hopes, grounded on experience, 
lead me to anticipate that my labours may, at least 
in some degree, be compensated ! and they will, I 
flatter myself, one day prove a source of consolation 
to me. During your last stay in this capital, you 
yourself, my dearest friend, expressed your satisfac- 
tion with regard to them, This suffrage from you 
above all inspires me with the wish to offer them to 
you ; and leads me to hope that they will not seem 
to you wholly unworthy of your favour. Be pleased, 
then, to receive them kindly, and be to them a 
father, a guide, a friend, From this moment, I 
transfer to you all my rights over them ; but I 
entreat you to look with indulgence on those defects 
which may have escaped the too partial eye of a 
father, and, in spite of these, to continue your 
generous friendship towards one who so highly 
appreciates it ; and, in the meantime, I am from my 
heart, your sincere friend, Mozart. 

" Vienna, Sept. ist, 1785." 
The reference made above to Haydn having 
already expressed his high opinion with regard to 
the Quartetts, relates to the circumstance of Haydn 



380 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

meeting Leopold Mozart at a quartett party, Feb. 
12, 1785, when three of the Quartetts were played, 
and Haydn said to him, " I must tell you, before 
God, and as an honest man, that I think your son 
the greatest composer I ever heard of ; besides his 
taste, he has a profound knowledge of composition." 
The names of the performers on this occasion are 
not mentioned, but it is conjectured that Haydn, 
Leopold Mozart, and the composer took parts. 
We have, however, evidence of Haydn and Mozart 
playing together in a quartett, at the house 
of Storace the year before (1784), when Michael 
Kelly heard them, and refers to the occasion in 
terms certainly not too enthusiastic. " Storace gave 
a quartett party to his friends, The players were 
tolerable ; not one of them excelled on the instru- 
ment he played, but there was a little science among 
them, which I dare say will be acknowledged when 
I name them : — First Violin, Haydn ; Second, 
Baron Dittersdorf ; Violoncello, Vanhall ; Tenor, 
Mozart.* 

In the year 1784 Mozart composed the Sonata 
for Pianoforte and Violin, in B flat. It was written 
specially for performance at a concert which took 
place the day following that of its composition. The 
composer played the Pianoforte part from memory, 
not having had time to write it. The Emperor 

* Mr. Holmes rightly doubts the correctness of Kelly's record, as 
regards the first Violin and Tenor, thinking it more probable that the 
positions of Haydn and Mozart were reversed. 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 38 1 

was present, and observing Mozart had no notes 
before him, sent to him for the score. His surprise 
was great upon seeing the lines of the bars only on 
the paper. " What! have you ventured that again ?" 
said the Emperor. " May it please your Majesty," 
returned Mozart, " there was not a single note lost.'" 
The following year (1785), was composed the 
Pianoforte Quintett in G minor. Mozart had 
arranged with Hofmeister, the music publisher, for 
a set of this, then new form of chamber music, but 
the reception of the first was so cold that the 
contract was not carried out. In 1787 appeared the 
two Quintetts in C major and G minor, wherein 
the Violist has given him every opportunity of 
reflecting his tenderest emotions in the rendering 
of his part. 

Poor Mozart, notwithstanding the greatness of 
his musical successes about this period, failed 
to receive that substantial encouragement he 
so richly deserved. " You lucky man " he said to 
a young musician, about visiting Italy, " and I am 
still obliged to give lessons to earn a trifle." That 
he complained not without reason, is evidenced in 
the fact of his court salary being but ,£80 per 
annum ; in reference to which we need not wonder 
that he wrote, " It is too much for what I produce ; 
too little for what I could produce." In 1788 
Mozart arrived at Potsdam, where Frederick 
William II. (an excellent performer on the 
Violoncello,) was expecting him. Operatic and 



382 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

concert performances were given, resulting in the 
realization of the King's most favourable anticipa- 
tions of Mozart's abilities, causing his Majesty to 
offer the post of Chapel-master to the young 
composer, with a salary of ^"600 ; after a moment's 
hesitation, Mozart replied, " how could I leave my 
good Emperor ? " Later, Mozart was at the Berlin 
Theatre, when his "Die Entfuhrung" was being 
performed. Seating himself near the orchestra, he 
made various remarks in an undertone : when, 
however, the second Violins played D sharp instead 
of D natural, he no longer attempted to commune 
with himself, but called out " Confound it ! do take 
D ! " Everybody stared, but none more than the 
musicians, who immediately recognised the com- 
poser. " Mozart is in the house," was heard again, 
and again. The singers were agitated, and con- 
fusion reigned. 

A few months after Mozart bade adieu to Haydn, 
upon the occasion of his master's departure for 
London, Mozart was engaged upon the " Requiem," 
which he had been commissioned to compose. In 
failing health, he remarked to his wife, with tears 
in his eyes, that he felt that he was writing it for 
himself. By the advice of his physician the score 
was taken from him. A fortnight after, he entreated 
to have it returned to him. His wish was grati- 
fied, though he remained in bed. He essayed to 
sing the alto part, his brother-in-law taking the 
tenor, and Schack and Gerl the soprano and bass. 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 383 

After singing a few bars of the Lacrimosa, he was 
seized with the idea that he should never complete 
his glorious work, and wept like a child.* At one 
o'clock in the morning of the following day he died, 
of malignant typhus fever. His body was removed 
to St. Stephen's. " The service was held in the open 
air, as was the custom with the poorest class of 
funeral, and Van Swieten, Sussmayer,t Salieri,J 
Roser, and Orsler stood round the bier. They 
followed as far as the city gates, and then turned 
back, as a violent storm was raging, and the hearse 
went its way unaccompanied to the churchyard of 
St. Mark. Thus, without a note of music, forsaken 
by all he held dear, the remains of this Prince of 
Harmony was committed to the earth — not even in 
a grave of his own, but in that of a pauper. "§ I 
cannot but regard this as the saddest page in the 
history of music. Mozart ! the giver of pleasure 
to countless thousands, the worth of which is 
beyond the power of all human calculation : for 
who would be bold enough to appraise the work 
of him who lifts our thoughts away from the cares 
and turmoil of our earthly existence, and carries 
them to the heavens ? Mozart, on his deathbed, 
solicited to compose and earn his reward, causing 
him to respond amid tears and lamentations, "Now 

* Holmes's " Life of Mozart." 
t Referred to in the notice of Paganini. 

X To whom Beethoven dedicated his Violin and Pianoforte 
Sonatas, Op. 12. 

§ Herr Pohl's account. 



384 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

must I go, just as I should be able to live in peace, 
now leave my art when no longer the slave of 
fashion or the tool of speculators ; I must leave my 
family — my poor children, when I should have been 
able to provide for them." Mozart ! allowed to 
die unrewarded and buried in the grave of a 
pauper, is surely irony as cruel and bitter as can 
well be conceived. We grieve over the fate of the 
boy poet, Thomas Chatterton, because he promised 
well. The musician Mozart performed, and was 
borne to his grave neglected in life, and all but for- 
gotten in death ! 

The compositions of Mozart, published and in 
manuscript, for Stringed Instruments, include: Sym- 
phonic Concertante for Violin and Tenor ; Seven 
Ouintetts for two Violins, two Tenors, and Violon- 
cello ; a Quintett for Violin, two Tenors, Horn, and 
Violoncello (or two Violoncellos in place of Horn) ; 
a Quintett for Violins, Clarionets, &c. ; Twenty-six 
String Quartetts ; Adagio and Fugue for Strings ; 
Quartett with Oboe and Strings ; Two Duetts for 
Violin and Tenor ; One Duett for two Violins ; a 
Trio for Violin, Tenor, and Violoncello ; Two Piano- 
forte Quartetts ; Seven Pianoforte Trios ; a Trio 
Clarionet, Piano, and Tenor ; Forty-two Sonatas, 
Piano and Violin ; Sonatas for Organ, with accom- 
paniments for Strings ; Six Violin Concertos, two of 
which are published.* The Concerto, Op. 76, is 

* The new Leipsic edition of Mozart's works will include many 
hitherto unpublished. 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 



385 



from beginning to end a charming piece of Solo 
Violin music; the Adagio is one of the most 
poetic compositions for the king of instruments 
ever penned, and admirably displays its rich and 
deep tones. The accompanying short extract will 
serve to remind the reader of one of its many 
beauties. 



4 e corde. 




Johann N. Hummel was born at Presburg in 
1778. His musical abilities were of an exceptional 
kind in childhood. Before he reached his seventh 
year, he had shown such talent as to have attracted 
the notice of many eminent musicians at Vienna ; 
among these was Mozart. To teach was most 
distasteful to Mozart ; he was, however, so pleased 
with the boy Hummel as to offer to instruct 
him, provided he could have him in his house. 
The proposal was accepted, and in two years 
he made such progress as to delight everyone with 
his performances. 

Whilst in the house of Mozart, Hummel made 
the acquaintance of Haydn, who greatly admired 
him. They again met in London in 1791, when 
Haydn wrote a Sonata in A flat, which Master 

A A 



386 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Hummel played at the Hanover Square Rooms in 
the presence of the composer. Hummel used often 
to refer to his boyish delight at having received 
from Haydn on this occasion, his thanks, accom- 
panied by a guinea.* Mr. Holmes supplies us 
with the following interesting account of Hummel 
in the family of Mozart: "The adoption of this 
child into his family afforded fresh scope for the 
kindly workings of the musician's nature ; his own 
childhood, and the anxious solicitude of his good 
father, must have recurred to his memory. His 
lessons we can imagine to have been rather desul- 
tory ; but, upon a mind disposed to learn, and 
capable in some degree of appreciating the great- 
ness of the teacher, the fleeting observations of 
Mozart made permanent impressions. 

" The master kept an eye on his pupil's progress, 
by deputing him to play any new music which he 
was desirous to hear, and which he would else have 
played himself. The following relation, derived 
from one of the members of the family, may give 
a view of the interior of the composer's abode, 
and at the same time show the manner in which 
Hummel profited. 

"At a late hour Mozart and his wife return home 
from a party. On entering their apartment, the 
boy is discovered stretched on chairs, fast asleep. 
Some new pianoforte music has just arrived, which 
they are both anxious to hear ; Mozart, however, 

* Holmes's " Life of Mozart." 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 387 

will not play it himself, but tells his wife to wake 
up Hans, give him a glass of wine, and let him 
play. This is no sooner said than done ; and now, 
should anything go wrong, there is an opportunity 
for suggestions. It is in fact a lesson, though given 
at the rather unusual hour of midnight." 

Hummel held for some time the post of Chapel- 
master to Prince Esterhazy ; at a later date he was 
at Weimar in connection with the Court. Chorley* 
in 1840 writes, " I allude to Hummel, who had been 
Chapel-master at Weimar, during the period which 
makes so brilliant a figure in the annals of 
Germany. He, too, seems to have been somewhat 
neglected ; honest, rough, and kind-hearted." " He 
was totally unable to analyze art in general, or 
to maintain his own special part in it with that 
minuteness of observation or rhetorical grace of 
utterance in which the accomplished circle of 
Weimar connoisseurs loved to indulge. It is on 
record that his compositions merely ranged with 
himself as being ' difficult ' or ' not difficult.' Many 
men have produced great works of art, who have 
never cultivated sesthetic conversation ; nay, more 
who have shrunk with a secretly-entertained dislike 
from those indefatigable persons whose fancy it is 
' to peep and botanize.' " 

That Hummel gave to the world works of art 
is beyond all question ; his Septett in D minor, for 
Pianoforte, wind, and stringed instruments, alone 

* " Modern German Music." 
A A 2 



388 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

proves his ability as a composer. His Pianoforte 
Trios are works of merit and effectively written. 
He also composed Three String Quartetts, Op. 30, 
and a Grand Quintett, with Piano, Op. 87. 
Hummel died in 1837, at Weimar. 



gertion HEBE.— ^hc lialitt in' tomans. 



CHAPTER V. 

HP HE annals of Violin music down to this period 
make us familiar with many great and never- 
to-be-forgotten names connected with instrumental 
music ; but the greatest of all has yet to be noticed 
— Ludwig van Beethoven — whose mighty genius 
attracted to itself the quintessence of the master- 
minds gone before, and enriched the whole with 
the wealth of its own originality. That the highest 
degree of excellence in instrumental composition 
was attained by Beethoven, is now all but univers- 
ally admitted. The time has been, however, when 
practical musicians regarded him as a madman, with 
occasional lucid intervals, so great was the stride by 
which he out-distanced his predecessors and con- 
temporaries, leaving between a field of unexplored 
ground in instrumental art, the meaning of which 
was then incomprehensible to the average musician. 

Beethoven was born at Bonn in 1770. He 
commenced the study of music in his fourth year, 
and the Violin in his tenth. At the age of fifteen 
he received lessons on the leading instrument from 



39o 



THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 



Franz Ries, the father of Ferdinand, with whom he 
was so much associated at a later period. In this, 
his fifteenth year, he composed the three Pianoforte 
Quartetts in E flat, D, and C. 

In 1787 Beethoven visited Vienna for the first 
time, where he made the acquaintance of Mozart, 
who was greatly impressed with his abilities, and 
predicted a great future for him. The E flat Trio, 
No. 1, Op. 1, 



s^l 



SE 



^Htft 



^ 



TT* 



^a 



m 



-F — -- 



was written in this year, and published with the 
second in G and third in C minor in 1795, by 
subscription, and dedicated to his friend and patron, 
Prince Lichnowsky, in whose house he lived, and 
from whom he received the quartett of instruments 
now in the library at Berlin. In 1788 Beethoven 
frequently played the second Tenor in the Orchestra 
of the Elector of Cologne ; there also was Andrew 
and Bernard Romberg, and Franz Ries his Violin- 
master. Passing to the years 1 791 and 1792, we 
find among his compositions connected with the 
Violin, the first String Trio ; the set of Fourteen 
Variations for Pianoforte, Violin, and Violoncello, in 
the same key, known as Op. 44 ; and Twelve 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 39 I 

Variations on " Se vuol ballare," for Pianoforte and 
Violin, published in 1793. 

The greatness of Beethoven's abilities appears 
to have been fully recognised at this period. The 
Elector was made aware of the desirability of 
sending him to Vienna, that he might receive 
instruction from Haydn. The proposition meeting 
with his approval, at the close of the year 1792 
we find Beethoven in the capital of music, lodged 
in a garret over a printer's shop. From this 
humble apartment he used to set out for Haydn's 
house with his composition exercises, which that 
great master duly corrected for the modest sum 
of tenpence, according to Beethoven's own note- 
book. Upon Haydn's departure for England at 
the beginning of the year 1794, Beethoven sought 
the assistance of Albrechtsberger, from whom he 
received lessons in counterpoint At this period 
Beethoven was wholly dependent upon his own 
efforts for his maintenance, the Elector being no 
longer able to aid him ; Napoleon and the war 
having left Beethoven and his music no place in the 
exchequer of his patron. Happily Vienna was rich 
in ardent and wealthy amateurs, ready to help the 
young composer ; among these was Prince Lich- 
nowsky. It is interesting to know that it was at one of 
the musical parties given by this Prince every Friday, 
that Beethoven's attention was directed to Quartett 
writing. The suggestion came from Count Apponyi,' 
who expressed his desire that a Quartett should be 



392 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

composed, and that the terms should be Beethoven's, 
and not his own. Thus was commenced the noblest 
of all contributions to chamber music — the Seven- 
teen Quartetts of Beethoven. The publication of 
the first six was effected early in the present 
century. That they were being played about this 
period is attested by Spohr, who tells us he heard 
them for the first time in Brunswick, and that he 
" raved " about them no less than he had done over 
those of Haydn and Mozart. Their reception by 
the British public some thirty-five years later 
was the reverse of hearty. At the Concert of 
the Philharmonic Society, May nth, 1835, upon 
which occasion Eliason, Watts, Moralt, and Robert 
Lindley introduced the Quartett in F, the majority 
of the audience wished that its production had been 
further delayed, the musical critics condemning it 
as consisting chiefly of " musical perversities and 
unproductive labour." It must not be forgotten, 
however, that in Germany these Quartetts were not 
at first universally applauded ; on the contrary, those 
of Fesca and Rode were often preferred. The want 
of good judgment on our part was therefore not 
greater than that shown in Germany but a few 
years earlier, and our sense of shame materially 
lessens in consequence. The first six Quartetts 
Op. 18, were published early in 1802, according to 
the following reference to them in a letter of the 
composer's, dated April 8th in that year : — 

" Herr has lately published my Quartetts, 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 393 

full of faults and errata, both large and small, which 
swarm in them like fish in the sea — that is, they 
are innumerable." " In truth, my skin is a mass 
of punctures and scratches from this fine edition of 
my Ouartetts ! " 

Beethoven's intercourse with Haydn appears to 
have been void of that mutual regard which it might 
be supposed would naturally accompany the conti- 
guity of such minds. It is clear, however, there 
was no reciprocity of feeling between them from the 
first. Beethoven was disappointed in the interest his 
instructor manifested in his exercises ; and probably 
Haydn was dissatisfied with the independent spirit 
shown by his pupil. Haydn naming him con- 
temptuously the " Great Mogul," points to a 
rifeness of displeasure at this period. The circum- 
stance of Haydn tendering his advice to Beethoven 
not to rush into print with his third Trio in C minor 
but added fuel to fire, for the composer was aware 
of its merits over the other two. In the year 1796, 
a subsidence of hostilities apparently took place, 
since Beethoven played at a concert at which 
Haydn appeared. In the same year Beethoven 
went to Berlin, where he probably composed the 
Sonatas for Pianoforte and Violoncello in F and 
G minor. Among other compositions of 1796 are 
the String Quintett Op. 4, arranged from an 
Octett for wind instruments written at a much, 
earlier date. The variations on Handel's " See the 
Conquering Hero Comes " for Pianoforte and 



394 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Violoncello ; the Three String Trios Op. 9 — the 
Rondo of which belongs to the Pathetic Sonata, 
was originally intended for the last of these 
Trios; and, finally, the charming Serenade Trio, 
Op. 8. 

The three String Trios Op. 9 were published in 
1798, and dedicated to Count Browne. To the 
same year belongs the Trio for Pianoforte, Clarionet, 
or Violin and Violoncello in B, Op. 11. This 
Trio gave rise to the following incident : — Steibelt 
affected to regard Beethoven's abilities as mediocre, 
and upon the occasion of the first performance of the 
above-mentioned Trio at the house of Count Fries, 
Steibelt conducted himself towards Beethoven with 
marked rudeness. The following week they again 
met, when Steibelt mounted to the very pinnacle of 
impertinence by extemporizing on the subject of the 
last movement of Beethoven's Trio, played a few 
days before. It happened that a new Quintett of 
Steibelt's had been played during the evening, 
Beethoven seized his opportunity to pay Steibelt for 
his affront with interest. Taking one of the parts 
of the new Quintett, and placing it upside down 
on his desk, he manipulated it with such skill and 
effect as to leave his enemy no choice but to 
beat a hasty retreat from the company or confess 
his humiliation. 

We now approach the time when the three 
Violin and Pianoforte Sonatas, Op. 12, were pro- 
bably written — the close of the year 1798. These 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 



395 



were published in January 1799, and dedicated 
to Salieri. These Sonatas occupy in point of 
character much the same place in relation to those 



Allegro con brio. 



I 



=a£ 



Mfe 



iftfci 






S3 



P 



g*r 



l|^p 



^^^ 



1 



fcfe 






5E 



^ 



^s 5 



which followed them, as the first six Quartetts to 
the succeeding seven. 

The opening year of the century brought with it 
that wondrous piece of instrumentation the Septett, 
with which Beethoven was delighted, calling it his 
" Creation," referring to the Oratorio of his master : 
a work it is said Beethoven had at one time 
spoken of in tones of depreciation, causing Haydn 
to remark, " That is wrong of him ; what has 
he written then ? His Septett ? That is cer- 
tainly beautiful — nay, splendid !" The Septett was 
first performed at Prince Schwarzenberg's, and next 
at a concert of Beethoven's on April 2nd, 1800. It 
was disposed of to the music publisher Hoffmeister 
for ten pounds, to whom Beethoven wrote, "It 



396 



THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 



would be a good thing if you would arrange the 
Septett you are about to publish as a Quintett, with 
a Flute part, for instance ; this would be an advantage 
to amateurs of the Flute, who have already impor- 
tuned me on the subject, and who would swarm 
round it like insects, and banquet on it." 

In 1 80 1, the Sonatas for Pianoforte and Violin 
in A minor, 

Presto. 



ll 



-&- 



JP 






m 



323 



'/ 



and in F, 




were written. 

Two years later, the charming Romance for 
Violin and Orchestra in G, Op. 40, 



1= 



Solo. 

A 



m 



-* a *[■' — " 



43= 



Z?23t 



~w- 



w^- 



was composed. The second one in F belongs to 
the year 1805. Rode's name has been erroneously 
associated with this Romance ; it having gone 
forth that Beethoven composed it expressly for him 
during the famous Violinist's sojourn at Vienna; but 
as Rode did not arrive there until January, 181 3, 
the mistake is evident enough. That Beethoven did 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 2)97 

compose something for Rode is seen from a letter 
written by the composer to the Archduke Rudolph, 
in January, 1813. He says : " As I am in the mean- 
time writing several other works, I did not hurry 
myself much with this last movement, merely for 
the sake of punctuality, especially as I must write 
this more deliberately, with a view to Rode's play- 
ing." The Sonata Op. 96 is given as the com- 
position referred to in this letter. It was certainly 
first played by Beethoven and Rode, at the house 
of Prince Lobkowitz, early in 181 3. 

Now let us turn to another and more important 
offspring of Beethoven's mighty genius, belonging to 
the year 1803 : Op. 47, known as the " Kreutzer 
Sonata." A comparatively unknown name to the 
present musical world was within an ace of the 
splendid immortality secured to that of Kreutzer 
on the title-page of this Sonata. But for a slight 
disagreement we should know this work as the 
" Bridgetower Sonata." Many of my readers may 
possibly ask, Who was Bridgetower ? 

George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower was 
a notability in his palmy days. He was called 
" The Abyssinian Prince," not that he had blue 
blood in his veins of the quality of an African 
Prince, but on account of the colour of his skin. 
Son of an African father and an European mother, 
he was a mulatto. Though born in Poland, 
he was English by name and semi-accepta- 
tion, and has been described as "a curious 



398 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

bombastic half-caste English Violinist." He made 
himself publicly known as a knight of the bow 
at Drury Lane Theatre in the year 1790. He 
went to Dresden in 1802, and to Vienna the 
following year, where he made the acquaintance of 
Beethoven, and induced him to compose a Sonata 
for their joint performance. The opening move- 
ment was completed in good time. Air and Varia- 

k 



I 



\> '4 T f^ 1 ^^ -1 El~£ 



^=F 



m 



sf sf 

tion finished as far as Bridgetower's part was con- 
cerned ; the composer leaving himself with a 
sketchy Pianoforte copy. The last movement in 
A was composed some months before, having 
belonged to the Sonata in A major, Op. 30, dedi- 
cated to the Emperor Alexander, but being too 
brilliant for that work, another was substituted. 
On the 17th of May 1803, Beethoven and Bridge- 
tower publicly played the Sonata destined to be 
known in after time as the " Kreutzer," to whom 
it was dedicated. 

Bridgetower used to relate that he suggested to 
Beethoven the alteration of a particular passage in 
the Sonata, which so delighted the composer, that 
he jumped from his seat and embraced him, saying, 
" Once more, my dear fellow." Though possible, it 
is scarcely probable, bearing in mind Beethoven's 
sensitive nature on such points. If anything would 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 399 

offend the composer, Beethoven improved by 
Bridgetower would do so; and the hidden cause 
of their rupture may possibly lie in this little 
incident. 

The publication of the Kreutzer Sonata ap- 
parently belongs to the year 1804, f° r we find 
mention of it in his letters to Ries at that period. 
This Sonata was played by Liszt and Ole Bull, in 
1846, at the Philharmonic Society. 

In the winter of 1805 Beethoven wrote the 
String Quartetts in E and C, Op. 59. The ex- 
quisite Adagio of the Quartett in E was composed, 



tfl 



Molto adagio. 



&ZZI&- t a &— L ^z 



m 



it is said, "when one night he contemplated the 
stormy heavens, and thought of the harmonies of 
the spheres." 

The Quartett in F, Op. 59, was written at a 
later date. 

It was in 1835 that the first of the Rasoumoffsky 
set was heard publicly in London, and it is interest- 
ing to find that it was upon the occasion of the 
opening concert of the " Concerti da Camera" in 
London, a series of concerts given in imitation of 
those instituted in Paris by Baillot. The execu- 
tants were Henry Blagrove, Piggott, Sherrington, 
and Lucas. It was then said, " These most 
elaborate compositions have at length won the 



400 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

good opinion of all the best judges, though it is 
more than probable that they will continue ' caviare 
to the general.' " It therefore appears that we had 
made considerable progress in our knowledge and 
appreciation of Beethoven's chamber music within 
a few months: the first Quartett, Op. 18, having 

Allegro con brio. 



tj ^ •• — ' • -0- ^- ' v. y • 



:F-& 



been coldly received at the Philharmonic Society, 
in May of the same year. 

The Violin Concerto, Op. 61, was played for the 
first time in England, by Eliason, at the Philhar- 
monic Concerts, April 9th, 1832. A musical criticthen 
recorded his opinion — which may be taken as echoing 
that of the public at the time — that " Beethoven has 
put forth no strength in his Violin Concerto ; it is a 
fiddling affair, and might have been written by any 
third or fourth-rate composer." Seventy-four years 
have passed away since this "fiddling" affair was 
composed, and more than a hundred Concertos have 
been given to the world, but no composer has suc- 
ceeded in accomplishing another such triumph of 
fiddling Concerto music. The proper appreciation 
of this splendid work was reserved to a succeeding 
generation. The Concerto was first, performed at 
Vienna, December 23rd, 1806, by Franz Clement, 
Solo-Violinist to the Emperor of Austria; and for 
Clement it was specially written, as seen on the 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 40I 

original manuscript,* in the composer's handwriting : 
" Concerto par Clemenza pour Clement primo Violino 
e Direttore al Theatre a Vienne dal L. v. Bthvn., 
1806." It was published in 1809, by Breitkopf and 
H artel, the Leipsic publishers, and was the second 
work of the composer's published by that house. 
The Concerto was dedicated to the friend of his 
youth, Stephan von Breuning. The published 
cadences to the Beethoven Concerto are those of 
Ferdinand David, Joachim, and Vieuxtemps. 

To the year 1806 belongs the publication of the 
Trio for Two Violins and Tenor, arranged from the 
Trio for Two Oboes and Horn, Op. 87 ; and also 
the Pianoforte Trio, No. 12, arranged from the 
Symphony in D, Op. 36. Passing to the year 
1 808 we have the composition for the Pianoforte and 
Violoncello Sonata in A, dedicated to Baron von 
Gleichenstein ; and the Pianoforte Trios, Op. 70, 
in D and E flat. These were published by Breit- 
kopf and Hartel, in 1809, to which year the compo- 
sition of the E flat Quartett, Op. 74, is assigned ; 
and the next Quartett, in F minor, Op. 95, was 
written in 18 10, published six years later, and 
dedicated to Zmeskall. 

The composer's connection with Zmeskall was 
one of close and familiar friendship. In Beethoven's 
letters to him we find references to the mending of 
quill pens, queries as to the cost of servant's livery, 
and the fair price for fronting a pair of boots ; 

* In the Library at Vienna. 
B B 



402 



THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 



making together a curious mixture of music and 
domestic economy. 

Early in 1810 the B flat Pianoforte Trio was 
completed. Apart from the sterling worth of this 
Trio as a composition, much interest is attached to 
it from the circumstance of its having been the last 
chamber work he played publicly ; the occasion 
being at a concert in May, 1814. In the previous 
April he played the same work at the benefit concert 
of Herr Schuppanzigh, the Violinist, famous as the 
greatest exponent of Beethoven's chamber music 
then living. Moscheles, in his diary, writes, April 
nth, 1814 : — 

"At a Matinee in the ' Romischen Kaiser,' I 
heard a new Trio by Beethoven ; no less than the 
one in B flat, and Beethoven himself played the 
Pianoforte part. In how many compositions do we 
find the little word ' new ' wrongly placed ; but 
never in Beethoven's ; least of all in this work, 
which is full of originality." Mendelssohn, writing 



Andante cantabile semplice. 




to his sister, from Milan, in 1831, mentions having 
played this Trio^ at the house of General Ertmann, 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 403 

filling in the parts as best he could with his 
voice, when he reached the deeply pathetic close of 
the slow movement, every note of which appeals 
to the heart with an eloquence beyond the power of 
words to describe ; Mendelssohn acknowledged the 
truth of a remark made at the moment, "that 
the amount of expression here is beyond all 
playing." The B flat Trio was published in 1816, 
and dedicated to the Archduke Rudolph, the 
Emperor's brother, a great lover of music, and a 
pupil of Beethoven's. The one-movement Trio in 
B flat was composed in 181 2. The following 
year Louis Spohr arrived in Vienna, and made 
Beethoven's acquaintance. Spohr tells us he was 
" a little blunt, not to say uncouth, but a truthful 
eye beamed from under his bushy eyebrows." 
Beethoven's deafness at this period was distressing, 
and alone sufficient to ruffle his temper ; but 
in addition he had to bear pecuniary troubles of 
no slight weight. Ten years before Spohr met 
him, he referred to his sad affliction in words which 
reflect his character autobiographically, " O ye 
who consider or declare me to be hostile, obsti- 
nate, or misanthropic, what injustice ye do me ! " 
" Consider, for the last six years I have been attacked 
by an incurable complaint." " Born with a lively, 
ardent disposition, susceptible to the diversions of 
society, I was forced to renounce them and pass my 
life in seclusion. If I strove to set myself above all 
this, O how cruelly was I driven back ; it was not 
b B 2 



404 THE VIOLIN And its music. 

possible for me to say to people — ' speak louder ; 
bawl — for I am deaf!' Oh, how could I proclaim 
the defect of a sense that I once possessed in the 
highest perfection ? Forgive me, then, if you see me 
draw back when I would gladly mingle among you." 
'' Almost alone in the world," " I am obliged to live 
as an exile." " O God ! thou lookest down upon my 
misery ! thou knowest that it is accompanied with 
love of my fellow creatures, and a disposition to 
do good ! O men ! when ye shall read this, think 
that ye have wronged me ; and let the child of 
affliction take comfort on finding one like himself, 
who, in spite of all impediments of nature, yet 
did all that lay in his power to obtain admittance 
into the rank of worthy artists and men." 

On the 29th of November, 181 4, the first of the 
two benefit concerts set on foot by his friends in 
Vienna took place, the gigantic nature of which, 
both artistically and numerically, was in keeping 
with the mighty genius of the recipient. Never 
before or since has its equal been witnessed in 
connection with benefit concerts in point of 
magnitude and high importance. That the greatest 
musician the world has seen, should have been 
honoured in a manner at once unique, is indeed 
gratifying. The hall of the Redouten-Saal was 
filled with an audience numbering six thousand, and 
all who could fiddle, blow, or sing, were invited to 
assist, and not one of the most celebrated artists 
in Vienna failed to appear. Among them was 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 405 

Louis Spohr, Salieri, Mayseder, Schuppanzigh, and 
Hummel. Spohr relates that this was the first time 
he had seen Beethoven conduct, and although he had 
heard much of his power in that direction, he was 
surprised in a high degree. Beethoven had accus- 
tomed himself to give the signs of expression by 
extraordinary motions of his body ; thus, when a 
sforzando occurred, he tore his arms — which he had 
previously crossed on his breast — with great vehem- 
ence asunder ; at a piano he bent down lower and 
lower according to the degree of softness needed ; 
with a crescendo he raised himself again ; and with 
a forte sprang bolt upright. 

Passing to the year 1815, we have the two 
Pianoforte and Violoncello Sonatas, Op. . 102. It 
was at this period that Charles Neate, one of the 
committee of the London Philharmonic Society, 
which had then been instituted, but two years, 
journeyed to Vienna expressly to become personally 
acquainted with Beethoven, and receive his advice 
in composition. This led to the interesting corre- 
spondence which passed between them upon Neate's 
return to London in the month of September, 181 5, 
relative to the purchase of the Overtures, " The 
Ruins of Athens," " King Stephen," and another, by 
the Philharmonic Society, for the sum of seventy- 
five guineas, all of which were coldly received at 
the Society's concerts. Two years later, however, a 
higher taste prevailed, if we .are to judge from 
the correspondence which took place between 



406 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Beethoven and the committee, from which we 
gather that an offer of three hundred guineas was 
made to the illustrious composer, to write two 
Symphonies, conditional on his coming to England 
and superintending their production. A difference 
of one hundred guineas between the committee 
and the composer, deprived us, in all probability, of 
two works of art, and the honour of having 
had Ludwig van Beethoven in our midst. 

The arrangement of the C minor Trio, Op. i, as 
a string Quintett, published as Op. 104, was probably 
made in 1815. About this period poor Beethoven 
seems to have been immersed in troubles, legal, 
domestic, and valetudinarian.* The two last are 
sufficiently calamitous, but when joined to that of 
the law, but little less than the temperament of Job 
is needed to bear such a weight of woe. That 
Beethoven's patience bore any affinity to that of 
the great Patriarch is sufficiently negatived in the 
character of much of his music. The spirit of 
endurance in perfection, or at all approaching it, 
had no place in the mind of him who introduced 
Beethovenish music, and the world is richer in 
consequence. That these vexations increased the 
quality is possible, but that they diminished the 
quantity is certain, and necessitate our passing 

* Beethoven having obtained the legal guardianship over his 
nephew, to whom he was devotedly attached, an appeal deprived him 
of his authority, and thus the composer became entangled in the 
meshes of the law. 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 



407 



to the year 1824, when Beethoven received a 
message from Prince Galitzin, a Russian nobleman, 
to compose three String Quartetts. This commis- 
sion does not appear to have been accompanied 
with any remuneration, since the composer disposed 
of the completed works to the publishers. 
The first in E flat, 

, Maestoso. 



i» 



3= 



mwwm 



^^ 



m 



-&- -* . 



>/ 



-sf ~ " sf 

was partly written at Baden, towards the end of 
1824. 

The second Quartett, published as Op. 132, was 
sold to Peters for thirty pounds. In a letter to the 
publisher, Beethoven mentioned it " as a grand one, 
too," but drew his pen across the words, as though 
his love for his own work had caused him to say too 
much in its praise ! " A work," Moscheles writes, 
" in which Beethoven storms heaven itself, and yet 
again what child-like simplicity and passionate 
grief!" Here we have the composer's "Song of 
thanksgiving to God for convalescence," which has 

Molto adagio. 



E 



3*=^ 



MZ22. 



& l & &■ 



sotto voce. 

been well described as "the full force of the spirit of 
poetry entering the very marrow of his soul." 

The third, in B flat, Op. 130, was finished in 



408 



THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 



1825, and performed in its original form the following 
year ; — the last movement being the fugue, published 



Adagio ma na n troppo, 



- AJoLj s d- 



^fff 



W^± 



3 



P 

as Op. 133 — it was coldly received, and the com- 
poser acknowledges the fact in a letter to his nephew, 
remarking that Schuppanzigh, "on account of his 
corpulence, requires more time than formerly to 
decipher a piece at a glance," and continues, " their 
quartett playing is not what it was when all four 
were in the habit of " frequently playing together." 
The present last movement was composed by the 
wish of Artaria, and forms the last completed work 
of Beethoven. He was informed of the Quartett 
not being liked during his last illness, and remarked, 
" It will please them some day." The C sharp 
minor Quartett, Op. 131, was written in 1826, and 
the last, in F, belongs to the same period. 

Adagio ma non troppo. 




On the 22nd February, 1827, Beethoven wrote 
to his friend, Moscheles : — "Some years ago the 
Philharmonic Society in London made me the 
handsome offer of arranging a concert for my benefit. 
At that time, thank God, I was not in such a posi- 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 409 

tion as to be obliged to make use of their generous 
offer. Now, however, I am in a different position ; 
for nearly three months I have been laid low by a 
wearisome illness. "As for my writing music, I 
have long ceased to think of it." "Unfortunately, 
therefore, I may be so placed as to be obliged to 
suffer want." " I beg you to use your influence to 
induce the Philharmonic Society to resuscitate their 
generous resolution, and carry it out speedily."* 
With this letter was enclosed another, penned by 
the author's friend Schindler, in which we read. 
" On the occasion of your last visit here, I described 
to you Beethoven's position with regard to money 
matters ; never suspecting that the moment was so 
near when we should see this great man draw- 
ing near his end, under circumstances so peculiarly 
painful." The writer, after describing the painful 
sufferings of the composer, continues. " Now, my 
friend, remembering his impatience, and more than 
all, his quick temper, picture to yourself Beethoven 
in such a fearful illness. Think of him, too, 
brought to this sad state by that wretched creature, 
his nephew, and partly, too, by his own brother. 
Should you, my dear Moscheles, succeed, jointly 
with Sir George Smart, in inducing the Philhar- 
monic Society to comply with Beethoven's wishes, 
you would certainly be doing an act of the 
greatest kindness." Further on, the good and kind 
Schindler says, " It pains him (Beethoven) to find 

* " Life of Moscheles," Vol. I., 146. 



4IO THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

that not a soul here takes any notice of him, and 
certainly this lack of sympathy is most surprising. 
In former times,, if he was slightly indisposed, 
people used to drive up to his door and enquire for 
him. Now he is completely forgotten, as though he 
had never lived in Vienna."* "Just now he speaks' 
about a journey to London, after his recovery, and 
is calculating on the cheapest way we can live during 
our absence from home. Merciful heaven ! I fear 
his journey will be a further one than to England." 

"Sick — in necessity — abandoned — a Beethoven!" 
Moscheles exclaimed, after reading the above 
correspondence : words rich in pathos and meaning, 
and such as pages of commentary would weaken 
rather than strengthen. A few days later Hummel 
was at the bedside of the forgotten and suffering 
Beethoven, who turned and said, " My dear Hum- 
mel, here is a picture of the house where Haydn 
was born ; it was made a present to me to-day. 
I take a childish pleasure in it, to think of so great 
a man being born in so wretched a hovel." 

Turning from the sick chamber at Vienna to 
'.the special general meeting of the committee of the 
Philharmonic Society in London, which was immedi- 
ately called upon receipt of Beethoven's appeal for 
aid, we have that glorious Resolution, glistening like 
a jewel in the records of the time-honoured society, 

* Beethoven's deafness had gradually brought about his hermit- 
like existence ; we must not therefore read this too literally. Help 
may hare been at hand, had his condition been made known. 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 411 

" That the sum of one hundred pounds be sent, 
through the hands of Mr. Moscheles, to some 
confidential friend of Beethoven, to be applied to 
his comforts and necessities during his illness." 
About the 17th of March, the friend to whom 
Moscheles sent the money was driving post haste 
to the house of Beethoven to make known to him 
the glad tidings, and tells us, " It was heart-breaking 
to see him clasp his hands and shed tears of joy 
and gratitude." A few days later — March 26th, 
1827 — Beethoven was no more. 

His funeral was truly that of a great man : 
some thirty thousand persons lined the streets 
through which passed the bier of the greatest of 
music's creators. Eight Chapel-masters acted as 
pall-bearers, and thirty-six eminent musical men 
carried torches. The Requiem of Mozart was 
performed in the church of Saint Augustine, and 
Lablache sang the bass part. 



hctian HEBE.— "^The Violin in 4l*rmattj). 



CHAPTER VI. 

A ROUND the grave of Beethoven stood many 
famous men in the world of music. There 
mourned Franz Schubert, then best known as the 
composer of "The Erl King," "The Wanderer," and 
an "Ave Maria," but now familiar to us as a composer 
of chamber and orchestral music of exceptional 
excellence. Schubert, in returning from the funeral, 
was accompanied by Franz Lachner and another 
musician. Schubert filled two glasses with wine : 
the first he emptied to the memory of Beethoven, and 
the second to him of the assembled trio who should 
be the first to follow the illustrious man whose mortal 
remains they had consigned to the earth. Strange 
indeed that Franz Schubert should have been that 
one, and within a few months. 

Schubert's admiration of the genius of Beethoven 
was of the loftiest character, and he frequently hoped 
that his body might be placed beside that of the 
greatest of musicians, a wish that was remembered 
and followed. A friend, who was extolling the excel- 
lence of Schubert's works to the composer himself, 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 413 

received answer, " But who can ever do anything 
after Beethoven ? " Schumann said, " If fertility be 
a distinguishing mark of genius, then Franz Schubert 
is a genius of the highest order." The quantity of 
music penned by Schubert is indeed amazing, and yet 
more so when we think of its having been accom- 
plished in less than twenty years, for its composer 
died before his thirty-first birthday. That genius 
of the highest order is recognised throughout this 
mass of music cannot be said, but that it is manifested 
in much of it, is certain. Mr. Chorley has re- 
marked, " Setting aside the beautiful and peculiar 
songs of Schubert, there is little music extant so 
provoking, at once so rich in fancy, so meritorious 
in respect of constructive ingenuity, yet so unavail- 
able, so incomplete, and so likely to remain till 
doomsday under the cloud of neglect and misunder- 
standing. There is not one instrumental piece by 
Schubert, whether it be his Symphony in C major, 
his Stringed Quartett in D minor, his Pianoforte 
Trios, his Rondo for Pianoforte and Violin, which 
does not contain first thoughts, phrases, and 
melodies, on which Beethoven might have con- 
sented to work— having, moreover, a wild spirit 
and sweetness totally unborrowed — but all may be 
charged with a want of success, which cannot but 
be felt by the discriminating connoisseur. This is 
a sad result, when, in addition to the amount of 
genius flawed, lost, buried, the amount of wasted 
time, energy, and labour is considered. With 



414 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Schubert may be almost said to have ' gone out ' the 
light of creative genius in Vienna. The temples 
are still open — the old gods are still in some degree 
worshipped — but the old priests are gone, and there 
are no new ones to fill their places."* 

Ferdinand Ries, the pupil of Beethoven, was an 
imitator of the style of his master. Since Beet- 
hoven, like Stradiuarius and Paganini, successfully 
set imitators at defiance, the labours of Ries have 
become almost forgotten. He, however, composed 
some chamber music of a pleasing kind, which is 
worthy of a better fate than being left on the 
shelves of second-hand music sellers. 

Carl Maria von Weber must here be mentioned 
as a contributor to our subject in the Quartett for 
Pianoforte, Violin, Tenor, and Violoncello ; a 
Pianoforte Trio, Op. 10; a Quintett with Clarionet 
and Strings, and Six Easy Sonatas for Pianoforte 
and Violin. 

Joseph Mayseder was Schuppanzigh's famous 
pupil. He was born in Vienna, in 1789, and took 
part at his master's quartett meetings. His great 
talent early brought him under the notice of 
eminent musicians, and secured him several im- 
portant appointments, culminating with that of 
Chamber-Violinist to the Emperor in 1835. He 
published a vast number of Violin compositions, 
including Airs with Variations, Duetts, Concertos, 
five Quintetts, eight Quartetts, Studies, &c. Among 

* Chorley's " Modern German Music." 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 415 

his brilliant Violin compositions may be specially 
mentioned the Air and Variations, Op. 40, dedicated 
to Paganini, which was frequently played by Ernst. 
Weber, writing from Vienna in 1813, mentions 
having heard Mayseder's Fourth Concerto, pro- 
nouncing it excellent, " but it left one cold." His 
works are all of a more or less brilliant character, 
and would undoubtedly be better appreciated had 
they been of a warmer nature. He died in 1863. 

The Violinis.t and composer, Kalliwoda, born at 
Prague, in 1800, was a prolific writer of brilliant 
Violin music. Although most of his Solos are now 
rarely played, they are well written, and abound in 
passages needing more than ordinary executive skill 
to render them with due effect. He has composed 
many Violin Duetts, conceived in a dramatic style, 
which are played much among amateurs. Kalliwoda 
died in 1866. 

The progress of the leading instrument in 
Germany was hardly less influenced by the genius 
of Louis Spohr, than its progress in Italy a century 
earlier was influenced by the teachings of Corelli. 
These results, though of nearly equal importance, 
were secured by wholly different means. The 
school of the German master was a new departure, 
originating in the labours of a long line of Violinists, 
from Corelli to Rode. The benefits of this blending 
of Italian, French, and German art, irt relation to 
the Violin, are better understood to-day than when 
Spohr may be said to have effected the union. The 



41 6 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

style of composition which Spohr brought to bear 
upon the Violin as a solo instrument necessitated a 
special education on the part of the executant. 
With whatever excellence a player may have ren- 
dered a concerto of Viotti, Rode, or Kreutzer, he 
must have early discovered the necessity of applying 
a different mode of rendering to the music of Louis 
Spohr; hence, during its infancy, its creator was its 
only fit exponent. In course of time pupils and 
followers gave it that special study which its re- 
quirements demanded ; and thus may be said to 
have began the serious study of phrasing and light 
and shade in relation to classical German Violin 
music. With Spohr himself, with his pupil David, 
and many of his followers, this important branch of 
the Violinist's art has perhaps been carried to excess, 
resulting oftentimes in the composer's individuality 
being sunk in the executant's mannerism. Be that 
as it may, it is now well understood that something 
more is needed than correct time-keeping and 
perfect mechanism ; in short, that the painter must 
ally himself with the poet, and not only cover his 
canvas with truthful lines, hut tone his colours that 
they may harmonize with the thoughts and fancies 
of the creator of the subject. 

Louis Spohr was born in 1 784. When but five 
years of age, he was happy in the possession of 
a Violin, and he has related with what delight he 
hastened to his mother, to play to her the chord 
of G, which he succeeded in performing as an 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 417 

arpeggio, repeating it again and again, until its 
monotony led to his summary ejectment from the 
chamber. Passing over some seven years, we 
find him at Hamburg, seeking his fortune as a 
Violinist. He however soon awoke from his dream 
of maintaining himself in that busy commercial 
city, and set out for Brunswick. On his way he 
resolved to petition the Duke — who was himself 
a Violinist — praying that he might receive an 
appointment in the Ducal Orchestra, which he 
secured at a salary of fifteen pounds per annum. 
Thus was Spohr's first essay in self-help crowned 
with success. Later it was proposed by his patron 
to send his protege to Viotti, for instruction. The 
famous master had at the time retired from 
the profession, and declined to receive pupils. 
Eck was next applied to, who received Spohr as his 
scholar. Shortly afterwards they set out on a tour 
in Russia. On their way, they stayed at Hamburg, 
where Spohr became acquainted with Dussek. Here 
the young Violinist commenced his first Concerto, 
Op. 1, in A major. A little later he composed 
the first three Violin Duetts, Op. 3 ; and he tells 
us it was in playing these Duetts with his master 
Eck, that he observed the restrictive character of 
the French 'School of Violin-playing, remarking, 
"how little Eck entered into the spirit of the 
works of others."* At St. Petersburg, Spohr met 

* Eck was not brought up in the French School, though he may- 
have, like his pupil, done his best to profit by its teachings. 
C C 



41 8 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Clementi and Field, the composers of well-known 
Nocturnes. In his diary we find many critical 
remarks on Violin-playing, worthy of notice, inas^ 
much, as they are indicative of that seriousness so 
manifest in Spohr's style of playing. Of Franzl 
the Violinist, whom he met at St. Petersburg,- he 
says, " he holds the Violin still in the old manner, 
on the right side of the tail-piece, and must there- 
fore play with his head bent ;* to this must be 
added, he raises the right arm very high, and has 
the bad habit of elevating his eyebrows at the 
expressive passages ; his playing is pure and 
clear. In the adagio parts he executes runs and 
shakes with a rare delicacy ; as soon, however, 
as he plays loud, his tone is rough and unpleasant, 
because he draws his bow too slowly and too near 
the bridge, and leans it too much on one side ; he 
executes the passages with the middle of the bow, 
and consequently without distinction of piano and 
forte!' Of the playing of Barwold, he tells us he 
heard him in Viotti's Concerto in A, and although 
executed with much ability, the passages were 
"flat and drawn out." Of the Violinist Fodor, he 
says his playing lacked warmth, and his taste and 
frequent use of staccato was unbearable. 

Hitherto Spohr had derived his chief knowledge 
of the French School of Violin-playing from his 

* Spohr's method of holding the Violin : points to the chin rest- 
ing on the tail-piece, without inclining the head, a system no longer 
pursued. 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 419 

master, Franz Eck. That this early acquaintance 
had already affected his natural style is certain, but 
it was left to Rode to create a stronger desire on 
the part of Spohr to extend his studies in that 
direction. It happened upon Spohr's return to 
Brunswick in 1803, that Pierre Rode was staying 
there, giving concerts. These Spohr attended with 
pleasure and profit. He tells us, "the more he 
heard' him play, the greater was his admiration and 
desire to acquire the same style." This he resolved 
to accomplish by careful practice of Rode's compo- 
sitions.- By the time he had formed a style of 
playing peculiar to himself, he had become in his 
own estimation the most faithful imitator of Rode 
among the young Violinists of that day, succeeding 
best in Rode's famous Air and Variations in G, the 
Concerto in E minor, and his three first Quartetts. 
Early in 1804 Spohr applied himself diligently to 
composition, which resulted in the production of the 
Concerto in D minor, published as Op. 2, and a 
Concerto in A major which remains ' in manuscript. 
In these he informs us Rode's style predominates, 
remarking also, that at a later period his own style 
and mode of execution was developed from that of 
the great French artist. In the spring of 1804 
Spohr visited the chief German cities. His stock 
of music was now considerably enlarged. To Rode 
was given the place of honour, but others were well 
represented: among them were Haydn, Mozart, and, 
above all, Beethoven. The first six Quartetts of 
c c 2 



420 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

the great master were then barely dry from the 
press, and it is interesting to record that these were 
the works Spohr was playing at this period, and 
making known for the first time outside the Rasou- 
moffsky Quartett party and its audience. Their 
reception was often the reverse of cordial. Spohr 
tells us that on one occasion they were not even 
listened to, which necessitated his bringing the per- 
formance to an abrupt ending, and substituting one 
of Rode's, which was heard with breathless atten- 
tion. We need not wonder at this condition of 
musical taste on the part of unprofessional musicians, 
when we are told that Romberg expressed his 
astonishment that Spohr could bring himself to 
play " such stuff," and that Spohr should be as 
much at sea with the later and better compositions 
of Beethoven, and even expressed himself as 
finding him "wanting in aesthetical feeling and 
in a sense of the beautiful : " thus it would seem 
that the judgment of musicians, like that of artists 
on canvas, is often strangely erroneous. 

Returning to Spohr's Violin compositions, the 
Concertos numbered 3, 4, and 5 were written be- 
tween the years 1803 and 1806, together with a 
Concertante Duett for Harp and Violin, Two Pot- 
pourris, Ops. 22 and 23, for Violin and Orchestra 
and the Concertante Duett for two Violins, Op. 48. 

To the year 1808 belong the two Violin Duetts, 
Op. 9, and the famous Duett for Violin and 
Tenor. About this time Quartett writing occupied 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 42 1 

Spohr's attention more than it had hitherto done, 
and the Op. 1 5 was published. 

The Sixth Concerto, Op. 28, in G minor, was 
completed in 1808-9, tne l ast movement of which 
is a Rondo founded on Spanish melodies. To 
the same time belongs the Second Sonata, for 
Violin and Harp, Op. 115. At the close of the 
year 181 2, Spohr visited Vienna, which was 
regarded as the capital of the musical world. A 
city where Haydn and Mozart had lived, com- 
posed, and breathed new life into their art ; and 
where Beethoven was still giving to the world his 
master-pieces, was rightly looked upon as the seat 
of musical government in its relation to taste and 
refinement. The Quartett, Op. 30, and the first 
Octett were written in 181 3. The idea of com- 
posing a Double Quartett originated in a suggestion 
of Andrew Romberg's, but Spohr did not carry it 
out until some years afterwards. 

In 1820, Spohr came to England, and played 
his Dramatic Concerto at the Philharmonic Society, 
Viotti being present. At this period the orchestra 
was controlled by the first Violin, a system Spohr 
did not approve of. At one of the concerts of the 
season, the conductorship was given to Spohr, who 
used a separate desk and a baton. Our present 
mode of conducting an orchestra appears therefore 
to date no further back than sixty-one years. 

At Leipsic, in 1846, a concert was given under 
the conductorship of Mendelssohn, in honour of 



42 2 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Spohr, the programme consisting entirely of his 
compositions. Upon this occasion, Herr Joachim, 
then in his fifteenth year, played the Concerto in E 
minor, No. n, Op. 70. 

Spohr often complained of the press reviews of 
his compositions, and curiously enough gives in his 
autobiography the substance of one, with which 
he naturally disagreed, but which well describes 
the character of his writing. The contemporary 
German critic remarks, " The composer seems to 
have considered his auditors in the light of stupid 
servants." " The eternal rechewing of the theme in 
every voice and key, is as though one had given an 
order to an attendant that he is unable to under- 
stand, necessitating the repetition of it over and over 
again in every possible form of expression." In 
another place Spohr himself tells us, with singular 
modesty, " I had carried out a subject in the style of 
Mozart, now in one key and then in another, and in 
my delight at this scientific interweaving, had not 
remarked that it at length became monotonous." 
He adds, " that Reichardt disparaged it, and went 
so far as to say 'you could not rest until you had 
worried your motivo to death !' ' If we take the 
above remarks together with Mr. Chorley's, we 
have a fair estimate of Spohr's style of com- 
position. He says, " There is more than a ' set 
smile' in Dr. Spohr's music. It has its times and 
places of vitality, individual intelligence, as well 
as that genial air of swooning, over-luxurious, 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 423 

elaborate grace, which conceals its poverty in sig- 
nificance and variety so well and so long— with some, 
for ever. The excepted section of Dr. Spohr's 
compositions is — all that he has produced for the 
Violin as a Solo instrument, which establishes him 
among the great German composers, and claims 
for him high and grateful honour." Whether 
the whole of Spohr's Violin music is free from 
reiteration is questionable. 

Bernhard Molique was born at Nuremburg, in 
1803. Like Spohr, he combined the skill of an 
eminent Violinist with that knowledge of composi- 
tion which belongs to the thorough musician and 
composer of works belonging to the highest order 
of composition. If the "Abraham" of Molique 
is not so famous as the " Fall of Babylon" it 
is perhaps hardly less meritorious. That the Con- 
certos and Violin music of each are of equal merit, 
cannot be said. Spohr in this branch of the art 
cannot but live on ; whether Molique will do so 
is doubtful. He had many pupils — among them 
our principal English Violinist, John Carrodus. 
Molique died at Stuttgard, in 1869. 



Station DUE— ^oThe liolin in dermaitB. 



CHAPTER VII. 

T N following the history of the Violin and its music 
our course may be likened unto a country, 
oftentimes flat and uninteresting, at others varied 
and undulating, with now and again heights of vast 
altitude reaching to the very openings of heaven. 
With Bach and Handel, with Haydn, Mozart, and 
Schubert, we ascended these cloud-touching heights ; 
with Beethoven we mounted their loftiest pinnacle, 
and 'tis now with Mendelssohn we ascend again, if 
not so high, to where 

" fields of light and liquid ether flow, 



Purg'd from the pond'rous dregs of earth below." 

DRYDEN. 

" Where should this music be ? i' th' air or th' earth ?— 
It sounds no more : — and sure it waits upon some god o' th' 
island." 
" This is no mortal business, nor no sound, 
That the earth owns : — I hear it now above me." 

" Tempest" Act I., Scene i. 

Half a century has elapsed since Mendelssohn 
spoke of that section of the German musical world 
which has since enlarged into the Philosophico- 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 425 

musical public of to-day, as " Miserable shams with 
their sentimentality and devotion to art." This 
extended community has long since decided that 
the music of Mendelssohn is of little or no value, 
beyond serving as a warning to the musicians of the 
future, not to pursue the art worn down with the 
age of centuries, and in the last throes of its exist- 
ence. Well might Ferdinand Hiller tell us, " I 
come forward all the more boldly with these 
pages,* so full of admirable traits of the departed, 
because he, one of the brightest and most beautiful 
stars in the firmament of German art, is ex- 
periencing, in his own country, the attacks of envy, 
of want of comprehension and judgment, which 
can only bring dishonour on those from whom they 
proceed, for they will never succeed in detracting 
from the glory which surrounds his name." 

It is pleasing to believe that the music of 
Mendelssohn, even though its detractors succeeded 
in shelving it, will not lose the ppwer of its ethereal 
voice in banishment, but, like the compositions of 
Corelli, Tartini, and other original-minded men, 
come forth again and again to utter its own peculiar 
musical language of the heart. 

Felix Mendelssohn- Bartholdy was born at 
Hamburg, February the 3rd, 1809. At the age of 
seven years he was receiving instructions on the 
Pianoforte, in Harmony, and on the Violin. In his 
twelfth year he appears to have begun to seriously 

* " Mendelssohn's Letters and Recollections." 



426 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

compose. Mention is made of several incomplete 
works connected with the Violin belonging to this 
year (1820). It was not, however, until 1822, when 
in Switzerland, / that he began the C minor Piano- 
forte Quartett, completing it at Berlin three months 
later. 

Sir Julius Benedict has recorded some interest- 
ing circumstances in connection with this Quartett. 
In 182 1 he and his master Weber were walking in 
the streets of Berlin, when a youth " with clear eyes 
and the smile of innocence and candour on his lips," 
came running towards them ; " 'Tis Felix Mendels- 
sohn," said Weber, at once introducing his pupil to 
his little friend. Mendelssohn insisted upon taking 
them at once to his father's house. " Here is a 
pupil of Weber's who knows a great deal of the 
new opera," he exclaims to his mother — referring to 
" Der Freisclmtz" — " pray ask him to play it for us." 
With an irresistible impetuosity he led Benedict to " 
the Pianoforte, where he made him remain until he 
had exhausted his recollections of the opera. When 
Benedict next visited the Mendelssohn family, he 
found Felix seated on a footstool busily writing 
some music. On being asked what he was writing, 
he replied, " I am finishing my new Quartett for 
Piano and stringed instruments." The narrator 
says he could not resist his own boyish curiosity to 
examine the composition, and looking over his 
shoulder, saw as beautiful a score as ever was 
written by the most skilful copyist. It was the 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 427 

Quartett in C minor, Op. i. Moscheles, writing 
in 1824, says, " Felix, a boy of fifteen, is a pheno- 
menon. What are all prodigies compared with 
him ? " Frequently importuned to give lessons to 
the wondrous youth, he at length consented, though 
failing to see the necessity ; and writes in his diary : 
" This afternoon, from two to three o'clock, gave 
Felix Mendelssohn his first lesson, without losing 
sight of the fact that I was sitting next to a master, 
not a pupil. 

In a letter of Mendelssohn's dated from Leipsic, 
October 29th, 1837, addressed to his brother, he 
writes, " Yesterday evening my C minor Quartett 
was played in public by David, and had great 
success. They were made to play the Scherzo 
twice, and the Adagio pleased the audience best 
of all, which caused me very great astonishment. 
In a few days I mean to begin a new Quartett, 
which may please me better. I also intend soon 
to compose a Sonata for Violoncello and Piano for 
you — by my beard, I will !" a promise he redeemed 
in the following year. 

His second Pianoforte Quartett was composed 
in 1823, and dedicated to his master Zelter — he 
who accomplished in Germany what Samuel Wesley 
did in England, namely, the furtherance of the 
study of Saint Sebastian, as Wesley delighted in 
naming Bach. Zelter's admiration for the works 
of the Great Master was early implanted in the 
mind of Mendelssohn, and the world's music has 



428 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

been enriched with its fruits. To the same year 
(1823), belongs the Sonata for Violin and Piano- 
forte, which he dedicated to his Violin-master Rietz, 
to whom he was much attached. 

In 1824 was composed the Pianoforte Quartett 
in B minor. At this period Mendelssohn was in 
Paris with his father, and Baillot played in the new 
work. In the spring of the following year, the 
Mendelssohns left Paris for Berlin. On their way, 
they visited Goethe at Weimar, and thus arose the 
dedication of the new Quartett to the poet. Goethe 
had long previously interested himself in the 
youthful musician. When Felix was in his thir- 
teenth year, he wrote, " Every afternoon Goethe 
would open the Streicher piano, saying, ' I have 
not heard you at all to-day, so you must make a 
little noise for me.' Then he sits down by me, and 
when I have finished (generally improvising), I beg 
for a kiss, or else I take one." His look, his 
language, his name, they are imposing. His voice 
has an enormous sound in it, and he can shout like 
a thousand fighting men." It was Goethe who 
said to him, pointing to his unused pianoforte, 
" Come and awaken for me all the winged spirits 
which have so long been slumbering here;" and 
again, " You are my David, and if I am ever ill and 
sad, you must banish my bad dreams by your 
playing ; I shall never throw my spear at you as 
Saul did." 

Felix, writing from Paris in March, 1832, says, 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 429 

" I am indeed delighted, dear father, that my 
Quartett in B minor pleases you ; it is a favourite 
of mine, and I like to play it, although the Adagio 
is much too cloying ; still, the Scherzo that follows 
has all the more effect." The work was played, 
probably the first time in England, at the Quartett 
Concerts instituted by Henry Blagrove, Charles 
Lucas, and others, April 16th, 1836; the executants 
were W. Sterndale Bennett, Blagrove, Dando and 
Lucas. 

The Sextett for Pianoforte, Violin, two Tenors, 
and Double Bass, published as Op. no, was written 
in 1824. Within a few months of his seventeenth 
birthday, was given to the world the splendid Octett 
Op. 20, first played in this country in 1835, by 
Henry Blagrove, Lucas, Griesbach, and others. In 
a letter dated from Paris, March 31st, 1832, Mendels- 
sohn says, " My Octett in church, on Monday last, 
exceeded in absurdity anything the world ever saw 
or heard of. While the priest was officiating at the 
altar during the Scherzo, it really sounded like 
' Fliegen-schnauz und Muckennas, verfluchte Dilet- 
tanten.' The people, however, considered it very 
fine sacred music." 

It was at this period that his friend Hiller 
speaks of his hearing him play at Baillot's house, 
the Sonatas of Bach and Beethoven, and Mozart's 
Concertos with Quartett accompaniment, remarking, 
that everything was listened to at the house of the 
famous Violinist " with a sort of religious devotion." 



430 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Hiller, speaking of Felix's marvellous musical 
memory, says, " when we were together, a small 
party of musical people, and the conversation 
flagged, he would sit down to the Piano, play some 
out-of-the-way piece, and make us guess the com- 
poser. On one occasion he played an air from 
Haydn's " Seasons," 

" The trav'ller stands perplexed, 
Uncertain, and forlorn — 

in which, not a note of the elaborate Violin accom- 
paniment was wanting. It sounded like a regular 
Pianoforte piece, and we stood there a long time 
as ' perplexed ' as the traveller himself." 

In 1826, the String Quintett in A was composed. 
The following year, he composed the song " 1st es 
wohr ? " which he used in the String Quartett in 
A minor : the Quartett was completed at Berlin, 
in October of the same year. In a letter, long 
afterwards, addressed to his father, he says, " I 
can see that you seem rather inclined to deride my 
A minor Quartett, when you say there is a piece 
of instrumental music which has made you rack 
your brains to discover the composer's thoughts ; 
when in fact he probably had no thoughts at all, 
I must defend the work, for I love it ; but it 
certainly depends very much on the way in which 
it is executed." This reference to thoughts whilst 
composing, points once more to Mendelssohn's 
dislike, if not disbelief, in word-painting music. 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 43 I 

Mendelssohn truly said, " if the composer can only 
move the imaginative power of his hearers, and call 
forth some one image, some one thought — it matters 
not what — he has attained his object." 

In 1829 Mendelssohn came to London. Mos- 
cheles secured apartments for his friend in Great 
Portland Street, and the famous Pianist tells us, 
"As a friend, he is of untold value." " How 
delightful it is when he brings some of his new 
compositions, and waits with childlike modesty for 
an expression of my opinion." He showed me the 
manuscript of his sacred Cantata on a Chorale in A 
minor, and a stringed Quartett in A minor (that 
already noticed). 

At the seventh Concert of the Philharmonic 
Society, May 25th, 1829, "the most remarkable, 
feature," it was said at the time, "was the Sym- 
phony of Mendelssohn- Bartholdy. This gentleman, 
grandson of the distinguished Jewish philosopher, is 
a native of Berlin, the son of a banker of inde- 
pendent fortune, and enthusiastically attached to 
music, for which nature seems to have designed him. 
He has already produced several works of magni- 
tude, which, if at all to be compared with the 
present, ought, without such additional claim, to 
rank him among the first composers of the age. 
The author conducted it in person, and it was 
received with acclamations. The work was dedi- 
cated to the Society, and the composer elected an 
honorary member. 



432 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

The String Quartett in E flat belongs to this 
period. Passing over other references to chamber 
music, we have the Violin Concerto commenced in 
1839. Moscheles in 1844 refers to it: "Yesterday 
I had a quiet evening with Ferdinand 'David, 
who played me the new Violin Concerto which 
Felix has expressly written for him. It is most 
beautiful, the last movement thoroughly Mendels- 
sohnian." In the same year (1839), Mendelssohn 
completed his D minor Trio, which was first played 
in public by the composer, David, and Wittmann. 
The second Pianoforte Trio in C minor, dedicated 
to Spohr, was also first publicly performed by the 
same artists. Mention of Spohr serves to remind 
me of his words to Hauptmann upon hearing of the 
sudden death of the composer in November, 1847. 
" What might Mendelssohn, in the full maturity of 
his genius, not have written ! His loss to art is 
much to be lamented, for he was the most gifted 
of living composers, and his efforts in art were of 
the noblest." 

From the tribute of Spohr, let us turn to that 
of the Prince — himself a musician — whose love of 
music was passionate, and whose critical judgment 
was of the soundest and best. Some days after the 
performance of the ''Elijah" at Exeter Hall, on the 
1 6th of April, 1847, Prince Albert sent to Mendels- 
sohn the printed score which he had used at the 
performance, on the first page of which was written, 
"To the noblest artist, who, surrounded by the 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 433 

Baal-worship of corrupted art, has been able, by his 
genius and science, to preserve faithfully, like 
another Elijah, the worship of true art, and once 
more to accustom our ear, lost in the whirl of an 
empty play of sounds, to the pure notes of expres- 
sive composition and legitimate harmony, to the 
great master, who makes us conscious of the unity 
of his conception, through the whole maze of his 
creation, from the soft whispering to the mighty 
raging of the elements ! Written in token of grate- 
ful remembrance by 

" Albert. 

"Buckingham Palace, April 24th, 1847.'' 

We must next refer to Mendelssohn's friend, Fer- 
dinand David, born at Hamburg, in 1810. David 
became a pupil of Spohr-'s about his fourteenth 
year. Moscheles, writing in 1838, says, "this 
worthy pupil of Spohr played his master's music 
in grand and noble style," " his Quartett playing " 
" delighted everyone with any genuine artistic taste." 
This refers to the period when David visited 
England. In 1836, he became leader of the 
Gewandhaus Concerts at Leipsic, which appoint- 
ment he retained to the end of his days. Mr. 
Chorley has recorded, " I had never met then — I 
have never met since — with any executive head of 
an orchestra, to compare with Herr David : spirit, 
delicacy, and consummate intelligence, are combined 
in him in no ordinary measure, and with the crown- 
ing charm of that good-will and sympathy which 

D D 



434 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

only await citizens as worthy in head and heart 
as he." Mendelssohn's estimate of David's abili- 
ties may be gathered from a letter he addressed 
to him in 1838, when he says, " there are not many 
musicians, who like yourself, pursue steadily the 
broad straight road in art." Further on Mendelssohn 
refers to his intention of writing a Violin Concerto 
for him, remarking, " one in E minor runs in my 
head, the beginning of which gives me no peace." 
It is scarcely necessary to mention that this is the 
Concerto referred to in the notice of Mendelssohn. 
David died in July, 1873, and was buried at Leipsic, 
where his name has recently been perpetuated 
in the street nomenclature of the city — a worthy 
tribute to the memory of a great artist. His 
original compositions for the Violin include many 
highly valued works. Five Concertos, Violin School, 
Salonstiick, Kammerstiick, and others. 

Andreas Romberg (cousin of the famous Vio- 
loncellist, Bernard Romberg,) was born in 1767; 
he appeared at the Concert Spirituel, in Paris, in 
1784. At Hamburg, in 181 1, Spohr became ac- 
quainted with Andreas Romberg, and appears to 
have valued his abilities and judgment. He relates 
that upon bringing under Romberg's notice two 
of his Quartetts, he said, " your Quartetts will not 
do yet ; they are far behind your orchestral pieces ! " 
Spohr ingenuously confesses that he quite agreed 
with him, but that he nevertheless, was wounded 
to hear anybody else express the opinion. Romberg 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 435 

died in 1821. His compositions include four 
Concertos, and several Quartetts and Duetts, &c. ; 
the latter are still admired. 

The sectional treatment of our subject having 
been mainly developed — musically speaking — in 
semi-chronologic progressions, abrupt topographic 
transitions, have necessarily been largely used 
in the modulation. Thus it is we have again 
to return to Vienna, the city above all others 
wherein the greatest achievements in modern music 
have been accomplished. Here the famous Hun- 
garian, Joseph Boehm, passed fifty years ; he whose 
name among Violinists is familiar, as the most 
successful teacher of the Violin of recent times. 
When it is remembered that he was the master of 
Ernst, Hellmesberger, and Joachim, his title to the 
first place among teachers can hardly be questioned. 
I have already referred to the influence of Rode, 
through Spohr, on German Violin playing. Spohr 
did his best to imitate the French artist; Boehm 
had a great advantage over Spohr, inasmuch as 
he received direct tuition from Rode, and, manifest- 
ing so much ability, caused his master to take 
unusual interest in the lessons. Boehm died in 
1876, in his seventy-eighth year. 

Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst was born in 18 14, in 
Moravia — that part of Europe already noticed — 
where James II.'s famous Chapel-master, Mr. 
Godfrey Finger, first saw the light; he who pub- 
lished in 1690, six Violin Solos. From Finger to 
d D 2 



436 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Ernst covers a wide space periodically, but if we 
compare the six Solos with the Concerto in F sharp 
minor, Op. 23, we shall readily discover a wider 
one musically. Were we to follow the mode 
Hummel had of defining the executive character of 
his music, we should name Finger's Solos simpli- 
city itself, and the Concerto of Ernst, difficulty un- 
surpassed. Leaving these extremities, and turning 
to the subject of our notice, it may be truly said 
Ernst possessed the quality of sentiment in relation 
to Violin-playing to a higher degree than any of 
Germany's long line of Violinists. Nay, more, he 
possessed it, artistically considered, beyond all the 
Violinists of modern times in all countries. When 
we add to this that his executive skill was altogether 
exceptional, and that he was not less distinguished 
as a composer for his instrument, the extent of his 
powers may be imagined. As a man he was most 
amiable and kind-hearted, beloved alike by his 
friends and brother artists. 

Ferdinand Hiller relates that the winter of 1839 
at Leipsic " was remarkable for the appearance of 
some of the most brilliant players. First of all 
Ernst, then at the summit of his talent, and 
enchanting the whole world. Mendelssohn was 
very fond of him. Ernst told me one day, almost 
with emotion, how, at the time of his concerts in the 
Konigstadter Theatre at Berlin, he was very much 
pressed one morning in Mendelssohn's presence to 
put down his " Elegie " in the programme again, 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY. 437 

though he had already played it I don't know how- 
many times, when Mendelssohn also began urging 
him to do it ; Ernst answered, in fun, ' If you will 
accompany me I will,' and Mendelssohn made his 
appearance on the Konigstadter stage, accompanied 
the ' Elegie,' and vanished." Further on we read 
of the friendship of Ernst and David : — " It was not 
only their beloved Violins which united David and 
Ernst, but also the game of whist. I certainly 
believe that neither of them ever played the Violin 
so late into the night as they did whist." In a letter 
from Mendelssohn to his brother, dated Leipsic, 
February, 1840, we have: — "On Sunday evening 
Ernst played four Quartetts at Hiller's, one of them 
was the E minor of Beethoven, and mine in E flat 
major." " Early on Monday the rehearsal took 
place, and in the evening the Concert, where I 
accompanied him in his ' Elegie.' " 

It is needless in these pages to follow Ernst 
throughout his artistic career : passing therefore to 
the period of his illness in 1863, it may be 
mentioned, that he was then under hydropathic 
treatment, and for some time was the guest of 
Lord Lytton, at Knebsworth. It was then that 
his host dedicated to him, the reprint of the series 
of essays, entitled " Caxtoniana." The following 
letter, full of tenderness and, artistic respect, was 
penned by Joachim, on the occasion of his playing 
the MS. Quartett, which took place May 28th, 
1864, at the Monday Popular Concerts : — 



43§ THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

" Dear and honoured friend, — 

" However sorry I am, that, after you were 
beginning to get better, your patience should 
be again subjected to so hard a trial, the con- 
fidence expressed by your physician affords me 
consolation. I certainly had hoped, from the 
account my brother has from time to time given 
me of you, that, on the occasion of our meeting 
again this spring, I should once more have enjoyed 
the pleasure of hearing the magnificent tones of 
your Violin. Providence decrees otherwise. I am 
not destined, dear master, to hear you ; and thus to 
me, thanks to your confidence, is entrusted the noble 
task of making the musical world of London ac- 
quainted with your newest creation. I need scarcely 
say with what deep love I shall devote myself to the 
service of your muse. Command me as you will, 
and let me soon know on what day your concert 
is to take place. I am exceedingly anxious to see 
your Etudes. Your devoted friend, 

"Joseph Joachim." 
The Studies referred to in the above letter are 
those which the composer dedicated to his brother 
artists : — 

No. 1. F major, to Laub. 

2. A „ „ Sainton. 

3. E ,, „ Joachim. 

4. C „ „ Vieuxtemps. 

5. Eb „ „ Hellmesberger. 

6. G „ ,, Bazzini. 



THE VIOL/N IN GERMANY. 439 

Among the best known compositions of Ernst, are, 
"Hungarian Airs, Op. 22; " Otello Fantasia;" 
"Rondo Papageno;" " Elegie," to which Spohr 
wrote an introduction; " Pensees Fugitives," in con- 
junction with Stephen Heller, among which are 
charming pieces, notably a Romance, Lied, Agitato, 
Reverie, and " Inquietude"; two Quartetts (the first 
of which is published) ; Concerto, Op. 23. Herr 
Ernst died at Nice in 1865. 

Boehm's pupil, George Hellmesberger, was born 
in 1800, and became, like his master, an eminent 
teacher at Vienna. His son Joseph, born' in 1828, 
to whom Ernst dedicated the study in E flat, is 
rightly regarded as an artist of the first rank, and 
to whom the highest praise is due for the sound 
artistic judgment he has manifested in relation to 
Quartett-playing in connection with his concerts at 
Vienna. 

It now remains to notice the most eminent of 
living Violinists, Joseph Joachim, born at Kittsee, in 
Hungary, June 28th, 1831. After receiving lessons 
for some years of Boehm, at Vienna, he went to 
Leipsic, and became intimately associated with 
Mendelssohn and Ferdinand David, studying with 
the eminent Violin master the music of Bach and 
others. > 

In 1844 he appeared at the fifth Concert of the 
Philharmonic Society, and performed the Concerto 
of Beethoven in a manner, Mr. Hogarth relates, - 
" which astonished and delighted the audience,' and 



440 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

justified the splendid reputation which, even at that 
early age (13), he had achieved throughout Europe." 
In 1847, Moscheles, writing of the musical parties 
held at Mendelssohn's, says, " On the last occasion 
our favourite Joachim was there ; Felix accompanied 
him in his Violin Concerto, and both played the 
music by heart." Joachim was then in his sixteenth 
year. A week or so later we read of him taking 
part in a charade on the word " Gewandhaus," 
on the occasion of Mendelssohn's last birthday. 
" Joachim, adorned with a fantastic wig a la Paga- 
nini, played a hare-brained impromptu on the 
fourth string." The whole word " Gewandhaus " 
was illustrated by an orchestra, Mendelssohn and 
the children of Moscheles playing on little drums 
and trumpets, Joachim leading with a toy Violin. 
But let us return to the serious, with the Monday 
Popular Concerts, from the opening season of which 
in 1859, Herr Joachim has been the chief Violinist. 
In 1877, the subject of our notice received the 
honorary degree of Doctor of Music at Cambridge, 
writing for the occasion an Overture. His composi- 
tions include the Hungarian Concerto, a work 
needing executive skill of the highest order to 
render with any effect ; a Concerto in G minor 
Op, 3; Hebrew Melodies for the Tenor; Orchestral 
works, &c. 

Herr Lauterbach the Violinist was born in 
Bavaria, in 1832. In 1861 he succeeded Lipinski 
at Dresden. Three years later Lauterbach came 



THE VIOLIN IN GERMANY, 44 1 

to England, and appeared at the Philharmonic 
Concerts. The Quartett Concerts given at Dresden 
by Lauterbach, in conjunction with Grutzmacher, 
have a wide reputation. 

Ferdinand Laub was born at Prague in 1832. 
His fame among Violinists was of the highest 
character. He possessed all the qualities necessary 
to make a great artist; passion, finished execution, 
broad style, and large tone. He died in 1875. 

It would be easy to lengthen my section with 
references to both musicians and music, relative 
to our subject, but the number of my page serves 
to remind me of that Dutch policy in the Spice 
Islands previously noticed, and, am, therefore, some- 
what reluctantly obliged to end my section Tempo 
frettoloso, rather than Tempo comodo. 

The music of Schumann, in many instances, it 
is almost needless to remark, belongs to the highest 
order of musical art ; mention alone of the Quintett 
in E flat establishes the truth of this. From 
Schumann we have two Pianoforte Trios, String 
Quartetts, &c. The contributions of Johannes 
Brahms to the music of the Violin, include works 
bf a more or less important kind, including the 
Sextett in G, Pianoforte Quartetts, String Quartetts, 
&c, &c. With the mention of Raff, Rubinstein, 
and Max-Bruch, as eminent contemporary composers 
of music associated with the leading instrument, 
my remarks upon the progress of the music of the 
Violin in Germany must end. 



Section I<£ — Wxt Violin itt (England. 



CHAPTER I. 

"P^HE final section of my book brings with it 
another and final abrupt transition In passing - 
from Germany to England it is necessary to take 
my readers back three centuries to the time of the 
First of our Stuart Kings. 

At the commencement of the seventeenth century 
the Violin in England was alone played by the com- 
monality. The nobility and landed gentry regarded 
it with profound contempt. As to the contemp- 
tuousness of the gentry, it was of slight consequence, 
since we are told its members often passed their 
boyhood and youth at their family seats, with no 
better tutors than grooms and game-keepers, and 
" examined samples of grain, handled pigs," and 
" made bargain over a tankard of ale with drovers 
and hop merchants." 

The Violin, however, fared no better in the 
estimation of the foremost musical men of the time. 
Even though they failed not to observe its 
superiority over the Viol, its associations were so 



THE VIOLIN IN ENGLAND. 443 

essentially vulgar, that for them to proclaim their 
opinions would, in all probability, have endangered 
their professional status. Much courage was there- 
fore needed to overcome the seeming anomaly of 
the polite world emulating the mobility in associating 
itself with a vulgar Fiddle. We have already 
noticed Sir Roger L'Estrange's sarcastic remarks, 
" A Fiddle under my cloak ! 'Twas an oversight he 
did not tell my lord to what company of Fiddlers I 
belonged ! " — observations conclusively pointing to 
the instrument's degradation. With these feelings 
rife, it is easy to understand the emulation of the 
common Fiddler was all but avoided, and not until 
the French Court had its Violin band was the way 
paved for the introduction of the instrument into the 
higher circles of English society. 

Since we have seen that the itinerant Fiddler was 
in possession of the leading instrument before his 
betters, he is at least deserving of primary notice. 
That he adopted it from an intuitive knowledge of 
its surpassing excellencies cannot be said. Its 
portability was doubtless its chief attraction. Dr. 
Earle, afterwards Bishop of Worcester, describes a 
Fiddler of the Stuart times* as *' a man and Fiddle 
out of case (his cloak bag was its case), and he in 
worse case than his Fiddle ; one that rubs two sticks 
together (as the Indians strike fire), and rubs a poor 
living out of it; partly from this, and partly from 
your charity, which is more in the hearing than 

* " Microcosmography, or a Piece of the World." 



444 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

giving him, for he sells nothing dearer than to be 
gone. He is just so many strings above a beggar, 
though he have but two, and yet he begs too ; only 
not in the downright for ' God's sake,' but with a 
shrugging ' God bless you,' and his face is more pin'd 
than the blind man's. Hunger is the greatest pain 
he takes, except a broken head sometimes, and the 
labouring John Dory."* 

Butler refers to a Fiddler in his usual vein of 
wit and humour. His " Crowdero," was the por- 
trait of one Jackson, who lost his leg in the service 
of the Roundheads, after which misfortune he relin- 
quished his millinery business in the Strand and 
became a professional Fiddler. Sir Roger L'Estrahge 
who was intimate with the poet, and not unfamiliar 
with the Fiddler, made known this fact — 

" A squeaking engine he applyM 

Unto his neck, on north east side, 

Just where the hangman does dispose, 

To special friends, the knot or noose ; 

For 'tis great grace, when statesmen straight 

Dispatch a friend, let others wait." 
" His grisly beard was long and thick, 

With which he strung his fiddle-stick ; 

For he to horse-tail scorn'd to owe, 

For what on his own chin did grow.'' 

" ffudiiras," Part I., Canto i. 

When Oliver Cromwell's authority was at its 
greatest height, and nearing its end, the poor 
Fiddler was deemed of sufficient importance for a 

* John Dory is the title of a famous song, which Dryden refers to 
as one of the most hackneyed of his time. 



THE VIOLIN IN ENGLAND. 445 

clause in an enactment to be specially allotted to him. 
It was a legal instrument of unmistakable character, 
and if not sufficient to annihilate the itinerant 
scrapers, or those " goin'-a-buskin,"* it was enough 
to stop their growth. 

It now remains to notice the music of these 
merry men, which consisted of Hornpipes, Jigs, 
North Country Fisks, Rounds, and Morrises. The 
Hornpipe derived its name from a little instrument 
in the form of a pipe with a mouthpiece, used in 
England as late as the time of Charles II. The 
genuine Old English Hornpipe was written in triple 
time, simple or compound. All those in common 
time are not earlier than the latter part of the last 
century. 

The name Jig, as applied to a lively dance, I 
have already referred to in the Section on the 
Gothic Viol, and also its connection with the Ger- 
man Geige or Fiddle. Rounds and North Country 
Fisks, we call country dances ; Morrises were 
dances connected with pageants and processions. 

The Wait who piped watch within the Court of 
the Castle in the time of Edward IV. has been 
noticed. It now remains to speak of the Waits of 
London and Westminster, who were expert musi- 
cians retained by the municipal authorities to attend 

* Goin'-a-buskin was an expression used in the time of Edward 
IV., and presumably gave rise to the term "buskers," as still 
applied to those musicians who perform outside public houses, by the 
members of their section of the profession 



446 



THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 



at "feasts and solemn meetings." They also 
played m the streets at night during the winter, 
and not, as became the custom afterwards, specially 
at the Christmas season. Their performances were 
generally in unison, their instruments numbering 
sometimes six Violins with an equal number of 
Hautboys. Among their favourite tunes were those 
entitled, " Green Sleeves," " Yellow Stockings," 
" Old Simon the King," and " Hedge Lane." This 
last-mentioned tune was composed by John Bannis- 
ter, son of one of the Waits of the parish of Saint 
Giles. The topographical history of the title of this 
tune is peculiarly interesting to me personally, and 
is perhaps sufficiently curious to interest the reader. 
It is rare to be able to point to the name of a once 
popular melody as indicative of one's birth-place. 
Hedge Lane, however, enables me to do so, since 



HEDGE LANE. 



gO^^ij^ p^ps 




the Hedge Lane of Charles I.'s time has become 
the Princes Street of to-day ; and it is at least 
remarkable that the tune was written by the son of 
one of England's earliest Fiddlers, and that the 
Hedge Lane of that period should be now the place 
where Fiddle-makers mostly do congregate. 



THE VIOLIN IN ENGLAND. 447 

The long residence of King Charles I. and his 
Court at Oxford during the time of the Civil War 
brought there a great number of musical men by 
profession and dilettanti, it being seemingly the only 
place in the kingdom where they could ply their 
art with safety, either for subsistence or amusement. 
Whether Oxford music meetings thus originated 
with the assembly of musicians, we have no oppor- 
tunity of discovering, but we learn from their 
chronicler, Anthony Wood, that about this period 
they were in full force, and that at the house of 
William Ellis, the Organist of St. John's College, 
music meetings were regularly held. Among those 
who took part in these entertainments is said to 
have been the best performer on the Lute in 
England, and servant in ordinary in the faculty of 
music to the King. 

In the " Life of Anthony Wood," we are informed 
that " The Violin had not hitherto (in the year 1653) 
been used in consort among gentlemen, only by 
common musicians, who played but two parts. The 
gentlemen in private meetings, (which Anthony 
Wood frequented) played three, four, and five parts, 
with Viols as Treble Viol, Tenor, Counter-Tenor, 
and Bass, with an Organ, Virginal or Harpsican 
joined with them, and they esteemed a Violin only 
belonging to a common Fiddler, and could not 
endure that it should come among them, for fear of 
making their meetings to be vain and Fiddling." 
This account at once clearly establishes the true 



44§ THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

position of the Violin in the middle of the seven- 
teenth century in England. 

In the year 1657 Matthew Lock published music 
for the Violin, with the title, " Little Consort of three 
parts, containing Pavons, Corants, and Sarabands 
for Viols or Violins." Four years prior to this, 
however, we have mention of a work which, if 
correctly described, would be the earliest String 
Quartett from the pen of an Englishman. I refer 
to the " Set of Ayres,'' for two Violins, Tenor and 
Bass, mentioned by Anthony Wood as having been 
composed by Dr. Benjamin Rogers, and sent as a 
rarity to the Archduke Leopold.* 

Anthony Wood, speaking of Rogers, relates, 
" His compositions for instrumental music, whether 
in two, three, or four parts, have been highly valued, 
and were always, thirty years ago or more, first 
called for, taken out and played, as well in the 
public music school as in the private chambers ; and 
Dr. Wilson, the professor, the greatest and most 
curious judge of music that ever was, usually wept 
when he heard them well performed, as being wrapt 
up in an extasy, or if you will, melted down, while 
others smiled or had their hands and eyes lifted up 
at the excellency of them." This description is 
indeed a vivid one of an appreciative audience 
during the sombre days of the Puritans. Dr. Rogers 
wrote also, in connection with others, " Court Ayres, 

* Dr. Burney says, " It does not appear that these pieces wer.e 
ever printed." 



THE VIOLIN IN ENGLAND. 449 

consisting of Pavans, Allemandes, and Sarabands, 
of two parts, published by Playford in 1655. He 
composed in 1662 some Court- Masquing Airs, 
which were sent into Holland and played before the 
States General at the conclusion of the treaty of 
peace, when Lord Hollis was Ambassador there 
whom it is said, " with others at the playing thereof 
did drink wine to Minehere Rogers of England." 

Notwithstanding the Continental reputation en- 
joyed by Rogers and other English musicians at 
this date, we became deaf to the goodness of our 
native music, and looked abroad for much of that 
we had at home. Matthew Lock, in the preface to 
his compositions for Viols or Violins, remarks, " For 
those mountebanks of wit who think it necessary to 
disparage all they meet with of their own country- 
men, because there have been, and are, some ex- 
cellent things done by strangers, I shall make bold 
to tell them that I never yet saw any foreign 
instrtimental composition (a few French Corants 
excepted,) worthy of an Englishman's transcribing." 
This reference to the excellence of our instrumental 
compositions appear to have been generally ad- 
mitted. Roger North says, " The Italian masters, 
who always did or ought to lead the van in music, 
printed pieces they called Fantazias, wherein was 
air and variety enough : and afterwards these were 
imitated by the English, who, working more elabor- 
ately, improved upon their pattern, which gave 
occasion to an observation, ' that in Vocal the 

£ E 



450 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Italians, and in the Instrumental the English ex- 
celled.'" Unquestionably native musical ability in 
England was of a very high order down to the 
period of the Restoration, and probably would have 
been all-sufficient to have made us as great a nation 
of music creators, as we are and have been of music 
lovers ; but, unfortunately, the pith and marrow ' of 
our musical greatness were lost to us at a critical 
time by fanatical persecution and the fooleries 
which followed. It was then that we began to 
lose confidence in our musical abilities, and it must 
be confessed have never succeeded in completely 
regaining them. 

De Quincey has written,* "John Bull, who 
piques himself so much and so justly on the useful 
and the respectable, on British industry, British faith, 
British hardware," " and generally speaking upon 
British arts — provided only they are the useful and 
mechanical arts — this same John Bull has the most 
sheepish distrust of himself in every accomplishment 
that professes a purpose of ornament and mere 
beauty. Here he has a universal superstition in 
favour of names in ano and ino." " Strange that the 
nation whose poetry and drama discover by degrees 
so infinitely the most passion, should in their music 
discover the least ! " Since De Quincey gave ex- 
pression to these opinions, we have made great 
progress in artistic matters ; and let us hope that 
our advancement in creative and executive musical 

* Essay on Dr. Parr and his Contemporaries. 



THE VIOLIN IN ENGLAND. 45 I 

ability will ere long be in proportion to our passion- 
ate love of the art. We have long since got beyond 
patronising artists whose names terminate in ano 
and ino, for mere fashion's sake, even if we ever did 
so, to the extent often supposed. We are an 
essentially practical and commercial people, and our 
views in relation to Art are . in no way different to 
those we take of things in general. Our admiration 
and patronage of British ingenuity and mechanical 
skill exists because both are excellent, and not 
obtainable elsewhere. 

Mendelssohn clearly recognised our views with 
regard to music. Writing to his friend Devrient 
from England in 1829, he said, " Here music is 
treated as a business , it is calculated, paid for, and 
bargained over." We were not slow to discern the 
originality of thought and execution in our two 
greatest musicians, Henry Purcell and Sterndale 
Bennett (regrettably far removed in time from each 
other). Neither have we failed to appreciate the 
merits of the Glees of Bishop and the admirable 
Part-Songs of Hatton ; nor shall we their equals 
in the future. Genius and ability in music, whether 
of foreign or home growth, is not likely to be 
underrated by a people whose sound judgment is 
ineffaceably recorded in the annals of the Art from 
the time of Handel to the coming of Haydn and 
Mendelssohn, taken together with our commissions 
to Mozart and Beethoven. 

In the letter of Mendelssohn containing the 
E e 2 



452 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

reference just noticed, he remarks, " I have no 
intention to sing the praises of English musicians, 
but when they eat an apple-pie, at all events they 
do not talk about the abstract nature of a pie, and 
of the affinities of its constituent crust and apple ; 
but they heartily eat it down." I am aware we 
have made considerable progress (?) in the analy- 
zation of musical thought and feeling since Men- 
delssohn paid us this compliment. Fashion has 
its votaries in music as well as in everything else ; 
but withal, there remains a large section of the 
music-loving public deaf to its teachings, and 
content to be twitted as antiquated and conserva- 
tive, if it be musical conservatism to admire alone 
those masters who developed their art untrammeled 
by visionary emotional formulas. In retaining 
these old-fashioned tastes, we shall be no less able 
to welcome and appreciate the equivalent of the 
masterpieces of Beethoven from the pen of a newly- 
born composer, than the lovers of literature the 
equals of the works of Shakspeare or Milton from 
a nineteenth-century playwright and poet. 



gtotum Ig.—^kz Violin in (Ertglaitb. 



CHAPTER II. 

JOHN JENKINS, the composer of the first set 
of Sonatas for the Violin from the pen of an 
Englishman, now claims our notice. We are told, 
"It was at this time an instance of great condescen- 
sion for a musician of character to write expressly 
for so ribald and vulgar an instrument as the Violin 
was accounted by the lovers of Lutes, Guitars, and 
all the fretful tribe." In any case this particular 
set of Sonatas was evidently regarded with favour 
abroad and at home, since they were re-engraved at 
Amsterdam, the city from whence the chief musical 
works of eminent European composers were dis- 
tributed on the Continent. It is gratifying to know 
that our first contribution to an important section of 
Violin music should have been thus honoured, 
remembering how few English compositions from 
that day to this have passed through a foreign press. 
These Sonatas were printed in London in 1660, and 
four years later at Amsterdam ; the date of publica- 
tion is of course no key to the date of composition ; 
in all probability they were written some years 
before. 



454 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Though written, Dr. Burney says, " professedly 
in the Italian style," he could hardly have been 
familiar with the few early Italian compositions of 
the same order, and though he had been, he would 
not be deprived of praise on the score of originality, 
his musical knowledge being quite equal, if not 
superior, to the composers for the Violin at that 
time in Italy." Corelli, it must be remembered, was 
but seven years old when Jenkins's Sonatas were 
engraved ; he had not, therefore, that great master 
to take as his model. We are indebted for the 
principal items of information we possess concerning 
John Jenkins, to Roger North, who tells us he 
enjoyed both his acquaintance and friendship, and 
was therefore well-informed concerning him : — 

"Jenkins was born at Maidstone, in Kent, in 
the year 1592. He lived in King James's time and 
flourished in King Charles I.'s. His talents lay in 
the use of the Lute and Bass, or rather Lyra- Viol. 
He was one of the Court musicians, and once was 
brought to play upon the Lyra- Viol before King 
Charles I. as one that performed somewhat extra- 
ordinary." Anthony Wood speaks of him as, " the 
mirror and wonder of his age for music," and Dr. 
John Wilson, chamber-musician to King Charles, 
said he was not only admired in England but beyond 
the seas. From these contemporary opinions we 
are able to judge of the character and extent of 
John Jenkins's abilities. It is at least regretable 
that so eminent a musician entered upon his career 



THE VIOLIN IN ENGLAND. 455 

at a period of our history peculiarly unfortunate for 
the advancement of the musical art. The nation 
was then drifting into civil war. The King, a true 
lover and patron of the art, was too much occupied 
with personal government to give that attention and 
encouragement which he had not withheld in quieter 
times from those less gifted than John Jenkins. 
But for these events the man who proved himself 
capable of giving a new life to an instrument then 
held in contempt, would, in all probability, have 
brought forward the Violin and its music at a much 
earlier date, and led to the association of eminent 
English musicians with the instrument's progress to 
a degree hardly thought of, for it must not be for- 
gotten we were well to the front in music when the 
King and people made war on each other. The 
total suppression of the Cathedral service in 1643, 
at once deprived the leading musicians of their 
chief source of income ; this, together with the 
followers of music as a profession having taken 
the King's side,, forced them to seek shelter under 
the roofs of a few votaries of the art in different 
parts of the country, there to play and compose 
with fear and trembling. North tells us, " There 
was a Society of Gentlemen of good esteem, whom 
/ shall not name, for some of them as I hear are still 
living, that used to meet often for consort," which 
clearly shows how dangerous it was to be associated 
with, or taken in the act of playing the Fiddle. 
Others retired to Oxford, where they remained 



456 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

until the Restoration, when they were called to take 
their places in the Cathedral cities, to re-kindle the 
few embers of music remaining to the inhabitants. 

John Jenkins was fortunate in his retirement, 
inasmuch as he gained the friendship and esteem of 
men high in position and ability, in whose homes, 
he was ever a welcome guest. In more than one 
of these, a chamber was specially appropriated to 
his use, and named " Jenkins' Room." He chiefly 
resided at Hunstanton Hall, Norfolk, the seat of 
Sir Hamon L'Estrange, the father of Sir Roger 
L'Estrange, of Royalist fame. Here he composed 
Instrumental and Vocal music, both serious and 
humourous, the greater part of which was done 
without any thought of its being printed, and 
doubtless, regarded as compositions written to-day 
and forgotten to-morrow ; many of these were copied 
and circulated. As an instance of his productive- 
ness and forgetfulness of his own writings, it is 
related : " a Spanish Don sent some papers to Sir 
Peter Lely, the state painter to King Charles II., 
containing a single part of a concerted piece of 
music, expressing a wish that Sir Peter should 
procure the remaining parts. Upon shewing them 
to Roger North, he suggested Jenkins being con- 
sulted ; this was accordingly done, who, immediately 
claimed the composition as his own, but was quite 
unable to say, when, or where he wrote it. Jenkins 
died at Kimberley, in Norfolk, (probably at the 
house of his patron, Sir P. Wodehouse), and was 



I HE VIOLIN IN ENGLAND. 457 

buried there October 29th, 1678. The following 
curious epitaph is said to have been on his grave- 
stone : — 

" Under this stone rare Jenkyns lye 

The master of the Musick Art, 
Whom from the Earth, the God on high, 

Called up to Him, to bear his part. 
Aged 86, October 27, 

In Anno '78, he went to Heaven.'' 

The earliest Violin instruction work published in 
England, appears to have been the " Introduction 
to the playing on the Treble-Violin, in Playford's 
" Skill of Musick," 1655, in which he tells us "the 
Treble Violin is a cheerful and sprightly instrument, 
much played of late, some by book, and some 
without." ' We have here given us, the manner of 
holding the Violin in times past, in the following 
words, " First the Violin is usually play'd above 
hand, the neck thereof being held by the left hand ; 
the lower part must be rested on the left breast, a little 
below the shoulder ; the bow between the ends of 
the thumb and the three fingers, the thumb being 
stayed upon the hair at the nut, and the three 
fingers resting upon the wood." The next book 
of the kind, was, probably that of John Lenton, 
a member of William and Mary's state band, the 
title of which runs, " The Gentleman's Diversion, 
or the Violin explained." A second edition was 
issued in 1702, under the title of "The Useful 
Instructor on the Violin ; " in which the learner is 
cautioned against holding his Fiddle under the chin, 



458 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

as against a most unaccountable practice, namely, 
the holding it so low as the girdle, which he states, 
"some do in imitation of the Italians." Lenton, 
therefore, considered the- instrument should rest on 
the breast as recommended in Playford's book. 
That the Violin was not held " as low as the girdle," 
in Italy, by any but street minstrels, need hardly 
be said. The mode of holding the instrument 
among good Italian players, differed only from the 
present manner in placing the chin on the reverse 
side of the tail -piece. 

With the middle of the seventeenth century, 
we reach the period when the Puritans had accom- 
plished their savage work of destruction among 
the arts and amusements of the people. Poetry, 
the Drama, and Music had been attacked with such 
virulence as to render their very existence doubtful 
in the future. The players were flogged, their plays 
and interludes suppressed as having been " con- 
demned by ancient heathen, and by no means to 
be tolerated among professors of the Christian 
religion." Of ecclesiastical music it was said, " One 
single groan in the spirit is worth the diapason of 
all the Church music in the. world." ,At Chichester, 
in 1642, the rebels broke down the organs, and 
dashing the pipes with their pole-axes scoffingly 
said, 'Hark! how the organs go.'" At Peter- 
borough they destroyed the pair of organs, carrying 
the wreck to the market-place habited in capes and 
surplices, using the organ bellows to blow the coals 



THE VIOLIN IN ENGLAND. 459 

of a bonfire to burn them. Perhaps it was best 
the fanatical rage of the Puritans should have been 
thus manifested, had it been less violent the people 
in all probability would have longer been submis- 
sive to their tyranny, until the arts had passed 
to a cpndition of torpor past re-arousing. We 
are told that, " Under sober clothing, and under 
visages composed to the expression of austerity, lay 
hid during several years the intense desire of license 
of revenge." At length that desire was gratified. 
The Restoration emancipated thousands of minds 
from a yoke which had become insupportable. 

Though Charles II.'s music was anything but 
refined, disliking all that he could not "stamp the 
time to," yet it appears to us, viewed at this distance, 
that even this vulgar and imperfect knowledge 
helped greatly to re-kindle the art among his people. 
To the fact of his appreciating vulgar music is 
traceable in no slight degree, the practice and study 
of the Violin in England. During his days of exile 
and penury he wrote from Bruges to his friend Henry 
Bennet, afterwards Earl of Arlington, to obtain him 
as many new Corants, Sarabands, and other dances 
as possible, for he had a " small Fiddler," who did 
not play ill on the Fiddle. A year later (1656) he 
again wrote to Bennet to procure him a second 
Fiddler to bear him company. We therefore see 
that the King was particularly interested in the 
leading instrument, which, it must not be forgotten, 
was then regarded by Englishmen of culture as 



460 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

only fit to be he heard in tap-rooms. John Evelyn 
recorded in his diary in 1662, " One of his Majesty's 
chaplains preached, after which, instead of the 
ancient, grave, and solemn wind music accompanying 
the organ, was introduced a Concert of twenty-four 
Violins, after the French fantastical light way, better 
suiting a tavern or play-house than a church." 

Charles II. possibly became an admirer of the 
Violin upon the occasion of his second visit to Paris, 
about 1 65 1. It was then that he heard the band 
of twenty-four belonging to the Court of Louis XIV. 
The music was tuneful and trivial, which served to 
cover the defective execution of it ; for it must not 
be forgotten that Lully did not take the band under 
his guidance until 1655, a year after Charles II. had 
quitted the French capital. 

In the same year that King Charles was in- 
teresting himself in the Violin at Bruges, there were 
signs at home of the breaking of the cloud which 
had so long enveloped Music and the Drama, 
inasmuch as permission was given to Sir William 
Davenant the poet to open a theatre for the 
performance of operas in a room at the back of 
Rutland House, in Aldersgate Street. The "Siege 
■of Rhodes" was produced, the vocal music of which 
was composed by Lawes, Cook, and Matthew Lock. 
The instrumental portion by Dr. Coleman and George 
Hudson performed by Webb, Christopher Gibbons — 
son of Orlando Gibbons — Madge, and Baltzar.* 
* See Page 329. 



Section Ig.—^ht liolin in (Bnjjlaitb. 



CHAPTER III. 

[N the year 1683, a set of Sonatas was issued 
for two Violins and a Bass, which may be 
said to mark an era in music in England. In the 
preface, the author says he has faithfully en- 
deavoured a just imitation of the most famed 
Italian masters, principally to bring the seriousness 
.and gravity of that sort of music into vogue and 
reputation among our countrymen, whose humour 
'tis time now should begin to loathe the levity and 
balladry of our neighbours. The attempt he 
confesses to be bold and daring ; there being 
pens, and artists of more eminent abilities, much 
better qualified for the employment than his or 
himself, which he well hopes these his weak 
endeavours will in due time provoke and enflame 
to a more accurate undertaking ; he is not ashamed 
to own his un'skilfulness in the Italian language, 
but that is the unhappiness of his education ; which 
cannot be justly counted his fault; however, he 
thinks he may warrantably affirm that he is not 
mistaken in the power of the Italian notes, or 
elegancy of their compositions." 



462 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

This musical reformer was Henry Purcell, 
English by birth and parentage, spoken of in 
the same breath with the greatest luminaries of the 
musical art. Accustomed as we are by frequent 
reiteration to regard ourselves as a non-composing 
musical people, the bare mention of the name 
Purcell at once brings us to a sense of our dignity. 
Of him we can speak as an Italian of Palestrina, 
or a German of Bach or Handel ; for although it 
cannot be said, the English musician left us the 
imperishable works of a Bach or Handel, yet, when 
the flimsiness of the material he had to compose 
with, together with his short career, is thought of, 
we marvel that he obtained such good results, and 
are led to think that he even surpassed in genius 
his great followers. That Purcell was deeply 
impressed with the beauties of the Italian school of 
music, and strenuous in his endeavours to reform 
our own, 'is evidenced in the dedication of his 
" Diocletian " to the Duke of Somerset, wherein 
he says, " Poetry and painting have arrived to their 
perfection in our country ; music .is yet but in its 
nonage, a forward child, which gives hope of what 
it may be hereafter in England, when the masters 
shall find more encouragement. 'Tis now learning 
Italian, which is its best master, and studying a 
little of the French air, to give it somewhat more- 
of gaiety and fashion. Thus being farther from the 
sun ; we are of later growth than our neighbouring 
countries, and must be content to shake off our 



THE VIOLIN IN ENGLAND. 463 

barbarity by degrees." We thus see that Purcell 
occupies a similar position in music to that of 
Chaucer in poetry : they were fathers to their 
respective arts. The poet, sensible of the rudeness 
of his speech — 

" Learned at Padua of a worthy clerk, 
Francis Petrarch, the laureat poet ; 
Hight, this clerk, whose rhetoric sweet, 
Enlumined all Italy of poetry." 

" Canterbury Tales." 

The musician equally sensible of the jerking 
character of our then national music, turned to 
Italy to soften its cadences. 

The poet cast aside the romance poetry of 
France. The musician, the " balladry " of our 
neighbours. Both poet and musician raised the 
standard of excellence in their respective arts, and 
bid their countrymen rally around it. The father of 
English poetry had an army in his wake ; the 
father of English music but a few stragglers. That 
this should have been so is curious, seeing that both 
music and poetry were influenced in a ' manner 
precisely similar. Dr. Burney acutely remarks, 
" But it has never appeared in the course of my 
enquiries that poetry and music have advanced with 
equal pace towards perfection, in any country. 
Almost every nation of Europe has produced good 
poetry before it could boast of such an arrangement 
of musical sounds as constitutes good melody!' 

Dr. Burney, speaking of Purcell's compositions 



464 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

for the Violin, remarks he has, never seen a 
becoming passage for that instrument in any one 
of his works ; but if we turn to the composi- 
tions written for the Violin by the Italian com- 
posers down to the time of Purcell, the same 
criticism would almost apply. Until Corelli wrote for 
the instrument, none had dreamt of its capabilities ; 
and Arcangelo Corelli himself had but a very faint 
idea of its unlimited powers as developed even 
by Tartini. But in another place Dr. Burney's 
praise compensates for the sweeping character of his 
former criticism, when he says, " Though his Sonatas 
discover no great knowledge of the bow, or genius 
of the instrument, they are infinitely superior in 
fancy, modulation, design, and contrivance to all the 
music of that kind anterior to the works of Corelli." 
That these Sonatas were written in imitation of the 
Italian masters, the composer acknowledges, but 
whether he refers to the style of Italian music 
generally, or in imitation of the compositions of 
Bassani, we are left to decide for ourselves. It is 
most probable that he was influenced by his study 
of the works of Palestrina and others, without refer- 
ence to Italian Violin compositions. 

The success attending the production of his first 
Sonatas induced him to write ten others in four 
parts, which were not published in his life-time, but 
printed in the year 1697, two years after his decease ; 
among these is the Golden Sonata, the ninth of the 
set, the reputation of which was greater than any ; 



THE VIOLIN IN ENGLAND. 465 

hence the distinctive name it bears. Dr. Tudway, 
the intimate friend and schoolfellow of Purcell, and 
an excellent musician, regarded this Sonata as equal, 
if not superior to any of Corelli's ; but it must be 
confessed the Doctor's judgment in this instance 
was blinded by his enthusiasm. 

It is hardly necessary to remind the reader it is 
in the ecclesiastical and dramatic styles of music 
that Purcell is chiefly known to fame. To mention 
here all his great works in these departments of the 
art would be foreign to our purpose, but a few of 
the events of this truly great man's life must not be 
omitted. Purcell was born in the year 1658. In 
his eighteenth year he became organist of West- 
minster Abbey, an appointment which conclusively 
shows the early development of his musical abilities, 
standing alone, as it does, in the annals of our 
Ancient Metropolitan Basilica. At the age of 
nineteen he turned his attention to dramatic 
music, which led to his composing the music in 
the " Tempest" "King Arthtir," and other works. 
Among his Anthems was one composed as a thanks- 
giving for the escape of King Charles II. and his 
brother the Duke of York from shipwreck. The 
incident is curious : the King had built a yacht 
named " The Fubbs," and resolved to test its sailing 
capabilities in a trial trip down the river and round 
the Kentish shore. It being contrary to his nature 
to omit anything or anybody conducing to joyous- 
ness, he shipped on board Mr. Gostling (a public 

F F 



466 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

singer of renown). Upon nearing the North Fore- 
land, a violent storm arose, when the King and his 
brother were obliged to sink their dignity and work 
like common seamen in order to preserve their craft. 
The horror of the scene made such an impression on 
the King that upon his return to London he selected 
the words from the 107th Psalm, " They that go 
down to the sea in ships, that do business in great 
waters, these men see the works of the Lord, and 
his wonders in the deep," giving instructions to 
Purcell to compose the music, which he did to 
suit the compass of Mr. Gostling's deep Bass 
voice. The King, however, did not live to hear 
him sing it. Thus to the providential escape of 
the Royal yacht, " The Fubbs," we owe the 
sublime anthem, " They that go down to the sea 
in ships." 

" Sometimes a hero in an age appears, 
But scarce a Purcell in a thousand years." 

To turn from England's greatest composer to 
one of Charles II.'s Fiddlers, is like stepping from 
tragedy to low comedy ; the periodic form of our 
discourse, however, renders it necessary. John 
Bannister succeeded the famous Baltzar as leader 
of the King's band of Violins in 1663. He had 
been prepared for this musical service by King 
Charles sending him to France, probably to learn 
the Violin from one of Louis' Fiddlers. That he 
heard the renowned band of the French King is 



THE VIOLIN IN ENGLAND. 467 

clear, since he displeased his Royal master in giving 
expression to his opinion that our English players 
were superior to the French. Although we had 
passed through most trying times as regards the 
preservation of good music, yet, at the Restoration, 
there were not wanting musicians who possessed the 
sound and sterling qualities common to the educa- 
ted musicians of the time of James and Charles. 
The band of Charles II. contains more than one 
notable name ; men who were well able to execute, 
without practice, the light and flimsy music which 
alone gave pleasure to the King. That Louis' 
band was inferior in this respect, has been recorded 
oftentimes. 

John Bannister was one of the earliest concert 
givers in this country. An entertainment was 
advertised in the London Gazette, December 30th, 
1672, as follows : "These are to give notice that 
at Mr. John Bannister's house (now called the 
musick school), over against the " George Tavern," 
in Whyte Fryres, this present Monday, will be 
performed music by excellent masters, beginning 
precisely at four of the clock in the afternoon, and 
every afternoon for the future precisely at the 
same hour." 

Roger North, after noticing the first public 
consort meeting, held in a lane behind St. Paul's, 
where there was a chamber Organ, and some shop- 
keepers and others went to sing, and " enjoy ale and 
tobacco," remarks : — 

F F 2 



468 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

" The next essay was of the elder Bannister, 
who had a good theatrical vein, and in compo- 
sition had a lively style peculiar to himself. He 
procured a large room in Whitefriars, near the 
Temple back gate, and made a large raised box for 
the musicians, whose modesty required curtains. 
The room was rounded with seats and small tables, 
alehouse fashion. One shilling was the price, and 
call for what you pleased ; there was very good 
musick, for Bannister found means to procure the 
best hands in town, and some voices to come and 
perform there, and there wanted no variety of 
humour, for Bannister himself (inter alia) did 
wonders upon a Flageolet to a thro' Bass, and the 
several masters had their solos. This continued 
full one winter, and more I remember not." This 
clearly refers^ to the meetings advertised in the 
London Gazette. 

In 1676 we read of another entertainment : 
"On Thursday next, at the Academy in Little 
Lincoln's Inn Fields, will begin the first part of the 
Parley of Instruments, composed by Mr. John 
Bannister, &c, &c." 

Bannister died in 1679, and, like King Charles's 
former leader, Baltzar, was interred in Westminster 
Abbey. 

At the period when John Bannister was holding 
his " Parley of Instruments," in Little Lincoln's Inn 
Fields, that greatest of coal-vendors, Thomas 
Britton, "the lover of learning, a performer of 



THE VIOLIN IN ENGLAND. 469 

music, and companion for gentlemen," was going his 
rounds, crying — 



25 

Small Coal ! 



" Tho' doom'd to small coal, yet to arts ally'd, 
Rich without wealth, and famous without pride ; 

Music's best patron, judge of books and men, 
Beloved and honour^ by Apollo's train." 

At the corner of the passage leading by the Old 
Jerusalem Tavern under the gateway of the Priory 
of St. John, Clerkenwell, Britton had his coal-shed, 
over which was the musical club-room, into which 
Tom Britton had gathered a wondrous collection of 
music, rare books, &c, and where, in 1678, was 
given the first series of high-class concerts or 
meetings. The Violin as well as the Viol had its 
part in these performances. Here was often heard 
Bannister, Needier, John Hughes, and Obadiah 
Shuttleworth, and other well-known amateurs and 
professional Violinists. A few years after the estab- 
lishment of Britton's club (about 1680), the chief 
professors of music appear to have combined to 
disconnect their public music meetings with public- 
house associations, since we read of their taking a 
room in Villiers Street, York Buildings, for concert' 
meetings. There are several curious advertisements 
in the London Gazette relative to concerts there 
held. We read that in 1703, " Signor Gasparini 



470 THE VIOLIN AND IIS MUSIC. 

and Signor Petto performed together at the Consort 
in York buildings," and Signor Saggione, "lately 
arrived from Italy," composes. This was the con- 
cert-room which Sir Richard Steele leased, and 
reconstructed in 1710, when Addison and he were 
interesting themselves in British Opera, reference 
to which has already been made. There is an 
amusing anecdote, that when the necessary altera- 
tions had been made in the building, Steele was 
anxious to try its acoustical properties. Accordingly 
he placed himself in the most remote part of the 
gallery, and begged the chief carpenter to speak up 
from the stage. The man at first said he was unac- 
customed to public speaking, and did not know what 
to say to his honour ; but Steele called out to him 
to say whatever was uppermost, when the carpenter 
at once began : " Sir Richard Steele, for three months 
past, me and my men has been a working in this 
theatre, and we've never seen the colour of your 
honour's money ; we will be very much obliged if 
you'll pay it directly, for until you do, we won't drive 
in another nail." Sir Richard said that his friend's 
elocution was perfect, but that he didn't like his 
subject much. 

The earliest mention of Violin Solo-playing in 
England appears to be that in the Daily Courant. 
"On the 26th of November, 1702, a concert will be 
given by Signor Saggione, of Venice, at Hickford's 
Dancing-school, in which the famous Signor Gas- 
parini, lately arrived from Rome, will play ' singly ' 



THE VIOLIN IN ENGLAND. 47 I 

on the Violin." This, doubtless, refers to Gasparini 
whose compositions both for the chamber and the 
opera have been highly praised. 

William Corbett was one of the King's band, and 
leader of the first opera at the Haymarket. When 
the Italian Opera properly so called was established 
in 1710, and Rinaldo was performed, Corbett was 
permitted to go abroad. He resided in Rome many 
years, during which time he formed a valuable col- 
lection of music and musical instruments. By his 
will he bequeathed his " gallery of Cremonys and 
Stainers" to Gresham College, but this was not 
carried out, since they were sold at Mercers' Hall. 
It is interesting to note his evident appreciation 
of " Cremonys and Stainers ; " in leaving them to 
Gresham College, and bequeathing £10 per annum 
to be given to an attendant for the purpose of show- 
ing the instruments. I have no doubt their disper- 
sion has given greater pleasure to the ear than would 
have been afforded to the eye as seen in a glass-case 
at the College, but I must confess their presence 
there at this moment would render a journey to 
view them a very pleasurable one. When Corbett 
secured these treasures they were not prized as 
inimitable, and doubtless fell into the hands of those 
unable to appreciate their worth; indeed, we are told 
of the sale at Mercers' Hall, that, " Many curious 
Violins were sold at prices far beneath their value." 
Corbett had a very high opinion of his own merits 
as a composer for the Violin, but, judging alone 



472 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

from their titles, I am inclined to think they were 
below the average of English merit. Here is one : 
" Concertos, or Universal Bizarres, composed on 
all the new Gustos during many years residence in 
Italy, in three books, containing thirty-five Concertos 
in which the styles of the various kingdoms of 
Europe are imitated, &c, &c." The sweeping 
character of this work renders it unlikely that any- 
thing good came from his pen. 

An excellent English Violinist of this period 
was Henry Needier, some account of whom I have 
already given in connection with the introduction of 
Corelli's Concertos into England. Needier was a 
prominent promoter of the Academy of Ancient 
Music, an institution set on foot in the year 1710 
for the purpose of furthering the practice of vocal 
and instrumental music. The meetings were held 
at the " Crown and Anchor Tavern," then opposite 
St. Clement's Church, in the Strand. Needier led 
the orchestra, one of the members of which was the 
Earl of Abercorn ; Dr. Pepusch being the director 
of the Institution — he who held the post of Organist 
to the Duke of Chandos prior to Handel accepting 
the appointment. Pepusch's admiration for the 
compositions of Corelli was of the highest kind. 
Believing that they contained the perfection of 
melody and harmony, he formed a series of rules 
based on the works of the great Violinist, which he 
made use of in teaching his pupils. He also pub- 
lished, in score, the Sonatas of Corelli, a work 



THE VIOLIN IN ENGLAND. 473 

admirably engraved, which contains a portrait of his 
favourite composer. 

The Academy of Ancient Music further de- 
veloped the work so admirably begun by Thomas 
Britton in conjunction with Sir Roger L'Estrange. 
An institution in correspondence with the most 
eminent musicians abroad, and to which flocked all 
the greatest resident professors, could not but result 
in the furtherance of music in this country. Here 
Bononcini often played the Violoncello, and Gemin- 
iani performed and introduced his compositions. In 
the words of Sir John Hawkins, " The advantages 
that resulted to music from the exercises of the 
Academy were evident, in that they tended to the 
establishment of a true and just notion of the 
science ; they checked the wanderings of fancy, and 
restrained the love of novelty within due bounds ; 
they enabled the students and performers to con- 
template and compare styles ; to form an idea of 
classical purity and elegance ; and, in short, to fix 
the standard of a judicious and rational taste." 

The subject of the following Catch carries us a 
step further in our narrative : — 

" You scrapers that want a good fiddle, well strung, 
You must go to the man that is old while he's Young ; 
But if this same Fiddle, you fain would play bold, 
You must go to his son, who'll be Young when he's old. 
There's old Young and young Young, both men of renown, 
Old sells and Young plays the best Fiddle in town, 
Young and old live together, and may they live long, 
Young to play an old Fiddle ; old to sell a new song." 



474 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

John Young was a Violin-maker, whose estab- 
lishment was in St. Paul's Churchyard, where his 
son, "Young Young" organized a series of music 
meetings. The success that attended these per- 
formances made it necessary to give them in larger 
premises than the house of the Fiddle-maker. The 
" Queen's Head Tavern," in Paternoster Row, was 
selected as a suitable place. A few years later, in 
1724, they were held at the " Castle," in the same 
locality, hence the name of " Castle Concerts." 
Woolaston the painter, he who painted Tom Britton 
in his blue frock, coal-measure in hand,* now painted 
Young's portrait, which long hung on the walls of 
the " Castle Inn." These concerts continued to 
increase in popularity and excellence, and were 
ultimately held at the Haberdashers' Hall, where 
performances of Oratorios were given. Another 
society was formed upon the plan of the Castle 
Concerts, at the " Swan Tavern." Among the sub- 
scribers were many merchants and wealthy citizens. 
Here the Violinist, Obadiah Shuttleworth, led the 
orchestra. After an existence of about twelve 
years, a fire occurred, in 1 748, which destroyed the 
music and instruments, ending the society's career. 
It was at these concerts that the greatest philan- 

* The circumstances attending the painting of this picture are 
curious. It is related that Tom Britton was plying his small coal 
trade in Warwick Lane, where Woolaston lived, who, upon hearing 
his cry, " small coal," opened the window and beckoned him in, 
making known his desire to paint his portrait. 



THE VIOLIN IN ENGLAND. \7$ 

thropist among Violinists — Michael Christian Fest- 
ing — the chief promoter and honorary secretary of 
the Royal Society of Musicians, played first Violin. 
Festing was a pupil of Geminiani. He is said to 
have been a man of superior attainments, and was 
courted and patronized by the highest in the social 
scale. Festing's compositions were Concert Solos, 
Sonatas, Concertos, and Symphonies for stringed 
and other instruments. 

Richard Clarke, a Violinist in the orchestra of 
Drury Lane Theatre, is worthy of notice in these 
pages as the originator of " Medley Overtures," 
namely, introductory music made up of passages 
from popular airs. This class of writing has been 
mainly developed in the music of the pantomime 
down to the present time. This same Richard 
Clarke was the son-in-law of Colley Cibber. 

An offshoot of the Academy of Ancient Music 
was the Madrigal Society, which owed its existence 
to a musical enthusiast in the person of John 
Immyns, a lawyer by profession. The society's 
meetings were held at an old ale-house in Bride 
Lane, Fleet Street. The subscription was five 
shillings and sixpence per quarter, which entitled 
the members to beer and tobacco. Many of the 
subscribers were mechanics and Spitalfields weavers. 
Here, amid the curling whiffs of the fragrant weed, 
Immyns often led his little club through the madri- 
gals of Orlando Lassus, Russo, and those of the 
Prince of Venosa, and read aloud a chapter of 



476 THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Zarlino. His passion for these early and famous 
madrigal -writers blinded him to the merits of Handel 
and Bononcini, both of whom he regarded curiously 
enough as corruptors of the art. A prominent 
member of this same club was one Samuel Jeacocke, 
an amateur performer on the Tenor, and who 
furnishes us with the earliest instance of Fiddle- 
baking I have met with. Whenever his Fiddles 
were out of sorts, his plan was to bake them for a 
week or more in sawdust ! If Jeacocke's curative 
measures gave rise to the wholesale Fiddle-bakings 
of the nineteenth century both here and abroad, the 
players of the coming generation will have no cause 
to hold in reverence the name of Jeacocke. 

The exploits of John Clegg, Matthew Dubourg, 
and others in connection with the Violin need no 
mention in these pages, their abilities having been 
of an executive rather than creative character. We 
will therefore pass on to the establishment of the 
Concert of Ancient Music, "or King's Concert, in 
1776. The band was led by Mr. Hay, and the 
famous Crossdil was principal Violoncello. The 
concerts were held in Tottenham Street, on the site 
of the present theatre. In 1795 the concerts were 
given in the large room of the King's Theatre, and 
in 1804 at the Hanover Square Rooms. The Con- 
cert of Ancient Music, Burney tells us, was " origin- 
ally suggested by the Earl of Sandwich, in favour 
of such solid and valuable productions of old masters 
as an intemperate rage for novelty had too soon 



THE VIOLIN IN ENGLAND. 477 

laid aside as superannuated, and was supported with 
spirit and dignity by the concurrent zeal and 
activity of other noblemen and gentlemen who 
united with his lordship in the undertaking till 1785, 
when it was honoured with the presence of His 
Majesty (George III.), whose constant attendance 
gave to the institution an elevation and splendour 
which no establishment of the kind enjoyed before." 
It is worthy of remark, that Lord Darnley, the 
director in 1824, ventured on the daring innovation 
of introducing Mozart's music for the first time at 
these concerts. Henceforth his name figured in 
most of the programmes down to the termination of 
the society in 1837. The Duke of Wellington was 
a frequent visitor, and it is related that a friend once 
observed to him, " Duke, I cannot understand how 
you can attend so regularly the Ancient Concerts ? " 
" Oh," replied his Grace, " there is the best reason 
for that — there is no place where I can enjoy a 
sounder nap." The Iron Duke had evidently not 
inherited the musical taste of his father, the Earl of 
Mornington, of whom it is said that Geminiani, 
upon being requested to instruct him, confessed his 
inability to add to the knowledge he had already 
acquired. 

Since we parted company with Purcell, John 
Jenkins, and Bannister, I must confess my search 
for veritable Englishmen worthy of mention in 
connection with the Violin and its music, has been 
somewhat unsatisfactory. Dr. Pepusch, Festing > 



47§ THE VIOLIN AND ITS MUSIC. 

Abel, Bach, Cramer, and a host of others passed 
their lives here, but their lineage belongs not to 
Britain. With the Earl of Mornington I felt I had 
at length alighted on a true-born Englishman — but 
enquiry made it clear that his lordship hailed from 
the Emerald Isle, a discovery not altogether in- 
opportune, inasmuch it permits me to halt and make 
my tail-piece with the words of De Foe : — 

" A true-born Englishman's a contradiction, 
In speech an irony, in fact a fiction ; 
A banter made to be a test to fools, 
Which those that use it justly ridicules. 
A metaphor invented to express 
A man a-kin to all the Universe." 



THE END. 



INDEX. 



Page 



"Abyssinian Prince, The"(Bridge- 

tower) 
Academy of Ancient Music, The 
Addison and Steele's criticism of 

Handel's " Rinaldo " 
Agincourt, English Minstrels at 

Battle of 

Alard, M 

Albergati, Count 

Alberti of Bologna 

Albert V. Duke of Bavaria, his 

musical establishment 
/Albinoni, Tomasso 
Alison, Richard, and Music in 

1606 

Allegri, Gregorio 

Allegorical Opera at Rome, 1686 
Amati, Andrew, his three-string 

Violin (1546) 
Angelo, Michael, at Florence ... 
Anglo-Saxons, their love of music 

and minstrelsy, 4, 5 ; possessed 

bowed instruments 

Angurelli, Carmine, his book on 

the Viol 

Aquinas, Thomas, on Church 

Music .. 

Arditi, Luigi 
Arditi, Luigi 
Artot 



397 
47S 

349 

71 
315 
204 
220 

12 
202 

124 

174 
181 

24 
139 



19 

14 

36 
273 
273 
322 



Bach, John Sebastian ... 336 — 341 

Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel 336, 342 

Bacon, Lord, and the Masques ... 101 
Baillot's Judgment of Boccherini's 

work 239 

Baillot, Pierre 297 

Baltazarini 277 

Baltzar, Thomas 329 

Bannister, John 467 

Barbella, Emanuele 227 

Barthelemon, Francois Hippolite 287 
Bass Viol the parent of the 

Madrigal ancl Motett ... 33 

Bassani, his Sonate da Camera ... 175 



Page 

Bazzini, Antonio ... ... .»... 272 

Beethoven, Ludwig van ... X&j — 411 

Benda, Franz ... ... ... 335 

Benedict, Sir Julius, and young 

Mendelssohn... ... ... 426 

Berchem, Jacques, at the Court 

of Mantua ... ... ... 144 

Berlioz, Hector ... ... ... 306 

" Beverley Minstrels," temp. 

Edward IV 81 

'Biber 333 

Bitti ... ... ... ... 205 

Blasius, Mathieu Frederic ... 290 
Blumenthal, Joseph, Casimer, and 

Leopold ... ... ... 320 

Bocan ... ... ... ... 277 

Boccaccio, his " Decamerone "... 139 

Boccherini... ... ... ... 238 

Boehm, Joseph .. ... ... 435 

Bononcini ... ... ... ... 233 

Borghi, Luigi ... ... ... 244 

Bottesini, Giovanni ... ... 272 

Bourgeois, his Calvinistic ' 'Psalmes 

de David" 276 

Bow, The, used by Anglo-Saxons 80 

Brahms, Johannes ... ... 441 

Bridgetower, G. A. Polgreen, 

and Beethoven ... ... 397 

Britton, Thomas ... ... ... 469 

Brunetti, Gaetano ... ... 241 

Bruni ... ... ... ... 245 

Bull, Ole 288, 326 

" Butter Fiddle," Mozart's ... 376 
Byrde, his " Songs of Sadnes 

and Pietie " ... ... ... 103 



Cajetan, Cardinal, on Church 

Music. 37 

Campagnoli, Bartolomeo ... 242 

Cartier, Jean Baptiste ... ... 303 

Castrucci, Pietro 22» 

Caxton, his visit to the Duke of 
Burgundy ; his Printing Press 
at Westminster ... ... 86 

Cerreto, Scipione, "Delia Prattica 

Musica" 170 

Chambers of Rhetoric, at Louvain 32 



480 



INDEX. 



Page 
Charivari, or Masquerade, in Paris, 

under Charles VI 62 

Charlemagne, Rhymed Romances 

of ■'■ S3 

Charles the Bold, his Songs and 
Motetts ; his patronage of 

the Arts 66, 67 

Charles II. of England, Music in 

time of 442—468 

Chartiani .. ... ... ... 319 

Chaucer, his mention of Musical 

Instruments ... ... ... 91 

Chelys, or early German Double 

Bass 16—18 

Cherubini 251 — 256 

Chopin ... ... ... ... 327 

Church Madrigals, (1587) ... 22 

Church Madrigals, origin in the 

Netherlands ... ... ... 22 

Cimarosa ... ... ... ... 242 

Clarke, Richard 475 

Colombi, Giuseppe ... ... 174 

Colloredo, Count, Archbishop of 
Salzburg, as a "Patron" of 

Mozart 372, 374 

Concert des Amateurs ... ... 288 

Concerts of Ancient Music, The 476 
Conservatoire de Musique, of 

Paris ... ... ... ... 293 

Coperario, John, and the Viol, 

no ; his " Fancies " ... in 

Corbett, William 471 

Cordier, Jacques 277 

Corelli and his Works, Sketch of 

177—198 

"Coriat's Crudities " 156 

Counterpoint, its introduction ... 30 
Counterpoint, earliest Masses in 31 
Court Trouveres in France ... 53 
Croes, Henri Jacques ... ... 319 

Cromwell, Oliver, and Sir Roger 

L'Estrange 125 

Culture and Crime, under the 

Italian Despotisms 132 

Cupis, Francois ... ... ... 318 



Dancla, Charles ... 
Dardelli, Pietro ... 
Dardelli at Mantua 
David, Ferdinand 
De Beriot, Charles Auguste 
Deldevez, Ernest... 



315 
22 
144 
433 
323 
3H 



"DellaPratticaMusica,"Cerreto's 170 
D'Etree, his four Books of Dances 276 
"Devil's Trill," Tartini's ... 213 



Page 

"Dialogue on Music," by Doni 

(IS44) 45 

Divine Service, Minstrels attend- 
ing at, under Edward IV. ... 77 

" Division Viol," Simpson's ... 113 
Domenico, the Painter, and Cas- 

(agno... ... ... ... 91 

Double Bass, the large Italian ... 160 
Dowland, John, his "First Booke 

of Songs and Ay res .. . ... 107 

Drayton, on Music of 16th cen- 
tury 109 

Dufay, William, his Masses in 

Counterpoint ... ... 31 

Duiffoprugcar, his claims (1511) 24 

Dussek, Johann Ludwig 370 

Dutch and Belgic Violists in 

Orchestra ... ... ... 23 



Edward IV., his Household Min- 
strels ... ... ... ... 73 

Edward VI's State Band ... 101 

" Emperor's Hymn," Haydn's ... 365 
England's Baronial Halls, The 

Viol in ... ... ... 70 

Ernst, Heinrich Wilhelm ... 435 
Esterhazy, Prince, Paul, as a 

Musical Patron 358 



Farina, Carlo ... ... ... 172 

Fetis, Francois Joseph ... ... 320 

Fiddle, contemporary with the 

Viol .. ... ... ... 20 

Finger, Gottfried 332 

Fiorilli ... 234 

Fithele, of the Anglo-Saxons ... 19 
Fontana Giovarni ... ... 172 

France, early Minstrelsy of, 13th 

century ... ... ... 54 

Francis I., his Choir and Orches- 
tra ; his Patronage of Duiffo- 
prugcar 68 

Francis!., French Music in time 

of ... 274—278 

Frederick the Great, as a Musi- 
cian ... ... ... 373 — 342 

Frederick William II., and Mozart 

at Potsdam ... ... ... 381 

Froschauer, Hans, first printed 

Music... ... ... ... 9 



Gabrielli, publisher of Church 

Madrigals ... 22 

Gabrielli, Andrea and Giovanni 163 



INDEX. 



481 



Page 
Ganassi, Silvestro, his "Art of 

Playing the Viol " 161 

Gaspard di Salo ... ... ... 22 

Gavinies, Pierre 285 

Geige, the Fretted 17 

Geige, its transmutation to the 

Violin 17 

Geige, its etymology 19 

Geigen, descant, tenor, and bass 20 

Geminiani... ... ... ... 218 

German earliest work with instru- 
mental part music 15 

Geygen, or Geige, earliest men- 
tion 15, 17 

Giardini ... 223 

Giege, The, in France, among 

the Troubadours 59 

Giege, Tenor and Bass, in 16th 

century 61 

Giordani, Tomaso ... ... 232 

Giornovichi 231 

Godecharle, Eugene 319 

. Goethe and Mendelssohn at 

Weimar 428 

Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua ... 144 
Gossec, Francois Joseph ... 288, 317 
Gothic and German claims con- 
sidered ... ... ... 1 

Gothic Sacred Buildings in the 
Netherlands, early magnifi- 
cence of ... 37 

Goudimel's School of Music at 

Rome... 168 

Goudimel 276, 278 

Gresham, Thomas, a Patron of 

Music 103 

H 

Habeneck, Francois Antoine ... 304 

Handel and Castrucci 221 

Handel and Bononcini 233 

Handel, George Frederick 346—355 
Hanoverian Court of Elector 

George Louis 345 

"Harmonious Blacksmith," The 351 

Hasse, Nicholas 331, 355 

Hauman, Theodore 322 

Haydn, and Porpora, anecdote of 201 
Haydn and Giardini ... ... 224 

Haydn, Joseph 359—368 

Hellmesberger, George 439 

Henry V. and Agincourt, Earliest 

English Song Music extant 71 
Henry VIII., and his Musical 

Tastes ; his State Band 89, 90 
Henry VIII. Viols in the Band of 96 
Hercules, Duke of Ferrara ... 141 



Page 
High Standard of Music in the 

Low Countries, 15th century 97 
Hofhaimer, Maximilian's organist 10, 1 1 
Hummel, Johann 385 — 388 



Immyns, John 475 

Instrumental Music in parts, ear- 
liest 15 

"Instructions in Viol Playing," 

Simpson's 113 — 119 

Isaac, Heinrich 12 

Italy, the Renaissance in ... 130 



J 

James I., and his Court Masques no 

Jarnowick... ... ... ... 231 

Jean de Muris ... ... ... 30 

Joachim, Joseph 439 

Josquin Despres 29 

Josquin at the Court of Pope 

Sixtus IV., and at Florence 43 

Josquin and Duke Hercules ... 142 



K 



Kalliwoda ... 415 

Kerlin, Joan, his Geige of four 

strings (1449) 23 

Kreutzer, Rodolphe 295 

Krieger, Johann P. 331 

Krommer, Franz ... ... ... 371 



Lafont 311 

La Houssaye, Pierre 290 

Lamb, Ferdinand 441 

Lassus, Orlando ... ... ... 12 

Lassus, Orlando, and his Madrigals 102 

Lauterbach, Herr 440 

Le Clair 284 

^Legrenzi, Giovanni 173 

Lenten Concert or Concert Sprituel 283 

Leonard, Hubert 325 

Leonardo da Vinci as an Impro- 

visatore 141 

L'Estrange, Sir Roger and the' 

Roundheads 125—129 

Lipinski, Karl Joseph 327 

Locatelli 219 

Lolli, Antonio 228 

Lord Mayor's Banquet, Joseph 

Haydn at a, in 18th century 363 



48? 



INDEX. 



.Page 

Lorenziti, Anthony and Bernardo 232 
Lorenzo the Magnificent, Italian 

prosperity under 42 

Lorenzo de Medici, his " School 

of Art," and his Gardens at 

Florence ; Michael Angelo, 

Ficino, and Poliziano 139, 149 

"L'Orfeo," Monteverde's ... 145 

Louis XL, his grovelling Tastes 65 

Louis XIV ... 278 

Lucchesi 231 

Lulli, Jean Baptiste 279 

Luscinius, Ottomarus, his Double 

Bass 16 

Lute, The ; of various sizes and 
constructions ; Expense of 
maintenance ... 92 — 95 

Luther's Love of Music 167 

Lytton, Lord, and Herr Ernst ... 437 

M 

Mace, Thomas, his " Musick's 

Monument" ... ... ... 121 

Mancini, Francesco ... ... 203 

Marine Trumpet, The 16 

Marini, Carlo Antonio ... ... 203 

Mascitti, Michele 204 

Mastersingers of Germany ... 7, 9 
" Master of Songe," and his 

Duties, under Edward IV.... 77 

Massart, Lambert Joseph ... 312 

Mayseder, Joseph 414 

Mazas, Jacques Fereol 312 

Medici, Lorenzo de (see Lorenzo) 

Meerts, Lambert Joseph 321 

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix ... 424 

Mersennus, on Louis XIV. 's Band 281 

Mestrino 230 

Minnesingers and Minnepoesy ... 7 

Minstrels' Charter, The, in France 6 1 
Minstrels' Charter, English, under 

Edward IV 73 

Molique, Bemhard 423 

Montanari, Francesco ... ... 204 

Monteverde, Claude 144 

More, Sir Thomas, and the Viol 101 
Morley, Thomas, his Canzonets, 

and " Consort Lessons " ... 108 

Morley, Thomas, and the Madrigal 124 

Mosel, Joseph 232 

Mozart, Leopold 356 

Mozart, Wolfgang ... 372 — 385 

"Musical Society," at Louvain, 

in 15th century ... ... 32 

Musical Parties, Private, in Queen 

Elizabeth's Reign 106 

' Musical Small-coal Man," The 469 



Page 
' 'Musick's Monument, " by Thomas 

Mace 93, 121— 124 

"Musurgia" of Ottomarus Luscinius, 

his System of Notation ... 112 



N 



Nardini, Pietro 224 

Needier, Henry 472 

Netherland Musicians, Immigration 

of into Italy ... ... ... 41 

Nofieri, Johannes Baptista ... 232 
Nonesuch, Music and the Masque 

at 100, 107 

Nostradamus, his Lives of the 

Provencal Poets ... ... 51 

Notation by points or pricks ... y> 



O 



Okeghem, Van Eyck, and Josquin, 
their influence on Flemish 

Music 29 

Okegheim, the "Father of Modern 

Harmony ... ... ... 34 

Onslow, George ... ... ... 307 

Ottoboni, Cardinal, and Corelli 183 
Ottomarus Luscinius, his"Musurgia" 1 12 



Paganini, his Character and Works 

257 — 271 

Pagin, Andre Noel 287 

Panfilio, Cardinal, and Corelli ... 182 
" Parley of Instruments " ... 468 

Pedrillo 204 

Pergolesi, Giovanni Battista ... 201 
Petrarch and Boccaccio ... ... 134 

Petrucci, first . used moveable 

Music type ... ... ... 9 

Petrucci's Music Printing ... 157 

Philharmonic Society at Vicenza 153 
Philharmonic Society of London, . 

and Beethoven 405, 409, 411 

Plancken Vander 319. 

Playford, John, his "Skill of 

Music" 120, 457 

Pleyel, Ignatius 369 

Polledro 232 

Porpora, and his Works 200 ; and 

Joseph Haydn 201 

Prince Albert of England and 

Mendelssohn 423, 

Provencal Poets, Nostradamus' 

Lives of 51 



INDEX. 



483 



Page 
Provence, the ' ' Mother of Trou- 
badours and Minstrels ... 5 1 
Provence, flourishing condition of 

in 1 2th century ... ... 5 1 

Prume, Francois Hubert... ... 323 

Pugnani, Gaetano 226 

Puppo, Joseph 231 

Purcell, a Hater of the Viol ... 129 

Purcell, Henry 462 



Quagliata, Paolo ... ... ... 171 

Quantz, M., at Potsdam 341 



Rabelais, Francois, on the Music 

and Musicians of his time ... 274 

Radicati 233 

Raimondi ... ... ... ... 231 

Rebec, of the French 19 

Rebecs, Treble and Bass, or Viols 

with three strings ... ... 61 

Renaissance, the Italian... ... 130 

Rene,, the "Minstrel King," in 

Provence ... ... ... 64 

Ries, Ferdinand ... ... ... 414 

Robberechts, Andre 321 

Rode, Pierre 301 

Rolla, Alessandro 245 

Romance Dialects, degeneration 

from the Latin Tongue ... 52 

Romberg, Andreas 434 

Rome, the Sack of, and the Re- 
formation 165 

Royalists and Roundheads, and 

the Viol 125 

Ruggeri, J. M 204 



Sach, Hans, his Mastersongs ... 10 

"Sagittarius," (Schiitz) 330 

Sainton, Prosper 313 

Salomon, Peter Johann 361 

Santiago de Compostello, Cathe- 
dral of, evidence of the Viol 

in, nth century 5° 

Sauterie (or Psaltery) 79 

Scarlatti, Alessandro, and his 

Works 199 

Schopp, Johann 331 

Schubert, Franz 412 

Schumann ... 44 1 



Page 
Schuppanzigh, Herr, and Beet- 
hoven 402, 407, 408 
Schiitz, Henri ("Sagittarius") ... 330 
Scipione Cerreto, "Delia Prattica 

Musica" 112 

Senaille, Jean Baptiste ... ... 282 

Seven-stringed Viol 14 

Simpson's "Division Viol" and 
his Instructions for Playing 

113— 119, 

Sivori, Camillo ... ... ... 271 

" Skill of Music, Introduction 

to the,' : by John Playford... 120 

Snel, Francois 3 

Spohr, Louis ... ... ... 41 

Somis, Lorenzo' ... ... ... 223 

Stamitz ... ... ... ... 356 

St. James's Palace, The Viol in... 124 

Steneken, Conrad ... ... 332 

Stradiuarius a. maker of Lutes 92 
Stryng Minstrels at Westminster, 

under Henry VII. ... ,.. 88 



Tartini, Giuseppe, Sketch of his 

Work and Life ... 209 — 218 

Tessarini, Carlo ... ... ... 231 

Time-table, The, nth Century... II 
Tinctor's School of Music at Naples 169- 

Tomasini ... ... ... ... 232 

Tonini 205 

Torelli, Giuseppe, his Concertos 175 

Traversa ... ... ... ... 231 

Troubadours of Provence ... 6 
Troubadours and Minstrels, Pro- 
vence the Mother of .. . ... 5 1 

Troubadours, The Pioneers of 
Musical Progress in France 

and in Western Europe ... 5 2 
Troubadours, Trouveres, and 

Jongleurs 53 

" Tweedledum and Tweedledee " 233 

" Two Minstrels," The, in France 57 



U 



Uccellini, Marco 

V 

Vaccari, Francesco 
Valentini, Giuseppe 
Van Eyck... 

Vanhall 

Venetian Music Tablature 
Venice and St. Mark's Piazza 



175 



232 
220 
29 
35<> 
158 

153. 



4 8 4 



INDEX. 



Page 
Venice, Flemish Violists and 

Church Music in, 15 th and 

1 6th centuries 45 

Venosa, Prince of, a Musical 

Composer ... ... ... 169 

Veracini, Anthony 175 

Veracini, Francesco Maria ... 205 

Vieuxtemps, Henri . ... 324 

Viol Tablature, in 16th Century 14 

Viol, earliest book on the, 1491... 14 
Viol, The, earliest use in Church 

Music 3 s 

Viol, The, in England 70 

Viols in the Band of Henry VIII. 96 
Violin, earliest indications of, in 

Germany and Italy 20 

Violin Bridges, Unarched ... 82 
Viotti, Giovanni Battista... 246 — 251 

Vitali, Giovanni 173 

Vitali, Tomasso 174 

Vivaldi, Antonio 202 

Voltaire, on the Music of Louis 

XIV's time 279 



W 



Page 



Walther, Johann J 33° 

Weber, Carl Maria von 414 

Wery, Nicholas Lambert ... 322 

Whythorne, Thomas, his " Songes" 102 

Wieniawski, Henri 3 2 7 

Willaert, Adrian, at Venice, 43 ; 

his influence on Madrigal 

Compositions 
Wind Instruments, the Sackbut 

and Shalme 

Woldemar, Michael 

Wood, Anthony, on Dowland's 

■ Music... 
Wynkyn de Worde, first Printer 

of Music 



44 

82 
290 

108 
87 



Yonge, Nicholas, 

Madrigals 
Young, John 



and Italian 



105 
474 



G. WHITE, STEAM PRINTER, 396, KING'S ROAD, S.W.