The Story of the Violin

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CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

FROM
The Carnegie Corporation

ilC

ML SOO.SsT"

Un,VerS " y Ubrary

f

iiKminiiiSil?,fiy.,.P.

the violin /

3 1924 022" "320

18™

The

Mask

Story Series

Edited by

FREDERICK

J.

CROWEST.

The
Story

of

the Violin

Cbe "d&ustc Storg"
3/6 net per

Already published in

this Series.

THE STORY OF ORATORIO.
Mus. Doc.


STORY

With

Series.

Volume.

A. Patterson, B.A.,

Illustrations.

C.

With

Williams, M.A., Mus. Bac.


STORY OF THE ORGAN.
Williams, M.A., Mus. Bac.



With

With

With

(7604-1904)—

Edmondstoune

Illustrations.

Clarence

Illustrations.

STORY OF OPERA.
With

E.

Markham

With

Lee, M.A.,

Illustrations.

STORY OF THE CAROL.

Edmondstoune

Illustrations.

STORY OF THE BAGPIPE. W.
With

Fitzgibbon, M.A.

Other Volumes

With

H. Grattan

Illustrations.

STORY OF THE FLUTE.

Macaulay

H.

Illustrations.

in Preparation.

This Series, in superior leather bindings,
o?i

Abdy

COMPANY LECTURES.

Flood, Mus. Doc.
,,

F.

Illustrations.

STORY OF MUSICAL FORM.

Duncan.
,,

C.

With

STORY OF MINSTRELSY.

Mus. Doc.
,,

W. H. Geattan

STORY OF ENGLISH MUSIC

Lucas.


N. Kilburn,

Illustrations.

.STORY OF ORGAN MUSIC.

Duncan.
,,

Abby

Paul Stoeving.

STORY OF THE HARP.

MUSICIANS'
,,

F.

Illustrations.

Illustrations.

Williams, M.A., Mus. Bac.


Abdv

Illustrations.

Flood, Mus. Doc.
,,

C.

With

STORY OF THE VIOLIN.
With

,,

With

F.

Illustrations.

STORY OF CHAMBER MUSIC.
Mus. Bac.



-

NOTATION.

OF

may

application to the Publishers.

[ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]

be

had

Cornell University
Library

The

original of this

book

is in

the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright

restrictions in

the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022320182

DEDICATED
TO

WILLIAM

CUMMINGS,

H.

MUS. DOC. DUB.,
AS A

F.S.A.,

MARK

ESTEEM.

Esq.,

HON. R.A.M.,
01'

A

Contents

PAGE

Prologue

xxiii

PART

I.

CHAPTER

I.

ORIGIN OF THE VIOLIN.





still a puzzle
Gradual development
European growth or an Eastern importation Greeks and

Origin of the Violin

Romans— An
music

insight

into

a



highly

ingenious

system of

— Egyptian and Chaldean records —A vain search a
—The Old Testament — A misleading transfor

prehistoric fiddle
lation

CHAPTER

II.

TRADITION AND THE SCHOLAR (AN INTERLUDE).
Tradition repeats a story and adds further variations
astron
vii

— The ravan-


Story of the Violin
CHAPTER

III.

FAMILY LIKENESS.

A

Possibly a lowly grandsire

bow — Claims more



of the king
closely examined

of instruments

— Some

—The

Tradition and conservatism in Eastern countries
Other bowed instruments in India Much speculation Have
no other nations known bowed instruments ?
.

jections





.

CHAPTER

PAGE

historians' ob-

.

10

IV.

THE OLD NATIONS.



Reason

for absence of historical proof Assyrian bas-reliefs
Instruments sanctioned by religious tradition in Egypt

Idiosyncrasies of

.....

some nations

CHAPTER

-17

V.

WANDERING.
The tone of the ravanastron — Hindoo's love for — Indebted to
Persians and Arabs — Music with the sword — Improvements
and spreading of music — Tradition spinning her eternal
threads
.21
A

it

....,.,.
CHAPTER

VI.

MUSIC IN GENERAL IN THE FIRST CENTURIES
The



— The
— The

first fair flower of the spirit
Primitive beginnings
early Christians sang The third and fourth centuries
singing-school
poor Cinderella Gladiators,
first
trions, jongleurs, etc.





—A

viii

A.D.

his-

25


Contents
CHAPTER
FIRST

VII.

BOWED INSTRUMENTS

IN EUROPE.






'

PAGE

Arabian and European rebabs Rebab enters Spain The family
likeness
The oldest European representative The Welsh
crvvth
Claims discussed



.......



CHAPTER

30

VIII.

A MEETING.



of two centuries
A new kind of bowed instrument
appears
Possibly a descendant of the ravanastron
No
previous record Introduced to the bow

Dark period




....



CHAPTER
THE MINSTREL AND MUSICIAN

38

IX.

THE ROMANTIC AGE.

IN



Strong rule had brought safety Nightmare of preceding centuries
Troubadours, Minnesinger, and poor minstrels Playing
before the castle— A keen distinction The Meister song is
born and reared The fiddler draws into the towns Associations formed










.

.

CHAPTER
A

-44

X.

RETROS PECT.






six hundred years
A poor despised drudge A poor
compensation How would music have fared? A mummy
and
beauty
Harmonic crimes Demand for
of
life
thing
instruments Father to ultimate creation of the violin
Choral singing in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries

More than

A








.

52


Story of the Violin
CHAPTER

XI.

COMPETITORS.
The





primitive rebec An unmistakable ancestor of the viol The
constant faithful companion Jean Charmillon, king of
ribouds Fellow-traveller and competitor Fra Angelico's
sweet-faced angel The tone of the rebec Changes of the
fiedel
The bowed instrument by preference










CHAPTER

...

PAGE

56

XII.

THE INSTRUMENT OF RESPECTABILITY.
The

'



cabinet-maker spurred to extra efforts ImproveStimulus through the genius of Dufay,
viol form
Instrumentalists now employed in the
Dunstable, etc.
churches Further stimulus Construction of different-sired
viols
Corner blocks inserted
Special favourite designs
popular in different countries
clever

ment of the













CHAPTER

62

XIII.

THE VIOLIN (PRELUDE).
Were the

times really ready ?

—The Renaissance

CHAPTER

...

XIV.

TWO GASPAROS.



not satisfactorily answered To many a strange and
Who was Gaspar Duiffoprugcar ? Six violins
Other facts Contradictious reasons reconcilable Liberties taken with labels
Modification of his name Internal
evidence for his claims Through the bright river of genius

Question

still

new name















67


Contents

—Know no more of Da Salo's youth and apprenticeship than
of Duiffoprugcar's— His claim irrefutable — Questions — Are
there any traces of development
his work? — Two
in

French

violins

— General characteristics of his violins

PAGE

little

.

.

70

.

84

CHAPTER XV.
MAGGINI AND OTHER BRESCIAN MAKERS.
Maggini's work

—Demand

for violins

— Other Brescian makers

CHAPTER

XVI.

THE AMATIS.

— Andrea Amati —The belief that he was a pupil of Da







Amatis — The acme of perfection in the Amati style — Nicolo's
two sons —Jerome
painstaking — Mediocrity — The
Amati
.86

Cremona



Salo Amati's original style The Amati violin tone
Amati's two sons, Antonio and Hieronymus Artistic cooperation Separation Distinct progress of both Jerome's
son Nicolaus His masterpieces Larger model— The Grand
less

last

CHAPTER

XVII.

A bird's-eye view.




Reason for to-day's decline in prestige
Fierce battle between a modern orchestral accompaniment
and a solo fiddle Time of Rococo

Amati's individuality

CHAPTER

93

XVIII

AMATI SCHOOL.
Spread of fame

—Workers in

Italy,

France, Germany, and Holland

96


Story of the Violin
CHAPTER

XIX.

THE GUARNERI FAMILY.
TAGE






heirs of Amati with Stradivarius
A parallel Andrea
Guarneri and his work His two sons, Petrus and Joseph
Friendly rivalry Joseph's work Petrus's violins A son of
Petrus A third Pietro— Guiseppe of another constellation

True









.

98

CHAPTER XX.
JACOBUS STAINER.





Through long corridors of time Tradition Some
and misery His achievements Value of



Spurious labels

.

.



his

—Sadness
violins

102

.

CHAPTER

XXI.

THE GREATEST OF THEM




facts



ALL.



Began early Scrupulously copied his master First
instruments with his own name Three periods and an interlude
Change in work Creates master-works A comparison
Profound knowledge of wood
Most striking
characteristic— Tone Varnish Autumn of life
His two
sons, Francesco and Omoboni
scene for Rembrandt
His last work Stradivari's "home life His influence His

Stradivari

pupils










—A









..........
CHAPTER

XXII.

GIUSEPPE GUARNERI DEL GESU.

— —



Strongest possible light and shade Question signs His early life
First attempts
Fact and fancy Bad wood and careless






Contents

— Gems of different form and colour — Fourth
period — In prison — The end — Greatest master
Stradivari
— The first-rank master period ends

FACE

workmanship

after

CHAPTER

128

XXIII.

THE ART OF VIOLIN-MAKING IN FRANCE, ENGLAND,
AND GERMANY.





France.
No luthiers of renown till later The best known
Contribution small Clever imitators.
England. English workers of the seventeenth and eighteenth



centuries, and later — Some instances showing originality
Faithful imitators.
Germany. —A difference — A founder— Imitators — Dabbling of
cranks — Sound makers — Wholesale production
.

.

.

136

CHAPTER XXIV.
IS

IT

A SECRET?





Only three conditions possible About wood About age
varnish About workmanship or art— Conclusion



PART

— About
.

.

II.

VIOLIN-PLAYING AND VIOLIN-PLAYERS.

CHAPTER

I.

PRjELUDIUM.
Father and founder of
position for the

—A style of com—A sure and broad founda-

artistic violin-playing

new instrument

xiii

145

.



Story of the Violin

— Poor

PAGE



Charmillon and many others No records of
worldly instrumental music of the time Contrapuntal grop-

tion





ings no safe criterion
Nor illustrations of instruments
Music of the primitive kind Fiddle (viol)-playing in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Symbol in the frets





CHAPTER

157

II.

VIOLIN ART IN ITALY.




Sixteenth century— First half of seventeenth century Second
half Corelli The Roman school of violin-playing Artistic
Corelli's
activities
Corelli the teacher
His playing





pupils






.....

CHAPTER

....

166

III.

violin art in italy {continued).
churches — Tartini — Founder of the Paduan
— "—The
Trillo del Diavolo" — Productivity — Tartini as
— His playing—As teacher —Tartini's pupils — Only
names —Violinists of Piedmontese school — Pupils of Somis

Other centres
school
author

II

Pupils of Pugnani

174

.

CHAPTER

IV.

VIOTTI.



Reformer in two directions Creator of modern violin art in its
Childhood and youth A surprise to the world
best sense
Anti-climax Chased fortune on precarious byways A dealer
His personality
Last great representative of
in wine










classical Italian violin art



187

xiv



:

—A

Contents
CHAPTER

V.

SOME MORE NAMES AND ONE FAMOUS ONE
THE OLD-TIME VIRTUOSO.
Some names






PAGE

Antonio Lolli The glorification of virtuosity
Treading in his tracks Lolli's two pupils Has done more
good than he gets credit for A factor for progress Rapidly
and effectually carried into distant parts of the world
regular tour deforce
Not the same diet for all Has fulfilled













his mission

197

CHAPTER

VI,

PAGANINI (A STUDY).





Only part of the show Was Paganini's
influence one for good ?
La casa di Paganini Paganini in
the making Full fledged The Paganini fever Paganini's
only pupil

The world unprepared





CHAPTER




205

VII.

VIOLIN ART IN GERMANY.



German violinItalian art carried into the heart of Germany
playing in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries The
Dresden Court


—The Berlin Court —The Mannheim Court
CHAPTER

(continued).

— His youth — On the high road of success— Spohr
man — The composer The player His pupils^-Ferdi-

Ludwig Spohr
the

216

VIII.

GERMANY

VIOLIN ART IN

.

nand David





.......

— His pupils— School of Vienna — Ernst—Joachim

—A light-giving fixed

star

XV

224

—A
Story of the Violin
CHAPTER

IX.

VIOLIN ART IN FRANCE.

Time

of Louis

failure

names

XIV.

—The
of

first

Gavinies

— The




PAGE

cream of the profession Corelli's
music for instruments— The
French violinists Jean Marie Leclair Pierre
use

vocal

of



.

......

CHAPTER

235

X.

violin art in France (continued).





Viotti and French violin art
Illustrious period
Best-known
pupils of Viotti
Rode Rode's playing Rudolph Kreutzer
Kreutzer's playing
His famous forty studies Baillot





new phase

in



French





violin



art— A



lively tug-of-war




—The

Belgian school Belgian influence in Paris Characteristics
of the Belgian school
Poland Bohemia, Norway, and
Spain
.





CHAPTER

241

XI.

VIOLIN ART IN ENGLAND.





Receptive rather than productive Prejudices Foreign artists
English violinists Seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth



centuries

— Unknown prompter

CHAPTER

251

XII.

THE LADY VIOLINIST.
In her

charms— In her

glory

..,,..,

258



Contents

PART

III.

AN OUTLINE OF THE EVOLUTION OF VIOLIN
COMPOSITION.

CHAPTER

I.

IN ITS INFANCY.

—Carlo Farina and his capriccio
picturing — Imitators in Germany

PAGE

Beginning of seventeenth century
stravagante
In Italy



— Crude

tone

261

CHAPTER

II.

THE REIGN OF THE SONATA.



Sonata da camera and sonata di chiesa Corelli and the sonata
Tartini Tartini's influence Joh. Seb. Bach





CHAPTER

.

.

.

III.

THE SONATA DI CHIESA YIELDS THE SCEPTRE TO
THE CONCERTO
.

CHAPTER

265

271

IV.

THE REIGN OF THE CONCERTO.
Torelli

—Vivaldi —Viotti —The passage—Rode
— Molique— Mozart — Bach

and Kreutzer

Spohr

xvii

273

2


Story of the Violin
CHAPTER

V.

A NEW PHASE OF THE CONCERTO.
PAGE

The modern





virtuoso-concerto
Paganini Lipinski
Wieniawski
Beriot
Vieuxtemps

— De







and Ernst
David and
279

others

CHAPTER

VI.

LATEST PHASES OF THE CONCERTO.
Beethoven
Benj.

—Mendelssohn — Max Bruch — Saint-Saens— Lalo and
Godard — Raff— Rubinstein and Goldmark — Brahms

and Tschai'kowsky

283

CHAPTER

VII.

DIDACTIC VIOLIN LITERATURE.

A

long way

—A shorter cut

286

CHAPTER

VIII.

A PRODIGAL.
The

oldest of

them

—Very accommodating—The




all

air

vane

small piece The present-day small piece Why this
sterility?
A very uninteresting age The last word not yet
spoken-'-The Chopin of the violin

The



Postscript

288

293
xviii

Contents

APPENDIX
Some remarks on
tor of the viol

the

name "Fiedel"

kind

A.

as applied to the early ances-

— Martin Agricola— Prsetorius and Ganassi



..........

del Fontego
violin

Of

the evolution of the

APPENDIX

bow

Parts of a

B.

Chronological table showing the descent of violin-playing from
masters to pupils since the founding of the Roman school;
also some small independent groups of players
.
.
.

APPENDIX





.

APPENDIX
Books of Reference to Parts

Index

305

C.

Makers of the Brescian school Pupils and imitators of the Amati
school Pupils and imitators of Stradivari— Various other
French, English, and German makers
Italian makers



299

I.

and

II

305

D.
312

3:5

List of Illustrations

" Saint Cecilia," by Domenichino, from the picture in
the Louvre Collection

-

1.

Indian Sarinda

-

2.

Omerti

-

Frontispiece

-

FAGS

FIG.
-

13

22

6.

4. Arabian Rebab and Kemangeh
Rebab esh-Sha'er (Poet-Fiddle) Earliest representation of a European Fiddle

7.

Anglo-Saxon Fiddler

8.

Three-stringed Crwth

9.

Mediaeval Orchestra, Eleventh Century

3 and

31

5.

33

...

33
.

35

36
40-41

10.

Performer on the Marine Trumpet; Type of Dress

46

11.

Reinmer the Minnesanger
Rebek, from an Italian painting

49

12.

of the Thirteenth

Century
13. Vielle

58

of the Thirteenth Century

....
...

14.

Player of the Fourteenth Century

15.

Organistrum

16.

Viola di Bordone

17.

Gaspar Duiffoprugcar

18.

Viola da

19.

Amati Crest

Gamba

59

60
61

65
72

.......

of Duiffoprugcar (made 1547 A.D.)

xxi

76
87

"

Story of the Violin

...

PIG.

20.

Facsimile Label of Jerome Amati

21.

Guarneri Crest

22.

Facsimile Label of Pietro Guarneri

23.

Stainer's

House

99

at

-

-

Absam

-

-

-

House and Shop

-

105

in
119

Facsimile Label of Antonius Stradivarius

26

Meister Heinrich Wrowenlob (Frauenlob),

Minnesanger, Thirteenth Century

-

121

Famous
-

-

27. Portrait of Corelli
1,

published in Rome, 1685
168

(from a photograph)
29. Violin

...

part of Corelli's Seventh Sonata (from a photo-

graph)
30. Portrait of Tartini



Facsimile of a Letter by Tartini

31.

Facsimile of a Manuscript by Tartini

32.

Portrait of Viotti

33.

Facsimile of a Manuscript by Viotti

34.

Portrait of Paganini, after

35. Paganini's

-

House

.

at

-

-

-

-

I

175

-

176

-

-

-

-

Facsimile of a Manuscript by Paganini
Paganini's Violin

-

213

...

214

-

230

39.

Facsimile of a Manuscript by Ernst

40.

One

41.

Therese and Marie Milanollo

225

xxii

232

-

-

of the " Vingt-quatre du Roi

Baillot

210

-

3° Joachim Quartet

Marie Francois

-

-

-

Spohr

189

206
-

-

180

191

sola

Genoa

36.

38. Portrait of

-170
-

-

37.

42. Pierre

160
166

-

Title-page of Corelli's Op.

101

-

-

26.

28.

91

-

24. Stradivari Crest
25. Stradivari's

PAGE

-

244

.

de Sales

236

-

-

-

244


!

Prologue




The Violin what a wonderful
Muse over it its tone, its form,
position

in

thing

the world of art to-day

a

violin

is

and its
and you stand

history,

its



Something miraculous, mysterious
call it what you will, divine purpose, divine power
seems to lie behind this frail little handiwork of man.
Once, in its crude primeval form, in the dim ages
of antiquity, it was perhaps the most despised and
facing a miracle.



neglected of instruments

then,

;

after cen-

slow development, which seemed
like the groping through darkness towards light, it
burst upon the world two or three hundred years ago
in a perfection which human wit has never since been
able to improve upon.
It was the robin's song in March, ushering in the
turies of

new

spring; the lovely

dispensation, a

new

.....

first-fruit

new

of a

on the earth

spirit



new

age, a
T

.

.

Its Advent
F
not only the spirit of modern musical art,
but the' spirit of a more enlightened, spiritualised
humanity, of greater charity and general brotherhood.
With gospel-truth rapidity the little miracle of form
.

.

.

.

and sound has penetrated since to
xxiii

all

quarters of the

!

Story of the Violin
hope,
.

new

__,

,



sweet influence joy, comfort, new
and new strength, and all the lovely
flowers of the soul alike to rich and poor,
into the palace and the hut.
What would

globe, carrying

its

faith,



world of ours be to-day without its violin ?
Both king and lowly servant of the art, what is it not,
dear, blessed little instrument!
The master-minds of
composition drew inspiration from it, sovereign soul
of our orchestra
it holds us spellbound, thrills and
moves us in the artist's hands; it forms part of the
scanty luggage of the emigrant to keep him company
on his lonely farm out west when winter evenings are
long and thoughts will wander back to the old hom&this

;

stead far across the sea.
it is

for its high mission

How

eminently

fitted, too,

among men

Who
when

will describe it, tone of a Stradivari violin,
the true artist draws it from its hiding-place?



_

That indescribably sweet voice voice of an
angel and yet ringing with the dear familiar
sound of earth, with earthly passions, joys and woes
and ecstasies intensely human and yet so superhuman
;

that the soul

is

seized with hopeless longing to follow

through realms unknown and infinite)
charged, we know not how, with music or with love.
Yes, indescribably sweet voice, where thou endest the
it,

to float with

it

1

music of the spheres begins. (Or, is it that perhaps
which rises from the petals of flowers in wondrous exhalations, half-perfume and half-melody, and, trembling
in the sunlight, draws the bee to the honey?)
Was ever form more perfect symbol of the tone, the





Prologue
body of the soul within ? Look at this fine creation of
a famous master here before me on the table: what
a delicious play of curves and colours;
ts
orm
the noble sphinx-like head from which it rolls
down or unfolds itself (just as you look at it), in graceful and continuous arabesques;
the tender swell and
modelling of the chest and back; that amber colour
deepening to a rich, an almost reddish brown towards
the centre where the sound-life pulsates strongest,





A corner of a Titian canvas, is it? Yes,
or Rembrandt's.
And behold the fine fibre of the
wood shining through the varnish like the delicate
roses through my lady's finger-nails
What can be
quickest!

!

No wonder

people love a violin like that, and
yearn and starve themselves for it, and many a fair
maiden, pretending only to inspect the wood, has ere
long (no one seeing) pressed a furtive kiss on such a
lovely form as this.
The enthusiast has had his say. But is that all?
Look at this frail thing made of wood only wood; it
finer?



has withstood the stress of two whole cenI say the stress, for it has not been
turies.
bititv
stored away in a glass case like a relic or a
No, it has been used
picture only to be looked at.
With every touch
used almost daily and how used
of the friendly bow every fibre of its delicate body has
quivered and trembled like the heart of a maiden under
In agony have been born
the first kiss of her lover.
which in two hundred
tones
those thousand million
!

!

years have issued from this body to delight man.

xxv

And

Story of the Violin
this is not all: imagine this frail and shaken body
which weighs no more than about 8£ oz. avoirdupois,
supporting by a marvellous adjustment of its parts
(by which resistance and elasticity of structure are held



in perfect equilibrium)

— supporting,

longitudinally, of about 88

I

say,

a.

tension,

and a pressure, vertically,
of 26 lb., or altogether a weight of over 100 lb. on its
chest.
A herculean task Where, under such hard
usage, would be the strongest engine ever devised by
man ? Worn out, disabled in a few years, the mighty
steel bars would be tottering in their sockets.
Consider now what seems almost the crowning
glory of' this little miracle.
The stamp of greatness
is simplicity: we have it here.
Some one
*
has said you can construct a violin with a
penknife as your only tool. That may be
possible, be it little satisfactory.
At all
lb.

,

!

demonstrates the great simplicity of construcwhich has ever
filled the thoughtful mind with awe and admiration.
Wood and again wood, and fish-glue to hold the boards
and blocks together, and the strings, besides this the
events

it

tion of an organism, the perfection of

varnish, that

What

is all.

Yet simplicity of fabric
be simpler?
here the outcome of the grandest complex labour
Alter one item and you. mar, if not deof invention.
Change the position of the ff holes
stroy the whole.
or the form of bridge, leave out the sound-post, and you
can

is

away the tone. As in the human body every part
has respect to the whole and the whole to the parts, so
take


Prologue
wondrous, sounding; organism. We get in the
sum of all the conditions and activities which
have their origin and raison d'&tre in this simplicity
besides fulfilling the demand for that enormous strength
and durability.

in this

tone the

It is this simplicity of construction, together with the
convenient shape viz., portability, which has helped
to secure for the violin its phenomenal



popularity.

has made

It
it

made cheapness

possible,

the instrument for the poor as

well as the rich, as once the ideal pattern given, in-

wood and workmanship could not annihilate
the elementary virtues of the organism.

ferior

While in
Yes, what a wonderful thing is a violin
every branch of human knowledge and activity every
year marks new discoveries, and the apparent miracle
to-day becomes the common thing to-morrow, the
violin stands where it stood three hundred years ago,
!

and every attempt at altering its form or any smallest
it has been a dismal failure.
Is it not as if for
once human wit had reached its goal, as if the ideal
hid in the heart of God had for once been grasped by
part of

man?

xxvu

Story of the Violin.

PART

I.

CHAPTER

I.

ORIGIN OF THE VIOLIN.

The

origin of the violin, it seems, is still a puzzle to
our musical historians and archaeologists. True, they
know that the first real violin made its appearance
on the musical horizon about the middle of the
sixteenth century.
They know, too, it did not spring
into existence
like Minerva,
to use a familiar phrase
armour-clad and beautiful, out of the head of Jupiter.
Its gradual development from inferior forms of bowinstruments is proved beyond doubt, and
^***awal
has been traced, more or less clearly, for
p"
centuries back, with the help of representations of such instruments on monuments,
>





bas-reliefs,

wood

occasional

allusions

literature

the



all

antiquarian

carvings,

collected

on

the

etc.,
and
contemporary

miniatures,

them

to

in

by the untiring zeal
highways and byways
i

B

of
of

,

Story of the Violin
mediaeval Europe.

But here

century of



our era

all

— that

evidence,

is,

about the ninth

documentary and

otherwise, for the existence of bow-instruments ceases,

and we are left to drift on a sea of conAre they a ec ture as to their earlier whereabouts.
j
European Are they a European growth at all, or
ro
or
_
are Aey an Eastern importation?
Is the
an Eastern
r
.,
time
of
their wanderings on earth to be
j
measured by centuries only, or by thousands
tion'
of years ? Such are the questions which
musical historians are still endeavouring to answer
,

.

.

,

satisfactorily.

The two great nations

of antiquity to

whom we

are

indebted, directly and indirectly, for so many of our most
treasured possessions in philosophy, poetry,

an

ree

^^

ar ^ an£j tQ

turn

first for

w jlom we would naturally
information on the subject the
gain an
Greeks and Romans give us no clue.
insight into a highly ingenious system of music; we
find descriptions of their popular instruments,



We



An

Insight representations

into

on

bas-reliefs

and terra-cotta

a

vases of harps, lyres, citharas, flutes, etc.
^ J
but no sign of an instrument which
~
even the most determined and imaginative
&
System
enthusiast could conscientiously construe
of Music
into one likely to have been played with
a bow, much less a sign of such a contrivance as
Equally unfruitful hitherto have
itself.
the bow
.

.

,

Egyptian and Chaldean records of
While carrying us back thousands of

been researches
antiquities.

in


Origin of the Violin
years, to the very morning, one might say, of creation,

they reveal a state of civilisation in those most
ancient nations simply astonishing, and this
Egyptian
fact alone would permit us to draw signifia
cant conclusions as to the cultivation of
,.
Chaldean
~,,
,,
,,
music among: them.
there is also the

,
Records
.
.
unmistakable proof for it in the shape
of representations of their musical instruments.
find them in considerable numbers and varietyplayed by men and women (whole musical parties and
crude and
processions) ;
single
and in groups
developed; and recognising among them plainly the
ancestors of many of our own modern instruments,
.

,

,

.

,

.

,

.

,

We

;

we might not unreasonably
also for

some

look

in

their

sort of prehistoric fiddle

—but

company
in vain.

The nearest approach to the form of a violin is an
instrument, somewhat resembling a lute, provided with
a finger-board and one or two strings. Burney 1 discovered such a one on an obelisk in Rome, and
representations of similar ones have since been found
in Egypt, dating back to 1500-2000 B.C.; also on
Assyrian monuments, where they appear

Vain
under conditions which make it probable
aearcn
that they were a foreign importation
perhaps from Egypt. But these instruments, _ ,.
though suggestive of the bowed kind, will
Fiddle
hardly be taken seriously as belonging to
them. Doubtless their strings were twanged like
those of the harp, lyre, cithara, etc. If the old Egyptians
1

Burney, History of Music,

3

vol.

i.

p. 204.

Story of the Violin
and Assyrians had intended to represent a bow instrument they would hardly have left out its most essential
characteristic the bow.
Turning- last to the Old Testament, it would appear
from certain passages in Daniel, where the designation
"viol" occurs in connection with other



during and alter the Baby— ...
with some kind
captivity — were familiar

_

Testament

instruments,

Ionian

that

the

.

Hebrews
...

times

viz.,

at

those

r,

.

resembling the viol of our foreimmediate predecessor of the violin, as
we shall see). But although this is by no means
impossible, there is nothing in the original text to
warrant the belief that the inspired scribes meant
It is more
really an instrument played with a bow.
probable that the name of "viol" was applied by the
translators to an instrument shaped somewhat like those
mentioned above, the strings of which were twanged.
instrument

of

(the

fathers

A
__.

,.

f

curious

Luther's

instance

version

in

of

this

connection

is

the

passage

in

he was the father
Genesis iv. 21: "Tubal:
J
"
of all such as handle the harp and organ
pipes)
translated
the
Hebrew
pandean
he
(probably
text into German as " Jubal von dem sind hergekommen
_.

,

..

Translation

;

:

meaning literally in English:
have
come the fiddlers
and pipers." Taken unconditionally and verbally,
this passage should have long satisfied the German
die Geiger

"Jubal,

and
from

Pfeifer,"

whom

musical historians as to the origin of the violin.
Doubtless the great Reformer himself an enthusiastic



Origin of the Violin



and accomplished musical amateur by adopting the
names of the two prototypes of the musical profession
in the Middle Ages, fiddlers and pipers, wished simply
to convey the idea which is also expressed in the
English version viz., that Jubal was the father of
musicians generally, or of players on string and
wind instruments as typifying the highest forms of
instrumental music.
Nevertheless, would it really be
so impossible for this or some other prehistoric Jubal
the
to have also been the inventor of bow-instruments





"father of fiddlers"?

CHAPTER

II.

TRADITION AND THE SCHOLAR (AN INTERLUDE).

A certain scholar, 1 when he had pleaded long enough
with Dame Evidence to reveal to him the origin of bowinstruments without being able to make her agreeable to
his wishes, cast his eyes about for that other daughter
of old King Time, that fairer one, with the eyes half
sphinx's and half child's, and the voice like distant
waters: Tradition.

There are few countries in the world now where she
be found. Ages ago she left the once sacred valley
of the Nile, from which the shades even of the gods,
her former friends, had flown, and where only the
pyramids rise now into a blue and cloudless sky like
death's eternal exclamation signs.
She also left long,
long ago the desolated plains and hills which bury
Babylon and Nineveh and Ur and China she avoids for
reasons of her own. But there is one land where she
abides yet; and there our scholar found her in her bower
of roses and immortelles.

may

;

India!

Thousand-and-one-night-land of the world;

I believe F. J. F&is was the first who drew attention to India as the
probable cradle of bow instruments, although Sonnerat's Voyage aux
Jndes may have given him the initiative.
1

6


Tradition and the Scholar
land of

fairies, land of wonders, lying in the deep, dark
ocean of time like a green sunlit island where the very
air is charged with perfume and with poetry, where the
;

trees sing, they say,

and where

" Die Lotosblume angstigt
Sich vor der Sonne Pracht."

Heine.

Should India be the cradle of the violin? What did
Tradition tell our scholar?
Of course she is getting so old that she sometimes
forgets or mixes up things. Who would not in repeating
the

same

stories a million times, trying each time to

make them new and

interesting? One must also not
expect her to be too particular about details ; some inaccuracies in matters of place and time, a mistake of a
thousand years or so, must be taken gracefully into the

She likes it best if you forget over her lovely
more lovely voice aught else.
Our scholar, knowing that, tried not to think too

bargain.

eyes and

still

deeply while he sat listening at her feet.
So she told him: "Seven thousand years or so ago
[he winced a little here, he couldn't help it] there lived

Leuka, a
His name was Ravana. He was a Tradition
repeats
great king, but he was also as great a singer
with
the
charm
and
power
for
musician,
,
and
.J
of his music he was even able to move the
further
great and fearful god Siva, who loves the Variations
darkness as much as Brahma the light.
This king and musician, Ravana, invented an instrument
in the island of Ceylon, the ancient

king.

7

'

Story of the Violin
played with a bow which after him was called the
ravanastron. " Here our scholar showed surprise and
wanted to interrupt, but Tradition tapped him lightly
with her fan, and, smiling triumphantly though sweetly,
she drew from the folds of her mantle a strange-looking
object and said: "This, oh scholar, is the ravanastron,
behold it well you may hear it played by many of my
humble servants in the land; seek out the
e
beggars and pandarons 1 and now, good-bye,

;

''"'"
,

tron

—begfone.
b

j

"

Our

scholar would have liked to

ask another question or two about that king
Ravana, but he knew it was of no avail. Tradition never
So he bowed
tells what you ask, but what she chooses.
silently and went.
In the ethnographical department at the British
Museum, among the exhibits from the hill tribes of
Eastern Assam, you may see an instrument which tallies
exactly with the description of the ravanastron given by
F^tis in his

A

work Stradivarius?

small hollow cylin-

der of sycamore wood, open on one side, on the other

covered with a piece of boa skin (the latter forming the
sound-board), is traversed by a long rod of deal flat
on top and rounded underneath which serves as neck
and finger-board, and is slightly bent towards the end





where the pegs are inserted. Two strings are fastened
at the lower end and stretched over a tiny bridge, which
rests on the sound-board, and is cut sloping on top.
A
1

A kind

2

Notice of Stradivarius, by F.

of wandering hermit.
J.

London, 1864.

8

Fetis

;

translated by

John Bishop.


Tradition and the Scholar
bow made



of bamboo the hair roughly attached on
one end with a knot, on the other with rush string
completes the outfit.
It is a ravanastron there can be no doubt, although
among the exhibits it figures simply under the name of
" fiddle and bow."

CHAPTER

III.

A FAMILY LIKENESS.
is found to the present day a something
shape of a bow instrument which might possibly
be the lowly grandsire of the king of instruPossifaly
ments. It would not be the first time that
a Lowly
t j,e mos t humble attained eventually to the
"a n
„* e most exalted position,
though

& in this case it
v
.'
of the King
° requires some credulity
or, let us say, some
, .
ready fancy to discover even a faint relation
ments
between a modern violin and this extremely

In India then

in the

.

.



.

,

primitive and miserable-looking affair, the ravanastron.

Yet both share the one feature which distinguishes them
from all other instruments of the ancients, as far as we
can judge of them viz., the bow. That wonderful
contrivance, that right hand of the fiddle,
without which even a "Strad." is all but useThe Bow
less, for which we have vainly looked on
Grecian, Egyptian, and Chaldean bas-reliefs, here, in

y



India, we find it. It is the unmistakable family likeness
which links together the old and the new, the crude and
the perfect, the ravanastron and the sovereign Strad.
Let us now look a little more closely into the claim of
this supposed ancestor of bow instruments.

10

;

;/

Family Likeness
Same musical historians have rejected it on the
ground that the instrument In question was not
proved to be of ancient origin that is, primitive in the
true sense

— nor



the existence of primitive

is

Some
instruments of the bowed kind confined
to-day to India.
Many Asiatic and East
Qb'ecttofs
European tribes use similar musical contrivances, and might perhaps with equal right claim for

them

originality

and

antiquity.

Tradition in Eastern countries is a factor to be
reckoned with to an extent of which Western people have
-

hardly any conception.

In the West, change,
Tradition

constant, relentless, uncompromising change,
is

the watchword;

to-day what

_

East

men

,

.

is stability

is

.

,

.

:

in the
,

,

which cherishes the old

more than the new.
tradition

...

kept holy yesterday

....

.

it

a

change which destroys

In

many

.

<-.on-



in Eastern

c ount f ies

instances

the one only link which binds the past to

the present, taking the place of

all other records.
In
were, the sap which runs through the
whole tree of national life, from the roots deeply bedded
in the soil of antiquity, up into every branch of the
broad and lofty crown; a living thing therefore, and
not, as with us, a dead weight which one or two
generations shoulder patiently and a third throws off
never to pick up again.
In a country, then, where not only the ground
is tilled and corn is thrashed and bread baked in
exactly the same fashion as 2000 or 3000 years ago,

India

it

is,

as

it

but where also a

tale,

a poem, a prayer, a melody
11

will

Story of the Violin
live orally among the people for untold generations
without losing much of its original characteristics in
such a country an instrument like the ravanastron,
which, tradition says, was invented very long ago,
would, under certain conditions, stand the same chance



of retaining

kind

its

original primitive identity to the present

At the same time, other instruments of the same

day.

may have been

and taken

developed out of the original one

their place beside

people, or have

driven

it

it in the affections of the
gradually into an inferior

position.

There are many instruments of the bowed kind in
show a great adIndia to-day which
er
vance on the ravanastron. Some of these,
1
doubt, are importations,
but others
^ no
T
r
Instruments
are
not
an
nave
existed
for ages
mav
"
in India
side by side with their more primitive

...

'

'

»

ancestor or elder brother (see Fig. i).
Granted, then, that this ravanastron of the Indian
beggar and pandarons of to-day may be the ravanastron of long ago,
1

The

the next question would be,

influence of Arabia

how

and Mohammedanism generally, which

is

so

evident everywhere in India, has been urged as a proof in support of

the theory that India received

all

or most of her

bow

instruments from

West Asiatic and North-East African nations on the
Mussulman conquests in India in the seventh century
that such

is

not the

peculiarities of

case

occasions of the

of our era ; but
can be demonstrated by the structural

some of the Hindoo instruments.

Besides, tradition

receives here the corroborating testimony of certain Sanscrit allusions to

the fiddle-bow, dating from-a time long prior to the conquest of India

by Mohammedans.

Family Likeness
long ago, or

who

could have been this Ravana, King of

Leuka?
Tradition says, five thousand years before our era
he invented his instrument. This is a startlingly long
time.
Even if we were disposed to discount a liberal
portion as compound interest on a small initial mistake
made in the counting by the descendants of this
Ceylonian king, it would launch us into the dimmest
dim of prehistoric times as regards India at least.
Unlike her two great sister nations in antiquity, Egypt



FIG. I.

—INDIAN

SAE1NDA.

and Chaldea (which had then already raised and buried
several civilisations), India has no documentary record

of herself as a nation prior to about 2000 B.C.,
the hymns of the Rig Veda, the oldest of
the four sacred books of the Brahmins, are „
supposed to have been composed. To specu-

when
"c
.

therefore, on a king who lived, say, some three
thousand years before Christ, not to mention such
a period as five thousand years, would seem useless
late,

,

labour.
It

appears to

me

significant,

13

however, that tradition

Story of the Violin
should have made,this Ravana a King of Ceylon. 1 Now,
it is well known that the Hindoo nation came ages ago
from the country lying between Persia and the Indus,
south of the province of Bactria, and occupied for an
indefinitely long time the region south of the Himalayas,
which to this day is called the Punjab. When grown
in size too large to be accommodated there, they spread
farther east and south to the Ganges and beyond,
pressing on and conquering the aboriginal tribes which
opposed their onward march.
From these facts it would appear that this King
Ravana was not of Hindoo origin at all, but belonged to some aboriginal people, the history and
even memory of which is buried in antediluvian
mystery.
Perhaps he was of Sumerian or Accadian
descent, hailing from that supposed first cradle of the
human race, the fertile valley of the Euphrates; or
from the Asiatic high plains which lie north-east of it. 2
Or why not go still a step farther with the hand of
fancy, and see in him (Ravana) the very Jubal of the
Bible, the father of musicians, the inventor of string

and wind instruments,

whom



tradition in the course



of ages has transformed name and all first into a
mythical personage, a demi-god, and then into a king? 3
1

So many ancient myths and

traditions point to an insular origin Oi

heroes, gods, lawgivers, etc.
2

The Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea surely served at an early period
medium of immigration.
3
It is well known how many Eastern myths attribute the origin of
music and musical instruments to superhuman agencies. The stories of

as a

14

Family Likeness
Nay

—who knows?—perhaps the mean-looking ravanas-

tron

is but the degenerate descendant from instruments
too far from us removed in time to even think out a
;

piece of antediluvian

the arms of oblivion

;

wreckage which slipped out of
a fragment of earliest civilisa-

a lost ray from the
yet walked with God.
tions

;

dawn

of the world

when man

Enough, when the Hindoos occupied India and
brought with them the vina, their national favourite
instrument (which tradition also says they received
from Nared, the son of Saraswinta, Brahma's wife),
it would not be unreasonable to
suppose that the
ravanastron and its brothers of the bowed kind (if
there were any then) had to take a second place as a
legacy of a conquered and despised people. Eventually it sunk still further in the esteem of a victorious
race until it became relegated to the hut of the lowly
and poor in the land, who alone kept up its use
So much of speculation on
and kingly memories.
this supposed inventor of the ravanastron.
Be its
story and age now what it may, it is certainly a very
primitive invention, and as a musical instrument would
hardly deserve the attention it gets from the musical
the Chinese

Emperor Fuhi,

of the Egyptian

god Thoth, and the Apollo

of the Greeks, etc., what are they but variations of the same thought?
music leaving its eternal abode in heaven, and descending to earth



through the instrumentality of gods and super-men. A strange coincidence, by the way, this mythical high birth of our art, with the
which our materialists are
biblical testimony to the high birth of man



trying their best to gainsay.

15


;

Story of the Violin
historian but for that one feature of

It is
it, the, bow.
and the bow last, as every violinist knows
and yet the bow even that magic wand in the hand
of a Paganini which opens wondrous worlds of sound
how easy an invention it really seems here, in its first
crude form: the simple principle of producing sounds
from strings by friction, that is all. What could be
more natural than that the same bow, which men
learned almost from the first to employ as a means
of subsistence and as a weapon, nay, from which he

the

bow

first



Have no
other

probably derived the design for his first
harp should have by accident or reflection



revealed to him the possibility of sounding
strings otherwise than by picking with the

,

Bowed In-

fi

n & ers or a plectrum. 1

But that brings us

struments? to the interesting question: Have really no
nations of antiquity, other than the Hindoos,

known bowed instruments?

This seems hardly pos-.

sible.
1

A small piece of horn

or

bone with which to pick the

16

strings.

,

CHAPTER

IV.

THE OLD NATIONS.



the Egyptians, who built up
marvellous civilisation seemingly independent of
outside influence ; or the Greeks, who to a large extent
focussed the achievements of older civilisations, and
reflected them through the bright mirror of their own
national individuality does it seem credible that they
should not have found out even the principle of friction
of the string for themselves, or that it should not have
been transmitted to them somehow or other, at some
time or other, from the country where it was known ?
India, after she had once, against her will, entered

Consider other nations
their



the ring of historical nations, was involved in many wars.
Assyrians (already 1200 B.C.), Persians, Greeks conquered her and enriched themselves with her treasures.
She entertained commercial relations with
Phoenicia, Arabia
other parts
and was Reason for
still more sought
by them as a kind fthe Absence
a
earthly paradise and wonderland.
Should „, °
not also the knowledge of the bow, or bowed
p f
instruments, have found its way across her
borders ?
Surely.
Here, in our opinion, seems to
lie the real reason for the absence of all historical





17

Story of the Violin
proof of their existence. Did such instruments, when
invented by or imported to other nations, find a sympathetic echo in the musical soul of those nations were
they popular and a success ?
If we look about among the nations of that ancient
world, what do we find ? Take the old Assyrians and
Chaldeans. From what our scientists tell us about
them, they must have been in general a practical,
industrious, and ambitious people.
And their music ?
Doubtless music was held in great esteem, but it
appears to have been largely in the hands of the upper
:

classes.

It

was

the aristocrats of Babylon

years ago who, with

much ceremony and

some 5000

display, went,

rhythm and tune of musical instruments, to the
temples of their national gods to worship. They played
themselves ; no hired bands then.
see
ssynan
Qn Assyrian bas-reliefs men and women
£j«is— relict s
carrying harps, lyres, psalteries; and from
the cut of their clothes and the embroidery, etc., displayed on them, our learned Assyriologists have drawn
the above ingenious conclusions as to the social rank
of these musicians.
Imagine such an Assyrian gentleman making a public spectacle of himself with a
sort of ravanastron and bow in his hands, trying to
play it while he walked in a solemn procession. Why,
the idea would have been preposterous.
As for the
populace, if we may draw conclusions from their
national characteristics, they would have preferred
the shrill tones of a clarionet or flute, a drum, a
tambourine, or some twanged instruments, to the
to the

We

18

Old Nations
thin

and

unexciting-,

plaintive

sounds

of'

a bowed

instrument.
In Egypt, again, music lay mostly in the hands of
of the upper classes, and this fact almost speaks

women

Considering what in our own days even old
Spohr thought of women playing the violin, there was no
room in Egyptian parlours for a ravanastron or omerti.
A harp or a lyre was a different thing. Not
only was its use sanctioned by religious Instruments
tradition from time immemorial, but the sanct » on ed

for itself.

way

of handling

it

was

natural, graceful,

inviting to the Egyptian maiden.

be played

in

It could
walking, standing, or lounging,

_, f

y
,

,

Tradition
in

Egypt

and pretty hands and rings and rounded
arms could be displayed (and when did woman ever
Lastly and above
despise such means of attraction ?).
all, the bright, tinkling tones of their twanged instruments suited admirably the ears and musical tastes of
these bright, light-hearted Southerners, just as they do
yet in most Oriental countries.
It is first and last the idiosyncrasies of a people,
nurtured by custom and tradition, which will give the
How much had
direction to its musical activities.
religious sanction to do with the employment of musical
instruments in those ancient days ? Music and religion
were inseparable. We find the proof of that in the
Every instrument which
records of all ancient nations.
was not conformable, assimilable to the cult, not sanctioned by tradition, had to be rejected, cast out sooner
or later.

What

place could a primitive
*9

bowed

instru-

Story of the Violin
ment have found

in the Egyptian or Assyrian temples,
symbolic services of the Hebrews or the
Greek Hellenic and Corinthian plays ?
If, then, bowed instruments were altogether heterogeneous to the idiosyncrasies of some nations, were not
to be infused into their national, social, and
R
re
contem Pt or averous
e > ^ ut ^ e
Instruments
their
sculptors and
sion,
can
we
expect
that
Heterogeneous to artists should have wished to perpetuate
the Idiosyn- their memory and use in works of art? The
crasies of
answer is obvious. Turning to India with
some
^is idea before us, it may become clear why

in the divine,

^

Nations

^

^m

bowed instruments should have found here

an abiding home at

least, if

not an exalted position like

the vina.

20

CHAPTER

V.

A WANDERING.
In India it seems music was never confined to one class
or caste in particular it permeated the whole social body,
;

who

claimed to have received

from the

priests,

the gods,

down to the miserable, half-naked outcast of
Add to this condition, which must have been

society.

it

from

conducive to the spreading of the divine art in every
conceivable form, a highly sensitive and naturally
poetical disposition of the people, an inclination also to
immaterialise, or spiritualise life, and a profound reverence for the old, the traditional, and the necessary
elements for the existence of the ravanastron and its like
It was, as it is yet, the
in earliest times was given.
instrument of the dreamer, the mystic, the poet, the
wandering hermit, and the Buddhist monk; the dejected
beggar, who to its soft, unpretentious tones, could pour
out his supplications and prayers.
Speaking from personal knowledge, I may add that
the tone of this ravanastron is by_no means
1 on
of the
so bad as the miserable outward appearance
of the instrument would lead one to sup-

<*

fistron

pose.

It is soft, thin (a little muffled,

muted), ethereal, suggestive,
21

if

you

as

will,

if

of thought

4

Story of the Violin
rather than emotion; or be it purified emotion, such as
the pious Hindoo might feel when he sees the sun rise

over the sacred waters of the Ganges ? It is not a tone
which, with voluptuous ring, will hold back the thought
in its flight to Nirvana, 1 back to this lovely, wicked earth,
but rather one which gives it wings to get away. You
cannot play Paganini's "Witches' Dance" on it, or even
"Home, Sweet Home"; but you can
sing within your soul to its accompaniment, and your lips can mutter prayers
while you draw the artless bow over
its two or three low-tuned strings.
Therefore also your Hindoo beggar
(and philosopher) loves it, and he will
love it in spite of your CreHindoos'

monas, which since have
Love
found their way out to him
and challenged comparison with it.

for

it

He

will love his

FIG. 2.

— OMERTI.

ravanastron, his sarinda,
his omerti (see Fig. 2), when our own
admired violin may be forgotten. 2
Although to India may justly be-

long the distinction of having given

bowed instruments, and to have sheltered and
cherished them in their prehistoric childhood when other
birth to

greater nations^ closed their doors against them, or deSee Sir William Jones, On the Music of the Hindoos.
For particulars on Indian and other Oriental bowed instruments,
their construction, etc., see Carl Engel's Researches into the Early
1

2

History of the Violin Family.

22

A

Wandering

we are hardly so much indebted to her for their manifold improvements and their
ultimate appearance in Western Europe as
Indebted
to two other ancient nations: the Persians
and the Arabs. The Persians, it seems, were
_,
Persians
a brother race of the old Aryans or Hindoos,
.
Arabs
both living- amicably together west of the
Indus, until for some reason or other (probably overpopulation) they separated one nation, the Hindoos,
going east and south the other, the Persians and
probably most of the present European nations going
The
west or staying (Persians) where they were.
Persians, then, related to the Hindoos by blood and
language, features and white skin, although they
subsequently conquered and oppressed their old allies,
must have loved music with a similar great fondness.
While India was like a shy, beautiful maiden, who
liked to hide her beauty and her blushes before
strangers and stay at home and her music with her,
Persia was a strong young eagle, a warrior __
with
t,
u
a and
a got? into c
U4vu Music
who
went* abroad
fights
with
«
,,
,
other nations, and was as often beaten as
he emerged conqueror. But he carried music along
with the sword, and music benefited in the change
and turmoil of the camp. It is to Persia,

spised and suppressed them,

\






;




therefore, that

and the

most of

spreading

of

4-

improvements
music in ancient

jthe

are due, and some little share of
this Persian care for music and musical

times

instruments

fell

doubtless also to
33

bowed

improve„
,.
Spreading
£ 2VT«sic

instruments,

Story of the Violin
Now, when our ugly
sarindas, etc.,

and

old friends the ravanastrons

their crude

and

companion, the bow,



wanderings, and how they after many
and much altered found their weary way
along the winding path of time, through Persia to
Arabia, until the musical historian sights them through
his telescope and pilots them safely farther, we cannot
tell; but there is little doubt that a certain bowed
instrument, the rebab, ultimately migrated from Persia
and Arabia into South-western Europe on its way to
kingship and to glory.

began

their



vicissitudes

To sum up once more in whatever light we try to
view the subject of the origin and early history of the
It is
violin family, we cannot see clearly.
tradition
jj^ s t ancjing on a high mount trying to
:

,



Threads

-

distinguish objects in the valleys and plains
below over which evening has already rolled

the thick white feather-beds for the night.



Here and there a glimpse through the fog a lighted
window far, far away, where Tradition sits spinning
her eternal threads, and that is all.

24

CHAPTER

VI.

MUSIC IN GENERAL IN THE FIRST CENTURIES A.D.

Music had shared in the general quickening' of life
which followed the establishment of Christ's kingdom
on earth. It was, shall we say. the first fair
"
flower of the spirit pushing its way through
yet wintry darkness to proclaim to the world _.
,
the new spring the primula verts blooming t ^ e Spirit
by the open grave of a doomed and dying
Kiesewetter, in his History of
pagan civilisation.
European Music, tells how this new Christian music (if
so it may be called even in its primitive beginnings)
was born unnoticed in huts and out-of-the- _
Primitive
,
way places, in caves and catacombs where Beginnings
_,
r-i.
I
u, a
tu were
They
were assembled.
early Christians
but poor and simple folk for the most part, who knew
nothing of a Greek music system, enharmonic and
chromatic. Their hearts were full of hope and joy,
and when a heart is so full that it cannot contain its
fulness any longer, it flows over in tears or in melodies,
this is the beginning of all true music.
,

;

.

,

.

,

,

,

i

The early Christians sang. May be it was at first
only a simple la la of the soul, joined to a psalm, a
prayer, or an Alleluia, Amen; extemporaneous, with*
*5

Story of the Violin
out time, and without form and rule;

a rising and
rhythm of the
syllables, as the bird swings on his branch
The Early tQ the rhythm of the breeze. But gradually
"
_
certain accents, certain turns and cadences
were retained, and through frequent repetitions these primitive melodies became fixed in
the Christian communities, and were handed down to

falling of the voices

(unison)

to

the

.

succeeding generations.
In the third and fourth centuries, when the spreading of the Christian faith had made mere oral trans-

mission of the melodies more and more imand yet the necessity of uniformity
in the singing only more urgent in propor-

possible,

t,
.

j-,

tion,

some learned and

able bishops like

(333-397) began to collect and sift the
scattered material and, with some knowledge of the

Ambrosius

Still
ancient Greek systems, commit it to writing.
later, Gregory the Great gave it its final shape in the
modes and chants which ever since have been identified

name and church music

with his
lie

TTfip
e Thirst
*

,

_

generally, and which
modern musical art.
The same great Pope also established in
Rome the first singing school, 1 where
talented boys were instructed by an acknow-

at the root of our

inging

similar

glorious

ledged master. From it eventually sprang
in other
Christian lands, able

institutions

teachers having been sent there from
1

at

Some

Rome

to

writers put the foundation of the first singing school in

an earlier date.

26

pro-

Rome


Music

in the First Centuries a.d.

pagate under Rome's auspices the only true and perfect
art of Christian singing.

At the same

time, in the

seclusion of the newly-founded cloisters,
to wrestle with
art



men began
new

the theoretical problems of the

the foundations of polyphpnic writing,
of great price for which they had vainly

viz., to lay

that pearl

searched in the musical legacy of the Greeks.
But while thus it fared comparatively well with singing and musical theory both lying at the warm bosom
of a Church which, in times, convulsed with changes,
stood firm and grew ever more powerful
°° r
instrumental music
poor Cinderella
r .
not
fortunate.
The
very
fact
that
was
so
almost nothing is known about her in the early centuries
of the Christian era, and very little in succeeding ones,
is proof of her miserable condition compared to that
of her two sisters of the art. Did instruments exist ?
Of course, Greek and Roman instruments endured well
The new Christian art,
into the later Middle Ages.
however, being essentially vocal in its nature and import while we may presume that this or that Biblical
instrument like the harp, the psalter, etc., continued
an honourable existence, if not in connection with
religious ceremonies, at least in the better Christian
homes 1 the majority of instruments, those former companions at pagan feasts and revelries, were very likely
shunned at first by the Christians, and then gradually





!



.





1
We must also mention the organ, which from the ninth century
was employed in the churches to accompany the singing, and the
monochord, which served for teaching purposes,

27

Story of the Violin
by the irresistible centrifugal force of prejudicial
Church influence driven, together with the instrumentHere lived, and
alists, to the periphery of social life.
indeed was very much alive, the large community of
gladiators,
Gladiators,

histrions,

jongleurs,

buffoons,

and all
such as catered to man's worldly lusts and
appetites, and fed on the rough lawlessness
Toneleurs
They were a remnant of
of the times.
ancient Roman corporations, swelled by new promiscuous elements: a motley, homeless, wretched crowd
of semi-vagabonds, who had preserved their identity
through centuries of barbarian invasions and devastations, and carried it from their former haunts of the
sh

wmen, rope-walkers,

dancers,

'

.

devil,

Rome,

into

the

Roman

provinces and

among

and Spain, they
spread north and east and west, beyond
the Danube and the Rhine, and many a little band
may have, on Norman vessels, reached the British
Isles long before King Alfred went as minstrel x to
Cursed by the Church, despised and
the Danes.
loathed and feared, and yet the not unwelcome guests
at many a pagan and Christian court or camp,
with the great and small, with good and bad, they
roamed about the land in large and in small bands, with
women, children, dogs, and carts, in search of a hardearned livelihood. There was nothing in the way of

barbarian
gradually

tribes.

First

in

Gaul

-

cheap
1

The

amusement

that these

Barnums

designation minstrel in this connection

is

of the road

to be understood as

singer or bard, a class quite distinct from the one here referred to.

28

Music

in the First Centuries a.d.

had not among their stock-in-trade, from a punch-andjudy show, a monkey, trained dogs, bears, and pigs,
to a pretty woman from the East who knew how to
paint her face and roll her eyes and throw her limbs
about to the wild rhythm of a Roman bacchanal. To
attract attention, to amuse at any price was the first
consideration
music, such as it was, was only an
accessory. In this worst of company we shall next meet
the ancestor of our violin.
;

29

CHAPTER
FIRST

We left

VII.

BOWED INSTRUMENTS

the'rebab and

its

bow

IN EUROPE.

(presumably) in keeping"

of the Persian and the Arab.

a matter of general history how, in the year 622
Arab turned Mohammedan and conqueror of
the faith how he carried his victorious arms from Syria
to India; and how presently (711 a.d.) a mighty cloud
of dark-skinned fanatics rolled over Egypt into Spain,
threatening to bury Western Europe and a young
Christianity.
The danger was averted by the timely
victory of Carl Martell, 1 and only in Spain the Moors
But it is
retained a hold for several centuries more.
interesting in connection with our subject that very
soon after this historical event, the Mussulman conquest
of Spain (or rather, after Ahderrahmany driven from
Persia, founded, in 756, the Caliphate of Cordova in
Spain), bow instruments appear for the first
Kebab
time in Spain and Southern Europe, and
n er
musical historians have from this fact drawn
the not illogical conclusion that that modest
escutcheon of peace, the fiddle-bow, came to us from
its Eastern home on the wings of war
It is

a.d., the

;

.

1

Baltic of Tours

and

Poitiers,

732 A.Di


First

Bowed

Instruments in Europe

J
What was the first Europeah
rebab like? We do not
know exactly; but the Arabs to this day use an instrument played with a bow which they call rebab 1
(see
Figs. 3, 4).

It

is

pear-shaped,

has

sometimes
-

'tuned

in

and

fourths,

and
and is often
European
Rebafas

two

three strings

elaborately

carved and

ornamented

with two halfmoon shaped soundholes in the belly.
A
similar instrument probably served as the pattern for the instrument
or instruments which
all through the Middle

Ages figured in Europe
under the names of
rubebe,

rabel,

rebec,

and gigue

in

robel, robis,

and arrabis

French;

Portuguese; rubeba,

in

rebecca

rebeba,
1

A name

FtG. 3.

Flu. 4.

REBAB AND KEMANGEH (ALSO SOMETIMES
CALLED A REBAB).

From

the descriptive catalogue, South

Kensington Museum.

in

probably derived from the Persian revahva

—that

is,

ting melancholy sounds; see Carl Engel's Researches into the

emit-

Early

History of the Violin Family. This author is of the opinion that
the Arabs received the instrument from the Persians at the time 01
the conquest of Persia, because music there was then in
higher
-a.

state of cultivation

than with the Arabs

;

but this fact alone would

hardly warrant the assumption that the rebab became only then
to the Arabs.

31

known

Story of the Violin
and Geige ohne Biinde 1 (withGerman; and rubible, rebec, and also

Italian; rebec, rebelani,

out frets) in

crowd

in

rather

which

forcibly
I

The latter designation suggests
Welsh crwth, an instrument of

English.

shall

the

speak presently.

The oldest representation of such a transplanted rebab was extracted by the Abbot Martin Gerbert 2 from a
manuscript dating from
the beginning
,

tury.

Com- The oldest

paring
I

of the

cen-

ninth

it

(Fig. 6) with

European
Repre-

sentative

the Arabian

prototype (Fig. 3) the
family likeness (apart

0*1 the
bow) is unfr

mistakable,
although it

— REBAB

The
Family
Likeness

KSH-SHA'eR (pOET-FIDDLE).
Used in the coffee-houses of Cairo to accom- is called
pany recitations ; after each verse the poetmusician plays a little interlude, (See Engel's " lira."
FIG. 5.

.

descriptive catalogue.)

somewhat
lute),
1

time,

its

by Gerbert
At the same
form resembles

the ancient chelis (a small variety of the

a fact which

Geige and gigue

mean

is

not surprising

evidently the

when

it

is

re-

same instrument, both words

being probably derived from the French gigot= leg of mutton (on
account of the similarity of the form). See Ruehlmann: Ceschichte der

Bogen-instrumcnte ; Brunswick, 1882.
2
De Cantu et Musica Sacra ; pub. 1774.

32

Bowed

First

Instruments in Europe

membered

that some little time must have elapsed
between the presumed first introduction of the rebab
and the above-mentioned representation given byMartin Gerbert in his De Cantu et Musica.
New
Sjurroundings, circumstances
(other preexisting forms of instruments),
and the desire for greater practicability, for

a handier,
needs have

more
graceful
form,
must
wrought changes from the

original

that eventually led to the final

shape

which we mostly

find the rebec

depicted in

From

the first

succeeding
that

centuries. 1

we have any

record

of the

in

ru-

bebe or rebec and all
through the Middle Ages
the bow appears as part

and parcel of the
1

As

to the

one

Gerbert's rubebe

instru-

string

on

compared to

the two on the ordinary Arabian
rebab,
or

it is

explainable one

another.

Manuale

Branzoli

in

way
his

Storico del Violimsta

speaks of a species of Oriental
rebab which has only one string;

FIG.

6.— EARLIEST REPRESENTATION OF
A EUROPEAN FIDDLE,

moreover, there is another bowed

known

Egypt as Rebab esh-Sha'er (Fig. 5) which has
used like a 'cello, with an iron foot stuck in the
ground.
It is possible that the European cousin-ancestor began with
one string, and more were added as circumstances called for them.

instrument

in

only one string, and

On

is

representations of rebecs in later centuries

and often three

strings.

33

we

invariably find two,

Story of the Violin
and this is of some
have occasion to observe.
Although this Eastern importation is the one oldest
European representative of the violin family of which
we possess documentary proof, it is by no
&
means certain that it really and absolutely
J~
.
_,
was the oldest. Not a few historians, indeed,
,
are inclined to bestow this honour (of
ancieniti) on an instrument nearer home
viz., the
Welsh crwth. Some readers will no doubt know from
ment.

It

absent

never

is

significance, as

we

;

shall



illustrations or descriptions this quaint instrument,

mony

1

—a

when



in

use among Welsh bards
according to unimpeachable testi-

collections of curios, but

as late as 1776,

now

and found only here and there

into disuse

fallen

still

in

John Morgan, on the

certain bard,

Isle of

Anglesey, was able to evoke from it its now forgotten
mysteries of sound.
Its claim for being the oldest bowinstrument in Europe rests chiefly on the
Its Claims
interpretation

poem
Poitiers, who
Latin

of

two

lines

of

an elegiac

of one Venantius Fortunatus,

Bishop of
lived between 560 and 609 a.d.,
thus more than a century prior to the alleged introduction
The verse reads:
of the Arabian rebab.
"

1

vol.
2

Romanusque

lyra plaudat, tibi Barbaras harpa,
Grascns achilliaca, chrotta Brittanna canat." 2

Archaologia ;
iii.,

or,

Miscellaneous

Tracts

relating

to

Antiquity,,

with a description by Daines Barrington.

Translated

:

Let the

Romans applaud

thee with the lyre, the

Barbarian with the harp, the Greek with the cithara;

crwth sing.

34

let

the British

First
The

Bowed Instruments

crotta here referred to

is

in

Europe

supposed to be the ances-

Welsh crwth, and the word " canat" to imply that
was an instrument capable of producing a singing

tral
it

'

'

tone," or, in other words,

an instrument played with
a bow.
In
opposition
stand the opinions of Carl
Engel, the late eminent
musical antiquarian and
scholar,

and others, who

see in the original

Welsh

crwth not a bowed instrument at all, but simply
one closely resembling the
small Greek lyre, the
strings of which were
twanged, and to which in
course of time,, when
foreigners had acquainted

the

Welsh

players

with

the fiddle-bow, the latter

was

applied.

quence,

the

assumed

In conseinstrument

some

features

d

agreeable to the use of
FIG. 7.— ANGLO-SAXON PIDDLES.
the new contrivance while
still
on the whole the earlier form was retained.
Thus, on the crwth of the .eighteenth century of
which alone we possess illustrations representing the



instrument

in its last

improved stage
35

— are

yet found


Story of the Violin
two others,
were twanged with
For details of Carl

four strings played with the bow, while

lower

lying

beside

the

bridge,

thumb of the left hand.
Engel's argument in support of his opinion, we refer
the reader to that author's admirable treatise on
the crwth. 1 The perusal hardly leaves room for any
the

other than the author's convic-

and seems almost the

tion,

word

that can

on the subject

last

possibly be said

— be this in relation

to the structural peculiarities of

the instrument, which point un-

mistakably to the lyre; or the
origin of the word crwth; 2 or the
established fact that the AngloSaxons (Fig. 7) were acquainted
with and left records of the fiddle
(rebec or crowd) long before
the

Welsh

there

bards.

is this

Its significance

And
FIG.

8.

—THREE-STRINGED

there

is

illustration

cannot be denied.'

also that well-known

of a three



CR&TH.

Nevertheless,

verse by Fortunate.

-

stringed

instrument evidently a crwth
taken from a manuscript which formerly belonged to
the Abbey St. Martial de Limoge (now in the Paris
National Library), and dating from the eleventh century
1

Carl Engel

chap.
2

:

Researches into the Early History of the Violin Family,

ii.

Interesting

is

Fftis's opinion

;

see this author's Stradivari.

36

First

Bowed

Instruments in Europe

There is further a quaint allusion to the
crwth (dating from the beginning of the tenth century)
quoted by Vidal, 1 which points directly to an instrument original with the bards and different from harp
and pibroch, though not necessarily one of the bowed
kind.
In short, since the key to unlock the dark
(see Fig. 8).

chambers of the prehistoric past of these British Isles
and Northern Europe is once for all lost, and we can
only form more or less conjectural ideas by peeps
through the keyhole, as it were, these upholders of
the crwth theory have no particular reason to give up
their opinion.
1

Vidal: Les Instruments i Archtt

" Deuxieme p^riode du

(vol.

vi.-xvie. siecle."

37

i.;

Paris, 1876-77);

under



CHAPTER

VIII.

A MEETING.
the rebab and its bow had been brought to
Europe. As we said it fell on evil times as regards
instrumental music generally, there was nothing left
for it but t© make its home with the homeless, among
the outcasts of society, with the " fahrende Leute," as
the clown, the punchthey were called in Germany
and-judy man, the wandering minstrel and musician.

Thus

:

How

did

it

find its

way

to

him

?

a novelty, an object of
which perhaps a
curiosity, like this Eastern emigrant
bronze-faced Moor had first displayed before a chance
audience at a street corner in Valladolid or Cordova
should not have attracted sooner or later the attention
With
of the wayfaring man who went everywhere.
an eye for business he took possession of it at once.
In its primitive, native form it cannot, have required
any particular skill or practice. It was just the thing
he needed, a capital addition to his amusement reperHow the Goth and Frank would open their
toire.
eyes wide at its strange weird tones how very good
also for training dogs and sustaining the rhythm for the
From henceheavy legs of dancing Master Bruin
It

would be surprising

if



!

!

38

A

Meeting
Europe was
began at the very bottom of the

forth the future of the Eastern guest in

assured

—be

it

that

it

social ladder.



For two whole centuries that is, from the beginning
of the ninth to well into the middle of the eleventh



century it must have been identified with
darkest period in the career of the
-o
j
wandering minstrel
if
indeed we may
_
,
already call the poor wretch so who, for
q
mere dear life's sake, had to be half-adozen things in one fiddler as well as clown, dancer,
the

;

.

.

:

and Heaven knows what else.
After the middle and towards the end of the eleventh
century, when Western Europe was nearing the great
singer, actor,

romantic movement associated with the troubadours
.and minnesanger,

we meet

first

on monuments and

the annals of the times another kind of

instrument.

It is not, like

in

bow

the rebab, pear-

";

New

shaped with bulging back; it resembles
i °!
It has a sonorous T
the form of the guitar.
Instrument
r
..
chest, consisting of a back and a belly and
aooears
sides or ribs connecting them, it has (more
or less accentuated) curvatures or embouchures at the
sides such as were noticeable on the illustration of the
In short, adding to
crwth of the eleventh century.
these features the bow, there is no mistaking this
new instrument for anything else than a predecessor
of the viol. With the rebab it shares sometimes the
Oriental shape of the sound-holes (a C or half-moon),
which suggest a possible Eastern origin, or at least a
-

-

i

t

39

.

.

,

Story of the Violin

FIG.

0.

Bas-relief,

—MEDIEVAL

ORCHESTRA, ELEVENTH CENTURY.

Abbey of

Georges de Boscherville, Normandy.

St.

When and how it came
sojourn in Oriental countries.
to Europe, whether before or after the introduction of
the rebab,

we do

Some

not know.

features point to a

relation to the Indian saranguy, a

supposed

Possibly a

CO usin of the omerti and sarinda, and deDescendant scenci an t of the ravanastron; and it is just
°

e

that

possible

two branches of the same

family of Indian

astron

bowed instruments

existed

and developed simultaneously and yet apart
from each other

met
also

in

the

in

camp

possible

that

course of ages, until they

the

of the wandering minstrel.
its

history



and

relation

It

lay

is

in

another direction viz., that it was originally
some Asiatic, Persian, Hebrew, Arabic (or Greek, if
you will) twanged instrument which found its way into
Western Europe during the great migration of the
people, for all we know, in the track of the Huns
quite

40

The Fiddle-bow

FIG.
Bas-relief,

9.— MEDIEVAL ORCHESTRA, ELEVENTH CENTURY.

Abbey of

St.

Georges de Boscherville, Normandy.

(Descriptive

Catalogue, South Kensington Museum.)

who invaded Europe

in a.d. 375, and for nearly a
century occupied quarters in Hungary under King
Attila, the Etzel of the Nibelungenlied.
That we have
no illustrated record of it prior to the eleventh century
(see Fig. 9) is no proof that it did not exist
in Europe long before that time. 1 Perhaps on
_
its way about as twanged nondescript it had
,
R
met the Greek lyre and taken some points
from it for the improvement of its form or exchanged
courtesies with the monochord, with the result of
securing for itself a bridge and a real fingern *° " ce
board until, one fine day, somewhere,
somehow, it was introduced by the notorious
" spielman " to the fiddle-bow, and its fate was sealed.
.

;



1

The

Benedictine monk, Otfried (780-875), mentions the Fidula in
Evangcliorum as one of two bowed instruments then in

his Liber
existence,

41

"

Story of the Violin
This new instrument, when we get sight of it on monuments, went in Germany under the name of Fiedel or
Vedel. 1
reference in the famous " Nibelungenlied

From a
to

Volker,

videlaer," 2

the
it

who

spielman

is

called

would almost appear as

predecessor of the viol was

first

" spanhen

if this

known

fiedel or

in parts

of

Middle and Eastern Europe before it became popular in
the South.
For, although this great national Teutonic
poem was composed, or rather compiled, in the twelfth
century, and is largely a product of fiction, its main
contents, wondrously woven of history and myth, had
probably been simmering in the minds of the people
and been narrated and sung by the bards and minstrels
for centuries before. 3
Moreover, the striking resemblance which the earliest representations of the fiedel
show with the gaudock of the Russian peasantry and a
sort of fiddle yet in use in parts of

(where

it is

Norway and

Iceland

called "fidla") lend additional strength to

made its way from the East
and North to the South, while the rebab (or rather the
rebec, gigue, geige' spread from the South and Southwest to the North both through the instrumentality of
the conjecture that the fiedel



1

See Appendix.

2

The

and long

fine fiedel or fiddle-player

like

" who wielded a fiddle-bow

—broad

a sword."

3

It is known that Charlemagne collected much of the old folk-lore
which was scattered among conquered heathen nations. Unfortunately,
his bigoted son ordered these treasures to be burned, and it is not
impossible that an early version of the
Nibelungenlied," or saga,
'

'

shared the same

fate.

42

Fiedel or Vedel
those great cosmopolitan tramps, the Spielleute.
At
all events, from the end of the eleventh century on
both kinds of bowed instruments, the fiedel or early
(with sides and embouchures), and the
rebec or gigue kind (without either), appear in company of the wandering musician, who therefore next
claims our attention.

viol varieties

43

CHAPTER
THE MINSTREL AND MUSICIAN
Times had improved.
sionary

work

IX.
IN

THE ROMANTIC AGE.

Aside from the general mis-

of the Church, the successive reigns of

Charlemagne, the Carlovingians (843-911),
r f ? a an ^ Salic kings (919-1024) had left theirmarks
on the political face of continental Europe.
«
.
Strong rule had brought greater safety to
Safety
the ruled; safety had brought stability, and
stability order
and with order came those other
gentler forces or influences
better manners, better
tastes, etc., working on and slowly transforming the
minds of the people. Instrumental music, such as
it was apart from the Church, surely profited too in
a modest way.
It is probable that the better class
of wandering musicians had then already begun to
separate from the worst, lowest, and roughest elements
of the wayfaring people with which they had been hitherto
indissolubly associated.
While in a former age of
violence, insecurity, and barbaric taste, they would
have jeopardised their existence if cast adrift from their
viler companions on the road, they could afford now,
1

;

:

some cases at least, to strike out for themselves.
At any rate instrumentalists of all kinds, and fiddlers
in

44

Romantic Age
in particular,

must have become quite numerous about

the eleventh century, for soon after we find in Germany
the designation of fidaeler (fiddler) and piper applied
to wandering instrumentalists, minstrels, and musician

tramps generally, and not infrequently also to the whole

community of the

Spielleute collectively.

That great wave of religious and chivalrous enthusiasm which at the end of the eleventh century
swept over South-western Europe, and on its crest bore
the Crusader to the Holy Sepulchre which irresistibly
touched high and low, the beggar and king also beat





A

against the wandering minstrel's tent.

Christian

world had come of age, and troubadour and knight
joined hands to celebrate the day with
JNl lltmar £
poetry and song and splendid tournaments,
and our minstrel shook the nightmare of _
..
"receding
preceding centuries from him and tuned his
Centuries
fiddle and drew near.
Yes, poetry and
music had become the fashion, we would say; the
pastime, pleasure of the great nay more, it was the
precious jewel in their diadem of knightly
Troubavirtues, for even kings esteemed it honour
UrS
1
naturally
and
reckoned
kings
of
song;
to be
Jf?
people of the craft benefited from
the little r
Sanger,
The golden age of and Poor
this change of things.
troubadour and knight was also the poor
Minstrels
f>

.



'

minstrel's harvest time.
1

Richard Lion-heart, Charles of Anjou, Thibaut de Navarre; and

Germany, the Hobenstaufen Emperor Frederick

45

II.

in

;

Story of the Violin

We see them presently tramping through the land,
mostly in little bands, as fiddlers, pipers, trumpeters,
and tambours, halting wherever their services were in
demand, or seeking (the best of them) the protection
and employment of the great who needed them.

We

see the fiddler

— fiddle swung across

his back, in striking apparel

(if he
could afford it, silk and velvet),
with peacock or rooster feather in

his cap,
fitting

short frock, and tightly-

breeches,

as

in

Fig.

10.

There was not a tournament or pageant anywhere that our fiddling,
piping friends did not
attend in numbers varying with the occasion

no wedding, big or
small,

there

but
to

they

promote

were
fes-

and mirth. Not
seldom they went away

tivity

— PERFORMER

rewarded, next
on a village
common, where young and old gathered around them
for a dance.
Again they would pass a
Playing
castle on the way, and, when a kind and
before the
open-handed knight granted permission, perCastle
form in the court with its mossy well and
shady bass-wood tree, while perhaps the sweet-faced
FIG. 10.

TRUMPET.

ON THE MARINE
TYPE OF DRESS.

46

richly

to

halt

;

Romantic Age
children of the knight, half curious and half anxious, at
safe distance watched, open-mouthed, the queer antics

my fair lady from the windows of
her bower smiled upon the picturesque scene, and then
gave orders to feed the poor fellows well.
Or they
would be admitted (if not too many) into the immediate
of the fiddle-bow, and

presence of the master to entertain him when he sat at
meals. Sometimes a noble knight kept in his pay a little
band to follow him on marches and to tournaments. 1
By the world in general these wandering minstrels,
or, more properly, musicians, were still held in very
low esteem. Only one step separated them
from the wayside tramp and miscreant.
_ ?"j
The old law-books of Germany declared
Position
them as " ehr und rechtlos " (without honour
and right) their children were considered illegitimate
they were not allowed to take up a trade, and when
they died the holy Sacraments were as often as not
refused them by the Church, and whatever property
they left was confiscated by the magistrate. 2
Yet
the charm of an apparently free and independent life,
in days when the spirit of adventure ran high among
all classes, attracted many elements which otherwise
;

would have kept
1

we

From

aloof.

Nor were they

all

poor and

Ulrich von Lichtenstein's Frauendienst (Lachman Ed., 1665)
had in his suite two trombone-

learn that this noble, in 1227,

:

two fiddlers and one flutist, on horseback, to charm away with
their gay music the fatigues of the journey.
2
See the so-called Sachsenspiegel, the law-book for Northern Germany in the early Middle Ages (1215-35).

players,

47

Story of the Violin
of low descent.
That singular, grotesque mediaeval
product, the wayfaring scholar, had long been partial
to the

company of the minstrel.
it was a friar who got

Now

tired of the

seclusion,

perhaps too the high living of his cloister, and joined the
" forces " and the meagre fare, or went about by himself

making a

livelihood as best he could with the scant

he happened to possess or it was a
nobleman who, from love of art and adventure, or
through straitened circumstances, shattered hopes,
or disappointed love, chose the life of a wandering
musical

abilities

;

real

To the latter class belonged the troubadours
and minnesanger.
A keen distinction was made between these and the
common wandering singer and musician. The troubadour, who flourished principally in sunny
een
Provence or in France and Flanders
..
p..
generally, was always of noble birth
not
seldom he was a knight, who knew as well how to
handle the sword in tournament and battle as to
make verses in honour of the fair ladies in the land.
He was the honoured guest at kings' and princes' courts.
To him my lady threw the rose from her bosom. He
only invented the chanson the poetry and melody he

minstrel.

.

;





did not sing himself; he left that to his minstrel or

When the latter also supplied the music to the
poetry of his noble lord, as it often happened, the
minstrel was called trouveur bastard.
Sometimes a troubadour had a number of musicians,
vocal and instrumental, in his service men whom he

jongleur.

;

48


Romantic Age
had possibly picked out for their superior abilities and
gentlemanly manner from among the common lot of
wandering musicians.
The social position of these
jongleurs and trouveurs bastard was then,
a high one (on account of their

if

not exactly

low

birth), at least far superior
to that of their brothers

on the road, and above
all,
comparatively secure

that

is,

out

the

withcare

for daily bread

and

shelter
which were inseparable from a life on
the road. 1 This unMore democratic ideas
in
Germany
among the minnesinger
1

prevailed

about

a

century

later,

FIG. IX. —REINMER THE MINNESANCER.
and the splendour of the
After having accompanied the Duke Frederick
Hohenstaufen
emperors to the second Crusade, he died at Vienna about
1215 a.d.
had drawn the high flood
of romance and chivalry from France into a new and wider bed. Some
of the minnesingers, it is true, employed also musicians to help them
in the interpretation of their poetic creations, but on the whole they
did not think it beneath them to sing and play themselves (see Fig. 1 1),
and had no need of fiddlers and pipers. Moreover, high birth was not
an absolute, essential qualification for the minnesanger ; we find among
them some illustrious names of low descent.

when

the second Crusade

.

49

Story of the Violin
deniable advantage accorded to the few compared to
the great majority, led probably to the founding of the
first

privileged limited

company

of musicians,

La Con-

frerie des Mdn&riers, 1 in Paris, a step that not only
called forth similar organisations 2 in other countries,

but, one

may

was soon
and

say,

foreshadowed a great change which

come over

to

the

of the mediaeval fiddler

life

piper.

The swan-song of the Minnesanger had scarcely died
away, slowly over castles, rivers, hills and dales, when
there came a rude' awakening from the pleasant dream
of romance, love, and chivalry. We next find Germany



a reign of terror a kingless time,— the
interregnum, as it is called.
And next, again her
people draw behind the walls of strong cities, where
they feel more secure against the unlawful inroads of
degenerate knights and highwaymen who infest the
roads and river-sides. Then in consequence
in the throes of

of this centralisation of

l"f


eis

life

in

the

cities,

grow in size, power, wealth, and influence
All manner of trade and handicraft is
these

.

Born and

-

stimulated, even poetry and art begin to
sprout among the solid burgers.
The

Reared

Meister song
tailors,
1

and

is born and reared.
Bakers, shoemakers,
and carpenters form worshipful companies under

Founded 1330, patented 1331, under the patron
St. Julien, and a king, Roi des Minetriers,

Instruments H Archet, vol.
2

See Busby

:

i.

In Vienna the Oberspiel-grafen-amt

in Yorkshire.

Genest
See Vidal Les

saints St.

:

;

also in

History of Music.



England

at Beverley,

Romantic Age
the strong

And our
drawn

arm

of the magistrate and night-watchman.

fiddling friends of the road ?

They

also have

closer together for mutual protection, because the

laws of the land withheld it from them. They have likewise formed associations with laws and
T e
Musicians from
regulations of their own.
er
'
all over the land meet at certain intervals in
.
.

certain places,

and

settle difficulties

among



-r.

themselves under a high court of their own.
That is not enough. Some indeed continue a roaming, dissolute existence in the showman's camp (and
have continued to this day); but the better among them
find a precarious life on the insecure roads less and less
to their taste, and for the most plausible of reasons seek

down. Thus the wandering
became a thing of the past. The
old times had gone never to return, and a century or
two later the fiddling tramp d'autrefois sat a respectable
citizen with his friend Thomas, the comfortable town
piper, and his friend Schmidt, master saddler, or baker,
or tailor, over the mug of ale, talking of the good old
times of his great grandfather or the bad old times ?
Ah, old times are always good
the

towns and

settle

minstrel and musician



!

Si

CHAPTER

X.

RETROSPECT.
More

than six hundred years of history, of human
of an astounding musical development in
European countries lie between us and the men to whose
hands was once principally entrusted the existence of
instrumental music.
It was a babe then, which might
have died from the inclemency of the times, or of
starvation by the road-side; but it grew in spite of
all,
and now fills the world with its glory. Poor
minstrel, poor fiddler, piper and tambour who had the
care of it
Somehow I have to think of
°T
t 'ie P oor des pi se d earth-worm preparing in
j
n espi e
S p r n g the hard frozen ground in our gardens
and fields to receive the seed which is to transform the barren land into beds of flowers and shrubs.
What else was he but such a poor, despised drudge ?
Some of the roseate light which romance has shed
around the noble troubadour and minnesanger has also
fallen on the memory of their humble brother as a
ray of the sun falls charitably on the tombstone under
which some long-forgotten hero sleeps. Yet, what a
poor compensation even in memoriam— for the neglect,
the contempt, the hardships, persecutions he had to
progress,

!

>

i



52

Retrospect
and what still poorer compensation for his inestimable service to our glorious art.
He
A Poor
did it unconsciously, no doubt.
He was no
suffer;

hero,

no martyr who

lives

and

dies for a

.

great cause,

as

geniuses and

other

\_.

sation

men

have done before and after him. He never pretended
to be more than he was, and he was more often than
not an incorrigible tramp and a nuisance, particularly
to beadles and ministers of the law.
Though it must
have required no small degree of call it devotion or
dog-like faithfulness to his calling, to remain a hunteddown, ill-paid, ill-treated musician, when it would have
been easier and more lucrative perhaps to become
something else worse a knave.
As to his service to music there cannot be two
How would music have fared if its progress
opinions.
had been left entirely in the hands of those
ow
learned men who laboured behind gloomy fl ,^°
cloister walls in the tracks of Hucbald and
, „
Fared ?
Guido of Arezzo? Perhaps it would have
come down to us like Chinese music, dried up, a
mummy instead of a thing of life and beauty.





,-,

A Mummy

p
"

Grau

ist alle

Griin

ist

Theorie,

,

—Goethe's

.,,

°

_

des Lebens junger Baum."
Faust.

Beauty

If the soul of music is the folk-song, if out of it
sprang in course of time that wealth of melody,
without which it is impossible to imagine our modern
musical art and its greatest exponents those poor



53

6

Story of the Violin
dejected fellows are before
their

all

to be thanked.

It

was

invent and spread about those treasures
sprang up like lovely flowers from untilled

lot

to

which
ground, planted by the hand of God seemingly, without beginning from the golden heart of the people.
They picked them up and carried them hither and
thither, sang and played them, and gave them back
to the people, only made dearer by their wanderings.
Again, it was the wayfaring musician who made
absolute music a thing to be loved and desired by
the lowly and the high, who made it truly cosmopolitan
as he himself was.
The wonders of polyphony even to-day appeal only
In those illiterate times what
to the few chosen ones.
would have been the fate of music if its popularity
had depended on the unsingable, unplayable, and indigestible harmonic essays of the declared, uncompromising theorists?
Would it not have been almost as
hopeless as trying to convince children of the beauty
of literature by means of spelling lessons in Greek or
Latin? Even in his own self-created, unapproachable
sphere of theoretical discoveries, did the plodding
scholar, who looked down contemptuously on the
incorrigible musician-tramp, never deign to take a hint
from him? Long before the scholar had made up his
mind to the use of thirds and sixths, the stupid, uneducated fellow of a fiddler had bombarded his ears
with these forbidden intervals, providing, of course,
he honoured with his presence fairs and public places
of amusements where our fiddler reigned supreme.



54

Retrospect
Did contempt for the perpetrator of these harmonic
crimes always act like cotton-wool in the ear
of the scholar, shutting it to the sensibility Ha "nonic
of the crime, nay, to its beauty ?
it was the minstrel and musician who
demand for instruments and, following
demand for improvements on them. Thus
the fiddler of the eleventh and twelfth cen- _
turies was directly father to the ultimate t

Lastly,

created

the

the

it,

e
.

while in the development of the clavier and organ, the favourite instruments of the learned musician, he had no
But in singing the praises of our Father to
share.
humble servant of the art the mediaeval
„.
creation of the violin

;



instrumentalist,

us

not

from

think

which

the fiddler and
little

sprang

of

the



piper

noble

Dunstable,

,

let

stock

~

-

t jj e

Violin

Dufay,

Josquin, Orlando di Lasso, and the whole galaxy
It was the scholar, after he
of later musical giants.
had mastered the art of polyphony and had learned
to infuse into formerly dead creations the spark of
life,

of melody, feeling, etc.,

who

inspired the lowly

instrumentalist with loftier art-conceptions,

stimulated his industry, his technical efforts,
and widened his sphere of usefulness, poly-

phonic choral singing in the fourteenth and
fifteenth

centuries being,

as

we

shall see,

t-noral
*.

,

j.^
Centuries

largely responsible for the various improved

forms of the viol. The predecessors of Palestrina, Bach,
and Beethoven paved also the way for Corelli and Tartini.
55



CHAPTER

XI.

COMPETITORS.

We

leave now the fiddler of the early Middle Ages to
consider shortly the progress which bow-instruments
made under the auspices of the times.
runi ive

yy e found the primitive rebec or gigue
the South-west of Europe from the
beginning of the ninth century, and about two
in

centuries later an unmistakable ancestor of the viol

the fiedel.

Of

these two the first underwent few changes.
It
through the vicissitudes of the fleeting centuries
with something of true Eastern imperturbability as the

lived

companion of its first friend, the
After it had come to the height
Jean Char- of its
p0 p U l ar ity in the hands of Jean Char™! IIon
millon, whom Philip the Fair of France
created (1235) king of ribouds, on account
Rifaouds
of his cleverness on the rebec (see Fig. 12),
its star slowly declined again, and it ended a long and
constant,

faithful

minstrel.

'

eventful

career

some 1 say

in
1

in

rather

straitened

circumstances:

France as the companion of the com-

Vidal: Les Instruments h Archet, vol.

56

i.

Competitors
monest

street fiddler as late as the

century.

It

gave up

for the chrysalis

its life

— like

end of the eighteenth
the

—for the sake of the

worm
violin,

Fellow-

its life-long cousin and fellow«
and competitor, the viol.
Its
Comv&titot
form has been immortalised in many pictures, the finest perhaps being that of Fra Angelico

as did also
traveller

the gallery degli Uffizi at Florence. Who has
not admired that sweet-faced angel holding
ra
with the most perfect grace her rebecca?
C °!
,'
Of a truth, dying so in the arms of an s
angel should have been sweet.
Though
Aneel
its voice has been silenced, its memory will
be kept green as long as admiring eyes fall on that
lovely guardian of its form.
had opportunity, through the courtesy of Signor

in

,





We

Rome, to play on
a rebec. It looked old and crude enough to pass for
a contemporary of Colin Musset, though it may only
have been a later-date copy constructed after an original
G. Branzoli, librarian of St. Cecilia in

design.

If

rightly,
was worked— body,
—from one hollowed-out piece of hard

we remember

neck, scroll, and

all

it

wood, presumably cherry, the finger-board being glued
to the neck so as to leave a little aperture, through
which one could perceive that the neck was hollow;
in addition to this strange third sound-hole, there were
two rather large and crudely-cut / holes in the belly.
Three strings, a low bridge, and a crude attempt at a
scroll

completed the instrument.

The tone was agree-

able and sufficiently loud to admit of the belief that

57


Story of the Violin
Jean Charmillon, king of ribouds, as far as his instrument went, was not so very badly off after all. Branzoli
also speaks of the tone of the primitive rebec
as having been sweet and " insinuante " and
R,
resembling the human voice. 1 This is rather
in striking contrast to an opinion we find quoted by
Vidal 2 from French
sources.
But in a
like this

to

middle
making

a

e

it is

safe

tainly

rse,

due allowance for
prejudices

against

an instrument
which

then

had

already

been

relegated

to

the lowest
rank.

tone of the

If the

rebec had really
been so
FIG. 12.

From an

— REBEK.

able,

Italian painting of the thirteenth century.

so

disagree-

" sec

et

criant" in compari-

son with the viol of the times, Fra Angelico (1387-1455)
his angel, the exponent

would hardly have associated
1

Branzoli

:

voce umana. "
s

"

La voce

era graziosa ed insinuante a somiglianza della

Manuale

Storico del Violinista, p. II.

Vidal Les Instruments
:

it

Archel, vol.

58

i.

Competitors
heavenly music, with an instrument proverbially
" criant " and objectionable.
There seem to have been rebecs of various sizes and
varying pitch. According to Fdtis, 1 Jerome of Moravia,

of

Story of the Violin
it

is

not surprising that the place of the bass in a
was usually filled by an instrument

quartet 1 of rebecs

called the marine trumpet 2 (see Fig. 10).

More

varied were the changes which the viol, or

rather the fiedel or oldest predecessor of the viol,
to suffer before

a

„Pf

it

found

form of the violin.
of its whereabouts

its

We

had

last rest in the

know

very little
beginning or
middle of the thirteenth century, when it must have
been in considerable vogue in Southern Europe.
According to Branzoli, 3
,

f

until the

is in the archives
of Bologna a decree of

there

the year 1261 forbidding

—at the risk of a
of
one hundred soldi for the
offence — the going
fine

first

about and playing
by night in

the

streets of that city.

A

viol

the

law existed also
England several cen-

similar
in

turies later.
-PLAYER OF THE FOURTEENTH
CENTURY.

FIG. 14.'

From
century

the

we

thirteenth

find the viol

mentioned in many poetical productions, particularly
of Provence, and also in many illustrations representing the instrument in various modifications sometimes
:

1

8

and

2

Stradivari, pp. 31, 32.
G. Branzoli: Manuale Storico del Violinisla, 1894.

60

Competitors
employed like the Spanish guitar, sometimes played
with a bow (see Figs. 13 and 14), and lastly also played
by means of a wheel which was inside the sounding-box
and consisted of resined horse-hair. In this latter form
it went in France under the name of vielle (evidently a

word viole), in Germany as Bettler
England as hurdy-gurdy (see Fig. 15).

modification of the
leyer, in

FIG. 15.

A large kind of hurdy-gurdy,

— OHGANISTRUM.

which was played by two persons

(see Fig. 9)

;

in

use as early as the tenth century.

Generally speaking, from the more frequent representations of the gigue or rebec in the hands of the
minstrels

and wandering

fiddlers at those

times (nth- 1 3th centuries), one might infer

e

owe

bow

instrument the early viol did , _ ,
them as strongly as the
ence
Then
smaller, more easily handled gigue.
in succeeding centuries this changed, and the viol in
its many
nay, almost countless varieties and modithat as a

not

appeal

to





and number of strings, became
the bowed instrument in preference to any other.
fications in size, pitch,

Gi

—"

CHAPTER

XII.

THE INSTRUMENT OF RESPECTABILITY.

The

minstrel and fiddler of the tenth and thirteenth

centuries had,
fifteenth

and

life.

settled

we have

centuries

He had— with some

down

in

the fourteenth and

seen, in

abandoned

the towns

his

wayfaring methods

exceptions, of course

and

respectable, law-abiding citizen.

and become a
That, doubtless, was

cities

a step in the right direction, though it may have cost
him many a pang when the birds in spring called to
him, or when he saw the clouds sailing yonder high
above the church steeple on paths of azure-blue like
big white ships, bidding him follow into the wide, wide
world which once had been his, and he had instead
to stay in the low, evil-smelling " Giebel-stiibehen
(garret) with wife and children and be respectable.
Yet in winter he appreciated the warmth of the fireside
and the groschen 1 that came in regularly, and not, as
once, at the point of the fiddle-bow



or worse, not
with the result that he had to starve and
sleep under a haystack, and be hunted down the next
at

all,

1

A

small coin.

62

Instrument of Respectability
morning by the peasant's maledictions and dog. He
too, because the time hung heavy on him,
Spurred
practised more diligently, and he had a the clever
clearer head for work (the old nightCabinetmaker to
of
that).
His
took
care
extra'
consequence improved, and
Efforts
as it improved, the desire for better
instruments made itself felt, and this spurred the
to
extra
efforts.
clever
cabinetmaker
These efforts were directed as the gigue ImPr°ve-

watchman
technique,

in



same

did

not

the

improvement of the

viol,

in

offer

the

together

short,

became the instrument of



scope towards
form.
The
with the lute,

viol

.

„,

.

Form

respectability.

As already mentioned, towards

the end of the
century polyphonic writing and choral
singing received a great stimulus through
Stimulus
the musical genius of Dufay and Dunstable
through
contrapuntists,
and the early Netherland
, ,-.
and this again reacted naturally on the
,
of Dufay
?
..
,
.
instrumental music and the instrumentalists
,
ana
fourteenth

.

.

of the day.

Thus

far the latter

had had no

Dunstable

A

great many of them
probably did not know till then one note from another,
though they might have played on the fiddle Instrumentso as to make a maiden's heart flutter and alists now
bring life into the stiff legs of a septua- Employed
in the
genarian. Now they were employed by the
Churches
not
only
to
city fathers among others,
part in art-music.

furnish the instrumental music on festive occasions,

6a

Story of the Violin
pageants, corporation banquets, funeral and wedding
processions, dances, etc., etc., but they were drawn
into the

music-making

learned the notes



if

Next, they

at the churches.

they had not done so before

—to

double the voice parts in choral singing.
An independent orchestral (instrumental) accompaniment did not yet exist. This practice

j
.

gave birth to the construction of
sized viols

different-

the larger ones naturally corresponding to

:

and supporting the bass; the middle-sized ones the
tenor, and so forth.
In this way, to
n"
satisfy a want, whole groups of the same
struct ion of
,,
species ofc instruments were called into ex_.,.
* stence
There were bass viols, tenor and
sized Viols
treble viols, etc., with varying numbers of
(



,

,

.

'

.

,

-

strings. 1

Moreover,

sized instruments



by

m

j

t

a

acj vance

the

to

blocks, which

Corner

construction

the

led

of the

large-

of

corner

introduction

mark another important

m

instrument - making.

step

They

permitted an increase of tension of the resonant box formerly impossible, and therefreer

transmission

of

the

vibrations

of

the

strings.

Besides these several groups of instruments in use until
well into the sixteenth century, and

name

all

going under the

works of Agricola 8
there were others of special

of viol and specified in the

and Michael Prastorius, 3
design which in this or that country,
least,
1

enjoyed popularity.

See Appendix.

J

In Italy

See Appendix.

64

it

for a time at

was the "viola
3

See Appendix.


Instrument of Respectability
di

spalla,"

which we

see

depicted

on

Raphael's picture, "Apollo in Parnassus,"
in the hands of Apollo.
The
great painter, it is said, took
Favourite
for his model of the Greek god
Designs in
the then celebrated viol-player,

Special

Different

Countries

Sansecondo.

Further, there
existed the "viola bastarde,"

a viol with six strings of the bass-viol
kind, a little larger (broader) than the
viola da gamba, and held like the latter
that is, like our 'cello between
Also, the "viola di lira," a
knees.
little smaller than the 'cello; and the
"viola di bordone" (Fig. 16),
a formidable-looking affair with
six strings, underneath which
were twenty-two metal strings 1
that served as sympathetic
strings; and last, the "viola
d'amour," which is yet occasionally heard in concerts.
Fancy a large viola: seven
strings, partly gut, partly covered
with silver wire, tuned as follows







PPt
1

^

See Catalogue of Musical Instruments,
South Kensington Museum, by Carl Engel.

6S

VIOLA DI BORDONE.
Descriptive Catalogue, South

Kensington Museum.

Story of the Violin
are strung over a bridge, while another set of seven

very thin metal strings, tuned in unison with the above,
lie in the hollow between the feet of the bridge and
vibrate in sympathy 1 when the bow is drawn across
The tone of the viola d'amour is rich,
the top strings.
mellow, and sympathetic be it a little nasal (a feature



common
It

is

to all the old violas).

interesting to note that Prastorius has ascribed

the invention of the viola d'amour to the English.

At

English must have been particularly
enamoured of the charms of the viol kind of
instrument, for England was the last country which
yielded its viols to the irresistible claims of the
instruments of the violin family.
Till well into the middle of the eighteenth century
viols were yet to be found in use, the viola da gamba
or bass viol being the last to make room for the 'cello.
Only the double-bass has been left to this day to tell in
all

its

events the

own

inimitable

way

of the past glories of

its

kind.

1
The principle of sympathetic strings is of very ancient origin.
According to Carl Enge}, the Hindoos and Persians employ them on

several of their

bowed

instruments.

66

CHAPTER

XIII.

THE VIOLIN.

So

time had drawn near when our violin was
and usurp the sceptre in instrumental music,
driving before it king- that it is all the manifold
instruments which represented string music in past
the

to appear



ages.

It

was



simplicity once

more which conquered

In connection with the viola di bordone
and the viola d'amour we see this strikingly illustrated.

complexity.

There were other reasons for the coming and the
easy conquest of the violin. In conformity with altering art conditions, an instrument was needed of a more
pleasing, practical, and easier-handled form than the
old violas da braccio (arm viols) offered; next, an instrument which in its tone corresponded perfectly to the
soprano voice, which the old treble viols and violettas
did not, wherefore a cornet had often to be employed in
their stead and finally an answer was needed
Were the
to the prophetic knock of time, which knew
,mej" e * f
the world was ready to receive its musical
The unborn souls of Bach and
art ideal.
Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, clamoured at the
throne of God to be born into this earth.
;

67

Story of the Violin
But were the times really ready? Let us glance
around a little. We stand at the threshold of a new
The surplus animal
age, there can be no mistake.
energy of European nations had partly spent itself in
more than a thousand years of incessant, cruel wars.
For a time at least Europe draws up the vizor to breathe
and look about. Away in the dim distance across the
sea looms up America, which is to shift existing laws of
gravity, and India beckons the mariner with golden
In

finger.

Germany

the art of printing

is

invented

and England sees the last of the Wars of the
(1450)
Roses, and dreams of Shakespeare and an Elizabethan
1

5

What

age.

of Italy ?

That remarkable new

birth of intellectual

and

artistic

Europe, the Renaissance, had just been ushered

was blooming

in.

Everywhere a
e
veritable spring.
The magic brush of Fra
Angelico had drawn to earth the heavenly
host of messengers, angelic robins, nightingales, and
thrushes to call it forth.
Now Raphael was about to
empty his horn of plenty, and Michael Angelo to lay his
best at the altar of architecture and sculpture.
The air
was filled with mystery and rhyme and thought where
Dante, Ariosto, and Boccaccio tread. And the divinest
of the arts, music, was following that glorious pageant
of great men and things; as the red roses the
precious blood of spring come only late in June to
Palestrina, Carissimi,
crown all that went before.
It

in

Italy.

:

''

,



1

The

art of printing



music by means of movable types was invented

by Ottavianola Petrucci (born

1466).

68

Violin
Gabrieli,

Scarlatti

came

to

live

and

records on the pages of musical history.

came

also the remarkable

associated with the violin
its

men who

—to

existence.

69

leave

their

Lastly, there

will for ever

be

whose genius we owe

CHAPTER

XIV.

TWO GASPAROS.

Who

was the

matters
Question
not yet
~
>t

Answered

first

lute,

viol,

or

cabinet

maker

(it

form of the modern
This question has not yet been
violin ?
satisfactorily answered, though it is often
dismissed with the reply that it was Gasparo
da Salo, and on his head, therefore, the
v '°l m world has heaped sole honours of

not)

to

introduce the

authorship.

Although there can be no doubt that Da Salo's violins
are among the first of which we have absolute evidence,
the possibility of his not being the first maker has long
been felt. Indeed, an opinion is now widely prevalent
that the real invention of our kingly instrument must be
ascribed to another Gasparo; or, at least, that this
other Gasparo shares with him the honours.
any a
1o
jj g wag a certain Gaspar Duiffoprugcar.
To many of our readers perhaps a new and
N fr
strange name in such illustrious company,
but it will be found that its bearer's claims stand close
inspection indeed. Who was this Gaspar Duiffoprugcar?
He was a maker of lutes and viols of the most marvel-

Two
lous

workmanship

Gasparos

— some

bass viols of his, exquisitely



wrought, being still extant a man famous in his time,
when Gasparo da.Salo was only just born. Little more
was known of him until a certain Frenchwho was
man, Jean Baptiste Bonaventure Rochefort
a sr
(1777- 1 833) startled one day the violin world
by new information regarding him. Accorde
ing to Rochefort, Duiffoprugcar was born
in the Italian Tyrol about 1469, established himself
at Bologna as luthier with a brother, Uldrich, and
was taken by Frangois I. in 1515, in company of no
less a genius than Leonardo da Vinci, to Paris as
instrument-maker to the royal chapel.
Ill-health
obliged him, however, to move to Lyons, where he
died.
A beautiful engraving by Pierre Wceiriot, now
at the National Library in Paris, shows the artist in
his best years (about forty-eight) surrounded by musical
instruments (see Fig. 17). But this was not all. He
was also said to be the creator of the modern violin
form. And lo and behold! as if by magic, like witnesses unto the truth came forth one by one, from
their long hiding-places,
six in all, the „, ,,. ,.
s v
*
...
..
Six Violins
ff
violins of Uuiftoprugcar.
I hey were violins
and no mistake; not viols of the fifteenth and sixteenth century kind, but violins pure and simple
(be it somewhat heavy and clumsy in their proportions), with most of the well-known characteristics
the square shoulders (in opposition to the slanting
ones of the pld viols), the well-defined curves

*

'

'.

.



and corners

in

the

sides,

7i

the

scroll

and ff holes,

Story of the Violin
etc.— besides being marvels of workmanship
after the
of his famous bass viol.
The backs are

manner

FIG.

17.— GASPAK DUIFFOPEOGCAR.

72

Two

Gasparos

adorned with oil paintings 1 of
madonnas and saints and coats of arms in colours
and gold, the sides bearing verses the purfling is often
double and terminating in arabesques. All are labelled
one dated 1510; another, now at Aix-la-Chapelle,
1511; a third, now at Bologna, 1515; a fourth, 1517;
and a fifth one, belonging to the Prince Nicolaus Youssoupoff 2 in St. Petersburg, has a head (Duiffoprugcar's)
carved instead of a scroll, and on the label, "Gaspar
Duiffoprugcar Buononiensis, anno 1515."
Stronger proof for Rochefort's claims than these six
instruments could hardly have been found, and although
certain experts shook their heads and would not believe
in the joyous truth that at last the right man, the real
inventor of the violin, had been found, Duiffoprugcar's
fame rose. Various other writers, like Niederheitmann, 3
presently discovered other facts about him.
His name
had been really Tieffenbrucker, and .evidently
being difficult for Italian tongues to pro_,
nounce, the master had changed it into
Duiffoprugcar, and adopted the name for his labels.
Others being half-suspicious of the very early date of
his birth and yet not in the position to refute the evidence, sought solace in hunting for his birthplace, and
found it not in the Italian Tyrol but in Bavaria, thus
making him a genuine German.
laboriously

inlaid,

;





1

2

One was

formerly supposed to be by Leonardo da Vinci.
Author of "Observations on the Origin of the Violin," Journal

Encyclop.
3

Niederheitmann: Cremona.

73

Story of the Violin
So matters stood when quite recently (1893) a
Frenchman, Henri Coutagne, 1 sent another thunderbolt

into

the happy,

Duiffoprugcarites.

It

peaceful camp of the avowed
was nothing less than a complete

refutation of the hitherto accepted facts

Duiffoprugcar's

life.

and dates as to

Careful research in the archives

Lyons and among the documents bearing on Francois
private expenses, etc., had convinced this latest
authority that Duiffoprugcar was born about 15 14,
instead of in 1469, never lived in Paris or was connected
in any way with Francois I., but came to Lyons about
1553, took out his naturalisation papers in 1558, and died
in Lyons in 1570 or 1571.
He was there a prosperous
maker of lutes and viols until misfortune overtook
him.
He died in misery and debt, leaving a wife and
at

I.'s

four children.

Coutagne further

us that Duiffoprugcar was born
and probably learned the art of lutherie at one of the South
tells

Freising, thirty kilometres from Munich,

in

German

centres, and that without ever having been in
he emigrated to Lyons, where lute-making seems
to have flourished at the time.
He also gives conclusive proof that the portrait in
question, which shows Duiffoprugcar at the age of 48,
was made in 1562 by Wceiriot (born 1531 or
°
Thus we are
x
*)7
53 2 )> tnen living in Lyons.
confronted on the one hand by positive documentary facts, and on the other hand by the certainly
Italy,

.

.

not less positive evidence
1

Caspar Duiffoprugcar

in

workmanship and wood,

et Its lulkiers

74

Lyonais du

16'. sihle ; 1893.

Two

GasparoS

besides the probability that the vioHn was invented
before the early Brescian and Cremonese makers.
The
solution of the mystery seems at present almost hope-

unless

can be proved that the labelled violins
DuifFoprugcar were not his make. At
present they are believed to be genuine.
M. Coutagne
does not pretend to have seen any of the six labelled
violins, but he gives the description of one attributed to
DuifFoprugcar without label which now belongs to the
museum of the Conservatoire of Paris. He says:
less,

attributed

"

it

to

forme assez lourde dont le patron primitiverecoup^ par Chanot mais dont les ouis sont
dessinees en ff tres pure et dont la tete est sculptee en volute
classique.
Les deux faces sont garnies de marqueteries
figurant des fleurs reliees par des filets et un coq au centre de la
table de fond.
Les ornements contrastent par leur grossierite,
avec ceux des trois basses de viole precedentes."
II

est d'une

ment grand a

etc"

While I leave to my readers to acquaint themselves
with the particulars of the argument on this interesting
subject at the hand of the above-mentioned works of
Niederheitmann, YoussoupofF, Charles Read, Coutagne, and others, the question suggests itself: Is it
really possible that DuifFoprugcar should
have invented the modern form of the violin ? ContradicI0 ° s
I
do not see any reason why the facts _
«."
established by Coutagne as to his time and
place of birth, etc., should not be reconcilable with the claims of Niederheitmann and others
as to the genuineness of the violins attributed to
75

;

Story of the Violin
him.

In the

first place,

they are of

a workmanship worthy of the master
everything seems to point to this
assumption. The same poetical mind

which

(in

sympathy with the

of the times)

spirit

was not content with

creating in his exquisite bass viol 1
(see Fig. 18) a thing with a lovely
voice only, but wished to

make

thing of beauty as well, shows
also in these gems of violins.

it

a

itself
It is

the labels that present the difficulty.

Now
geries

supposing the labels are forand the instruments quite
genuine, is such a thing
not possible nay, feasible ?
Supposing that, when the
fame of Duiffoprugcar (which
had paled before the fame of
the later Italian makers) was
first launched into the world
by Rochefort, some men, profiting by the tide and little



dreaming of the difficulties
to which their unscrupulous
eagerness would lead, stamped these gems with what they
thought the proper dates of
their creation ?

Or supposing
was

also that this mild fraud



FIG. 18. VIOLA DA GAMBA OF
DU1FFOFRUGCAR, MADE 1547 A.D.

1

Now

in the

museum

servatoire at Brussels.

76

of the

Con-

'

Two

Gasparos

perpetrated with the best intention some time after the
master's death, when repairs or the wish to
e
'
reduce the original thickness of the neck,
,
f^
etc.,

necessitated

instruments?

opening up of the

the

Labels

helped

certainly

L

«

-

to

preserve their identity. And what liberty was taken
with labels a century or two ago
As regards the assumption of Coutagne, that Duiffoprugcar learned the art of luth&rie in Germany, and
!

migrated to Lyons without having been in Italy, it is
only a surmise.
If his name was originally Tieffenbrucker, the alteration into Duiffoprugcar
lodi
or Duiffopruggar is Italian on the face of it—
^ ff^
Only a soft-tongued son
scarcely French.
.,
of Italy has such strong objections to hardsounding consonants at the beginning of a word, and
does not rest content till he has, softened it down to his
own idea of euphony. Besides, if in the first records of
Duiffoprugcar in Lyons he appears under this and not
under his original name Tieffenbrucker, it is more likely
that he had adopted that name before and brought it
with him. Furthermore, certain details in the form of
some of the instruments surrounding the artist on
Wceiriot's picture invite significant conclusions.

But let us now look at this man Duiffoprugcar from
another point of view at, I will call it, the
Internal
internal evidence for his claims.
Let us
Evidence
for his
imagine him in early youth in a little
Claims
Bavarian town. Perhaps returning pilgrims



or soldiers

had

carried

the

77

first

fairy tales

of Italy

Story of the Violin
and the wonders of her early renaissance to our little
boy while he was helping his father in the carpenter's
shop, and kindled in his heart the wish which emperors
could not resist.
Perhaps the youth felt genius throbbing in his breast like growing-pains by day and night,
or destiny held out a crown to him beyond the snow-clad
mountains yonder, where the swallows went in autumn.
The art of viol and lute making had already flourished
in the genial South, when instruments of war and
torture, sword-blades, pikes and halberds were yet more
or less the order of the day.
century^

we

find Brescia

As

early as the thirteenth

mentioned as a famous centre of

About 1450 there lived in the old city a
maker of lutes and viols, Kerlino.
His name
rather indicates German extraction, being probably an
Italianisation of Kerl, a name not unfrequent in some
Kerlino's reputation would have as
parts of Germany.
easily as not attracted the influx of foreign young workmen to Brescia. At all events, is it improbable that
young Gasparo, though Kerlino was at that time dead,
found his way to some other Brescian maker's shop as
apprentice or workman, stayed there (in Brescia), or
moved to Bologna, and later was induced to change his
In Lyons he was prosperous,
domicile for France ?

lutherie.

celebrated

probably a

man

in

easy circumstances, as appears from

Is it
the portrait engraved by a well-known artist.
difficult to imagine him turning out lutes and bass viols,

admirable works, getting good pay for them, and being
honoured by the best in the land, and yet turning with
inexpressible longing to the pursuance of labours of

73



Two

Gasparos

which none but he could understand the why and wherefore ? or trying to follow the trace of a living voice in

him

—the

voice of the yet unborn violin, as the half-

the rays of the sun which penetrate
through his heavy eyelids, groping his way towards the
window? What- patience, what toil, what trying and
rejecting and trying again were necessary before, step by
follows

blind

new could replace the old; before here the
proper curve was found, there the neck ended in a noble
scroll
before each detail of the modelling that
intuition or reflection held out to him to be the right
one brought the form nearer the familiar shape which
other masters after him developed further and further
until, with Stradivarius, the ideal was reached.
It has been said that the innovations on the old viol
form were not the work of one single mind, but of
many in other words, that the final form of the violin
was the product of the successive efforts of many sucstep, the

;

;

makers unknown to fame. I don't believe it.
Great innovations on existing forms, laws, and things
great discoveries are not made by the many, but the few.
Not through the slow, muddy channels of
Through
mediocrity, but through the bright, quick
river of genius flows the gold of knowledge
_
The initiative to a great
into the world.
c
pj
change and t'he first steps are always taken
Genius
by this or that one, and others then exercise their skill on improvements, and sometimes they,
too, get the credit for what they did not do.
So, unless it was one of those unknown prompters of
cessive

.

79

'

;

Story of the Violin

—of those nameless, shadowy heroes who behind

history

make the puppets dance
who, because the world knows them not,
become unreal, immersed in myth and romance then
there is no difficulty in believing that Duiffoprugcar,
on the existing lines of the Italian viol, created the
modern violin form. His birth fell into the spring
the stage pull the strings which
in

front;

;

of

the

renaissance.

The

genial,

productive

breath

from architecture down to the lowly art of the wood-carver
It needed only
and cabinet-maker, fanned him also.
a fine mind and a hand to match to utilise this new
triumphant force for the art of instrument-making.
Consider but the general forms of the bass viols, etc.,
Are they not distinctly Gothic in feeling
of that time.
and design, matching the painted windows of our
Gothic cathedrals the high slender towers on which
the ardent faith of the Middle Ages climbed nearer
heaven? And now compare the outlines, the soft,
which

permeated

all

artistic

activity



graceful, classic curves of the violin;

the

scroll,

the

square shoulders, the delicate moderation in everything.
Should the spirit of the early renaissance have had no
share in forming these ?
Take, then, this man Duiffoprugcar, head and
shoulders above all the instrument-makers of his time
in mere cleverness; a thinker, a revolutionary besides
a bit of a painter and poet, a philosopher if you will a
man of the world, too, perhaps a friend of the big minds
;

of his time

—and

you have the picture of a man who,

not unlikely, should have been the

So

fit

instrument in the

Two

Gasparos

hands of Providence or destiny to give to the world the



He did not invent it no, of course not; but
under his hands, as it were, the scattered legacy of former
centuries nay, of thousands of years— crystallised into
the form which has been one of the glories of our age.
violin.



And now

of Gasparo da Salo,

sidered to have been the

name was Gasparo
born

in 1542, in

picturesque

a

Lago

Bertolotti,

little

di

first

who

is

generally con-

maker of violins.
and he was

place situated on the

His

as P ar °

a

Garda, after which he

We know no more of his youth
and apprenticeship than of Duiffoprugcar's.
Know no
Perhaps he learned the art of viol and lute1" ore
° hl
making from some Brescian maker unknown
^
to us.
When we hear of him he is estab- Apprentice.
«.
lished in the famous old place (Brescia) as
viol and violin-maker.
Doubtless his claim
for having made excellent violins earlier than any other
was

called

Da

Salo.

maker (except Duiffoprugcar) is irrefutable;
admitted that he went yet one step farther



but, even

than that other Gasparo, is it proved nay, .
.
f
probable that he did so without having
had cognisance of his celebrated predecessor's work?
Was he a man likely to find out for himself everything
which makes his instruments so remarkable for us ?
Is it proved that he went the long road which lay
between these instruments and the viols of preceding
centuries alone and unassisted? Coming from a small
Italian village, he was surely only a humble, illiterate,



is it



81


Story of the Violin
be it a very clever, wideawake youth"; and there is no
proof that he ever went beyond the precincts of his

kingdom, his workshop in Brescia. Of course, as
Goethe says, " Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille."
But this is not exactly a way to broaden and strengthen
the mind for grappling with difficulties- such as the
realisation of a new acoustic ideal in a new form
little

presented.

Was Gasparo da Salo a man who could afford to
squander his time on perhaps futile, at any rate unprofitable attempts,

a

while his viols fetched him

good income? 1

Or

is

it

more

likely that

he made violins because they were already invented,
and he found a ready market for them ?
Are thee Furthermore, are there any traces of a
. '
/
development in his work from a first feeling
t
^' s wav *° * ne & oa^ °^ attainment, or do we
ment in his
S e ^ a once the realised ideal ?
Work ?
Perhaps others are prepared to answer
I only add yet one more
these questions satisfactorily.
point in favour of the elder Gasparo, and that is a
documentary remark which also F6tis mentions. 2 In a
list of instruments used by Monteverde for
1 wo little
performance
of his opera
Orfeo,
v
v
J ' at
,
French
.,
. ,
*-

^

'

v

,

,,

Mantua

besides
three bassi da

.

in

1607,

ten

viole

gamba

(leg

the composer names
da brazzo (arm viols),
basses), and two cbntra-

According to Fetis,' he was particularly renowned for his
(bass viols and double-bass viols).
1

2

Stradivari.

82

viols

Two

Gasparos

bassi di viola (double-bass viols)

— duoi

vjolini piccoli

Francese (two little violins of the French kind).
This is one of the first historical records 1 of the word
violin, and here it is called French.
No French luthier
worthy of being thought of as the creator of the violin
can be found at that or any preceding period, but the
solution lies near when we consider that Duiffoprugcar
alia

lived for years in
there.

France, and died and was buried

And had he no

pupils ?

Whatever be the pretensions of the less-known

elder

Gasparo, our gratefulness to the well-known younger
one is thereby not diminished. Who knows whether,
but for the art of the younger one sympathetically
carrying out the message of the elder, that message
might not have been lost to the world ?
Unfortunately, Da Salo's violins have become exceedingly rare, but those still extant, and undoubtedly
genuine, are a striking testimony to his noble art.
Among them perhaps the finest, at any rate best known,
is the violin on which Ole Bull, the famous Norwegian
virtuoso, played for many years. His widow
General
recently bequeathed it to her dead husband's
The general character- Characterbirthplace, Bergen.
1S ICS °
*
istics of Da Salo's violins are a large pattern,
.
s
large ff holes, protruding corners, and a dark
/
brown varnish the tone is large and even.
It seems he worked from about 1560 to 1609 or 1610,
the time of his death.

m

;

1

Prior records leave

it

uncertain whether tenor viols are meant or

really our small violin.

83

CHAPTER XV.
MAGGINI AND OTHER BRESCIAN MAKERS.

Gasparo's mantle fell on his pupil, Giovanni Paolo
Maggini, who was born in Brescia, 1581, and worked
H ._ , there till about 1632. Maggini's instruments
resemble those of his master in their large
proportions, but show a great advance in point of view
of appearance as well as tone. He also unlike Da Salo,
,

who made more
the

making of

viols, etc.

— confined



himself chiefly to

which seems to indicate that by

violins,

the end of the sixteenth century the
.

T ,.

,,

for Violins

,

.

T

,

least in Italy

perts accord to
in

demand

to viols,' had
as compared
r

for violins,

— become

,

.

quite general. 1

— at
_,

Ex-

him a very distinguished place indeed

the history of lutherie;

all

regretted that his violins have

the more,

become so

is

to be

scarce.

Their

it

large and noble, slightly veiled; the varnish

tone

is

light

brown of remarkable

delicacy and transparency;

the ribs or sides are narrow; the arching starts almost
directly from the edges the back is often richly orna;

1
Another proof that the movement in favour of the new form must
have begun prior to Gasparo da Salo, as the few violins made by the
latter could hardly have created a larger market so soon.

84

Maggini and other Brescian Makers
mented and the purfling double. 1 A very fine specimen
of a Maggini violin belonged formerly to Charles de
Beriot, and another to Hubert Leonard.
Other Brescian makers, who were either contemporaries of Da Salo and Paolo Maggini, or followed
them closely, imitating their (particularly
Other
Maggini's) work without ever attaining to
its excellence, are mentioned in the Appenm ,
dix.
But there are two men, Antonio
Maria
Lausa (1530-50) and
Peregrino
Zanetto
(1530-40), who arrest attention by reason of the early
date of their activity.
Both are said to have been
makers of violins, and Lausa a close follower of
Gasparo da Salo and Maggini. If so, how are we to
account for this fact unless we go back to an influence
antecedent to
1

W.

For further
E. Hill

&

Da

Salo

?

details, see Gio.

Paolo Maggini: His Life

Sons, London.

85

and Work;

CHAPTER

XVI.

THE AMATIS.



By what

dice-throw of the muses if one dare couple
immortals with man's low symbol of mere
accident that little, unimportant town of
Lombardy, Cremona, was chosen to become the centre of fiddle-making, who can tell?
Probably it had no more to recommend it three huo,dred
years ago than it has now viz., that it lay in the
those



,



and protected valley of the Po, where trade and
commerce had flourished for centuries among an industrious and sober people, and where you may see
the snow-clad mountains from afar, like eternal portals,
closing off this blessed land from northern blasts, and
withal pointing the way to heaven and, perhaps, good
fiddle-wood.
But why not Bologna, that ancient seat
fertile



of learning,

or

Brescia,

Florence, Milan,

making impose

Rome?

its

own

known

to fame,

Did the

peculiar conditions ?

slow, drowsy, uneventful,

or Venice,

lost art of fiddle-

hum-drum

Was

the

air of thfe small

commercial and provincial town the most conducive
atmosphere for creating forms nay, habitations for
shapeless fleeting tone-ideals ? Could fiddle-making
only truly thrive where poetry and painting might have



86

The Amatis
starved

At

?

all

events

it

was Cremona, because a man

was born there whose name was Andrew Amati.
This Andrew Amati (see Fig. 19) a de-



Andrew
scendant from an old decurional family of
Amati
Cremona was the founder of the world
fame of his little native town, .being- the senior of
that remarkable family of viofin-makers which for
nearly one hundred and fifty /years upheld the best



The year
not known,
but from an instrument of his
making strange to say, a threetraditions of their art.

of Andrew's birth



is

1

stringed rebec 1



was

bearing the date
has been inferred that he
born about 1520 that is,

The

two years
before Gasparo da

1546,

it



twenty

Belief

that he

was

a Pupil of
Da Salo

Salo.

It

surprising
writers

the

belief

-

that

pupil of Gasparo

is

therefore

some

that

still

entertain

Andrew was a

FIG. 19.

—AMATI

CREST.

da Salo, on account of certain minor
He may have been in

similarities in their productions.

Brescia before he established himself in his native town.

He

may.also have known Gasparo in riper years, and
from the younger master but pupil no.



profited



More likely is it that— unless we assume that Andrew
was entirely autodidact and discovered the violin form
simultaneously with Gasparo
1

— he learned by observation

Fetis, Stradivari.

87



a

Story of the Violin
from then already existing violins in other words, that
he took Duiffoprugcar's violins as pattern, and arrived
through them sooner or later at his own original style. 1
Original (that is, different from the patterns
Amati s
Q £ t jj e ear v Brescian masters) his creations
;

]

deserve to be called, if for no other reason
than that they were of diminished size.
But the adoption of a small or medium form, with its
relative, decreased proportions in the thickness of the
<,

j

wood and a higher arching
the centre, brought with

it

of belly and back towards

—quite independent of other


workmanship, a different varnish, etc.
different, a new tone-phenomenon which one
might not incorrectly call the "Amati violin
, r ,, -,
Violin Tone
,.

T
r
tone.
It is a tone (generally speaking, of
course) sweet, delicate, round, and mellow to a degree,
but lacking in sonority, brilliancy, and carrying power.
details of
,

.

.

Andrew Amati's
though he
his

1

,

.

now as good as extinct,
made many. A number of

violins are

said to have

productions

best

altos,

is

,

:

viz.,

and eight basses, 2 were

At the same conclusion one

twenty-four

violins,

six

in Versailles until shortly.

arrives in the case of a fellow-towns-

man and contemporary of Andrew —Johann Marcus del Busetto
(1540-80), who is believed by some to have been the teacher of Andrew
and

at the

same time pupil of Gasparo, although the discrepancy

in

the age of these oldest Cremonese masters and the founder of the

Brescian school should, I think, convince any one of the improbability
It will be remembered that Gasparo da Salo's
from about 1560 to 1610.

of such a relation.
activity dates
2

Hermann

Starke:

Die Geige und

Lauten-baukunst ; Dresden, 1884.

88

die Meistet det

Ceigen-

mid

The Amatis
He had
1789.
Chapel Royal by order of
Charles IX. What became of them no one knows.
Andrew Amati died about 1580, thus long before
Gasparo da Salo.
At his death his two sons,
Anthony (Antonio) andjerome (Hieronymus),
Andrew
carried on their father's work conjointly.

before the

first

French

furnished them for

Some

Revolution,

the

particularly fine instruments bearing

_.

<,

names of the two brothers testify to this
happy period of partnership and artistic co-operation.
the

After a time, however, Jerome, the younger of the
two, married, and the brothers separated
Anthony
working after the exact pattern of Andrew,
and by preference small-sized instruments;
while Jerome, perhaps the more talented of the two,
chose a larger and bolder form be it that
;



his

work was somewhat

finished

less

distinct

in

than his brother's. The instruments
n *«.
mark a distinct progress on those
of their father Andrew in point of view of outer form
as well as beauty of tone.
detail

of both



Anthony Amati
as that
of his.

is

is supposed to have died in 1635,
the last date to be found on any instrument

Jerome died 1638,

six years before the birth of

Stradivarius.

With Jerome's son
September 3rd,
1684),

the

greatest lustre.
are

Nicolaus, or Nicolo Amati (born
died August 12th,
Jerome's

1596,
name of

veritable

Some

Amati

its

Son

of his instruments

Nicolaus

masterpieces

89

received
of

the

"

art

of

violin-

Story of the Violin
making, and place their maker by the side of Stradivarius and Joseph Guarnerius as the third
IS

luminary

brightest

11

fiddle-making

the

in

At first Nicolaus followed closely
pieces
...
.
.
,
,.
the model of his father and his uncle in the
adoption of a small form; but about 1625, by what
realm.

,

,

m

,

.

,

process of thinking or experience or outside
influence we know not, he created a larger

T

f

,

,

model and adhered

The

life.

..

A

to

to the

it

end of his

known in professional circles under the name of grand or
large Amatis, and it is among these that are

violins of that period are

found the above-mentioned gems. Probably
worked on these with particular par-

the master had

A workmanship

tiality.

The Acme
o

er ec-

.

..

§ ty j e

m

;

nu test

detail,

the choice

finished

of

to

the

wood, the

enera i noblesse of design and elegance of
curves and scroll, a varnish (yellowish) fiery
and elastic, etc., the proportions of arching
and thickness of the wood, all combine here
g-

to an exquisite total of form

and tone which has hardly
been surpassed by any other maker, and may rightly be
called the

acme

of perfection in the

Amati

style.

Nicolaus had two sons. The younger, John Baptist,
went to a cloister and eventually became a priest; the
elder, Jerome, born 1649, worked in his
_
father's shop, and after the latter's death

Two Sons
...
...
succeeded him. He is the last representative
of the name Amati in the annals of lutherie.
If the old master, as one should suppose, was proud
t

.

,

90

,

The Amatis
name which at his time had no equal in instrumentmaking, and if, as one might also suppose, he had
fondly hoped to see his two sons continue his life's
work as did the two sons of old Andrew, one hundred
years before, he (Nicolaus) must have been sorely disappointed in this (his eldest son and heir),
etoa less
not to speak of the younger one, who was >
£
of a

entirely lost to the art.

only inferior in every
also

much

the earlier

less

Jerome was not

,,

to the father, but

painstaking and industrious than any of
He left only a few
of the family.

members

instruments,
mediocrity.

way

and they do not

Who

knows but

sional tear of a sad father

rise

above



,,

that an occa-

dropped into poor Nicolaus's

varnish-pot, and helped to give those admired

gems

of

and hue, that they seem to
look at you as with humid eyes and many a sigh was
closed up in those shapely forms which touch us now
when the bow of the artist awakes them from their
his their wonderful gloss

;

slumber.

It is only fancy, of course, but after Nicodeath the prestige of the name quickly and
irretrievably declines, and only twelve years later,

laus's

91

Story of the Violin
Jerome, the

"last Amati," died too 1 (see Fig. 20).
the art of violin - making did not die
with him.
A number of excellent pupils
of Nicolaus took care that it lived yet for
another century nay, reached its real goal

Fortunately,
_,

_

a

.



with one, the most illustrious

among them, Antonio

Stradivarius.
1

According to some writers, but according

much

later.

92

to Hill Brothers

he died

CHAPTER

XVII.

a bird's-eye view.

-

Before proceeding,

let

us once more take, as

a bird's-eye view of the

it

were,

and work of the Amatis.

life

Much more strongly than the Brescian
masters have the Amatis, from Andrew to
Nicolaus, set the stamp of their individuality
on the art of violin-making in their own and

Amatis
"~
n

m

succeeding times indeed, it is impossible to say what
the fate of the art would have been without them.
Though a pioneer no less than Da Salo and Paolo
Maggini, unlike those two, Andrew found in his sons
and grandson imitators or followers greater than himself, who carried on his work to ever greater perfection.
Da Salo's and Maggini's art practically died with
them, like a fine stream running dry; while the other,
of the same source, and running parallel with it at first,
;

grows as
If,

in

it

flows.

our days,

the

exceptions, have lost a

Amati violins, with a few
good deal of their
Reasons

former prestige, if many
to the second and even
rank of instruments, unfit
solo-playing, we~ must not

have descended for To-day's
inglorious third

Decline in

for professional

Prestige

lay the

93

blame at the door

Story of the Violin
of their makers, but rather blame our ever-increasing

demand

for strong-toned instruments.

In this fierce battle

between a modern

which

is

being

waged now

Orchestral

accompaniment and.
a P oor sm gl e little solo-fiddle, where only
t ^ie ^> es ^ °f
Strads. can hope to emerge
victors, a weak, sweet-toned Amati has
had to step modestly aside and hide under
the safe and sympathetic wings of the lady

Accom-

amateur.

Fierce
Battle be-

tween

a.

Modern

paniment

g ut

;t

full

orchestral

mus t be remembered

that the tone

which Andrea and his immediate
vrAji"
followers sought expression in their producIn pure form and for
tions was different from ours.
easy handling they doubtless marked a progress from
the large, inclined-to-be-clumsy model of the Brescian
makers.
After the large viol types current in the
fifteenth century they must have appeared the very
And the tone matched
essence of grace and perfection.
It was sweet, soft, and mellow, and
these qualities.
to ears accustomed to guitars, theorbos, bass viols,
etc., what could have been finer and more desirable
than that, to come from any musical instrument ? No
wonder from the first the Amati violin stood a better
chance than its competitors the "Da Salo and MagThe true comparative merits of the latter were
gini."
ideal for

discovered much later.
Even yet one hundred and

fifty

years ago, these

mellow-toned Andrew and Antonio
Amatis held their powerful sway over the hearts of men
sweet,

weak,

94

Bird's-eye
and women.

That was the time of our great-grand-

fathers and mothers

time when

View

;

the time of the dainty spinet

men went about

;

the

powdered wigs, and kneebreeches, and wore lace collars, and lace shirt-fronts,
and high-heeled shoes with buckles, and white stockings, and the pretty ladies adorned their faces with
round and square beauty spots.
Music, too, was
dainty then. The thunderer from Olympus was not
yet born.
Dittersdorf and Haydn were writing their
string quartetts and symphonies, and took care that
these were not too loud and obtrusive, lest Monseigneur
wished to carry on a conversation to an accompaniment
in

It was the time
was not such a sweettoned Amati the loveliest Rococo imagin-

or doze into dreamland.
of the Rococo, and
able,

—translated

passed

like

sound? All
our childhood, and with
into

this
it

*

e

"f

D
Kococo

has

also part of the

name

of Amati.
But
never come when musicians cease to
admire and be grateful to those veterans of fiddlemaking Andrew, Antonio, and Jerome Amati.

prestige that once attached to the

the time will



95

CHAPTER

XVIII.

AMATI SCHOOL.

Many were

of the Amati
might be expected from the fame of these
masters and the supremacy they exercised
during four generations, and also consider„
ing how popular the violin was already by
the middle and end of the seventeenth century, not
alone in Italy, but in Germany, France, and the
Netherlands.
Four or five of even the
Workers
most industrious workers could never have

the pupils 1 and imitators

school, as

'

in Italy,

supplied

ranee,

the

ever-increasing

demand

for

So we find, at first gravitating
towards Cremona and presently radiating,
chiefly
from Nicolaus's workshop and
instruments.

y
.

Holland

'

spreading in

all

directions, the best fiddle-

making talent.
Soon there is hardly a larger-sized
town in North and Middle Italy which cannot boast
some violin-maker, who directly or indirectly benefited from the Cremonese master, and in his turn
perpetuated the received traditions to the best of his
1
For the names of the imitators and pupils of the Amati school, see
Appendix.

96

Amati School
And not Italy alone, but beyond, in the
Netherlands and Germany, we find traces of that influence, although any noteworthy activity in these
countries, as well as in England and France, begins

abilities.

rather later.

CHAPTER

XIX.

THE GUARNERI FAMILY.

But far above and beyond all the names of makers
who were indebted to the Amatis for their skill and
knowledge figures that of another Cremonese family,
the Guarnerius or Guarneri (see Fig. 21).

If

we

except

that solitary great luminary, Stradivarius (also grafted

on that noble Amati stock), the Guarneri may be called
the true heirs and successors to the Amati
work and fame following the latter iust
. «
of Amati
i
..«
about a century later, so that the first
Stradivarius Guarneri is yet a contemporary of Nicolaus,
the last approaches the end of the art in
Italy after the middle of the eighteenth century.
Like the Amati, the Guarneri are represented by five
or more illustrious names.
The talent of the father
goes down to the sons through several
u
generations, and at an increased ratio of
,

1

;
'

.

,

,

excellence.

carried

still

further.

,

Indeed, the analogies

The name

of the

first

may

be

Amati was

Andrea, as was that of the head of the Guarnerius
„ . family; and like that first Andrea, the latter
, „
had two sons who improved on his work.
Here, of course, the parallel ends, inasmuch as the last
98

Guarneri Family
and most illustrious representative of the Guarneri
name, Giuseppe, springs by some freak of nature from
a side-line formerly not connected with the art.
So much of this remarkable family in general. Its
head and founder, the above-mentioned Andrea Guarneri
born early in the seventeenth century,
and one of the first pupils of Nicolaus Amati

vjruarneri
(as he worked by himself already from 1650
stands yet under the powerful spell
to about 1695)
He cannot get away from it except in
of his master.
some minor details, such as the
shape of the scroll, sound-holes,
and the orange colour of his



.



by which

varnish,

work

his

is

recognised by the connoisseur.
The tone of his instruments is
agreeable,
feebler

tensity

if

lacking,

like

Amati products,
and brilliancy.

Superior to

Andrew

in

in

the
in-

many

ways was his younger son,
Joseph, who worked from 1680
One should think
to 1730.

FIG. 21.

—GUARNERI

CREST.

Joseph learned the technique of the art From his father,
but as he copies in the beginning of his
His two
career Nicolaus Amati, it has been surmised
that

he,

too,

studied

with

that

veteran.

Sons,

Petrus and
It is, indeed, easy enough to imagine that
Joseph
old Andrew, who imitated his own master

so reverentially, took his

young son Joseph (Giuseppe)
99


Story of the Violin
he had just begun to learn the use of the
Nicolaus over the way, for finishing
lessons and a good start in life, and to become there a
greater master than he, the modest Andrew, felt the
boy could become at home. Subsequently young Joseph
may have sat with Antonio Stradivari, his


after

tools, to father

.

rriendly

R

senior, at

-

.

friendly

same work-bench, both

the

rivalry

the acclamation of

for

in

a

mutually admired master.
F^tis,

among

works of

others, will see in the later

Joseph a certain leaning towards that great fellow*
townsman. That may be so or not enough,
Guarneri's
violins
Joseph
are
greatly
^. *!
;

esteemed.
They are, as a rule, small
smaller than those of Nicolo Amati, and of Andrea his
father.
The workmanship is very fine the varnish,
;

reddish, of striking fire

An

and

brilliancy.

member of the family was
Joseph's elder brother Petrus, who, it seems,
established himself in riper years at Mantua,

(jruarnerius
for most of his productions from the year
1690 bear the name of that town (see Fig. 22).
equally 'distinguished

.

.

.

Petrus

made

excellent

violins

of a large

Particularly happy, nay, almost unique he
t

v

,

j.

varnish, which

is

the

melting into amber

pattern.

was

in his

most beautiful red gold
:

a sonnet transcribed

from it, and the equally
careful choice of the wood, which in some cases seems
to have been especially selected with the view of
enhancing the beauty of the colouring, one may draw
into colours.

If

,

100

;

Guarrieri Family
conclusions

as

to

this

master's

ch racter, he

have been an exquisitely sensitive
and refined artist. The tone of some
of his instruments matches the lovely
garment of golden tints.
It is of
virgin purity, mellow, round, even,
full
but, owing to the
rather high arching of the belly, unfortunately not as intense and bril-

and also

;

one could wish, and as the
superb outward appearance of the
instrument would lead one to exliant as

pect.

\

A

son of this Petrus, also a Pietro
Guarnerius, and working in Mantua
from 1720 to 1750, is
A Son of
esteemed as an excellent
Petrus

imitator

There

is

of

his

father.

also a third master of the

same name,

Peter, a son of Joseph
and grandson of Andrew, whose pro-

ductions
of

his

resemble those
father,

without,

A

Third
Pietro

however,

reaching their
Last in this galaxy ot
names appears on the scene that of
Giuseppe Antonio, cousin of Joseph,
the most famous of all the Guarneri
but of him I shall speak later, as
belonging to a different constellation.
perfection.

101

vxii Si /
>->''

must

,

CHAPTER XX.
'JACOBUS STAINEK.

We

leave for a while this charmed circle of Cremonese
masters on which the genius of Stradivari is just about
to dawn, and retracing our steps to the early part of
the seventeenth century, we wander through those
snowy high portals, glittering in the sun, north to the
About two miles from its ancient
Austrian Tyrol.
capital, Innsbruck, if we follow the bed of the Inn,
we reach a small town of the name of Hall, and near
This is Absam, and here was
there lies a little village.
born (in the year 1621), lived and died, Jacob Stainer.
"

Nennt man

die besten

Wird auch der
Stainer's
in the art

quite its

name

to

Through

f

,

T'me

a sound

;

among the very best
And it has yet a sound

stands, indeed,

of violin-making.

own

Namen

seine genannt."

— how shall

I

come through long

say?

—which seems

corridors

of past

centuries like the distant tolling of a funeral
bell,

muffled and heavy with loneliness and
or, should I rather say, a sound

sadness

;

—not

like that of the Amatis, on
wings laden with the scent of orange blossoms from

floating

102


Jacobus Stainer
a blessed, sunny, peaceful, Southern shore; but a sound
rilled with mountain poetry, grand and sad like the
flight of the eagle through immeasurable solitudes, or
the roaring of the mountain stream as it flings itself
down the fearful Alpine precipices.
There is a touch of simplicity, originality, genius, and
mysticism, and, withal, an inexpressible sadness about
this man Jacob Stainer which we do not associate with
any other famous maker of his time. Like no other, he
has engaged the romantic fancy of poets,
_
.

writers,

and dreamers.

His

memory

still

haunts the wilds of the Tyrol, and forms the subject of
gruesome "village" tales, and myth has strewn his
grave with nightshade and with roses.
What is the truth about this unique master, this
Jacobus Stainer? Until recently it was generally
believed that he learned the art of lutherie at
Cremona, in Nicolaus Amati's workshop, for his early
productions showed a decided similarity to those of the

Cremonese masters, Nicolaus's in particular. Moreover, there seems to be still in existence an instrument
(or instruments?) bearing the label: "Jacob Stiner
fecite Cremonia, 1642," which, if connoisseurs had not
long recognised it as a spurious imitation of a Stainer
violin, reads indeed like a foreigner's bad Latin and
Italian stew, and would fit in admirably as a proof that
the maker was at Cremona when twenty-one years of
age. Careful research, 1 however, in the town archives of
Hall has revealed new facts and dates about Stainer's
1

See

S. Ruf.

103

Story of the Violin
life

which make

it

most problematic,

that the master set foot in Italy.

if

not impossible,

Who

taught him

the secrets of the art which had up to that time been
handed down and jealously guarded by the Italian
masters? Where did he acquire the wonderful skill
for

which he became noted

in his life-time,

and which

placed him on the very pinnacle of fame after his
death ? To these questions the new discoveries fail

Mountain streams and the song
from the dew-strewn Alpine
a rocket of joy may have first awakened

to give an answer.

of the skylark as

meadows

like

it

rises

the creative instincts in his soul

;

but they did not give

him the composition of
his marvellous varnish.
Nor is it any good to argue,
as his biographer does, that he had opportunity
of seeing and hearing Cremonese instruments at
Innsbruck, where the Archduke Leopold and his
wife an Italian princess drew to their Court and
festivities
many Italian musicians.
Not even a
his

hands their

skill,

or teach





by merely looking

hearing a violin,
will succeed in
making another of such superiority as his earliest producNo wonder then, that popular opinion
tions exhibit.
invented the old version which sent young Stainer
to Cremona to Nicolaus Amati; and that it also has
not scrupled at investing his further life with a veil of
mystery.
Some mystery, or let us say some dark page or
passage, there is about that life, deny it who can.
Stainer

at

or

or by opening and destroying one,

Popular

opinion,

though

it

104

may be much wrong,

Jacobus Stainer
seldom is altogether wrong;
yet derived from truth.

and distorted truth

is

appears as historically certain that Stainer stayed
all his life, except for one visit he paid to
Salzburg in 1643, to deliver in person a
It

Absam

in

viola

bastarta

and

receive

for

it

thirty

Some

Facts

and occasional journeys to Hall and Innsbruck,
where he sold his violins to strangers attracted by his
reputation, or went to have a child christened or to
pay his taxes. He marflorins,

ried

when he was twenty-

four,

bought a house

Fig. 23)

—which,

it is

(see

said,

stood by the roadj
side

Stainer 's

and was sur„
rounded by large
linden trees— and had many


.

children.

With

ren (nine

of them)

the child-

came

the cares, in spite of the
fact

that in 1658 he

was

Court violinmaker to his Highness the
appointed

Archduke

Leopold,

with

honoured and
noble sir,'' and was famous
in the land and beyond for
his violins. Probably they
the

title

'

'

fetched but a small profit, incommensurate to the time
it

cost the fastidious and scrupulous master to

105

make


Story of the Violin
them. Moreover, the times were bad. Germany and
Austria were only just recovering from the social and
financial bankruptcy in which the Thirty Years' War
had landed them.
Stainer got into debt.
To further weigh down his
spirits, he was accused of the crime of heresy or witch-

and thrown

craft

Although acquitted and

into prison.

he was a ruined man. An appeal to
the Emperor Leopold I. (the former Archduke) to
acquit him of a debt of four hundred florins, which
he could not gather together, failed.
He became
melancholy, inactive, a recluse, mentally unbalanced,
and finally a raving maniac, who had to be tied to a
stone bench (yet shown in Absam) in his paroxysms of
violence.
And so he died in the year 1683, aged 62. 1
roor man
There is enough romance one can hardly
call it
certainly enough care and unspeakable sadness and misery crowded into his
, „.
let

free again,



!



life

more

fit

great

artist.

to

to bear

than he was

men

half-a-dozen

— for

he was a very



The story formerly went and Fetis in his Stradivari repeats it
that Stainer retired to a Benedictine convent after the death of his wife,
and there passed the remainder of his days. Here also he resolved
1

.

the lives of

fill

it

crown his life's work with the creation of twelve master violins
which he sent to the twelve Electors of the Empire. Perhaps this was
to

the poetical version of the poor man's desperate attempts at raising
to pay his debt, before or after his appeal to the Emperor.
If

money
true,

and

his failing to

move

delicate

supplication be true

pathetic,

and the times

to

the hearts of the twelve Electors
too,

it

appear more

106

makes
cruel.

by this
more

Stainer's lot only

!

Jacobus Stainer
Yes, poor Stainer, but for the hard-heartedness or
miserly stupidity,

who knows,

some imbecile official
Emperor himself, his
should have known and not
of

(for it is hardly credible that the

former lord and patron,
granted so pitiful a request) might have lived to a
good old age and enriched the world with many more
gems.
If we accept as true the theory that Stainer never
saw Italy, his achievements are simply marvellous.
Fancy a man from childhood up, without
s
proper instruction, in such surroundings (a
little Austrian village with bigoted, stupid
peasants),

and then,

finest

and
which rank with the

in the face of cares

adversities, to create instruments

productions of lutherie

Stainer's violins are nothing

said that he

who has once

if not original.
It is
seen one can never mistake

Remarkable about
the best imitations for genuine.
them is the arching; it is so high at the centre of the
if the violin is held horizontally one can see
Yet the tone is rich and full,
through both holes.
As
and of a remarkable silvery purity of sweetness.
for workmanship and varnish (of a beautiful gilded
hue), few, if any, Cremonese makers have surpassed
How highly esteemed his
Stainer in these particulars.
instruments were, even in his life-time, is well known.
Connoisseurs called him even then " Celeberrimus
testudium musicarum fabricator."
After his death the value of his violins, etc., doubled
and tripled. It was perhaps this unparalleled popularity

belly that

107

Story of the Violin
of the Stainer violins, particularly in

Holland, and England

v

Germany, Austria,

—before

many

of the

makers were appreciated at their
his
V
full value
which accounts for the excessive
rarity of a genuine "Jacobus Stainer" in our day.
While these Italian gems remained in, comparatively
speaking, safe obscurity, stored away here and there and
everywhere in Italy, in castles and convents, etc., for
more than a century awaiting their release by an eager
public, the Stainer violins were being constantly used
and knocked about. The master must have made
many in his laborious, troubled life. What has become
of them ? It is marvellous that any should have survived at all.
Fancy all the enemies that lie in wait
to destroy so delicate an organism as a violin in two
hundred and fifty years of wars, persecutions, etc.:

V

Italian



ignorance, superstition, quackcan enumerate them ? And in proportion to the scarcity, and consequent value of the real
Stainer violins, they have suffered the bane of imitation.
Perhaps no other maker has been imitated more,
and more recklessly, than Stainer.
At first, his own pupils did not think it a crime to the
memory of their master to bring their own productions
(good though they were) on the market
his label, and their bad example has
with
T ti I
since then been followed by many more
unscrupulous makers. In consequence, as hardly one
player or collector in a thousand has ever seen or
water,

fire,

repairers

accident,

—who

heard a genuine Stainer instrument, the spurious pro108

Jacobus Stainer
ductions that still are in the market have tended to
obscure the reputation of that inimitable master. But
even when the last Jacobus Stainer violin will have
disappeared from this earth to bear testimony to his
art, the maker's name and fame will be written in the
annals of music as that of a poor martyr who helped
to make this world better and brighter for a time by
making matchless fiddles. The Tyrolean mountain

memory, and the eagle will
young, and pine to pine, and the winds
dark recesses will mourn the memory of Jacobus

fastnesses will guard his
tell it

in

to

its

Stainer.

109

CHAPTER

XXI.

THE GREATEST OF THEM ALL.

We

come now

other, spells

to

master whose name,

the

magic to the

fiddle enthusiast.

like

no

Even

the

unmusical man in the street has at some time or other
heard or read of a thing called a " Strad." (to use a rather
barbarous English mutilation of a noble name), and
when occasion arises makes desperate attempts at recalling the

name

of the

man who made the thing called a

"Strad." He usually gets as far as Stradi, or something ending with an i, expecting you, the musician,

him out

to help

at the

critical

moment.

Of course

you do.
Stradivari, then

Latin


,,

—-or,

as he

is

also

called

after his

Straduarius or Stradivarius,
with the Christian name Antonio Antonio

label-inscriptions,
,

Stradivari



,.

Stradivari

was born

at

Cremona

.

in

the

year 1644, the descendant of an old patrician family of
that town, members of which occupied high positions
in public service as early as
1

1127 1 (see Fig. 24).

At the

For the genealogical table of the family of Stradivari from 1602 down
: his Life and Work, by W. Henry
Hill, Arthur F. Hill, F.S.A., and Alfred Hill.

to 1893 see Antonio Stradivari

Stradivari
age of thirteen,

it is claimed, Antonio made his first violin
Amati's workshop. If this is true, his apprenticeship must have begun already when the boy's legs
were yet dangling down the side of the
Began
work-bench, and his little hands barely
EarIy
strong enough to handle the tools. What

in Nicolo

an interesting side-light this throws on the method by
which future masters were
then made
It was, possibly,
fiddles before breakfast,
fiddles for dinner and supper,
fiddles between
meals and
fiddles yet in the dreams,
for I do not doubt but that
old Nicolo was an exacting
!

teacher.
Stradivari's general educa-

under these conditions
may, of course, have been but
tion

slight, unless the

man made
FIG. 24.

—STRADIVARI

CREST.

up what the boy missed, or
the boy was as precocious in other things of learning as he was clever in those appertaining to
his calling.
And in this workshop of Nicolaus,
which he entered perhaps a lad of ten or eleven,
Anthony remained until he was a man of twentythree or four, working under the eyes and supervision
of another whom in all probability he had already
reached in dexterity of hand, though perhaps not in
experience, knowledge, and perception.
Until then
Ill

Story of the Violin
he

also

his master, with the
productions of that period
upu "
went out into the world with Nicolaus
Co id h' Amati's label, and have only in course of
time been partly identified as Stradivari's
Master
work and accordingly re-labelled.
From about 1668 the master signed his instruments
with his own name. It is possible that he had then left
Nicolaus and worked for himself, for he was
st
married in 1667.
Nevertheless for nearly
s r « me ° s
twenty years after he adhered more or less
with his
...
/
own Name c l° se ' v to the Nicolo Amati style (viz., at
first to this master's small patterns), showing individuality only in certain minor details; for
instance, the freer .shape of the scroll. 1
It was this
wise moderation, this distrusting of himself unguided
on new roads, hand-in-hand with patience that knoweth
how to await its time, which allowed the flower of Stradivari's genius to grow to its full capacity.
But that end
attained, there was no more uncertainty as to which path
to follow, no more feeling his way with him. This, however, was not until he had reached the ripe age of fifty-six.

scrupulously

copied

'

result that his

,

It

is

,

.

,

customary to divide the

.

life

and

Stradivari into three periods.

Three
erio s

Inte lude

1

,

.

On

.

activity

of

the whole,

such a division may be right; but as the
brothers Hill remark: 2 "It is to a great extent
misleading, for no man of Stradivari's genius
could be tied down to act on strict lines.

Stradivari's productions before 1690 have therefore been termed

Amatise.

2

Antonio Stradivari,

112

;

Stradivari
Broadly speaking, he profited by experience, and avoided
as he advanced in age the shortcomings noticeable in
earlier productions; but, notwithstanding, he made at
times throughout his life various specimens which
stand out prominently above others of the same date."
I should rather say four periods: a long spring, full of
promise; a summer full of hope; a rich, abundant autumn;
a winter mild and short. However, three periods and
an interlude between the first and second will do.
The first was the period of youth and early manhood
of learning, of fitting himself thoroughly for his calling
of acquiring, not only a wonderful skill of hand and eye,
but also an unerring judgment and insight in all matters
appertaining to his art. Then follows (till about 1684)
an interval of restrained activity. Few instruments
appear, and these are in the traditional style.
are
left in the dark as to what went on in the master's life
or in the still laboratory of his mind.
Fifteen years or so are a good slice out of a man's
life, and Stradivari, of all men, would not have squandered them. What did he do ? Did he continue to
work, at least partially, in the pay of Nicolaus until the
Did family cares for a time suspend his
latter's death ?
labours ? Was he busy experimenting while he kept
the wolf from the door by work in the accustomed
groove? 1 Or was it also at the same time an interlude

all

We

1

The

brothers Hill mention a set of instruments which he executed
by the order of the Venetian banker Monzi for James II., a
which shows that he did work for himself, and that his reputation

in 1682
fact

was growing.

"3

Story of the Violin
of travelling and looking about in the world, of broad-

ening his views and ideas, of forming connections,
commercial and otherwise, in order to obtain the desired

Did his
best possible material for his future work ?
eyes perchance feast for the first time on the wonders of
?
Did he hear in Rome for the
time Corelli draw the hidden soul out of a violin,
or did the contemplation of Raphael's and Michael
Angelo's master works, of the loggias of St. Peter's

Venice and Florence
first

throw a firebrand into his soul that, modest man
though he was, he exclaimed after Correggio, "Anchor'
Io son artiste "P 1

We

don't know.
Perhaps the mere suggestion of
thoughts as these sounds like wild exaggerations to
those who see in this incomparable master of lutherie
only a simple-minded, illiterate man an artisan at best,
be it the most clever one that ever lived. At all events
about 1690 a change in Stradivari's work
ge
begins
to manifest itself. 2
Some of the
^
?v!^
in work
,.
....
.„
Amati traditions are still preserved, but the
form broadens out, the arching improves, it becomes
flatter, the degrees of thickness in the wood are carefully
determined, the ff holes appear straighter and nobler in
design, the varnish is more highly coloured and fiery;
in short, the whole instrument is approaching the stage
of perfection which it reaches with the next decade.



.

1

"Anchor' Io son

2

The same

,

pittore."

authorities are of the opinion that the master

enced in the conception of the long pattern
violins of Maggini.

114

now

was

influ-

appearing by the

Stradivari
Second Period. Stradivari creates master works, one
following the other, one seemingly more perfect than
the other, yet all nearly alike perfect, and

more than twenty-five years

that for

It is

1725.

:

1700-

ea es
JJ

impossible to touch here on the

-mt
incomparable art as
shown in the productions of this second period. Able
minds and pens have treated this subject in a manner
which leaves almost no room for further comment. 1
Comparing these gems with the instruments
°m "
of his predecessors, we see that no item,
however apparently insignificant or hidden,
has escaped the master's observation and failed to
become the subject of study and subsequent improvement. We see this exemplified, for instance, in his
design of the bridge, which, after numberless essays
in this direction by previous makers, has to this day
remained the unimprovable pattern.

details of Stradivari's

How important
bridge

is (this,

becomes

a factor bearing on the quality of the tone the

at best, extraneous part to the violin organism)

when we

form ever so slightly. If the
familiar pattern is replaced by a plain, square piece of wood,
Indeed, every incision, every
the tone ceases almost entirely.
curve, every detail in this little marvel is not, as many think, a
clear

alter its

thing of accident, caprice, or mere ornamentation, but the result
of endless, most delicate experiments. The primary object of
the bridge is to transmit the vibrations of the strings to the
sounding-board.
1

the

Hills' already-quoted

memory

work, the

of the great master

;

finest

monument

also Fetis, Hart, etc.

"5

yet erected to

«

.

Story of the Violin
The same care is given by the master to the selection
wood for his instruments. When one notices

of the

how
Profound
.

of

-

,Tr

Wood

j

other contemporary makers have been
t ^i s po i nt ( t o the detri-

ess p art ; cu i ar on

ment of the tone of
to

conies

,

the

their instruments),
,

.

conclusion

.

that

one

'
_
Stradivari

possessed not only the most profound knowledge of the
acoustical properties of wood, but very likely spared no
trouble in securing just what he wanted.
Delicate experiments 1 as to the sonority of wood used by the
at various periods of his life have revealed the interest-

master

ing fact that a rod of

maple obtained from a fragment

n

of a Stradivari violin 'JCZS^p of the date 1717, produced (under
certain experimental ^r
conditions) the tone
sharp; a



A

rod taken from another violin made in 1708 produced the same
tone; and three rods of deal obtained
n a from three different instruments bearing the dates /K
1690, 1724, and
1730

respectively,

all

produced

same tone

the »Jr

F.

Nothing can be more perfect than the master's
Seen through the magnifying-glass it looks
as if laid in by the finest machinery invented for the
purfling.

/

/

The scroll, too, is a masterpiece of easy
purpose.
grace and strength, worthy of a Benvenuto Cellini.
So are the ff holes, which perhaps as much as any of
the many details in the shaping of the violin body
reveal the superiority or inferiority of a maker's workmanship, besides their form and position being of
considerable influence on the tone of the instrument.
l
.

See F&is's Stradivari, pp. 78,

116

79.

Stradivari
The most

striking characteristic, however, of

Stradivari violins of this period

is

the

their general shape.

We

get for the first time the so-called flat
model.
The experimental efforts of the
preceding decade (1690-1700) had gradually _,
but surely led to it. The master has given
his instruments a broader waist, increased

Most

n

,ni"

...

wood (particularly of the belly), an^
diminished the swelling or arching so that in the centre,
under the bridge, it amounts to only about half-aninch, while in the Stainer and Amati productions it
reached nearly double this height.
^
The result of this alteration in the general form to
which all the varying degrees of thickness in the
wood are most carefully adjusted is that wonderful
increase in the tone which makes the Stradivari
violins of the second period such unrivalled organs
of sound.
There is practically in these instruments no bottom
and no end to the tone— providing the tone-production
of the player is what it should be. At the
lightest touch of the bow this tone seems to
emerge from mysterious depths like Aphrodite out of
the deep still sea, and like her veil and beauty, to
expand, floating and trembling on the soft waves of
Add to this sweetness, this mellowness,
the air.
this voluptuous, earth-born, heaven-seeking beauty a
triumphant strength, brilliancy, intensity and carrying
power, and we have indeed the non plus ultra of a
violin-tone, attained not before or ever after Stradivarius.
the thickness of the

117

10

;

Story of the Violin
is

the varnish which the

It is

usually of a deep auburn-

In keeping with this tone

master gave to his violins.

red, replete with colour, to
e

as

its

which

is

relieving concomitant, a rare

lent,

trans-

It is not the pure, chaste, golden
parency.
halo of morning which we see poured out over Petrus
Guarneri's instruments ; it is rather the rich deep red of

the setting sun which has received into itself the countless joys and sorrows of a day in the world, and bidding
it

farewell, leaves a long train of purple behind

sky.

It

is

further

interesting

on the
and instructive that

Stradivarins, even in this period, varies his patterns in
general and in detail, with the result that seldom two
It may have been
instruments of his are exactly alike.
the quality of the wood which dictated a different treat-

ment, or the special wish of a customer more often,
though, I believe it was the true artist spirit in him
which, absolutely sure of his powers and weary of mere
repetition, loved to play with difficulties.
Yet though
he altered the mode of expressing himself, the noble
message is always the same.
The Third Period in Stradivari's life and work, to
which we now come, is, obedient to the laws of all flesh,
a period of decline. It is the late autumn
in an artist's life, when the impetuous pro,,
r
ductive force of earlier years has spent itself
when work is flowing along in the broad quiet bed of
habit and routine like a laden ship bearing down stream
towards its destiny. Stradivarius had created his master
works.
But when other men have generally reached
;

'

uS


Stradivari
crown of snow

at three-score years or so and give
work, he laboured on. Much of his manhood
strength seemed yet in him, and he had still much to
How marvellous
do, though in his eighty-first year.
such a life of usefulness
And for thirteen years more
he was spared to enjoy the
their

up

their

!

fruits of his

labour

:

not in

and enforced
idleness, but by adding to
them and particularly by

feebleness



being permitted to impart
to others what had been
glory and happiness of his

the

own

life.

With special interest, akin to
reverence and half-envious admiration, one turns to the third
and last period which also is
the closing scene of the master's
career.

a

thin,

A venerable old
stooping figure,

man
in

cap

and leather apron, 1 with a face FIG. 25.— STRADIVARI S HOUSE
AND SHOP.
furrowed by thought, in his little (By kind permission
of W. E. Hill
& Sons.)
kingdom (surely some small
workshop 2 ) surrounded by talented pupils watching,
following, and helping the master.
Behold among
1

F£tis, Stradivari.

2 It is

said that the loft seen in Fig. 25

served as the master's workshop.

Ir 9

on the top of the house

Story of the Violin
them

his

Bergonzi,
His two
ons,

two sons, Francesco and Omoboni
Carlo
who like the disciple who leaned on Jesus'
breast seemed to have understood and imitated the master best
the talented Guad-



;



.

n-

r

o- nm ;. an(j perhaps also, for a short time

r
cesco and
least, the man who was almost to reach
Omoboni
him in fame, the before-mentioned Giuseppe
It is a charming scene one can thus conjure
Guarnerius.
up, an idyl worthy of the brush of a RemA bcene
brandt.
This snow-haired man moving
amon & n ' s little flock, dropping advice into
R h dt
their ears as he passes them and inspects
their work, and turning again with faltering steps and
contented little grunts to his own bench of many years'

^

,

,

toil,

to

some

Stradivari

,

half-finished

,

work.

making

violins one year before
which occurred at the age of ninety-three,
in
Already from 1730 his work
1737.
„, T
™. ,
shows more and more the effects of old age.
It becomes timid
the workmanship loses
its former absolute finish, and with it the tone of the
instruments in elasticity and brilliancy there is also in
some a touching half return to the long abandoned'
form which he cultivated in the days of his youth, and
numerically there is a rapid decrease.
Some of his
last instruments he probably only prepared for his
pupils to finish, and these found later their way into the
market under the master's name. While he lived he
was most particular that no instrument except made by
his own hand from start to finish should bear his label,
left

off

his death,



;

120

Stradivari
usually as below (Fig. 26).
The label of those made
by his pupils (mostly Bergonzi) read either— " Sub
disciplina di Ant. Stradivarius ; " or, " Sotte la disciplina di Ant. Stradivarius."

FIG. 26.

Altogether, it has been estimated that about one
thousand violins are attributable to Stradivari, and
about three hundred altos, 'celli, and other instruments,

among them

different kinds of viols, some bass viols
(which at his time were yet in use in orchestras), and

some lutes, guitars, and mandoras, very exquisitely
wrought. How many of his violins have endured to
this day I am not in the position to say, but it seems
still a goodly number. 1
My readers will be familiar with the extraordinary
prices which the best of Stradivari instruments comalso

mand

at the present day. 2

The master,

his violins at the uniform price of

commensurate
1

*

its

said, sold

amount

in

our

work an exhaustive list of those which
names of their present owners.

their notice, with

The Violin and

it is

which would be

to about six times that

Hill Brothers give in their

have come under

^4

Makers, Hart.

121

Story of the Violin
own

In those days this

time.

may have

been con-

sidered by him, no less than his customers, a

good

have secured for him a
nice competency.
Already at the beginning of the
nineteenth century prices went up in leaps and bounds,
and they have gone on increasing, and will, no doubt,
continue to do so until, as now for old masterpieces in
painting and sculpture, only millionaires will be able to
bid for them and at last they will find a resting-place,
one by one, storm and weather-beaten Tdmeraires, in
the haven of national museums and collections.
price,

and

his industry should

;

should like in this connection to vindicate the rich amateur
violin collector, who is commonly chidden because of his
withholding such priceless treasures from the hands of the proI

and



who can put them to better viz., their proper use.
such a temporary confinement, consider how few of
these old instruments would have stood the continual, merciless
strain and strife of professional life to which they are now subjected.
I do not know whether it is a real fact, but it is affirmed
that some of the best Stradivari violins have already been
played out, worked to death, left a mere wreck of their former
self as far as tone is concerned.
I can almost believe it, for
I know from experience that a violin, when played on for hours
at a stretch, will get tired, and the voice husky like an overfessional,

Save

for

worked singer; only rest will restore the tone to its usual brightness and responsiveness. In the plush-lined, scented box, under
lock and key at the rich collector's house, these old gems take
their holidays. Let us be glad for the sake of future generations,
and thankful

The

to the rich

man

for his selfish propensity.

history of the master's best violins

122

is

naturally

Stradivari
some of the most famous
and would, no doubt, make interesting
reading.
How many triumphs some of them (the
violins, I mean) witnessed, how many thrills and
raptures of pride and enthusiasm,— yes, and how
many failures, too; how many heavy sighs of disassociated with the history of
violin-artists, 1

appointment,

disenchantment,

tremors

of

wounded

parting with them
echoed through their delicate, sympathetic frames, and

vanity and

pride,

or regrets

at

tear-dimmed eyes rested inconsolably on their luminous
varnish.

home life we know very little.
married twice, and had three sons and two
daughters by the first wife, and several
«'
by the second.
One can hardly ^imagine s tradiv*r s
him otherwise than a kind husband and
father, and a good, upright man in all his dealings
with the world.
His work is almost a guarantee for
those qualities.
As the gardener who spends his
days in Nature's company unconsciously imbibes from
her some of her gentleness, purity, and patience, so
this man in the constant society of his wooden friends,
I could fancy, had a conscience as transparent as the
varnish of his violins, and a humour as fresh, serene,
and healthy as the smell of fresh pine and maple. At
Of

the great master's

He was

least

tion
1

some of that happy symmetry, ease, and perfecwhich characterised his work must also have

Already Corelli,

it

is

reported, used a Stradivari violin

Viotli, Paganini, Ernst, Alard,
artists,

;

likewise

and many others; and among modern

Joachim, Sarasate, Ysaye, Lady Halle.

123

Story of the Violin
permeated and regulated his whole life. Or perhaps,
lest there should be all light and no shade in that life,
let us say, by way of conjecture, that the good master
was just a trifle too laborious, too exacting, too whatever you wish to call it and his wife and children, pupils,
helpmates, and patrons had not always an easy time of it.
I know a clever German violin-maker whom I have
visited occasionally in his workshop, and found in blue
working-blouse, bent over the skeleton of a future
fiddle, and somehow always pictured within myself that
noble scion of Cremona two centuries ago. This man's
hands are strong and varnish-stained, almost too strong
and muscular, it seems, to handle a thing so delicate as
a violin, to trace the slender arabesque of the purfling and
It
lay in the threads of black wood but watch him.
is like a mother handling her little three-months'-old
baby with a firm, but ah so tender a hand. You feel
that not a move is wrong; there is no hurry, no flurry;
all is so sure, so steady, so delicate withal, and quick.
So this man shapes violins and cures sick ones which
are brought to him, while his wife good, devoted, and
clever little woman and a pretty daughter look after
I wonder if Signpra
the business and the customers.
and Sigorina Stradivari did likewise? They say the
master was always working; surely, some one had to







!





see to other things for him.
What noble, soul-satisfying

work though, this shaping of violins must have been more satisfying, I could
fancy, than the kneading of the sculptor in his yielding,
It had all the healthy naturalness of the
ignoble clay.
;

124

Stradivari
artisan's craft, without lacking the breath

—which

stimulating

blows from those

—ennobling,

loftier

heights

where dwelleth the ideal. How delightful to work in
wood on which hung yet the silent mystery of forests
and the mountain-side, the echoes of distant avalanches,
and the cry of chamois and eagle
And so he sat, the
master day after day, year after year, toiling from
early morn when the sun first kissed the glossy boards
hung up to dry by the open workshop window till the
"Angelus" from the near cathedral of St. Dominicus
rang over the quiet little town making violins, violins,
!





violins.

Making

violins

until

his

own

soul, like the

tone of one of them, tuned to the heavenly pitch at
the gentle touch of death, floated off to swell the great
orchestra of souls. Antonio Stradivari died on the 19th
of December, 1737.

The influence of this extraordinary man on the art of
violin-making, and on musical art in general, can be
imagined.
It was
an influence,
through his numerous pupils and
.
followers, who carried the precept and
example of the master directly into their own
established workshops and thus enriched the world
with valuable productions; secondly, through the imitation of his patterns, which form the bulk of the wholereadily

firstly,

sale

and

production

and

of

violins

in

all

countries

to-day;

but not least, through the stimulant which his unrivalled instruments have given to
executive and creative musical art from Corelli down to
the present time.
thirdly

last,

125

Story of the Violin
Among

I have already mentioned his two
and Omoboni, with whom the illustrious
name seems to have died out at least, as far

his pupils

sons, Francesco

„,

p

..



as the art of lutherie

is

concerned.

Of

these

Francesco was the more prominent. Besides finishing'
a number of his father's instruments after his death, he
made some very excellent violins bearing' his own label.
Strange to say, and rather unfortunate for him, he
created a model of his own which proved inferior to
that of his master.
He died but six years after his
father, preceded by one year by his brother Omoboni.
The three are buried in the same tomb.
To greater eminence attained Carlo Bergonzi (171250), one of Stradivari's best pupils and imitators, who
rented the master's house and workshop, and established himself and his two sons, Nicolaus (1730-50)
and Michelangelo, after him, at Cremona. Bergonzi's
violins are distinguished for their large and noble tone
and fine workmanship, and are consequently (since the
genuine Stradivari's have reached prohibitive figures)
much sought after by professional artists. Nicolaus
and Michelangelo Bergonzi's instruments fell below
their father's work.
Equal,

if

not in some respects superior, to Bergonzi's

violins are those of

Lorenzo Guadagnini (1695-1740),

another of Stradivari's pupils, who established himself
at Cremona, and helped to preserve its fame for yet a
few more decades. His violins, as well as those of his
son, Joannes Baptista Guadagnini, who worked at

Parma

(1750-85), are

among
126

the

most highly-prized of

Stradivari
Cremonese instruments of the second rank.

Tone and

exterior are here of equally striking perfection.

With

name of Alexander Gagliano
subsequently became the founder of

the well-known

(or Galiano),

who

a distinguished family of luthiers of the same name in
Naples, and Francisco Gobetti of Venice, the number
of Stradivari's pupils is not exhausted, and still less that
of his imitators J but I hurry on to the most eminent of
all as it is believed: Giuseppe Guarneri, also called
Joseph Guarneri del Gesu.
;

1

See Appendix.

CHAPTER

XXII.

GIUSEPPE GUARNERI DEL GESU.

Among

the great representatives in

all

the arts there

have been men who stood out from the rest like some
fantastically-shaped peak or cone in the fine clear outline of a mountain chain
men conspicuous as much by
their personality as by the originality and force of their
genius; men whom we cannot altogether love and revere
(because of their faults, which are as great as their
powers), but from whom we cannot get away; who
fascinate and haunt us, whom we admire while we pity
their infirmities, and to whose greatness we surrender
because we have no measurement for it. Such a man
was Paganini Turner, I think, another. Such a man
was also Giuseppe Guarneri, or, as he is more often
called, Joseph Guarnerius del Gesu.
CornStrongest
p arm g n s genius with that of Antonio
;

;

;

possi

e

Light and
Sh d

Stradivari's,
'

...

it

appears in

its

own


strongest
s

j
and
shade.
There, genius
harmoniously filled the whole personality,
was one with it here it runs riot, is in turn the master
and the slave. The story of Giuseppe is short and sad.

possible

,.

,

light

;

128

,

:

Giuseppe Guarneri



There are question signs everywhere from the mysterious appendage to the name 1 by which the fiddle world is

wont

to call him, to the mysterious sources
For the rest, the details
of his powers.

of

his

chequered

alone supply the

what the

life,

traditional

much

Q^stion

reports

desired information,

besides

and connoisseur have been able to
read in the problematic symbolism of his works.
Joseph, then (this much we know for sure 2 ), was born
at Cremona on the 8th of June 1683— one year before
the death of Nicolo Amati— as the son of Maria
Locadella and Joannes Baptista Guarneri, brother of
old

may

historian

Andrew

of Guarneri fame.

Fiddle-maker's blood

therefore have been running in Joseph's veins

(perchance from some unknown grandsire lute-maker),
although it is not likely that his father followed the
profession of his relatives, as no instruments with his
For some reason or other
label are extant.
IS
**,7
young Giuseppe also was not apprenticed
with either of his elder cousins, Joseph and
Peter, the sons of Andrew, but, if we may rely on F^tis
and other musical historians, with Antonio Stradivari,
who then, at the end of the seventeenth century, was
nearing his best creative period. How long he worked
in Antonio's workshop and with what influence on his
budding talent, historians do not tell us.
1
Only from the year 1725 instruments appear
<f
with his labels, and he was then a man of
jT
UJ{3 forty-two. Was he established by himself
8

Fetis.

129


Story of the Violin
then or before? A man of forty-two in Italy at that
time usually was. Surely he had made violins before
the age of forty-two ? What has become of them ? or
how were they labelled ? One might here press question after question
it is all vain.
Oblivion has drawn
the veil across that part of Giuseppe's history.



What, then, is the story expressed in the language of
curves and forms, of wood and workmanship and varnish
in his

works?

attempts

A

(sic)

According to F6tis, the

— at 42— of Joseph,"

"first

"were not

marked byanycharacteristicsign of originality,
except a certain indifference in the choice of his material,
in the forms, which are variable, and in the varnish."
If fancy may be allowed to interpret fact, that part
of Joseph's

life

reads

—to

me

at least

— as

follows:

Giuseppe learned the art of fiddle-making
from some other master, be this who it

may, but not from Stradivarius, who could
hardly have helped influencing a young apprentice,
no matter how talented, just as he influenced his
Bergonzi, Guadagnini, and Gagliano
other pupils
Stradivari's genius
particularly at a period when
This granted
had already attained to its fulness.
(unless, perchance, Giuseppe did come to Antonio as
apprentice and ran away from the too punctilious master,
after a short time on the work-bench), it is my belief
that Joseph learned from some other inferior master. 1



1

Since writing the above

Petherick,

who

states that

it

I

find this corroborated

was one Andrea

nections with the older Brescian makers.

130

by Mr. Horace
who had con-

Gisalberti,

Giuseppe Guarneri
Genius in him presently feels its way, but character
is weak.
Thus Giuseppe does not get on, while others
with less talent do. His cousin Joseph helps and takes
him in, and gives him work to do (the small pattern
which Giuseppe cultivates at first seems to
wood
point to such a relation). So the years go by.
Then Giuseppe tries to stand alone, for he is
_,
,
now forty-two years of age but bad habits w ortr m , n .
and his poverty are in the way, and the
^{p
;

outcome is the nature of his work described
by F^tis bad wood and careless workmanship.
Then comes a time, some years later, when, to quote
:

F£tis again

'
:

'

The wood used
quality

We

find his instruments

for the sides

is

elastic quality, is

that of Stradivarius.

;

care.

of excellent

and cut on the quarter; 1 the deal of the

has been well chosen

and

made with

and the back

belly

the varnish, of fine complexion
of the loveliest tint, and rivals

The instruments

of this period

are of small pattern, their outlines are happily designed,

arching, slightly elevated, subsides by a gentle
curve to the purfling, the inner parts are formed of
the

deal."
Then F6tis goes on to speak of the
degrees of thickness in these instruments, particularly
in the middle of the back, which, in his opinion, are too
a radical defect, impairing the elasticity,
great, and
the freedom of their vibration, the brilliancy of their
sound, etc." And he finishes by saying: "The stamp
of originality is apparent in them [the instruments], not-

good

'

'

1
On the two different ways of cutting wood
making, see Fetis Stradivari, p. 49.
:

I3 1

for the use of violin-

Story of the Violin
withstanding the variable forms in which the artist still
indulges."
I may add here that this, according to
Fetis, the second period is followed by a third, the
happiest and greatest in Giuseppe's life, when his genius
throws out gfems of different form and
uems 01
colours as a crystal throws out rays. The
violins are small and large, workmanship is
p
perfect, the varnish beautiful in lustre, brilliColour
ancy, and suppleness the tone rivals that of
Stradivari's best productions, and over all his works lies
full the charm of an originality as powerful as it is varied.
And what does all this tell ? What was the secret
lever to this most felicitous state in our artist's work ?
Was it success ? Yes but perhaps it was first something else perhaps it was first the pure, ennobling,
strengthening influence of a woman's love a loving
wife, 1 who helped him, and urged him on, who kept him
out of wine-shops and pleasure resorts, who drudged for
him and saved to see him succeed. He did succeed
until
and here comes the fourth period in
Fourth
Giuseppe's life— " all at once," says Fetis,
;

;







"immediately after this glorious period in
became so inferior to himself in
the instruments which left his hands that it would be
impossible to recognise his productions if the stamp of
originality, which h'e preserved to the last in certain
Poorness in
details, did not assure us of their being his.
his career, Guarnerius

1

According to a report which Fetis mentions, he was married
who helped him in his work.

Tyrolese maiden,

132

to

a

Giuseppe Guarneri
the wood, in the workmanship, and in the varnish
his violins as the degenerate fruit

decayed."
gloriously,

enticed

peace,

had

I

the

devil

in

of

of a great talent

said before, he did succeed

— until

all

number

strike the eye of a connoisseur in a certain

—succeeded

some form or shape

him away from his sweet haven of love and
work and success, and he sank quicker than he

deeper and deeper, crushing in his fall a
made unhappy, until he landed where as
a rule only bad or very unfortunate men land in gaol.
One can well
Joseph Guarnerius in prison
risen,

wife already



!

Joseph
man awaking from
sad dream of a dissolute, irrevocably
m _Prison
..
..,
,
spoiled hie ; tortured
by remorse, and
tortured still more by the claims of the immortal
genius in him which cried for work, work ; work to
earn its crown not of glory any more, but of rest.
What must it have been to see the days crawl by as
if on crutches, through dim, barred prison-windows
to
picture to oneself that
his

.

,

,



;

hear, perhaps, the

old

familiar

tolling

of the

bells

which once had called him at eventide away from the
good work-bench into the arms of love.
Poor Joseph Guarnerius
Providence sent him an
!

angel in the form of woman the gaoler's daughter,
who takes pity on a wretched man. Enough ! A
touching tradition says that she procured wood for him
and tools good or bad and varnish where she could
get it cheap from any maker who had of it to spare.
Then Joseph Guarnerius, with feverish, badly nourished
body, set to work and made violins ah, any kind of
:







J

33

ii

Story of the Violin
violins,

some

if

only they brought peace to his mind and

money

buy more wood and varnish for
His good angel went and sold
them in the street for what she could get for them,
and bought the desired and yes, with womanly tenderness, little comforts, too, besides the varnish and the
woc"^Thus Giuseppe worked in gaol
Th V A
until one day his patron Jesus, whom he had
disgraced, took tools and wood and varnish from his tired,
trembling hands, and changed the prison into Paradise.
Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu was the greatest master
little

his eagerness to

to

work.



of violin-making after Stradivari.

His best instruments

are the admiration of the connoisseur, the

*"£

amateur, and the artist alike

Greatest

their kind,

made

still

more

—treasures of

priceless because

there are so few.

.

Stradivari

It is interesting that even
beginning of the last century their
true value should have been hidden from the

at

*^ e

professional world, and that,

masterpieces, they

compared to

Stradivari's

commanded but a moderate

price

a Joseph del Gesu violin,
which he called his " cannon," drew wider attention to
their wonderful merits.
With Joseph Guarnerius's death the first-rank masteruntil Pag'anini's partiality for

There was yet, it
period in the art of lutherie ends.
is true, a good, large after-growth of second,

The

First-

and fourth rate makers in various
towns an ac tivity almost feverish,
as if these men, possessed of the full inheritance of their masters and predecessors, had a
rank Master

third,

Italian

_

J

34

Giuseppe Guarneri
presentiment that with them the art would die, and
that they had to leave the world provided for in time
Towards the latter part of the same
to come.
century, beginning at Cremona (where the art had first
flowered), and spreading farther, silence slowly descended on the once busy workshops, and now the
grass grows on the doorsteps and deserted streets.
One by one the toilers went to their well-earned rest,
and with them, piece by piece, the priceless jewels of



workmantwo centuries. Or is
Before trying to answer this question (to
it not so ?
the best of an enthusiast's abilities) let us shortly con-

the art
ship

viz.,

the secrets of the varnish, of

and wood,

sider the

collected through

countries

outside

Italy.

contributions to the art of lutherie?

'35

What were

their

CHAPTER

XXIII.

THE ART OF VIOLIN-MAKING IN FRANCE, ENGLAND,
AND GERMANY.

Duiffoprugcar

He may

died

have

in

France,

some

and

was

buried

Lyons,
but his great spirit did not linger there with them.
Post-haste it made for Italy to haunt the lovely valley
of the Po, and visit young Da Salo and
No French Andrew Amati in their dreams.
find no
luthier of renown in France until much later,
t>
when in Italy the art had already reached its
Indeed, if we except
climax or begun to decline.
Nicolaus Lupot (born in Stuttgart in 1758, died in
Paris in 1824), who made some much-valued violins and
there.

left

pupils

in

We

'celli after Stradivari's
models and rules,
and a few other makers like Nicolas and
Francois Mddard 1 (1680-1720), Ambroise de
Comble (1730-60), and John Vuillaume of Mirecouct

'

.

(1700-40),

whom

F^tis

mentions as direct pupils of

Stradivarius ; and further, Jacques
1

Bocquay

(1700-30),

Henri Medard was the founder of the large violin manufactory

Mirecourt.

136

at


Violin-making in France
Claude Pierray (1725), Louis Guersan (1760); and, in
more recent times, Chanot, Gand, and J. B. Vuillaume.
France's contribution to the

list

of celebrated

0n n "
very small, and, then, her best
o
t,on Small
1
TU1
ones are u
but imitators.
Ihis seems strange
considering how artistic and emotional her people are,
and how just that art should have appealed to them
in its simple charm, not to mention that France was
the nursery of the rebec and viol, and the home of the
troubadour. Was it perhaps the centralisation of all
artistic life in Paris which denuded the provinces of just
those elements best suited for following this particular
art?
But although France cannot boast of Victor Hugos,
Alfred de Mussets, and Francois Millets in fiddle-making,
and whatever the reason of this barrenness, she has
produced a line of men who understood the art of
imitation an art, too no doubt a very useful one
albeit fraught with danger to him who gives himself up

makers

is

.



-j.



to

it



exclusively at the sacrifice of originality.

In this

particular line French luthiers have remained almost unexcelled.

It

may

imitation which

be that it was this very cleverness at
taught the French violin-

eve
makers from M^dard and De Comble down to
.
desist from all attempts at original work,
that more likely than not would prove futile in the
end.
To this day the amateur, eager to procure an old
violin, and yet not in the position to pay for a better
Italian production, will most safely seek it among the
.

1

See Appendix.

'37

Story of the Violin
number of instruments left by the various third
and fourth-rate French makers. 1 The wood is usually
selected with knowledge and care, the workmanship is
good, the varnish durable and very attractive in colour
and tints and, above all, the pattern in most cases is
that of Stradivarius and Guarnerius.
Turning to England, we find here too some praiseworthy efforts in violin-making. We need not go back
to a father and son Ross who worked in
ViolinLondon between 1562 and 1600, and were
j*
simply viol and lute-makers; nor to one
p t
Aldred (1560), or Richard Hume of Edinburgh, also sixteenth-century viol and lute-maker. Even
from a time as remote as 1578 the name of J. Pemberton
large

;

has come down as the probable creator of the violin
now on exhibition at the South Kensington Museum
(lent by the Earl of Warwick), which Queen Elizabeth
said to have presented to her favourite, the

is

of Leicester.

Earl

The arms of both these personages

engraved in silver on the finger-board, and the
1578, with the initials "J. P." on the tailpiece.
The instrument is mentioned by Hawkins and Dr.
Burney in their histories of music, but is interesting
more as a curiosity than as possessing intrinsic musical
are

date,

value.

Of
(at

somewhat legendary maker

later date than this

least as far as violins are concerned) is a certain

"Jacob

Rayman," a Tyrolese by
1

See Appendix.

138

birth,

who

first

Violin-making in England
introduced the Stainer models into England.
He lived
London about the middle of the seventeenth century.
Other makers of the second half of the
English
seventeenth and beginning- of the eighteenth
workers:
century are: Edward Pamphilon; Barak Normann (1688-1740), the best old English viol I?th * n
jj
and violin-maker, imitator of Maggini Cuth- j-.
bert Urquhart, William Addison (1670), and an(j L ater
Thomas Cole (1690), a celebrated old master.
In the course of the eighteenth century we meet with
several distinguished names, chief among them that of
Richard Duke (Holborn, London, 1768), who imitated
the best Stradivari patterns, and also those of Amati
and Stainer in a most meritorious style and Benjamin
Banks (Salisbury, 1727-95), one of the best English
makers, whose instruments are justly appreciated.
In still more modern times, reaching to our day, perhaps best known are the names of: John Thomas Hart
(1805-74), noted for his valuable collection of old violins
and as a sound student and connoisseur of the Italian
masters; William Ebsworth Hill and Sons, descendants of
William Joseph Hill (see Appendix); and Thomas Dodd,
justly famous for his bows, which rank with the best.
To these names, besides others given in the Appendix, representing English activity in violin-making,
could doubtless be added many more, 1 but
0W'°S
it would be misplaced patriotism to assert
in

;

.

,

;

that

on the

whole

these makers

— distin-

n

.

1
See also the recent publication, English Violin-makers, by Meredith
Morrison ; 1904.

J

39

Story of the Violin
some instances showing
more than faithful
imitators of the Italian and

guished though they be, and
originality in certain details

and
j

clever

Tyrolese

.

in

—were

masters.

Indeed,

imitation point of view,

that they were, generally speaking,

from

a

pure

must be conceded

it

inferior

to their

French neighbours. Probably the climate had something to do in the case of wood and varnish, just as it
has in the manufacture of gut-strings, which deteriorate
in proportion as they are made farther away from the
genial climate of the Gaglianos. 1

Germany's (including Austria's) contribution to the
is also on the whole of an imitatory
nature, but with this difference, which places
violinjjer at an advantage over other countries out-

fiddle-making art

s

c

side Italy, that she can trace the origin of the

back to one of her own sons,
This Tyrolese master is truly and
indisputably the founder of German lutherie, for,
although it may be urged that even Stainer primarily
reflected only Italian art (viz., Nicolaus Amati), he is
sufficiently original to deserve that distinction.
The
influence of the Cremonese schools began somewhat
art directly

Jacobus Stainer.

later

to

assert

itself

in

Germany

as elsewhere.

In

modest Absam workshop lay the sources of
activities one of which has since grown into a stately
river of national income and national pride.
One
Stainer's

1

Most prominent manufacturers of strings in Italy, descendants of
same name, Alexander Gagliano. See

the famous violin-maker of the
Stradivari's pupils.

140

Violin-making in Germany
might perhaps divide these activities in the fatherland into three classes: First: The legitimate artistic



sound -makers who
were satisfied to copy their Stainer and
the Cremonese masters with as much
imitation

by

good

T

,

fidelity

as

possible, even to the degree of occasional slight de-

ceptions by way of making their productions look like
genuine, and in rare cases, and less to their credit, by
selling them, too, as such.
Second: The dabbling of
cranks who could not resist the temptation
of wanting to improve on the Stainer and
.
,-,

f

Italian

own

and by inoculating their
individuality produced not only deformities,
patterns,

acoustic impossibilities, but helped also to impair the

slow-growing reputation at home and abroad of the
legitimate maker. 1 Third: The wholesale imitation and
production of instruments as it is carried on to-day in
several fiddle-making centres of Germany with great
benefit to the producers as well as the world at large.
Did he dream that such would be his
Poor Stainer
!

Of course it was not his alone, but it was
Of the first class, the
to a large degree.
sound-makers, we need not speak at length.
,
Though their names 2 were and are legion,
one or several to be found in every good-sized German
influence ?

or Austrian town,
1

A few

their

one Rauch (Breslau), who
counted
2

reputation, with few excep-

exceptions are also here to be found.

among

the cleverest

H. Starcke mentions

built violins after his

German makers.

See Appendix.

141

own model, and

is

Story of the Violin
now

has been more or less local. With the
we can likewise dispense.
It only remains now to speak of the third activity.
Jacobus Stainer had two pupils of the name of Klotz
viz., Egidius Klotz, the father (1660-75), 1 an d Matthias
tions,

till

second

class, the dabblers,



Klotz, the son (1660-1720), both equally clever men,
and perfect imitators of their master, as their instruments prove. Egidius died, but Matthias, when he
had learned enough (he also studied in Cremona and
Florence), soon after Stainer's death settled in his

native town, Mittenwalde, a small place at the foot of

good material
and easily to be got,
and founded there a second "miniature" Cremona.
Miniature is hardly the right word except in its artistic
sense, for viojin-making in Mittenwalde became the

the Tyrolese (Bavarian) mountains, where
for his instruments

was

plentiful

cradle of the wholesale fabrication of stringed instru-

ments

in

Germany.

A

son of Matthias, Sebastian Klotz, almost as clever
as his father, and after him Matthias Hornstainer
(Sebastian's pupil), carried on what soon became a
large, well-paying business.
To fill a fast-increasing want for instruments yet
cheaper than the Mittenwalde products, similar industries sprang up in two small places,
v

p

,

.

villages at

first,

on the Saxon and Bohemian

frontier— Klingenthal and Markneukirchen,
which to-day together produce the largest number of
cheap fiddles in the world. 2
1

Dates of productivity.

a

Not excepting Mirecourt,

142

in France.




Violin-making in

Germany

As already introduced by Hornstainer
the manufacture of violins

in Mittenwalde,

here carried on, on the
principle of divided labour.
The whole population
practically shares in the work, from the little mite in
is

blonde locks, who holds the mother's or elder sister's
varnish-pot (for women mostly do the varnishing) to
the veteran master or foreman maker and his Gesellen,

who

cut by hand or machinery the boards for belly,
back, and sides, and glue them together.
It is a great, fiddle kingdom which the stranger



The kings there for there
more than one are not great fiddlers or great
makers of fiddles, but men who do the selling and exTheir
porting, the men of books and bank accounts.
enters in Markneukirchen.



are

armies are the workers, generals, captains, recruits,

and volunteers

:

Every house and hut

is

busy; smell of glue where'er you

venture,

hum

Arid the hissing of machinery mixing with the

of

voices.

Instruments are
the dozen

To

made

to order

from three

shillings for

three hundred for one fiddle; plain and inlaid, of

all

patterns,
Stainer, Strad, and Guarneri, and Amati, Guadagnini;
That's Markneukirchen on the frontier of Saxonia and

Bohemia.

The export

I quote
Allgemeine

figures startle the imagination.

from a report which appeared in the
Mustkalische Zeitung of the year 1800 (No.
143

1)

:


Story of the Violin
"At Markneukirchen, worked year in year out:
78 masters (with hands and apprentices) at violins, altos and
basses.

26

30









violin bows.









gut strings.

At Klingenthal:
85 masters (with hands and apprentices) at violins.

The minimum

of violins produced in both places

What may

be the

is

36,000."

minimum now, a hundred

years
be a hundred years from now ?
Oh! ye shades of Duiffoprugcar, Da Salo, Andrew
Amati, and Jacobus Stainer
And these many hundreds
of thousands of fiddles have gone to make as many
hundred thousands happy (and some unhappy, too)
human beings in all parts of the globe, in all conditions

And what

later ?

will

it

!

in the hills and in the plains, in the woods and
Pampas, human beings on the outskirts of civilisation, in clean, bright suburban houses, and in the
Yes, blessed be the
back alleys of our big cities
violin and praised Neukirchen, Klingenthal, and Mire-

of

life,

in the

!

court

1

144

CHAPTER XXIV.
IS IT

What

A SECRET?

making fiddles as these old Cremonese masters
did? "There is no secret about it," says your modern
maker of violins and 'cellos; "it is all a silly fable,"
and he tries to smile, to lessen what he thinks a blow
1

!



that amiable, grim, contemptuous
such superior knowledge gives when
dealing with an ignoramus like yourself.
" But the tone?" you put in feebly.
"Will be," says he with emphasis, "as good a
hundred years hence as any of those gems by Guarneri
and Amati."
to tender feelings

smile



which

And the varnish ? " you falter and picking up
cpurage when you see him somewhat dazed "This,"
you point to one of his creations, " looks so dreadfully
'

'



;

—hm— so cruelly—hm— red—hm—ugly."
Then quickly he
expert weapons.

is

up

in arms,

and crushes you with

"Wait," he says; " when

that fiddle

played on and handled for a while, it will shine like
wax. The best of oil varnish this ; take my word for
that hm ugly hm new look will rub off in
it,
time;" and so he goes on to convince you that his
is

— —

violins are

made

— —

exactly like the Cremonese ones, and

that his violins will sound less than
145

fifty

years hence

Story of the Violin
exactly like your Cremonas, and that, in short,

you are

a poor fool for ever having thought otherwise.

now

But, of

you don't buy his violin just
You begin to believe that he must be right until
yet).
you are outside the shop, and then you murmur with
course, you don't

(only



Galilean obstinacy (or isjt conviction?), "And yet it is
a secret it must be after all."
Yes, what is it? The instruments of these Italian
masters have been copied so that one can hardly dis-





tinguish

them from the

originals.

wood has been

fying-glass the

Through -the magni-

dissected.

Splinters of

have been dried, roasted, made into a powder,
steamed, soaked in water, vinegar, and preserved in
alcohol; the measurements, the proportions of thickness
of belly and back have been taken with the minutest
care, with the latest improved instruments to the onehundredth part of an inch the breadth of a hair. The
least detail, in short, has been made the subject of profound study, but no one could reasonably
it



OUr

on

.

1

.

ions

affirm that the copies equal the originals,

^ n(

Possible

t jjere can possibly be only four con„'..
5.
on which this secret, if it is one,
on wood, age, workmanship or art, and

...

j

.

J

,

.

,

,

.

ditions

hangs



viz.,

the varnish.

What was
masters?
bo " t

^

wood of the great Cremonese
was, as that certain oft-quoted
painter said of his colours,
"mixed with
brains." Mr. Hart in his work on the
I

in

the

fear

it

violin

refers

to

old masters had of piecing

the peculiarity "which the

— that

146

is,

of using under

Is
certain

it

circumstances

them together

a

Secret

small

bits

?

of

wood,

piecing

(thus going to no end of trouble) rather

than use a possibly inferior or less suitable material
of which there was abundance. That certainly is a
significant proof of how careful these men were, and
how much they knew about wood as to its acoustical
possibilities.
How far this knowledge, was self-acquired
by the master, or handed down from former generations like the wonderful efficacy of certain herbs
which was the secret of our great-grandmothers we
cannot tell.
It is told of Stainer that he used to go into the wild
mountain fastnesses of the Tyrol and pick out the
trees, the wood of which he wished to use for his
usually such as had already begun to die off
violins
that further, before felling a tree (with his
at the top
own hand) he would knock with a hammer against the
trunk and listen to its sound its musical soul, as it
He also,
were. What did he hear ? He only knew.
it is said, would sit at the foot of a steep incline from
which felled trees were being hurled down into the







;



and listen to the tone they emitted in falling
from boulder to boulder. The grand poetry of it!
valley,

Like blind Homer listening to the heart-beat of the
ancient world. Ah, Jacob Stainer!
It is one of the marvels in the construction of the
violin that its essential parts

must be composed of two



kinds of wood; usually pine and maple the former for
belly (the sound-board), the latter for the back and
Savart, the eminent French savant, has by
sides.
147

Story of the Violin
experiments found out that pine, as the
conductor of sound, stands to maple in the
proportion of 12 to 8. 1
Should these old masters,
with something akin to the instinct of the mediaeval
alchemist and astrologer, have understood more than
our twentieth-century makers about this perfect mating
of wood to produce the perfect marriage of sound ?
We are told the Cremonese makers procured their
ingenious
better

maple wood from as far as Turkey and Galicia, where
it was shipped to Venice for the purpose of serving
for the production of rudders for the galleys.
At any
rate they got the pine or deal for the belly of their
instruments (which is usually considered the most
important part) from the Tyrolese and Swiss mountain
slopes, where the dryness of the soil and the comparative stability of climatic conditions favoured a slow
growth of the tree and with it its acoustic properties
which are almost nil in wood of soft and spongy
fibre.
This seems very plausible, but who will
pretend that the supply of similar material from those
or other parts of the world, that great storehouse of

has

say that where
fifty years
ago he would not find it still were he to live again ?
How do our makers procure their wood ? I do not
presume to know for sure, but I suppose in most
cases from the merchant who buys it wholesale and
At all events, I do not think they go
retails it to them.
into the mountains like Stainer to pick out the trees,
nature's

liberality,

ceased,

or

wood two hundred and

Stainer found his



1

See Fetis

:

Stradivari.

148


Is

it

a

Secret?

even if they knew one from another (as to the greater
or less suitability of their wood for the purpose of
lutherie), which is doubtful.
Is the secret then in the
wood ? Most assuredly but it is only part of it.
;

As the farmer sowing

—nay,

for

is

sure of

his seed in the

autumn hopes

— his crops in the follow-

if

spring, so

tu

..

About Age

I a
present-day
maker ot
violins expects from the future the crown which his own
generation withholds from him.
It seems reasonable enough to suppose that age will
improve a fiddle as it does wine ; but absolutely sure
no, we are not.
Nor are we sure even that merely
playing on a violin will so very materially (as it is
usually taken for granted) change for the better its
inherent qualities. 1 The best proof for doubt on this
score is furnished by spme of these very gems of the
Italian masters which are held up as examples.
F£tis 2 relates one case of a Stradivari violin having
practically never been touched since it left the master's
hand, and when played upon showed every quality which
we admire in his other instruments. This has been
the experience of more than one professional player.
On the other hand, how is it that instruments quite as
old as or older than the Bergonzis and Guadagninis, etc.
(leaving Stradivari and Joseph Guarneri out entirely),
excellent copies by German, French, and English

jng

the





nay, Italian ones too do not exhibit the same
or similar qualities, were age the great sole factor

makers

behind the Italian master-works?
1

2

See below.

149

Stradivari.

12


Story of the Violin
But there

(I would not like to call it
connection with playing on a violin.
that a good player's playing will do what a bad

is

one thing

fact) interesting in
It is

player's playing cannot do; in other words, an instru-

ment may and may not improve under
tions with age



"awake"; but

it

viz.,

playing.

We

certain condi-

know nothing

of
the secret workings in the wood, of the tumultuous
life among the molecules when the bow calls them

heard

it

has been

my

experience (and

corroborated) that a tolerably

I

have

good instrument

deteriorate in a comparatively short time under
clumsy, harsh, unsympathetic treatment (toneproduction) of a pupil, and from this one may infer
that the opposite is the case under opposite circumstances.
Is it with these molecules of the wood when
the bow moves over the string as with a sleeping
will

the

camp surprised by the enemy, the millions of them
scrambling hither and thither to get in line? Does a
bad tone-production act on them like a bad commander, and when this is repeated and repeated does
the whole molecular army become demoralised, and
improve again only when there is a complete change
At all events one thing is fairly
at headquarters?
certain a bad instrument to begin with
bad in wood,
deficient in workmanship, of an unfavourable pattern
will never materially improve with age, and just in



:

proportion

as

all

these conditions are

fulfilled,

and

atmospheric and other influences are favourable, just
so an instrument will stand a better chance with
aee.


Is

it

a Secret

?

The firmness, suppleness, and durability of the
varnish of the best Italian instruments are indeed
marvellous. Take the back of such an
old Cremonese fiddle where this, the precious
,,
?"
Varnish
,,
covering, is apparently worn away by use,
,

and hold

There it sparkles and
diamonds. Varnish is there
gold, and all; they seem to have soaked

it

against the light.

glitters like half-hidden

nay,

fire,

every fibre of the wood, loving it, craving it,
being one with it. Then take the violin of an inferior
German or English maker in the same condition.
Where varnish was, varnish is no more, and lasciate
ogni speranza to find any. Mr. Hart, in his book
already quoted, is inclined to let the varnish of those
Italians pass as a lost secret.
He says, by way of
conjecture, it may have been quite a common commodity in Italy in the great day of Cremona, and with
into



the

cessation

have been

demand for it the recipe may
Hermann Starcke 1 remarks that it

of the

lost.

contained the resin of a certain specie of pine which,
since then, seems to have died out in Italy.
The
I
am inclined to
resin was called dragon's-blood.
believe that the climate and the method of applying
to the wood had also something to do with its
remarkable staying power, etc., just as the colouring
was most certainly an art characteristic of each maker
to a more or less marked degree. 2 These men, from

it

1

2

Die Geige: Hermann Starcke;

On

also corroborated

by Niederheitmann.

the singularly great influence of varnish on the tone; etc. , see

Hill Brothers' Life

and Work of Antonio
'5

1

Stradivari.

Story of the Violin
Andrea Amati and his sons down to Stradivari and
and breathed fiddle-making air
Just
fancy half-a-dpzen or more such excellent men all
huddled together in a little town, at one time no less
than three of the most eminent in the same street,
almost side by side. Jealousy does not seem to have
existed; at least it was made obedient to the desire
old

his pupils, lived

common

to all: to create the best possible instruments,

best sounding, and best looking.
TJiere

was healthy competition.
what

of an evening in the osteria,
fiddles, varnish,

colouring

— shop,

When

they met

did they talk but

in other

words; and

discovery would sooner or later become the
property of all, however jealously guarded at first
by this or that master. Hence the comparative uniform

every

little

excellence of the varnish

of the Italian instruments.

Perhaps also centuries back, even

in the mediaeval
times of the first lute-makers, 2 it may have been discovered that a certain addition of some transparent
substance, a few drpps in the varnish-pot of this or



that, who knows?
a secret then, yes, perhaps something of that sort a trick of the trade, a small, lost
item gave the varnish its superior qualities.
As regards the way of applying the varnish, that





was a knowledge handed down,
conformable to the climate, the wood,

surely, like all else,

and

in all cases

1
According to Branzoli (Manuale Storico del Violinista), real varnish
was applied to musical instruments from about 1400 in Italy, but
became general half a century later one of the first lute-makers noted
for his superior varnish was Mailer, or Maler, born in Venice, 1460.
;

1*2

,

Is

a Secret?

it

and so forth.
Doubtless our instrumentmakers have tried every conceivable method 2 of applying varnish, but a child may hit on the truth which the
wise pass by unheeding. A small insignificant item,
seasons,

may make all the difference.
"making" but "creating" lay in the

observed or omitted,

Not

fiddle

air

which Stradivari and his pupils breathed. The young
disciple caught the spirit as soon as he had
About
come within the magic circle of that town
~
Cremona.
As our future Wagners and ,
ship in Art
_
1 schaikowskys learn their counterpoint and
composition, with a higher aim in front of them, so
.

.

,

.

,

,

,

.

.

,

they acquired all that could be taught with the ultimate
object of launching out for themselves; not alone to
establish a trade for themselves or to make money, but,
in the better cases at least, to produce, to create,

compose violins of their own individuality. And who
deny the great difference which lies between this
conception of the violin-making art and that mostly
prevailing in these days ? Of course, like our young
composers, not all of them had something new to
say not all were Amatis and Guarneris, or even
Gaglianos and Gobettis. There were the talented and
the dull ones, and the dull ones remained dull and
became mere copyists and imitators. But it seems that
the talented ones, while they were yet working with
their master, were permitted to issue works with their
own name. What a life-giving stimulus for work True
will

;

!

See Hermann Sfarcke Die Geige, "A Otto: Uber der Bau und
die Erhaltung der Geige"; Branzoli
Storico del Violinists
1

:

:

'S3



;

Story of the Violin
art-spirit this

was, such as the clever artisan these days

knows not.
was bound

All other conditions being favourable,

it

good fruit. Take even the productions of the second and third-rate Italian maker.
They may be modelled after Stradivari or Giuseppe
to bring

Guarneri, but they have their
qualities, their individuality;

own certain characteristic
may lie where it will, in

it

the design of the scroll or in the tints, the colour of the
it is there like a trade-mark, and by it the

varnish,

maker

is

recognised.

creative thought has

were

all

the

It is
left.

mark which

Some men,

thought, giants in their line

blessed, but they seldom failed to

own.
Yet this

;

original,

like Stradivari,

others were less
of

show something

their

is not all.
We admire the marvellous workmanship, outside and inside, of Stradivari's instruments
but where do we find the maker to-day, who, like that
great master, is prepared to sacrifice years of his life to
study only; who with one purpose straight before him,
does not count the cost? Alas, men have no time now
to squander on attempts.
Life is too short, too dear.
The hoar-frost of commercialism likes to lay its cruel
hand on tender shoots, which pierce the surface of the
soul to get a glimpse of heaven.
So silence reigns where once the buzz of voices;
where joy and sorrow went in and out, there sits
oblivion at the doorstep and mourns
r
(
or clattering indifference, which is worse.
Cremona, once the Mecca of a glorious art, is but a
dreary little country town in which only a few people
,

154

Conclusion
have ever heard or read of Stradivari and Amati.
Similar, though not so striking, it is in other, towns of
violin-making fame. There are, of course, some clever,
earnest workers here and there, who can make a fiddle,
cut a bridge, and insert a new sounding-bar; but on
the whole, Italy has fallen far behind other countries.
It seems almost as if, once the crown gone, everything
was gone.
A king cannot go begging. Even the
master-works of Stradivari and Joseph del Gesu have
turned their backs on their fair native land. They are
more numerous everywhere than in Italy. Dealers,
amateurs, and artists go to London to buy old Italian
instruments.
But then, violins like mortals will go
where money is, and that commodity is said to be still
scarce in the land where sun, macaroni, and good
cheer are plentiful.
Only the manufacture of unrivalled
gut-strings remains of a glory which has passed from
her fair Italy. For ever ? No who can tell but that
new life will flow back once more into now stagnant
arteries that again Italy will lead in the track of her
great children of the past. Already the last twenty
years have witnessed a change for the better.
It pulsates fresher through her veins of commerce, trade,
and handicraft.
National unity and the results of
better education, better government, are being felt
everywhere. And art is lifting her head like the flower



;

:

glow of the sun. So, perhaps, also the
long-departed spirit of true fiddle-making will once
more return and dwell in its own native land. It will not
be in the North. It will be where the joy of living is
that feels the

155

Story of the Violin
the people's breath of

Germany, nor

life.

Not

in

in smart, superficial

proud, philosophical
France, nor in cold,



commercial England, nor in money-mad America but
muses: Italy, where the sun is so
bright, and the air is so sweet, and the sky is so blue,
and the people are so poor and contented there, some
day the old root may set on new shoots and grow as
in the land of the

;

before into a glorious tree.

1.56

PART

II.

VIOLIN-PLAYING AND VIOLIN-PLAYERS.

CHAPTER

I.

PR.ELUDIUM.

Corelli
artistic

is

commonly

violin-playing.

called the father

and founder of

Essentially this

is

true,

for

although Gasparo da Salo and Andrea Amati

had

lived

and

died,

and violin-playing

in con- Father

and

sequence had been carried on long before ounaer °*
Corelli was born, there is no predecessor or
v .,
.
contemporary of the Italian master who could
reasonably lay claim to the same distinction.
It was Corelli who raised "fiddling" to the dignity
of an art by the side of other reproductive arts; who
first (in his own land at least) freed it from mediaeval
,

.

tavern and trampdom reminiscences, and the fiddler
from the unsavoury reputation of quackery and trickery

and smelling of strong drinks which hitherto had
clung around him like wet clothes around a swimmer;
and who made a place for him on one of the back
It was Corelli who, by the
benches in Olympus.
157

Story of the Violin
purity and modest grandeur of his style, unlocked the

door of the church to a young art, and gained for it
a powerful and generous friend and patroness. It was
Corelli, before all, who created a style of
A Style of composition for the new instrument at once
Composi- appropriate to its nature and full of future
possibilities
a style which, nurtured and
-j
T
impregnated with the best art traditions
of a Palestrina and Gabrielli, formed a sure
and broad foundation for the lofty structure which it
was the privilege of future masters of the violin to erect
on it.
But artistic violin-playing, of which Corelli is indeed
the radiating point for all future development, is after
all only the child of something else, whatever it be,
preceding it as the leaf and bud precedes the flower;
and if we would trace that something call it what you



.



will, fiddling, viol

or rebec playing, street-fiddling, any-



all
to its beginning, we have to take another
There,
long journey back through mediaeval times.
like a landmark, I see a hand raised out of
"
It is poor Chara long-forgotten grave
>tt
"And I?" it
millon's, king of ribouds.
says; " I am Jean Charmillon's, king of ribouds: has
an ungrateful world forgotten me ? I played the fiddle
"And I!" "And I!" I see hands starting up
too."
all over France and Germany and England, Hungary
and Spain North, East, and West, beyond the Danube
and the Vistula, thousands of them. Poor fellows, who
all played the fiddle well, they thought, and cannot sleep

thing at

!

;

158

Prseludium
it seems, because of Corelli's fame.
Or is it
because of the musical historian ?
I fear that honest searcher after truth, the musical
historian, has not a very high opinion of poor Jean and

in peace,

wandering brethren of the craft. A musical
you see, my dear Jean, wants proofs, evidence, etc.
What a noble King of France thought and
said and made of you in 1 235 is of no account to him.
Evidence of your abilities is wanted, and evidence, most
his fiddling,
historian,

unfortunately,

is

missing.

While many specimens of the poetry of the times



chansons in the soft euphonious French of
Provence, charming in form, feeling, and grace of language, and veritable gems of the minnesangers, Walter
von der Vogelweide, Heinrich von Ofterdingen, Wolfram von Eschenbach, and others there is not one
small item, not one little scrap of a musical
Instrumanuscript, a dozen notes or so bearing
__
testimony to the worldly music of the times.
,
Nor had they press-reporters, critics, inter- t ^ •j-£ me
viewers in those days. The monks, who
mostly did the writing, and faithfully chronicled prayers,
parish gossip, and historical events, did not think it
worth their while to record the half-mad doings of those
exist



.

incorrigibles, the minstrels

Now,

and jongleurs.

absence of all other evidence, the musical
historian has seen fit to draw his inferences as to the
abilities of those fiddlers a la Charmillon: on the one
hand, from the standard of theoretical music at the
times ; on the other, from the nature of their instruments
in the

159

Story of the Violin
so far as

we can judge

tions,

etc.

above

all,

of them by means of illustraBut are such conclusions really fair, and

Contrapuntal

Would

are they infallible ?

sidered so to-day?

Can

they be con-

the contrapuntal

and meanderings of the early
(who seem to have had any amount
of brains but no ears) possibly be taken as
,
a cr i ter i° n f° r the merry music-making of
Criterion
the wayfaring man,
blessed perhaps with
somewhat muddled brains, but ears sharp and open,
to be sure, for that which pleased their fellow-men and
brought coppers into their cap ? What conclusions
gropings
theorists

'



as to the possibilities of the violin can the uninitiated

draw by seeing the little, curious-looking object in the
shop window ? Can he possibly imagine from its form
the wondrous beauty of its voice, or do four
r mus "
strings suggest the uncanny dexterity of a
Paganini? Nor can we judge by the illus.
trations (mostly bad ones too) of a rebec or
geige what feats a king of rebecca-players
'

.

might have been able to perform on it.
This Jean Charmillon, like others of his class, very
likely was engaged as jongleur in the suite of some
fine troubadour at first, his duty to accompany his
master's song, and in odd intervals give extra proofs
Does any one seriously think he
of his dexterity.
stood before his king, before the lords and ladies of
the court, and held out notes or played unsingable
contrapuntal balderdash, and was he for that created
king of ribouds ? No, not he. To charm his king,
1

60

ravww.y&a

FIG. 26a.

— ME1STER

HEINRICH WROWENLOB (FRAUENLOE),
FAMOUS MINNESANGF.R, 13TH CENTURY.

Praeludium
Jean Charmillon played dances, pretty tunes, tricky
little runs, and other things, while he used his bow

and fingers
must remain

well.

So we

— although,

of

course,

it



a matter of conjecture believe
that in many instances the wandering man's attainments were not of so low an order as is commonly
entirely

accepted.

The general standard of music, even in the romantic
age of song (of which I now speak), may have been
low
even the then much-praised singing of the
troubadours and minnesanger may have had little to
recommend it to modern ears
and as for church
music, we know that two more centuries had to
elapse before Dunstable and Dufay, and the Netherland
composers, appeared on the scene but what of that ?
Have we not examples of a musical irresponsibility
such as these wayfaring men represented in the
What daring, what bewildering
gipsies of to-day?
;

;

:

Surely
some of these nature's musicians
of Jean Charmillon's fiddling brethren, like the
gipsies, had music running in their veins like blood;
they could not help it, no more than the bird can help
talent in

!

many

Give such a born musician the most wretched
make it sing. Give him a
rebec or an antediluvian viol and he will not be long
discovering and bringing to light its hidden resources.
What possibly could have been these resources? It
has been pointed out by the historian that on nearly
all representations of mediaeval fiddles, rebecs, and
viols the bridge appears (if it does at all appear)
singing.

of fiddles and he will yet

161


Story of the Violin
But

look

men and women's

faces

perfectly

flat.

the

at

representations

of

and figures at about the

same

period, the almost laughable inaccuracies in the
drawing: here, a head which stands almost horizontally
to the neck; there, fingers as long as the face and feet.

Can we then expect miniature, etc., illustrations of
instruments with which monks adorned their manurequire some
of instruments which
scripts,
etc.
technical knowledge to be understood to be more
I
don't believe that
accurate in the drawing ?
musicians could have used flat bridges for centuries
when it was just as easy for them to cut a bridge
round, and a rounded bridge gave them an opportunity





of sounding each

string separately

say, in the light of reason

is

—for

centuries,

I

such a thing possible?

Yet supposing it had been, I know of few more
charming effects on the violin than those produced
musette-fashion
one open string (muted if you will)
held out while the melody is simultaneously sustained
on the string above or below.
We find these effects largely in music of the primitive
kind.
Doubtless they were among the first discovered
on bowed instruments, on which alone they
:

Music of
*
,

K>

,

,

are p 0SS ; D i e) if we except the bagpipe and,
of course, the organ.
They are suggestive
of.

the inner

life

of Nature

buzzing of her

— suggestive of the

countless

insect

life,

her

brooding and falling asleep amid contented murmurings, like a tired child on a hot July afternoon
primeval sounds of the big soul of Nature which the
162

Praeludium
inner (and outer) ear of the musician caught and never
go again. They are yet largely used as bass

let

or
compositions,
continuo,

bass

lying

and

effects,

etc.,

in

modern

the many
unmistakable attempts at legitimate tone-painting or

formed

the

basis

of

colouring by the early Italian violin-masters.
So, again, although on the whole fiddle-playing in
the earlier Middle Ages was possibly primitive to a
degree not much exceeding the rendering of a dance

slow or lively, and some feeble attempts at
descant after the manner of the faux bourdon of the
church singers. 1 Possibly in some cases it attained to
for the times
a startling technical development.
tune,





It is

often cited that the use of the positions dates

from a very much later time. If that were true, which
is by no means proved in the case of rebec-players,
what a variety of effects with bow and fingers can
be produced even under such limitations. The voice
seldom soars beyond B and C above the staff, and the
world of song is practically unlimited.
So much about the possible abilities of Corelli's earliest
fiddling predecessors.
I may add yet that, as we see
depicted on Fra Angelico's picture of the angel with
the

rebec, the

much

rebec,

some cases

in

at

least,

was



our violin that is, above the breast,
near the neck. Such a position indicates the comparative ease with which the instrument must have been
handled, thus encouraging daring technical feats, and
held

1

like

"Faux bourdon was first introduced

— Dr.

in France by French minstrels."
Heinrich Kostlin in Ceschichte der Music.
1

6-5

Story of the Violin
quite different from the

clumsy

method required for the heavy,
which were held either

viols of a later time,

against the breast or between the legs like the violoncello, or also played like our double-bass.
It also
seems to point to the important part the rebec played
in the invention of the right, present, graceful size of

the violin.

Probably more accurate

is

the estimate of the musical

historian as to the abilities of the violist of the four-

teenth and fifteenth centuries.
Fiddle
, '

number and character of

.

y
.

f,

and 15th
Centuries

an d the uses to which they were put sheds
light on this subject.
And of particular
significance seems to me the almost uniform
appearance of frets on instruments of the
viol kind
a proof, if one is wanted, of



Want

their respectability.

m



m

J °
the Frets

The very

the instruments,

of daring, sticking to rule,

jealous suppression of any sign of originality,
solidity

formed the chief characteristics of

the art and craft achievements in the Meister-



singer period we find their symbol in the frets.
The " Eselsbriicke," as a later writer calls them,

must have
I

may

limited the technical output on the viols,

say so, to

its

minimum.

It

if

was altogether too

sure going to admit of originality, of striking out on
new discoveries technically, such as the rebec had
permitted.

So to sum up, while the irresponsible minstrel of the
that wild, thorny briar-rose by the way-

romantic age



164

Praeludium



was on the whole perhaps an inferior musician
compared to the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth
century town treble and bass violist who knew his
notes, and on Sundays accompanied the singing in the
churches, and did other laudable and respectable
services he of the Jean Charmillon kind was superior
to him in invention, daring, and all-round fiddle
genius and no wonder, for he drew his inspiration
side



;

"

From the birds in the trees and the clouds in the skies,
And the tears and the smiles in my fair lady's eyes."

165

13

CHAPTER

II.

VIOLIN ART IN ITALY.



Thus, along many a circuitous path through barren
stretches, sandy wastes, past lovely fields and meadows,
villages, and towns
went fiddle-playing through the
centuries, until it reached the foot-hills where Corelli
stood and showed the way to greater and sublimer
heights, mounting into the clear sky of the last ideal.
The violin had been invented, and soon after, from its
native land, some early birds of passage, minstrel-like
again, carried its message- into Germany and France.
Only a few names of violinists belonging to the



contemporaries of Duiffbprugcar,

sixteenth

century,

aix een

Andrew Amati, Gaspar da Salo, etc., have
CO me down to us. Gerber 1 mentions one
Albert as

ists 2 in Italy,

whom

among

Francois

the most celebrated violinI.

took with him to France
and Alessandro

in the first half of the sixteenth century

;

Romano, a monk with the designation "

della Viola."

In the second half of the century, according to Branzoli,

we

and Luigi Lasagnino both
their day; and
particularly Baltazerini, called " Le Beau Joyeux" (born
1550), the best violinist of his time, who, in 1577, was
find Giuliano Tiburtino

hailing from Florence and famous in

1

Ton

2

Kiinst-lexicon.
1

66

Probably

violists.

FIG.

27.

— CORELLI.

(Imperial Library, Berlin.)

Violin Art in

Italy-

presented to Catherine de Medici, and subsequently
appointed, first, as her premier valet-de-chambre, and
then primo cavaliero and superintendent of music in
Paris. He is considered the founder of the heroic ballet
in France.
By the time Biagio Marini (born at Brescia, second
half of sixteenth century, died 1660, at Padua) and,
still better known, Carlo Farina (in 1626,
*
violinist to the Elector of , Saxony) appear
1
7
in the annals of musical history the fame of
the violin had surely been carried far and

Centurv

Musicians in Italy and elsewhere
who hitherto perhaps had cultivated the treble viol,
took up instead the new instrument, which offered a
wide.

much

greater scope, and amply repaid the greater
Representations of the
labour involved in learning it.
violin in its perfect Amati and Brescian form in many
pictures of the great Dutch painters 1 go far towards proving how widely known and popular the
lovely instrument was long before Corelli appeared.
Towards and after the middle of the seventeenth
century,

we

therefore

find in Italy

contemporaries of
other violinists of less

partly

among

renown: Giuseppe Torelli (died
certo ;

1708),



,

to

Tartini, and presumably

rival of

his teacher; Farinelli, uncle of

the great singer of the same name,
1

who

be the inventor of the conAntonio Veracini, uncle of the celebrated

said

is

Corelli,

Among others, Gerard Dou's
"Der Geigenspieler."

Dresden,

167

(1613-75)

concert-master

celebrated

picture in

Story of the Violin
the Court of Hanover, and knighted by the
King of Denmark; Bartholomeo G. Laurenti (1644 in
Bologna); and Battista Fontana (born 1641 in Brescia).
Further: Tommaso Vitali, of Bologna (born 1650), an
artist whose achievements as violinist and composer for
his instrument must have been, for the time, quite
extraordinary, if his "Ciaconna" may be regarded as a
at

and Giov. Batt. Lully(born 1633 in Florence),
to Paris early in life, and worked himself up
from a position in the kitchen of Mme. de Montpensier
to that of a favourite at the Court of Louis XIV., an
interesting figure in French musical history.
With Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713) we come at
last to the man in whose art appear focussed all the
criterion;

who came

violinistic

and

his

achievements of preceding ages

own

time.

Violin-playing leaves

the stages of irresponsible childhood;

earnest



it

it

starts

life in

comes of age.

was born

in Fusignano, a little town in the
Bologna. The elements of music were taught
him by the papal singer, Matteo Simonetti. His teacher
on the violin is said to have been Bassani, 1 then capellIn the year 1672 we find the
meister at Bologna.
master in Paris on his first concert tour, but Lully's
jealousy or the great Louis' indifference to any other
but his favourite's music soon drove him away again.
He subsequently entered the services of the Elector of
Bavaria, and remained in Germany until 1681, when he

Corelli

district of

1
As Corelli was four years the senior of Bassani,
he could have been the latter's pupil.

168

it is

not clear

how

,

Bafioper rOrgano

'

"
,

.

c o n -*:;s--'c/ r & .,t,» -•
ALLA^SACRA REAL MAEST A-

*•
!

t: *

,

;

,-



-•

«

«

CRIST1NA ALESSANDRARE GIN A D I &^£ ia.
i

^

^ARCANGfiLO CORELLI DA FVSIGNANO
'.'<-'

t

De«oi!BoIogaef&

<

'

"''

*

I

»

v^'-„

*
IN ROMA,

FIG.

Per il MafeU«K.

z8.

l« j.

— TITLE-PAGE

fcwlia,^ i'lS^W.

OF CORELLl'S

{Published in Rome, 1685J
(Imperial Library, Berlin.)

Or.

....

-

,

I.



»'

,

"'

,

Violin Art in Italy
returned to his native land and settled in Rome for the
rest of his life.
In Rome he died, idolised by his
countrymen, and is buried not far from the ashes of the
divine Raphael

—in



the Pantheon, that ancient temple

dedicated to the pagan deities and transformed into a
Christian church.
A marble tablet marks the place.
It appears like a coincidence of poetical significance,
or a proof of the eternal fitness of things, that Rome
should have been the cradle of modern violin art; in
other words, that both the spirit of the classic past and
the spirit of a living Christian faith should have stood as

Considering what intigodfather to Corelli's genius.
mate connection exists between a man's work and
his surroundings, who knows whether Corelli in Naples
or Florence would have been the Corelli he became in


founder— issued

Rome? At all events, from Rome that is,
from the Roman school of violin-playing
of which

Corelli

was

the

*he

°man

the influences which were subsequently felt
as powers all over the world, and it is no
exaggeration to say that there is hardly a
,

,

violinist of note to-day

who

in

.

,.,

,,
Violm-

.

some way

playing

or other

may

not trace his violinistic genealogy back to the great,
gentle, and modest master. 1
Corelli's artistic activities may be equally divided

and composing
playing, teaching,
in which
music.
It is
difficult
to " say
J
,


of these his influence was strongest and
into

,

,

.

.

of most lasting benefit to his

own and

See Appendix.

169

,

.

.

,

..,

Activities

future violin-

Story of the Violin
AAA AA A

..flragru"..


,

ONATA

"

Sh'i'TIMA

SlpslllpsSfelliliJ!*

igigfpzffif:

mb?


FIG,

|:f:rrdfrr:i;r:f

%mM

-14^4444-1.. ill Jiff Iff Wftagj

fig,

— VIOLIN

PART OF CORELLI

S

SEVENTH SONATA.

Imperial Library, Berlin.

Violin Art in Italy
playing generations. Of his work as composer I hope
to speak more at length in the third part of this work.
If time is the touchstone of merit, if two centuries of
rubbing has still left enough gold in his compositions

age to enjoy and profit from, to Corelli the
composer belongs the palm but a more immediate
force for good was perhaps his playing and teaching.
The admiration which his playing elicited strikes' us
now as almost fantastic. Expressions like: " Princeps
musicorum," "Maestro di maestri," "Virtuosissimo di violirio," and " Vero Orfeo di
„,
Playing
...
...
nostn tempi, etc., which were current in
his life-time, speak with sufficient eloquence, and they
found their consummation in the monument erected to
To a large degree his compositions may
his memory.
for our

;

,

.

be said to
It

reflect the characteristics of his

was distinguished by beauty and

tenderness

and

sympathy

of

expression

rather than display of technique.

respect

some of

for instance)

executive art.

purity of tone, and

_

In this

«

his contemporaries (Vitali,

were probably superior to him

to Corelli the teacher

we

;

but

it is

turn with particular interest.

A master's pupils are the children to whom he leaves
a legacy. They share in it, great or small, though
The lucky ones get much, those
not of even parts.
favoured less get less, but all will carry with them into
Corelli's relife a little of the master's soul and goods.
putation could not help attracting youths who had been
fascinated by the charms of the new instrument or by
the hope

—so

fond of youth

—to

171

glitter brightly in this

Story of the Violin
Youth, to be sure, soon flocked to Rome from
and near to profit from the master's art; even
from Germany and France they came with fiddle and
world.
far

with travelling bag.

Not all these aspirants to fame's hand reached that
most evasive goddess.
Many a youth most likely
stayed in Rome, and after a time went home again,
Perhaps also
there to nurture fond and sad memories.
many a one did later unsung pioneer work somewhere
sweet voice of the violin
been heard, thus unconsciously swelling the mysterious chord of
which
Q n
still
sweeps the world undissolved. ((1) "^j
even fame is too often a flame which
flick^,ers brightly for a time and then dies out.
So of
„. p ,. Corelli's many pupils, only a few have left
not only names but also a trace behind.
They are Somis, Geminiani, and Locatelli, and less
in distant parts, carrying the

where

it

had

not

yet

\

But

known, Baptiste Anet (see Violin-playing in France),
and Pietro Castrucci, interesting on account of his
connection with the Italian Opera in London in Handel's
time.

Giovanni Battista Somis (1676- 1763), the first, oldest,
and most conspicuous of Corelli's pupils, studied later
also with Antonio Vivaldi at Venice. The characteristic
both his masters he tried to embody in his
of the Piedmontese School of Violinplaying at Turin, he played a very important part in the
further development of the art, his best pupil being
Pugnani, who in his turn became the master of Viotti.
art-traits of

work.

As founder

172


Violin Art in

Italy-

Francesco Geminiani (born

in 1680 at Lucca, died
1762 at Dublin), a violinist with great talents and
attainments, is particularly well known to English music
lovers, as for a considerable time he stamped London
musical life with his artistic individuality, and greatly

in

stimulated violin-playing in England. Besides a number
of compositions for his instrument, over the merits of
which the opinions of musical critics differ, he left a
substantial and lasting claim to the gratitude of posterity in his

of

its

Method for

Violin-playing, 1 the

kind, published in

London

in

1740.

first

one

Through

Geminiani was thus perpetuated Corelli's teaching and
a theoretical basis given for the art of violin-playing.

Bergamo in 1693, died
1764) we meet with an interesting and
conspicuous figure in the annals of the art by reason
In Pietro Locatelli (born at

Amsterdam

in

of the influence he had on the development of violintechnique. 2 He may be said to have sown the seed

from which sprang

in

time,

under the sunshine of

public favour, that singular growth of executive art:
virtuosity.
1

" The Art ofplaying the

perfection
2

To

Violin containing rules necessary to attain

on that instrument."

appreciate Locatelli's unique

—I had

almost said, grotesque

VArte

del

capricci

ad

position in the art of violin-playing, I refer the reader to his
Violino,

consisting of twelve concerti

libitum.

173

and twenty-four



CHAPTER

III.

violin art in italy [continued).

Besides the Roman and Piedmontese schools of violineach more or less distinguished from the other



pjaying

.by
'„

the art-characteristics of their founders

other smaller centres sprang up here and
there in Italy.

Already before and during Corelli's

life-time,

Bologna;

Florence, Bergamo, etc., had -distinguished' themselves

by giving birth to
the

young

art.

violinists of talent

and by fostering

From Bologna, we have

seen, hailed

Laurentt (1644-I726), Bassani (1657-1716), and Vitali;
from Florence, the older Veracini
from Bergamo,
;

Carlo

Antonio

jyiarini,

etc.

Corelli's

further stimulated the keen interest

and

influence

had

activity in violin-

Men and women learned theAmateurs rivalled professionals
in*
playing and composing for it, and the Church,
like a good mother (be it with an eye not oblivious of
her own glorification), lent everywhere a helping hand
to spread its use and joy.
Some of the larger churches were genuine nurseries of
instrumental music; St. Anthony at Padua in Tartini's
time, for instance, employed no less than sixteen
playing
lovely

all

over Italy.

instrument.

174


Violin Art in Ita^y
singers v arid twenty-four instrumentalists.

Also, as a

was employed in connection
with the Mass ceremonies, and 4his gave
_
solo instrument the violin

eminent soloists not only an opportunity c
of displaying their talents under most
favourable conditions and nobly stimulated their efforts,
but many of them" found honourable, congenial, and
>

,

lucrative

"•fairly

tions.

new

,,

posi-

No wonder, then,

centres, as

I

said,

sprang up, and old ones
added to their laurels.
We find in Venice Antonio Vivaldi (16601743),

priest,

violinist,

and famous composer;
and in Florence, besides
Giuseppe Valentini and
Martinello Bitti, Fran-

cesco

Maria

Veracini

(1685- 1 750), one of the
most eminent of 'the

eighteenth
Italian

century

violinists,

FIG. 30.;— TARTINI.

who

Imperial Library* Berlin.

also played an important

part in the

life

of the

man

to

whom we come

next

Giuseppe Tartini, the founder of the Paduan^ school
violin-playing ~(Fig. 30).

There'

who has

ot

1

no artist in the earlier stages of violin art
so firmly and deeply carved his name in the

is

I7S

;

Story of the Violin
slippery metal of
little
'

~

man's memory.

Born at Pirano, a

place in Istria, on April 12th, 1692, he received
a splendid education, and by way of recrea-

,

was taught the elements of music and
By whom the latter is not known
was a priest, one of the Padri dalle Scuole

tion

.

the violin.

presumably

it

Capo

d'Istria, where Giuseppe went to school;
one of those modest, patient mediocrities, sowers of
small seed, who by the grace of God sow greatness
once in a while. At the age of eighteen Tartini was
sent to Padua to study law, but fortunately the current
of his life was turned into another direction. After an
adventurous and stormy youth of melodramatic flavour
(a secret marriage, flight, hiding in a cloister, discovery,

Pie at

became eventually the greatest violinist
composer of his time. Essentially he was
his own teacher. Of great influence on his development,
however, was Veracini, whom he heard in Venice on the
occasion of a contest 1 which had been arranged between
the two artists.
Tartini was so impressed by the
etc.),

and

Tartini

violin

superiority of his rival's playing that, without so

much

as crossing swords, he quitted the field and retired (then

man

a

of twenty-four) to

The outcome of this was

bow and

Aucona

for further study.

the wonderful

the technique of the

left

command

hand

for

of the

which he

became noted.
1

Public contests

violinists

— artistic

were quite a



tournaments, in other words between
occurrence in those times; not seldom

common

the very sacred precincts of the church were chosen as the arena for the

combatants.

176

'*#*J>|il!

li

te,>-

totmtnn

UiAfrfc-

gut?

J UMytkfliitki' /faAte-y.^'j^Mrf'>

FIG. 3 0rt.— FACSIMILE

:

t--'<J

,

OF A LETTER BY TARTINI.

Violin Art in Italy
Tartini's life henceforth ran smoothly.
Except for
one prolonged visit to Prague (1723-26), he stayed in
Padua, where he was engaged at the beautiful church
of St. Anthony.
In Padua he died, full of years
and honours " II maestro della nazione," as his compatriots significantly called him
on February 26th,
1770, and was buried in the Church Santa Catarina.
His memory has been not less honoured by his countrymen than Corelli's, in an abiding way by a statue erected







him among the statues of other noted men connected with Padua's famous old university in the little
park lying outside the town, the Prato della Valle.
In dealing with Tartini's life-work and its importance
for the art of violin-playing, I have again to defer the
subject of his compositions, which here
Tnllo
stands out pre-eminently, to the third secA few remarks, however, _, f e„
tion of this work.
I can hardly refrain from making now, as
they throw additional light on the master's personality.
Who among music-lovers has not heard of the " Trillo
del Diavolo," or devil's trill? The very name is coupled
with Tartini's fame, and helped to its perpetuation.
Like a self-feeding monster, feeding the piaster's fame

to



as well, and giving food for countless stories in the
nurseries of fiddle-land, so this name "Trillo del Dia-

volo" has lived for more than one hundred and
years, and

is

as fresh as ever.

Paganini's hair

;

the

little

the sulphur (no mistake)

It raises

fifty

yet the future

tot of ten or twelve, he smells

and sees the bluish flames

from some imaginary "Strad"
177

(his

own

rise

three-quarter


Story of the Violin
being yet, he knows, too small for mine host

fiddle

Mephistopheles).

And

the story of this shake of the devil?

translation of

master's

"One

own

it

as

it is
x

lips:

was

I give a
claimed to have come from the

year 1713) 2 I dreamed I had sold
Everything was at my command, my new
servant anticipated every one of my wishes. Among other
ideas, it struck me also to give him my violin to see if he would
be able to play something nice on it. But how great was my
surprise when I heard a sonata, so wonderful and beautiful, and
rendered with so much art and intelligence that not the highest
flight of fantasy could have hoped to reach it.
I was so entranced, delighted, and enchanted that the breath failed me and
I awoke.
Immediately I seized my violin in order to retain
at least a portion of the tones heard in my dreams.
In vain.
Although the music which I composed then is the best I ever

my

night

(it

in the

soul to the devil.

made

in

my

life,

and

I

call

it

yet the devil's sonata, the differ-

ence between it and the other which so moved me is so
great that I would have broken my instrument and renounced
music for ever if I had been able to deprive myself of the
pleasure it afforded me."

The strange part about this story is that Tartini
seems to have been perfectly convinced of the reality of
It is told by Gerber that he had the manuhis dream.
script of the devil's sonata hanging over the door of his
1

2

Lalande, Voyage d'un Pranfais en Italy, i?6j-66, vol. viii.
1713 can hardly have been meant by Tartini, as he attained to the

mastership necessary for the composition and execution of this sonata

only years

later.

178

Violin Art in Italy
study like a protection against (or was it an invitation
for?) future visitations of the unholy one.
Whatever we may wish to think of the master's
dream whether the effect of reading or of indigestion,
of occult powers or the mere creations of a feverish
brain it may be regarded as the key-note to one side of
Tartini's character; the side, that is, from which his
creative genius largely drew: a blend of mysticism and
devotion, mediaevalism and modernity, of church and
world, of childhood and maturity.
Before composing,
we are told, he liked to read one of Petrarca's sonnets
or some other poem to give fancy a distinct direction,
and often he succeeds in holding fast the mental mood
or picture thus evoked, and portraying it in tones.
He also had the habit of putting mottoes in selfinvented hieroglyphics over his manuscripts (see Fig.
31), and frequently under his violin parts verses of his
pet poets.
Perhaps they served as guide for the rendition of the music, or possibly also as a remembrance of
the circumstances accompanying its birth.




composer was astonishing.
and concertos for
violin solo with quartett accompaniment
,°"
seem to have been published in his lifetime
y
and since his death, while a Still smaller
number, are available to-day. The published works,
according to Fetis, 1 consist of fifty sonatas and eighteen
Tartini's productivity as

Only a small number of

his sonatas

,

concertos.

Not of anything
1

like the

importance as Tartini the

Biographie Universelh des MuHciens, Paris.

179

Story of the Violin
composer, but still interesting- is Tartini the author.
It is indeed surprising that the master, considering
his musical fecundity and his duties as
soloist and teacher, should yet have found
time and pleasure in the pursuit of scientific and
.

.

theoretical

subjects.

FIG. 31.

—A

He embodied

his

observations

COPY OF A TARTINI MANUSCRIPT.

(Imperial Library, Berlin.)

and researches in several voluminous treatises, upon
which Fetis, in his Biography Universelle, under
"Tartini," gives a detailed argument:
"It appears



that the master, during his voluntary confinement at
Ancona, discovered the so-called ' differential tone,' a
1

80

Violin Art in

Italy-

tone produced by sounding double-stops on the violin

and he subsequently tried to explain to himself and others this
phenomenon in the above-mentioned treatise published
(providing- they are absolutely in tune),

It was left for the great scholar of
Professor Helmholz, more than a century
later, to shed light on the question which agitated
our master in his leisure hours."
Old Quanz, the well-known historical figure, con-

at

Padua, 1754.

acoustics,

temporary of Tartini, violinist, flutist, critic and crank,
and teacher of Frederick the Great, in
* r '"' s

describing the impression of Tartini's playing,

when he heard

the master in Prague,

1723, says: "

He [Tartini] is indeed one of the greatest
violinists.
He produced a fine tone from his instrument. Finger and bow are equally under his control.
He executed the greatest difficulties without apparent
effort

and

trills,

are done equally well with

sperses

His

in perfect tune.

many double

movements, and

stops

in

trills,

all

and even double

fingers.

He

inter-

slow as well as fast

likes to play in the highest positions

(tones)."

The advance of Tartini's executive art on that of his
great predecessor Corelli, from a bowing point of view
alone, is plainly shown in his compositions.
Unless

we assume

that within

a few

years

(1713-23) that

had made such great
strides generally, the Paduan master must have been
reformatory, nay, epoch-making in this respect as he
was in others. It is well known that he improved also

particular

part

of

technique

181

14



"

Story of the Violin
the form of the bow, giving

it,

compared

to Corelli's,

greater length and a slightly different curve. 1

His extraordinary command of the bow was prinmentioned above, the result of his studies
at Ancona, to which Veracini had given him the
cipally, as

initiative.

In a small treatise by Fayolle, Paganini and Beriot,
find some interesting information as to the manner

we
in

which the master had conducted these studies:
(Translation.)

"Tartini had two bows, one divided and the stick marked
according to common (f), the other according to % time. In
these divisions he obtained all subdivisions down to the insmall ones; and, as he had found that the vertical
up-stroke was shorter than the perpendicular down-stroke, he
had the same piece played, beginning with the down as well as
finitely

up-stroke,

and with the same

in large letters

inflections.

He

also

on his music-stand the following

without hardness,

flexibility

had written

rule: 'Strength

without too great softness.'

In addition, for the benefit of his pupils, he embodied
bowing studies in a work entitled

the results of his

Arte dell'
gavotte by

arco.

It

consists

of

fifty

variations

on a

Corelli.

brings us to the subject of Tartini as a
His fame as a player and composer alone
_ , would have been sufficient to draw pupils in
numbers to Padua, but it appears, and one
can partially see from the above remarks, that Tartini

But

this

teacher.

1

See Appendix.

182


Violin Art in Italy
was

as great in the class-room as he was on the platform and in his private study. At times the master's
house must have resembled a veritable small conservatory, so large

was the number of students who enjoyed
His was not yet an age of cheap and

his instruction.

good

instruction books.
Tartini's pupils depended on
master for almost everything, and he was heart
and soul in his work and how almost paternal in his
solicitude for his young proteges appears from a lesson
given by correspondence to a pupil of his, Signora
Maddalena Lombardini Sirmen, which has been preserved for us. It is a most instructive and interesting
document, divided into three sections, and treating in a
masterly way of the elements in the management of the
their

;

bow, the trill, and the positions. 1
The most interesting and best-known of

Tartini's

pupils are:
Pietro Nardini (born 1722 at Fibiani, in Tuscany;
died in Florence, 1793), Tartini's favourite pupil, who
" Ein
nursed the master in his last illness.
_
,,
,

,

Geiger der Liebe im Schosse der Grazien
p ..
geboren," says Schubarth, the ill-fated German poet and writer, of him. He is also distinguished
as a composer; his D Major Sonata 2 is one of the
loveliest creations in early Italian violin literature.

Domenico

Ferrari (died 1780).

not the invention, at least the
of harmonics on the violin.
1

2

:

is

ascribed,

:

183

if

more extensive use

Die Violine und Hire Meister; Leipzig,
Hohe Schule ; Breitkopf und Hartel.

Wasielewski

Davids

To him
first

1869.

Story of the Violin
Giulio Meneghini (17



)

succeeded his master at the

church of St. Anthony.
Pasqualini Bini (born 1720) studied three or four years
with Tartini.
He went to Rome, where he became a
serious rival to Francesco Montanari, a celebrity in his
day, and successor to Corelli at St. Peter's from 1717
to 1730.
A pupil of Bini was Barbella, known by a
sonata (published by Schott).
Filipo Manfredi (c. 1738-80), a friend of Bocherini,
whose trios and quartetts he introduced first in Paris, in
1771, with great success.
Johann Gottlieb Graun, 1 Pagin, and Pierre Lahoussaye. 2
Tartini's other pupils cannot claim our interest in the

Some, no doubt, were clever and esteemed artists in their day, but on the whole

same degree.
" ^

names

or nothing; we read
as quickly as read.
Their talents, their lives, like those of so many artists
their

them

to

tell

us

little

forget them

whom

fate has not put in the front rank, were steppingstones on which the genius of the violin trod on his
way to greater heights flowers by the wayside which



he kissed or crushed. I therefore only mention names
as one would read off inscriptions, crumbling and faded,
on the tombstones of a village churchyard, the heart
apologising for the hand which writes them only
names: Alberghi, Carminati, Don Paolo Guastarobba,
Petit, Pagni, Nazari, Angiolo Morigi, Giuseppe Sig-




1

2

See Chapter VII.

184

See Chapter IX.


Violin Art in Italy
Count Thurn and Taxis and Obermayer of
Prague (amateurs), Holzbogen of Munich, Kammel
from Bohemia, Lorenz Schmitt of Wiirzburg.
In addition, the following are the best-known violinists of the Piedmontese school:
Francesco Chiabran (born 1723). A great favourite
for a time in Paris, and known yet as The Piedthe composer of a once popular piece,
montese
noretti,

"LaChasse."
in

Felice Giardini (born in Turin, 1716; died

School:
Pupils of

A

Somis

Moscow, as opera impressario,

1796).

talented artist with a chequered

life,

passed largely

London.
Marie Leclair. 1
Gaetano Pugnani (1726-1803), the greatest of Somis's
pupils, studied also for a time with Tartini, and was
highly esteemed by his contemporaries as violinist and
composer. His importance, however, lay in his work
Being the master of Viotti, he was the
as teacher.
direct link between our modern (French and FrancoBelgian) schools and the great old ones of Rome,
Turin, and Padua.
Pupils of Pugnani (according to their comparative
Gioachimo Traversa,
merits, in ascending order)
Romani, Ludovico Borghi (1770 in London),
" pl s °,
Borra (Turin), Antonio Conforti, Ludovico
Pugnani

,_._.,(succeeded _
Pugnani
Royal
at the
Mohno
Theatre in Turin), Felice Radicati (1778-1823), A.
Olivieri, Antonio Bartolomeo Bruni (lived in Paris;
in

:

'

,



.

1

See Chapter IX.

185

,

.

Story of the Violin
fertile

composer and author of a violin method some
two violins are still in use), Anton
;

pretty duets for

Janitch, Giambattista Polledro (1781-1853;

greatly ad-

mired by his contemporaries, and even occasionally
compared to Viotti), Giovanni Battista Viotti.

186



CHAPTER

IV.

VIOTTI.

With

this incomparable master of the violin we reach
a new epoch in the development of the art.
Equally
great as executant and composer, and reKerormer
former in both directions, Viotti occupies in

own

his
.

.,

world a position somewhat

„.

art
,

,

,

,

,

_,
^.
Directions

similar to that accorded to Corelli, only that

the younger master had the indubitable advantage of
finding the ground well tilled and prepared for his

appearance, not only in his
in the

whole wide

own

particular sphere, but

of music generally.



work speaking of composition
be likened to the broad foundation of an

If Corelli's

may

field

now
edifice,

Viotti represents the noble, large-proportioned super-

What follows after him was more or less
structure.
the building out, the outer and inner decorations, the
The roof
turrets, gables, sculptures, and ornaments.
and steeple,
open yet on

I

fear, are yet to

top,

and

be built; the edifice

lets the light

of heaven

in,

is

and

also the rain sometimes.
Viotti created

modern

From being orthodox

violin art in its best sense.
it

became

187

cosmopolitan.

If

Story of the Violin
spoke yet in their works the
language, however beautiful, of their time,

and Tartini

Corelli

Creator of

v
in

.

y
its

.

Best

and c hurch) Viotti's is the language
of the world, the Volapiik in which Haydn,
Mozart, and Beethoven uttered their im-

land)

mortal thoughts. Giovanni Battista Viotti
(Fig. 32) was born on the 23rd of May
1753 (strangely enough, just one hundred years after
Corelli), at a tiny place, Fontanetto, in
Childhood
the Count of pi edmont North Italy.
His
and Youth , Jt
•,,
,
father,
a smith and amateur on the
horn,
was endowed with musical instincts keen
enough to discover and encourage his little boy's
musical proclivities, which showed themselves at a
very early age.
Nay, more, this remarkable smith
undertook to instruct the lad in the elements of music,
and it is just possible that Giovanni Battista had
already declared his childish love to some toy fiddle
which he had somehow got into his possession before
a certain Giovanni, an itinerant lute-player, came to
Sense

,

him some lessons on it.
Strange are the ways of genius
Under the most
unfavourable conditions the tender plant will grow as if
directly from the source of all
it drew its strength
strength by channels unknown to other mortals.
Soon Giovanni and his lute had gone again, and the
Fancy
boy was left for further progress to himself.
him, little man, in some meanly-furnished attic or room
over his father's shop in the sole company of saints
looking out of cheap, gilded frames trying to find a
the village and gave

!





1

88

Viotti
way unaided through

the

ground
clear,



sharp

somehow
such
fiddle

intricate



maze

ot

violin

from below like a rhythmical backsounded through the summer air the smith's

technics, while

;

hammer

strokes.

and the kind

blessed

And

spirit

yet a way he found
which watches over

little

prodigies

as

he was, guided him
safely

further.

the age

At

of thirteen

he found a patron in
the son of the Marchesa di Borghera,
in

Turin,

who, en-

chanted with the
boy's

exceptional

talents, provided for

his further education*

(Pugnani).
In the spring of
1780 Viotti underFIG. 32.— VIOTTI.
took his first concert
(From the Imperial Library, Berlin.)
tour in the company
of his master, and now follows a succession of triumphs
first in Germany, then in Poland, Russia,
Surprise
and later in London and Paris such as
very few violinists after him and hardly any
..







one before him had had to record.
The
originality of his compositions no less than the superb
qualities of his executive art, combining absolute
189

Story of the Violin
beauty of tone and marvellous dexterity with fire and
feeling,
grandeur, elegance, and withal charming
simplicity, came to the musical world as a surprise.
One could not place him, compare him he was
" hors de comparaison." Critics ceased to be critics,
and only exhausted their vocabulary of superlatives
trying to express adequately the impression he made
on them, and his professional brethren rivalled with
each other in doing him homage.
When Baillot in later years recalled Viotti's appearance in Paris in the words: "Je le croyais Achille
mais c'est Agamemnon," he only voiced in the hysterical
phraseology of the time the complete surrender of the
violinistic profession to the incomparable genius of
;

Viotti.

In order to understand such enthusiasm, which

may

some as being just a little exaggerated, particularly when they consider the pieces with which Viotti
worked his miracles on the public and profession (viz.,
works given to-day to our pupils in the intermediate
stage to practice), it must be remembered that nothing
like the Viotti concerts had ever been heard before.
The old Italian masters wrote sonatas and concertos
for violin solo with the thin accompaniment of a string
quartette or only a second violin and bass.
Now came
this new charmer with the full equipment of the Haydn
strike

orchestra.

The many

voices of the

clarinettes, bassoons,

triumph of the solo

symphony



and horns, joined

violin

flutes,

even the stately

;

i

go

oboes,

song of
trumpet did,

in the

Viotti
in the "tuttis,"

homage

to its king.

The passages,

too,

and
them the cantilene, like the moonlight falling on a
storrny sea and calming it. Can we wonder that the

new and

daring,

full

of splendour, force, and

fire

;

after

world stood breathless ? Then, with

it all,

the rendering

^^i#^5iS5p^^ii

wiauaAa
-

FIG. 33.

—FACSIMILE OF

A MANUSCRIPT BY

VIOTTI.

(At the Imperial Library in Berlin.)

itself,

of which

ception

we can now

hardly have a clear con-

!

We give these concertos to our pupils for fingering,
bowing, and phrasing exercises. To many, they may
seem only dwelling-places for the ghosts of an antiquated
191


Story of the Violin
technique, but there is the possibility that it takes the
interpreting genius, the great musical soul of Viotti to
fill

with

new

life

the chambers

of

its

former noble

palaces.

So much

at present on the subject of Viotti's comHis muse gave us twenty-nine concertos,
besides many charming duets for two violins, quartetts,

positions.

and string trios.
It is weary to record triumphs which are always the
same in essence though they may vary in form. Mortal
man cannot go on breathing an atmosphere of incense
without
,° tI_

climax

the effects in some way.
Viotti
suddenly retired from his public post as

feeling

first

:

violinist

of

the

century.
*

Why?
J

Because at one time (1784), in Paris, a
concert in which he played had not been patronised
quite as well as usual, and on top of this annoyance,
his performance had not created the usual enthusiasm.
To add insult to injury, another, greatly inferior violinist,
who gave a concert the next day, pleased immensely,
and furnished the topic of conversation in musical
circles for several days.
So Viotti vowed he would
not play in public again, and like Achilles in his tent,
he scorned the public, leaving to others of the craft the
fighting and the spoils.
He kept his vow for many
Only in exclusive friendly circles could he
years.
occasionally be heard.
During these years of seclusion
he devoted himself to teaching and composing.
Unfortunately, the great artist, like others before and
after him, would chase fortune on precarious by-ways
192

;

Viotti
marked out for
The following

at least, not on the high road plainly

him by the generous giver
chapters in Viotti's
of a great man, a

life

of gifts.

are the sad story

becoming the
play of circumstances, like a dry leaf the
He had already in 1787
toy of the wind.
applied for the post of director to the

v-nased

giant

_
Bv-wavs

Grand Opera without being successful.
In
was offered the position, which he
took eagerly, and set to work to engage the best
Paris

1788, however, he

available singers for the institute,

when

the outbreak of

the Revolution brought the enterprise to a sudden and
end.
It was doubly disastrous for him,
because he lost his whole hard-earned fortune.
In 1792 he came to London poor, and vow or not, he
had to play again. For a short time it seemed as if his
old star shone once more, be it through English fogs
but soon storm-clouds rolled over it again. Viotti was
suspected of political intrigues probably in consequence of his connections with French emigrants and
advised to leave England. At a friend's country-house
near Hamburg he was offered a refuge, and here he
subsequently lived (until 1795) in complete seclusion,
devoting his time to composition. Many of his charming duets for two violins originated here. One of the
volumes contains the touching preface
Cet ouvrage

disastrous





'

:

du loisir que
Quelques morceaux ont 6t6
est

le

fruit

le

malheur

'

me

procure.

dieted par la peine, d'autres

par l'^spoir." (This work is the fruit of leisure which
misfortune procures for me. Some pieces have been
193

Story of the Violin
But pain must
by hope.)
Viotti than hope.
When
the suspicion of political intrigue resting on him
had been found to be without foundation, and he
once more returned to London, he completely surprised his friends and admirers
by becoming a wine merchant. The former
It seems a
high priest of Apollo a dealer in wines
tantalising irony of fate.
But when an artist as great
dictated by pain,

have

,

w

been

others

greater

with

.

!

finds

as Viotti

himself

his

in

declining years

still

requiring to earn his living, and yet is unwilling to
step back into the whirlpool of concert life, which has

completely lost its charm for him, is it so strange that
he should turn his back on Apollo and follow Mercury
whom chance perhaps did send in his way ?
Better to become a wine merchant than sit moping
over fate; better to live (since to live he must) in an
office busy with account-books and let past glories
shine through latticed windows, than go searching for
Viotti a wine
new ones not worth the trouble
There is^a touch of genius even here it is
merchant
the eagle in the cage, but yet the eagle still.
Only once, in 1818,
In London henceforth he lived.
he allowed himself to be drawn away again to Paris to
!



!

undertake the direction of the terribly mismanaged
If hope
opera, that former cause of his misfortune.
had allured him once more alas it proved a cruel
It only offered him one flower of welcome in his
hope.
beloved France, a great ovation at the Conservatoire, in
which students and teachers joined to do homage to their



194

!

—a
;

Viotti
revered master, and where he played in public for the
After desperate efforts to bring order into

last time.

was reproached with having
caused its decadence, and forced to resign in 1822.
And now, an old man, he came to England's hospitable
shores to die.
Although fate, sorry for her former
darling, would not let him die in poverty and want
pension of six thousand francs having been granted
him on his resignation, he departed this life two years
later, on the 10th of May 1824, a disappointed, sad, and
that operatic institution, he



lonely

man.

cannot close these remarks on this wonderful
master of the violin without referring to his personality
as we know it through the sympathetic
pens of Arthur Pougin, F6tis, Fayolle, _
..
Seldom genius selected a
and others.
His figure and bearing were
worthier dwelling-place.
I

manners refined, his face open, exand almost always smiling his heart kind and
generous, his mind in sympathy with and open to
everything that is true, noble, and beautiful in art and
in nature an admirer of poetry, a lover of the country
well read, intelligent, witty, and yet as naive as a child
such was Viotti, favourite of the muses. Says Pougin
of him: " Chez lui les impressions de la nature 6taient
ineffacable.
Tour les jours de sa vie aux approches du
coucher du soleil il se sentait un accablement ou plut&t
un acces de tristesse qu'il ne jamais pu vaincre."
Was it genius longing to go home ? Viotti was the
distinguished, his

pressive,

;

;

last great representative of classical Italian violin art,

*95

Story of the Violin



a worthy third in the triumvirate Corelli, Tartini,
Viotti.
Of his importance for the development of
violin-playing as teacher I shall speak in connection
with violin art in France, under which head the subject
properly falls.

196



CHAPTER

V.

SOME MORE NAMES AND ONE FAMOUS ONE:
THE OLD-TIME VIRTUOSO.

There

are yet, independent

of the classical schools

Somis, Vivaldi, and Pugnani, a
number of Italian violinists who shone for
_.
a time with greater or less brilliancy but I
shall have to content myself again with only
quoting their names, leaving the reader to acquaint
himself, if he so chooses, with the particulars of their
lives (as far as they are known), in the pages of the oftmentioned exhaustive work by Wasielewski. 1 This
author I also follow in the chronological arrangement
of the names. They are
Francesco Mori (born in London 1793, died 1842).
For a short time pupil of Viotti conductor of the Philof Corelli,

Tartini,

;

:

;

harmonic Concerts.
Gian Pietro Guignon (born 1702 at Turin, died 1774
or 1775, in Paris).
minstrel fame.
1

Die

Violine

und

The

last

ihre Meister ;

"king

and also

of violinists" of

Fetis,

in

Biografhie

Universelle des Musiciens.

197

15


Story of the Violin
Giuseppe Canavasso.

Lived between 1735 and 1753

in

Paris.

Carlo Giuseppe Toeschi (1724-88).
Francesco Galeazzi (1738-1819).
Giuseppe Demachi (1740).
Giovanni Giuseppe Cambini (b. 1746,
Guerini (1740-60).
Francesco Falco

Bodini

d.

about 1825).

At the Hague, afterthatin London.
;

Giovanni Battista Noferi

;

Sebas-

Eligio Celestino (1739-1812).
Nicolo Mestrino (born 1748 in Milan, died 1790 in
Paris), Giuseppo Puppo (born 1749 at Lucca, died 1827);

tiani

;

both of these are

among

the best in this connection.

Known by

Campagnoli (1751-1827).
method and e'tudes.

Bartolomeo
his violin

Federigo

born 1753 in Brunswick, Ger1788 in London, and in 1794 employed

Fiorillo,

many, was

in

as alto player in the Salomon Quartett.

London

to

He went

Amsterdam, where he probably

died.

celebrated for his thirty-six Caprices for violin solo

from

He

is

— one

of the finest contributions to didactic violin literature.
Alessandro Rolla (1757- 1804) ; Bernardo Ferrara

(born 1810).

GaetanoVai and Giuseppe Giorgis (born 1777 in Turin).
But there is yet the figure of a man looking at us
across the gulf of time and altered art conditions with
admit it strangely fascinating and apI
Xhe Old- pealing eyes. It is a handsome man, with
'™ e
amiable manners and a modest smile; a



gentleman, immaculately dressed, adorned,
with jewellery, fine lace, and sparkling buttons on the
198

:

Old-time Virtuoso
waistcoat; he looks like

a courtier,

—they say he was a favourite
Russia— and his name? — Antonio

was one

Lolli.

.

many now perhaps a

and indeed he
of Catherine of

To

unmeaning
hearts, old and

strange,

Antonio
_

„.

name, and yet it once thrilled
young, and its magic echoed through the capitals of
Europe. And who was he? The first sketch nature

made

of Paganini

— the father of

all fiddle-virtuosi

!

A

he admitted it himself. He
could not play the second fiddle in the orchestra without
his technique, like an untamed creature, running wild in
runs and trills unsuited to the music and the modest
post; he could not play a Haydn string quartet in
time, and to escape the sore ordeal would make the funHis compositions were a farce.
He
niest excuses.
lived at loggerheads with four-part harmony, and rules
of counterpoint were unknown quantities to him.
He
turned, with as much cleverness as modesty, his own
But he could play the
art and himself to ridicule.
Says Schubart, after calling him the Shakeviolin
speare of the violin
"He [Lolli] in his playing not only united the perfections of the Tartini and Ferrari schools, but found
His bowing is inimitable
yet an entirely new way.
One thought hitherto quick
(ewig unnachahmlich).
passages could only be expressed by a short kind of
stroke; he, however, draws the whole bow, as long as
it is, over the strings, and by the time he gets to the
point the hearer has already been treated to a perfect
Besides that, he has the art of
hailstorm of tones.

bad musician, he was

called

;

!

199

Story of the Violin
drawing from

his violin tones never

imitates everything

sound

to

heard before.

animal creation.
Not only does he execute
tenths with the greatest finesse,
in

witchery.

octaves,

also

and

as

thirds

well

as

He

— whatever

gives a
His velocity borders on

perfection

sixths,

and

sails

in

the

trills

but
in

dizziest

heights of tones so that he often finishes his piece

with a tone which seems to be the non plus ultra
of tones."
This gives us an idea of Antonio Lolli the violinist;
,

and when I add that he was born at Bergamo between
1728 and 1733, and was for a time engaged with Nardini, his artistic antipodes, at the

Stuttgart Court; that
he travelled through the length and breadth of Europe,
appearing now in St. Petersburg, now in London,
Palermo, Paris; that he received from Catherine II.
marks of her favour and admiration; was given to dissipation, gambling, and other vices, and died, after a

most
in

brilliant,

1802,

— the

meteor-like career, in obscurity in Sicily
picture of Antonio Lolli

plete.

is

But not so the story of

about comhis influence.

down to our days. It may be
termed the glorification of technique for its
own sake the autocracy of virtuosity.
The seed which Locatelli sowed had grown up,
sure enough, and Lolli was the first fruit of the
tree, which soon lustily spread its branches in all
"~ This lasted

,

,

_

.

,



directions.

We find

after Lolli

an indefinite number of

men who

tread in his tracks, and bring in turn credit and dis-

200


Old-time Virtuoso



his name and style:
Woldemar,
who, to redeem himself, writes a
method without a method, and Jean Mane

credit

,

on

charlatan,

T*

archviolinA'

J-reaotng
Jarnowick, or Giornovichi (born 1745, at
*n
s
'
Palermo), talented, violent, vicious, who
died (1802) in St. Petersburg, with the
billiard cue in his hand (Lolli's two pupils); further,
Jacob Scheller (born 1759, in Bohemia), who is not
above amusing his audiences by placing a snuff-box
on his violin to imitate the song of old nuns
(N.B., after he has performed some marvellous feats
of legitimate technique)
and Alexandre Boucher
(born in Paris, 1770; died 1861), king of the art
of advertising, who looks like Napoleon, and can
play like an Alexander, and professes to be a -Socrates on the fiddle, but prefers to play the harlequin
besides, and splashes before the public like a prize
swimmer until his death at ninety-one. From these
four worst specimens of their kind down to the big
virtuosi of the nineteenth century and our own days
much has been said and written, and much praise and
more abuse been heaped on the head of the virtuoso.
Of course, no sane musician will take the
;

Boucher kind, Has Done
°°
abnormalities such as the second half of the """'
- «,
eighteenth century bred in numbers, together
»
with the social and political Cagllostras and
De la Mottes and other worthies. Nor will
it do to place mere technique on the throne to worship
where true art and its companion, the ideal, should sit
part

of

the

Scheller and

"

201

——
Story of the Violin
and

But on the whole, I think, even the old-time
done more good to violin art than he
for, particularly at the hand of his brother,

reign.

virtuoso has

gets credit

the bona-fide musician.
Has he not explored the length
and breadth, the height and depth of the realm of
fiddle-and-bow, as the old Phoenicians the seas, and
discovered many things, many a trick worth having,

which the serious artist was glad to take from him and
use for better ends ?
The remark of Schubart on
Lolli " Playing a whole hailstorm of notes in one bow,"
etc., is significant enough.
And to become a Lolli



addition what infinite patience, what
what untiring enthusiasm, yea, what devoted
love for the instrument was necessary, and does that go
self-taught in
toil,

tor nothing?



But he has done more the old-time virtuoso. He
has put the better artist on his metal, and exacted from
ac or

him the best that was in him. He infused
t k e acj m ra tion and love for the violin into
thousands of souls which probably would
not have been reached in any other Way, for
;

tor

p
we

all

know

that with

many

the

way

—goes

to the soul

— nay,

through the eye, and the old-time
virtuoso usually took care that that way was made
How could violin art have been so rapidly
attractive.
and effectually carried into distant parts of the world
but for the virtuoso ? When we think that sober
Corelli died in 1713, and already
forty years later
Lolli created a sensation in St. Petersburg with his mad
sixths and tenths and runs and trills, we get an idea
to the

ear



Old-time Virtuoso
how effectually indeed

the virtuoso

worked

;

and in

later,

only mention Miska Hauser, R^menyi,
Vieuxtemps, and others who first carried the banner of
the violin to our cousins across the seas.
better days,

As

I

It took (1674) Lord
from one Thursday afternoon
to the second following' Friday night to get from London
to Paris under favourable conditions.
It became a regular tour de force to go from London
or Paris (where the virtuoso usually earned his spurs
at a concert spirituel) to Moscow and St.

to travelling in the olden days?

Shrewsbury and

his tutor

A eguI *r
Petersburg, either vi& the cities of the
^
Rhine, South Germany, Austria, and Poland,
_,
or by a northerly course, touching Leipzig,
Berlin, Dantzic, Konigsberg, Riga, etc.
What distances by stage-coach, with winter in Russia, through
How much pluck on the
awful solitudes of snow
one hand, and what ceaseless energy on the other was
necessary for the continuous life of the old-time
!

virtuoso.





And last let us be fair the violin, most versatile of
instruments, affects different people differently. To say
that only the classical styles of Tartini,
Viotti, or Spohr, etc., should be cultivated,

Not the

.
combated and suppressed as
)(
injurious to the higher development of art
instincts in the public, would be like insisting on the
same diet for all manner of individuals, robust and
weak. The great majority, we know, have only weak

and aught

else

musical digestive organs.

Musical art
203

will

take care of

.

Story of the Violin
i

the unworthy, the shallow, the trivial will fall
time like shells and husks in the autumn. Airs
varies of the old style are even now looked down upon
by our generation of students the age has
itself;

off in



s

outgrown them

f ulfiHed

M

.

,

his ™,

The

,

,

,

and so

;

.

,

this process

goes on.

,

,

.

old-time virtuoso has passed away, and

the later virtuoso followed after him.

have fulfilled their mission, and who
an important one ?

204

will

say

it

Both

was not

CHAPTER
PAGANINI

:

VI,

A STUDY.

Just about one hundred years after Corelli had established
first school of violin-playing, in that same Italy, the
genius of the violin (whatever force that be) was preparing his greatest surprise for the fiddle-loving world a
mammoth an Eiffel Tower appearance, and nothing

the

:



less, in the

gentle art of Corelli and Tartini.

I

mean, of

course, Paganini (Fig. 34).
To think that this extraordinary man died only sixty-four years ago, and his

name seems
already, and
it

the

to
its

moss of

have the ring of mythland about it
every syllable to have gathered around

centuries

!

had

Is it

not almost as

lived always like

if

this

a sort of
wandering ghost of the fiddle, hovering around the
mediaeval minstrel and guiding his bow and fingers, so
that the superstitious peasant fled from him as from one
possessed by the devil or as if, as long as there existed
a fiddle in the world, this man Paganini had been
forming to become at last incarnate in that weird
familiar figure which goes by his name?
In proportion as the great classical masters of the
violin from Corelli to Viotti had led the violin-loving
world along certain grooves, that world was unprepared
certain entity Paganini

;

'


Story of the Violin
for

an appearance

lay quite outside

Indeed, for
or

and startled by

like Paganini,
all

it.

It

known and accepted traditions.
its sources we must look to the



the Lolli and the
Boucher quarter of the art. Paganini was a
sort of monster-fungus on that
shall I say obnoxious?
soil of virtuosodom.
The Lollis and the Bouchers were
.

TT

directly opposite direction



the sketches, he, the

full portrait,

the culmination, con-

summation, the X Y Z of virtuosity. But even that
alone would not have given Paganini his unique position
in violin art.
A variety of factors combined to produce
a phenomenon such as he. The
sion he made on his time was
exhibition till then undreamed
gymnastics, 1 and by the nobler

extraordinary impresnot due only to the

— of finger



and bowing

accents of his reproductive art fire, pathos, warmth, and tenderness ; it
was due in no small degree to his personality,



IS

a mixture of the genius and the advertisine:loving quack, being yet made more effective
a weird-looking, fantastic, tragi-comic
Technique by
figure, unlike anything ever witnessed before
on the stage of the world. Nature had given him that
personality, that figure, but he accentuated its corners.
Never man fitted himself more thoroughly for his
mission than Paganini.
It is said that he practised for



1



Paganini's

contributions

to violin

technique

were

chiefly:

an

extensive use of the staccato a ricochet

harmonics, pizzicato for the

left

(thrown staccato), double
hand intermingled with arco, etc., as

well as feats on one single (G) string, unusual stretches, novel effective

passages in thirds, sixths, and tenths.

206

FIG.

Photo by A. Noack, Genoa.

|

34.

— PAGAXIM

)

Paganini
years ten hours a day, until he sank down exhausted.
" Le g£nie c'est la patience" was his maxim, and he

up to it.
Either intellect or body had to succumb
uneven struggle. The will, the mind, here being
the stronger of the two, the body was left a wreck, and
the natural reaction of a stilted youth extravagance,
dissipation, vice, and self-indulgence in every form completed the ruin.
And this face and body, this wrecked
and ruined castle of an iron master-will, assailed by
relentless foes, illness, despondency, misanthropy, and
physical pains, he carried through the world from town
to town as a living spectacle, a sort of bogey, a haunting spectre and the public seized eagerly on it, invested
His
it, trimmed it up further according to its fancy.
extraordinary artistic powers were only part
Unl V **"
of the show which people went to see and
The knife with which this pale demon
hear.
„,
on the stage was said to have once killed his
love 1 could be distinctly seen hanging over his long black
locks. The prison had written on that face with an awful
hand its starvation bill of fare and for that the public
paid (and Paganini had an eye for box-office receipts).
So this man moved over the European stage^for the
lived

in this



;



i

One

of the

many

stories,

according to which he had murdered his

The
wife (or love), and was doing penance for his crime in prison.
gaoler allowed him the solace of his violin, but no duplicate set of
strings, so

when one by one

the E, A, and

D were broken, he performec]

The story is, of
those marvellous feats on the G, the last remaining.
course, an invention. The true version of how he acquired his astounding dexterity in playing on one string

below.

207

is

given by Fetis and others. (See

Story of the Violin
space of ten or twenty years, upsetting all preconceived
notions of violin technique.
He came amid storms of
applause and scenes of unbounded enthusiasm, and disappeared again with something like Mephistophelian
laughter, leaving the public dazed and the poor fiddle

drudge
in

its

suicidal

in

train

A comet drawing
comes into its way,
own, revolving around an

despondency.

irresistibly all

that

but following a law of its
axis of its own, impersonating the very life of the
Nor will there ever be
fiddle
that was Paganini.
another like him. It is absurd to talk of a Paganini
redevivus, a second Paganini, every time a great



technician comes along and plays that one and only
long-dead Paganini's compositions. It is as absurd as
it would be to say that another Columbus will discover
another new world, or another Galileo protest that the
earth moves around the sun.
Paganini was a law unto himself (whether a good
He created his
or bad one does not matter here).
technique, his style, on the basis of prior achievements.
The others only imitate it: with him it was a revelation, with the others it is every-day language, and

smacks of the studio, the class-room, the rote.
We Would not miss this greatest of fiddlers
tne annals of violin-playing

in

— no,

not for a
Was
Paganini's Spohr or any other great modern master;
Influence
but his influence can hardly be called beneone for
ficial.
It forced violin-playing into a ProGood ?
crustean-bed unsuited to its true nature and
mission.

Paganini had temporarily transformed the

208


Paganini
angel into a devil, and the angel did not escape unscathed Lucifer burned his wings.
Violin-playing will never be quite what it was before
Paganini.
He helped to hurry the growing-old process
brought out the lines, the spots, and the wrinkles on





the once fair face.

He, before

iron rule of technique, with

all

its

others, established the

train of other evils, in
1

the place of the gentler reign of charming naivete of
the elder master.
It may be urged against this assumption that we
have long outlived that influence, that it is an insult
to men like Joachim and Ysaye to mention Paganini's
So it may appear.
art in connection with their name.
In reality a violin-playing and violin-loving world
It
will continue to carry the burden of his influence.
is like a curse that has attached itself to the young
" There was
student when he starts out on a career.
once a man, his name was Paganini. He could play like
no other why can't I become like him ? Let me try
He does try, in spite of the still, small
at least."
He
voice within him and better examples around him.
tries until the best years of his life have been fiddled
away. in vain attempts. And the large public? Only
too often, when it has once tasted Paganini, the



Not that the
ordinary fare will not quite satisfy.
Who will deny the fascination
people are to blame.
that technical display on the violin carries with it?
the instrument so small and such a perplexing world
of sound from it but the craving of the public has
reacted on the artist, who has to supply it or bear the



209

Story of the Violin
consequences. And he does supply it at the sacrifice
of countless hours of drudgery, which too often leave
the mind unfit for higher flights of aspiration.
In a narrow little street in Genoa, not far from the
harbour, stands an unprepossessing-looking house,
painted pale pink, with green Venetian/
a asa^ i
Every loiterer in the neighboursnut ers
hood will direct you to it, but there is no
(-

mistaking

"La

_

Casa

di

Paganini " (Fig. 35), with

Madonna handsomely executed

shrine to the

and the marble
"

its

in stone,

tablet bearing the inscription:

II

Giorno XXVII.

di

Ottobre

dell'

Anno MDCCLXXXII.,
Nacque

A

decoro di Genoa a

Delizio del

Mondo

Nicol& Paganini,
Nella Divina Arte dei Suoni
Insuperatoif Maestro."

In this house on the third floor, consisting of three
small rooms, the great virtuoso was born on the 18th
of February, 1784. 1 There Nicolo grew up,
raganini
a delicate, sensitive child, with a marvellous
ln
e
musical precocity.
His father, it is said
,,

(though Conestabile tries to defend him),
in his treatment of the boy, and we

was very harsh

may
1

pretty safely

assume that the

little

fellow's years

Vita di Nicolb Paganini da Genova, by Giancarlo Conestabile,

Perugia, 1851

;

the date on the tablet will be seen to be October 27th,

1782.

2IO

1

FIG.

Photo by A. Noack, Genoa.

35.

— PAGANINI

S

HOUSE AT GENOA.

Paganini
of early childhood were not bedded on roses.
For no
matter how talented a child may be, no matter how
much Nicolo may have loved his little violin, a child is
a child with childish desires, and the shouts of the boys
of his age in the street must have caused pangs of
regret in the

Thus

young

heart.

early musical genius begins often

sacrifice.

Poor

company with

little

its

boy, shut up in that

life-long

room

in

and arpeggios, and a heart as full
of wishes as that blue sea yonder full of gay white
Pity all prodigies.
A whole life of success,
sails.
seas of adulation cannot atone for the absence of that
small streamlet by which the child-mind plays in sweet
scales

unconscious peace. As it was, the imaginative, imprisoned child poured his fancy into his technical
Playing at marbles and blocks became with
studies.
him playing with thirds, sixths, and octaves; picking
flowers on the wayside, or shells and pebbles by the

became wrenching the mysteries of
technique from his little violin. Although his father
and a certain Servetto are said to have been his
teachers until he was eleven, he probably owed most
How effectually the child had possessed
to himself.
himself of these fleeting ghosts of the fiddle the trills,
staccatos, etc., etc., became evident when the father
took his talented boy to Rolla (a reputed violinist) at
Parma. Rolla was ill in bed at the time and rather
disinclined to see his visitors, who were waiting in the
adjoining room. There and then young Nicolo, on
mysterious' sea,



discovering on the music-stand the latest concerto of
211

Story of the Violin
Rolla, to shorten the time of waiting played it off at sight,
so that Rolla sprang up in blank astonishment and
declared he could teach the boy nothing. Nevertheless,

according to Regli, Paganini had lessons from him
for about six months, while at the same time he
enjoyed instruction in composition from Ghiretti.
After that Nicolo returned to Genoa, and for several
years gave himself up to the studies nay, titanic
struggles, rather

—which

tion of the ideals he

had



brought him to the

realisa-

set for himself.

Existing compositions did .not offer what he sought;
so he composed for himself.

Another Columbus, he
new discoveries, and
he found his America, treasures never dreamed of
before,
and seized
them with an eager and
unquestioning hand (Fig. 36).
That was Paganini in the making.
When he
appeared a few years later (1801) before the big
world, his command over bow and finger-board was

sailed the seas of technique for

\

such that he was able to play publicly at
sight any composition put before him.
"-•""
His success was instantaneous, and with
the impetuosity of youth, drinking at the deep well
of freedom and pleasure for the first time, he indulged
too much, and his body, already weakened by excessive
study, became the physical wreck described above.
He subsequently appeared and disappeared from public
view, and his disappearances (which also gave rise
to the stories about him) meant only too often a retire"

"

«

first

ment forced upon him by physical

sufferings.

Manuscript by Paganini

213

16

Story of the Violin
But

to follow his career in chronological order: in

we find Paganini engaged at the Court at
Lucca, where he wrote his famous sonata (Napoleone)
on the G string; and for the next twenty years he
1805-8

and lived exclusively in his native land. In
Count Metternich, he appeared
the first time in Vienna, and from there began really

travelled

1828, at the invitation of
for
his
*

F

unparalleled tour of triumphs.

People presently

became Paganini-mad.
Young and old,
musical and unmusical, were seized by this
raging fever of hero-worship, and the same
symptoms followed his appearance in Leip-

zig, Berlin,

Frankfort, etc., wherever he went.

And

so he reached Paris and London, where the English

next fell victims to the Paganini fever. Enough, in
He
the year 1834 Paganini returned to his country.
had amassed a large fortune, but was physically comBad investments and financial
pletely exhausted.
losses into which he had been led by some swindlers,
and the resulting worry rather hurried the process of
Vainly he sought
dissolution which already set in.
relief in Nice and elsewhere, and on May 27th, 1840,
he died at the villa of a friend, where he had been
nursed in this, his last illness. His fortune fell to his
only and illegitimate son Achilles, as also his collection
His favourite fiddle (Fig. 37), however, a
of violins.
superb Joseph Guarneri del Gesii, he bequeathed to his
The precious keepsake is prenative city Genoa.
served in the upper floor of the Municipio. You are
led through the council-chamber, where the official who

214

FIG

_

37 ._PAGANINI'S

VIOLIN IN GENOA MUSEUM.

;;

Paganini
entrusted with guiding the stranger points out to
portrait-figure of Columbus done in
mosaic.
In the adjoining room, near the window so
that the sun can watch his opportunity to get a peep
is

you with pride the





at his old friend with you a door, indistinguishable
from the white and gold embossed wall-paper, opens
upon a small, blue satin-lined recess in the wall, and lo
and behold! in a cylindrical glass case hangs suspended

that silent miracle, the fiddle of Paganini. 1

To be

the one and only pupil of such a man, while an

exceptional honour,

is also a crushing responsibility.
Camille Sivori (1815-94), a little man with
a a lni
a prodigious technique and a kind and _ ^ S
,?
>

generous heart, lived his difficult part very
Like a living memory of his master, he wandered
well.
through the world (and he wandered much), and at the
last managed to squeeze his violin (a Stradivari) into the
satin-lined recess at the Genoa Municipio that it might
keep the lonely "Cannon" company. It lies there at
the foot of the glass cylinder, but outside the sanctum
With Antonio Bazzini (1818-97), whose
still adoring.
name to this day has a good ring in fiddlers' ears, we
say adieu to Italy, leaving her to rest on her richlydeserved laurels, and turn our attention to Germany.



1

For a minute description of

Allen's Fidicula Opuseula.

The

it

the reader

is

referred to

Heron

contributions to the Paganini litera-

See Vita di Nicolb Paganini, by G. Conestabile
;
G. Dubourg (anecdotes chiefly); Wasielewski, Violine und ihre Meister ; Lahe; Ehrlich, Beruhmte Geiger
Guhr, Paganini's Method of Playing the Violin, etc.
ture are numerous.
Fe"tis,

Paganini; Fayolle

2*5

CHAPTER

VII.

VIOLIN ART IN GERMANY.

The

Thirty Years'

War

had

left

Germany

in

a bad

condition: her people poor, her crops destroyed, her

land hacked up into a hundred and one principalities,
ruled (nay, in some cases bled) by men, dukes, princes,
counts, and kings, who, with very few exceptions, aped

King of France, Louis XIV., in wanton dissipation
and extravagance. Versailles and Paris were the patterns which every princeling tried to imitate at home,
the

too often at a cost quite out of keeping with his means.
Yet these sore conditions proved a boon in one direc-

The same courts, small and large, too often hotbeds of intrigue, scandal, and extravagance, became
the nurseries of music and of violin-art in Germany.
As early as 1626 we found Carlo Farina at the
And soon after, with Farinelli at
Dresden Court.
Hanover,
Torelli at Anspach, and Corelli
Italian
Violin Art at tne Bavarian Court, heading a long list,
we see the great Italian maestri flocking
carried
tion.

Germany, engaged

into the

into

Heart of

for a

at this or that court

long or short time, as soloists, conGermany ductors, leaders, organisers, as court-composers and court -musicians.
Their art, new and
216

Violin Art in

Germany

astonishing, gave additional splendour to the court.
Italian fiddling, like Italian singing,

was

the fashion,

though the cases were also not rare where reigning
princes really loved music and played themselves.
This preponderance of Italian violin-art in Germany,
speaking now of the seventeenth and the early part
of the eighteenth centuries, is not surprising. The
country had little to offer in the way of competition
with these clever foreigners. Her sons were only then
learning from them the art, and it took long before
they left the foreigners' apron-strings.
Besides, the
social conditions in

Germany were anything but

favour-

able to a free and lofty development of native artistic
violin-playing, such as Italy could boast at the time.

was hindered everywhere by

the barriers which a
surviving mediaeval feudalism had erected for the
home musician.
No splendour-loving, rich, and
generous Church openly fostered the art, or by
It

still

honourable and lucrative positions to the
spurred him on or gave him a social standing
worthy of the dignity of his art.
"

offering

soloist,

The German

violinist

was before

all

an orchestra-

playing machine, at the will, good or bad, of some
terrorising potentate with undisguised predilections for
foreigners in his employ, who were more indeIn many cases
pendent, and therefore more respected.
he was little more (and often less) than the chief lackey
of his Highness.
His education also, if we except the
isolated cases where a generous patron furnished him
with the means to study in Italy, was either one within

the

217

,

Story of the Violin
the narrow circle of his

home

court orchestra, or in the

lower regions of the " Stadt pfeiferei," 1 that sordid
relic of the master-singer period.
In other words,
the development of violin-art was not, as in Italy
during the time of Corelli, Somis, and Tartini, a free
and happy radiation from some great artistic individuality; it was an anxious crystallising in the antechambers, as it were, of a potentate.
What stronger proof of the different regard in which
the musician was held in Italy and in Germany at the
time can be adduced than that Corelli was buried in the

Pantheon

in

Rome, while Haydn fifty years later ate
room at Count Esterhazy's country seat;

in the servants'

or that the amiable Archbishop of Salzburg ordered his
cook to throw young Mozart down the backstairs
of the palace when that young Master Impudent inconvenienced his lordship by asking for a situation ?
^ to °k such a giant as Beethoven nay, it
German
took
the great French Revolution and its
Violinconsequences to make a breach in this
playing





in the 17th

Chinese wall of surviving terrorism,

and 1 8th
Centuries

Violin-playing in. Germany in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, therefore,

of whatever influence
1

The

"

it

may have been on

the develop-

(town-piper) had (and in many
monopoly over the musical supplies in small
towns.
He kept in pay and board, and a state of absolute dependence,
mere boys, who learned to keep time by being given the drum to beat
time at dances, and the experienced hand on half-a-dozen instruments.
The " Stadt pfeiferei " was therefore little less than a grinding slavery.
so-called

Stadt-pfeifer "

instances has yet) the

218

Violin Art in
ment of instrumental music

Germany

generally, fails to interest

same degree
as the contemporary art in Italy. Comparatively fewmen stand out as prominent, and their work is only
more or less a reflection of that all-powerful Italian
the non-specific historical student in the

influence.

Thomas

Baltzer (born 1630 at Liibeck, died in

1663) came to England in
leader of the king's band.

remarkable player

in

his

It

day.

London

and was appointed

1656,

said that he was a
As German contem-

is,



may be mentioned: Johann Furchheim and Joh. Jacob Walther, both connected with
the Dresden Court in the second half of the seventeenth century; Franz Heinrich Biber (1638-98), capellNicolaus Adam Strungk (1640meister at Salzburg.
1700) is interesting, inasmuch as he was one of
the first German violinists who went to Italy to
study.
Daniel Theophil Treu (born 1695 at Stuttgart) received likewise his education from Vivaldi in
Venice, where he had been sent by the Duke of
Georg Philipp Teleman (168 1- 1767),
Wiirtemberg.
music director in Hamburg, is notorious for his
poraries of Corelli

fabulous

fertility

compositions

as

any have survived.
Still under Italian

became

a

composer.

as a baker

artistically

his

loaves,

He

turned out

though hardly

influence, violin-playing in

somewhat more

Germany

satisfactory after the

decades of the eighteenth century.
first man here to attract our attention is Joh.
Georg Pisendel (1687-1755), who, as concert-master at

first

The

219

Story of the Violin
the

Dresden Court, put his Italian training (with
and later with Vivaldi and Montanari) to ex-

Torelli,

He was

cellent use.
i_

the

,

enviable

largely responsible for

which orchestra-

reputation

playing in the Saxon capital enjoyed

c

Germany.
lieb

Graun

(

,

among Tartini's

With

all

over

Pisendel's pupil, Joh. Gott-

died 177 1),

whom we

already found

Dresden in violinplaying was transferred to Berlin, where Frederick the
Great, a devoted lover of music, had meanwhile succeeded to the throne.
Graun was
r
leader of the Berlin Court orchestra.
Still
more important than Graun, and, indeed, one of the
best players of his time and most sympathetic figures
pupils, the prestige of

Benda

(1709-86),

German

violin art, was Franz
succeeded Graun as concertBorn as the son of a poor Bohemian

in the history of early

who

master in Berlin.
weaver (by birth, therefore, of Slavic origin), and for
the most part self-taught on the violin, Benda had

some

life before he attained
His playing was greatly admired
by his contemporaries, particularly in music of the
adagio style, which he rendered with beautiful tone and
most touching expression. Among his numerous pupils
was Wilhelm Rust (1739-96), music director at Dessau,
and known as the composer of the fine sonata published

to taste

of the bitterness of

to his high position.

in

Peter's edition.

Of

interest to

Londoners

in par-

connection is Joh. Peter Salomon
who
was temporarily identified with the
(1745-1815),
He became a central
Prussian capital before 1781.
ticular

in

this

220

Violin Art in
figure in

London musical

the

who attempted

first

life,

Germany

and

is

said to have been

Bach's sonatas for violin solo

in public.

Next

to the Courts of Dresden and Berlin, and of not
consequence for the development of violin-playing
in Germany, appears the Court at Mannheim.
B
Here we meet first with Joh. Carl Stamitz
died
and
his
(born 1719 in Bohemia,
1767)
Court
best pupil, Christian Cannabich (1731-97).
To Cannabich is attributed the introduction into German
less



orchestras of

many

of the orchestral effects which, since




become common property viz., the uniform
use of staccato and legato effects sforzandos, crescendos, and decrescendos.
He probably brought these
novelties from Italy (Naples), where Jomelli reigned,
then, have

the greatest orchestral charmer of his time.
A pupil of Stamitz and also of Cannabich

was

famous composer for
He was born in 1745 at -Mannheim,
the pianoforte).
and employed there until he came to London to become
a r^val of Giardini.
Further emanating from this centre of German violin
Mannheim school, were:—Anton Stamitz
art, the
(born 1753), son of Johann Carl, and noteworthy as
Ignaz Franzl (born
the teacher of Rudolph Kreutzer.
1736) deserves mention as the master of his son,
Ferdinand Franzl (1770-1853), a celebrity in his day,
with a leaning towards the virtuoso. Friedr. Wilhelm
Pixis (1786-1842), a pupil of the older Franzl and of

Wilhelm Cramer

Viotti during the

(father of the

latter's

exile

at Schoenefeld,

near

Story of the Violin
Hamburg,

died much esteemed as professor at the
Conservatory of Prague, founded in 1811. Of the two
brothers Eck, the last of the scions of the Mannheim
school, Joh. Friedr. Eck (born in 1766 at Mannheim)
was the more distinguished artist, being considered by
some as one of the finest German violinists of the
eighteenth century; but his younger brother and pupil,
Franz Eck (1774-1809 or 1810), occupies an abiding
special place in the

teacher of Spohr.

history of violin-playing as the

Last to be mentioned here, because

standing in the traditions of the early Mannheim
is Leopold Mozart (born in 1719 at Augsburg,
died at Salzburg in 1787), father and teacher of the
immortal Wolfgang Amadeus, and author of a once
famous violin method, the first published in Germany
sixteen years after Geminiani's work.
He was until
his death concert-master and vice-conductor to the
Archbishop of Salzburg.
In addition to the hitherto-mentioned German violinists of the eighteenth century, there remain yet a

.school,

of artists who formed their individuality independent of the three principal cities, Dresden, Berlin,
and Mannheim, by this or that foreign or home influence.
We have already made the superficial
acquaintance of the three Tartini pupils Joseph
Holzbogen, Anton Kammel, and Lorenz Schmitt; likewise of Anton Janitch (i763-i8i2),-the pupil of Pugnani
and a well-known artist in his day. The brothers Croner
were connected with the Munich court orchestra.
Franz Lamotte (1757-81) was noted as much for his great

number



Violin

Art

in

Germany

and prima vista playing as for his frivolity, which
was boundless. Jacob Scheller (born 1759), the incortalent

rigible

who

followed in the train of Lolli, ended in

the slums of the profession.

Michael Ritter von Esser
followed in the same rank, but was of a
different stamp as artist and, man, and rose to wealth
(born

1:759)

Andreas Romberg (1767-1821), a sound
and fame.
player and composer, died as court composer at Gotha.
Next we stand before a man who must be considered
Germany's greatest contribution to violin art.

22-?

CHAPTER

VIII.

VIOLIN ART IN GERMANY [continued).

One

of the big

38),

a

names

man who

fell

in

music

— Ludwig

Spohr

(Fig.

just short of being a creative

genius by the side of our great composers
o ^ t ^ e romant j c sc hool Schubert, Weber,
Mendelssohn, and Schumann! This, however, is not the place to speak of Spohr the composer
of big oratorios and symphonies, but simply of the



u wig

Spohr of the

fiddle

and Spohr the composer

for his

chosen instrument.
Awe-inspiring,

man and

upright figure of sterling value as

as artist,

towering over his German pre-

decessors and contemporaries of violin fame (as he did

and blood with his six feet in his stockings),
Teuton of the fiddle, carried German
art on his broad back and shoulders across the

in flesh

this Spohr, true

violin

border into the nineteenth century.

Only two other violin-artists in his life-time rivalled
him in importance and far reaching influence viz.,
Viotti, thirty years his senior, and his great antithesis



life, and art principles, Paganini.
Spohr (born in 1784) was the son of a physician at
Brunswick, in North Germany. Young Spohr enjoyed

in

224

Violin Art in

Germany

the inestimable advantage of a musical home, without

being

-

— as

is

so often the case with children of profes-



from the tenderest ag"e
His Youth
already trained for and driven into the profession.
He was something of a prodigy, for even
sional

musicians

at the

age of

with the help of a French emigrant
'cellist, he was able to
Dufour, recognising
Kalkbrenner's trios.
six,

named Dufour,
take part

in

a clever amateur

Story of the Violin
becoming a musician.
Brunswick, where in theory an
organist, Hartung (and Mozart's scores), and on the
violin first a certain Kumisch and subsequently the
concert-master of the court orchestra, Maucourt, became his teachers. Later he became the pupil of Franz
Eck, with whom he spent a year's apprenticeship
travelling.
At the end of that time he had the good
fortune to hear Pierre Rode, the greatest of Viotti's
pupils, whose playing gave him a new impetus for work
and progress.
We may quickly pass over our master's further
the talent of the boy, urged his

Spohr

career.

studied

A

in

second, or rather real

first,

concert tour,

undertaken soon after his apprenticeship,
",
Saxony, won for him
. through Prussia and
P
golden
opinions
from
the press, and from
t
S
ss
then till his final appointment as Court
Capell-meister at Cassel he passed from milestone to
milestone of success, distinguishing himself as soloist

and composer as well as an orchestral leader and
conductor.
I only mention his temporary engagements
at Gotha (1806-13), at Vienna (1813-15), and his tours
between times through North and South Germany
and Italy, where (at Venice) he met Paganini and
played a double concerto of his (Spohr's) composition
with this great artistic antagonist.
Spohr's extraordinary popularity in England is well
known. While in Paris he and his music found only a
cool reception, it was with the English public a mutual
attraction on both sides from the first (an appearance
226

Violin Art in

Germany

and to England the
master returned frequently and with particular fondness,
both to play and conduct his large orchestral and choral
works.
In 1822 Spohr entered on his duties in Cassel, and
in spite of many annoyances and indignities to which
he was subjected, he retained his post until 1857, when
he was pensioned off against his will. That same year
he had the misfortune to break his arm, an accident
which put an end to his violin-playing, and two years
later, on October 22nd, 1859, he died.
The years at Cassel proved Spohr's greatest period
of productivity, about two hundred works in all having
come from his pen, among them many for the violin,
besides his famous violin method.
In Cassel he also gathered around him numerous
David, Ries,
pupils, the best known of whom are
Bargheer, Kompel, Bott, St. Lubin, and the two
His
English violinists, Blagrove and Henry Holmes.
at a Philharmonic concert in 1820),

:

personality

was as fine and commanding as
was distinguished for integrity,

his character

straightforwardness in

all

his sayings

p

__

and

doings, and a fine feeling for the right dignity of his
art and person. Numerous stories and anecdotes about

him demonstrate these character traits. 1
Spohr the artist, the composer, was a fitting
Possessed of the
counterpart to Spohr the man.
highest art ideals, and in proportion averse to every1

For

particulars of Spohr's

time, the reader

is

life,

his views

on

art

and

artists

of his

referred to the master's interesting autobiography.

227

;

Story of the Violin
thing opposed to or not reconcilable with these ideals,
mere ear-pleasing and publiccatching, never for an instant could beguile
e
P° r
n ; s muse awa from the path his strong

the trivial, frivolous, the

y

individuality (and a certain Teutonic

uncom-

promising obstinacy) had clearly marked out for it.
Everything in his works, be it his violin concertos or
duets, his small pieces or large creations, is " gediegen,"
scholarly, noble, masterly in the form, melodious,
pleasing and, except for certain chromatic mannerisms,
interesting and original.
But his strength was also his
failing.

nowhere gets the better of the artist
nowhere gallops away with his muse and
we after it in a mad rush, holding our breath and forgetting aught else. Spohr is always en evidence in his
Genius

inspiration

melodies or his passages
He paints in mezzotints,
is ever absent
his art lacks happy
contrasts, rhythmical variety; it is a low burning fire,
never a blaze which makes you feel aglow.
I can imagine that his playing had the same characteristics.
It is said to have been distinguished by
the marvellous command of the finger-board,
IS
by the large, powerful hand, and by an
pf
unfailing intonation, as well as a tone which
even in intricate, quick passages (in which his concertos
abound) preserved its breadth and beauty, and in slow
movements spoke with rare tenderness and refined
feeling.
The fire of Viotti, however, was lacking, and
the fiery Turner red

;

,

so

was

the

infinite

variety which

228

comes with

the

;

Violin Art in

Germany

piquancies of the bow (which were antagonistic to him).
His was the solemn pace of the heavily-built knight
in his massive armour of high ideals.
This, his all too strongly marked, uncompromising

composer

individuality, both as

for his instrument

and

as executant, was no doubt the reason why Spohr
never really formed an epoch-making school, or had
followers

who

further expanded

on

his style.

the greatest of his pupils, Ferdinand David, „,
was anything but a true Spohrite ; his playing

Even
_ r
,

being more French than Spohric. Then, as to composition, Spohr's style truly lived and died with him
—except, we ~ wish to say, that Bernhard Molique
gave something of a weak second edition to it. The
best representatives, it is said, of Spohr's style were
his two pupils, Jean Joseph Bott (born 1826 at Cassel
died in America, 1895) and August Kompel (born in
Bavaria, 1831 ; died at Weimar, 1891) ; but neither of
these artists played an important part in the further
development of violin art in Germany. That distinction
belongs chiefly to Ferdinand David.
Ferdinand David, born at Hamburg in 1810, early
became Spohr's pupil but he seems to have been possessed to a rare degree of the power of
assimilating other influences without losing
_ ..
His style was a
his own individuality.
happy blend of lightness, elegance, and solidity and in
his compositions he combined sound musicianship with
graceful melodic invention and rhythmical piquancy.
Distinguished equally as quartet player and soloist, at
;

;

329

17

Story of the Violin
home

In the

deep waters of Bach and Beethoven, and
modern virtuosi, an un-

in the surface rollers of the

excelled orchestral leader and inspiring teacher, David

was indeed a very great power in his day. And if
we remember that, with Mendelssohn and Schumann
and the founding of the Leipzig Conservatorium in
1842, the centre of gravity in matters musical in North

Germany was

shifted for a time to Leipzig,

it is

not

surprising that violin art under David's auspices drifted
in the

same

direction.

His pupils were as numerous as were Tartini's. We
find them to this day in leading positions everywhere in

Germany and

elsewhere.

The

greatest of

them, August Wilhelmj (born 1845), lives
yet in our midst after a career of international triumphs,
devoting his declining years to showing a younger
generation how to become great fiddlers.
After David's death (1873), notwithstanding that his
post at the Leipzig Conservatorium has been ably filled
by such men as_ Henry Schradieck, Adolph Brodsky
(now at Manchester), and Arno Hilf the lead in
German violin art gradually but irresistibly drifted to
Berlin, where Joseph Joachim reigned in absolute
supremacy. This great master brings us to a sphere
of influence of which I purposely speak last.
It is the
School of Vienna.
Certain national char°°
acteristics, blended with Hungarian tinges,
v1
have given this school a stamp of its own.
Its development was also different from that of the



other

German

centres of violin-playing.

230

It

was

tardier,

«
H
OS

a
u
<
o
CO

Violin Art in

Germany

in spite of the fact that Dittersdorf,

gave to instrumental music
a wonderful impetus.

Haydn, and Mozart

at the Austrian capital such

Or was

because of this

it

fact,

as it drew the interest away from a
specific cultivation of the violin as a solo instrument into

this popularity,

the broader bed of concerted music ?

At

events,

all

although Karl Dittersdorf (1739-99) and Anton Wranitzky (1760-1808) are commonly named as the early
founders of the Vienna School of violin-playing, it
became important only at the beginning of the nineteenth century with two men, eminent in their line,
Joseph Mayseder (1789-1863) and Joseph Bohm (1795The former, a pupil of Ignaz Schuppanzigh
1876).
(of Beethoven fame), gave us among others Miska
Hauser (1822-87). Bohm, a Hungarian and presumably a pupil of Rode, became the master of a whole
Georg
galaxy of violinists known to fame, viz.
:



Hellmesberger (1800-73), Jacob Dont (1815-88), Edmund
Singer (born 1831), Eduard Remenyi (1860-98), Eduard
Rappoldi (1839-1903), Jacob Griin (born 1837), Heinrich
Wilhelm Ernst (1814-65), and Joseph Joachim (born
1835 at Kitsin). The last two, both Hungarians, are
the jewels in Bohm's crown.
Wilhelm Ernst was one of the first who kindled his
flame at the fire of Paganini. As a youth of fourteen
he was studying with Bohm in Vienna when
that conjurer from Genoa appeared and
iTr tc ,

...

.

,

.

*

XT

Wilnelm

Next,
drew him into his magic circle.
young Ernst followed like a shadow the
great magician on his tours and learned some
231

Ernst
tricks

Story of the Violin
from him, but fortunately his talent was sufficiently
strong and original not to go under, in the greater
individuality of his ideal.
While in his "Carnival de
Venice," etc., he strikes the key-note of the Paganini
imitator, his Elegy and many other compositions speak
a language quite Ernst's own. Some of his melodies,
indeed, are like flowers set in daintiest china vases;

r/sy^f?r

^.^^^
FIG. 39.

—FACSIMILE

OF A MANUSCRIPT BY ERNST.

(At the Imperial Library in Berlin.)

flowers with the perfume and the colours of the Orient.
Ernst's art and playing was, if I may say so, Paganini's
spiritualised, its echo with a ring of sadness.
great artist and pathetic figure, H. W. Ernst will go
down to posterity (Fig. 39). He never held a position
or stayed anywhere long, but, like the gipsies of his

art

A

native land,

went about, with
232

his soul

on

fire,

playing

Germany

Violin Art in
magic
ended his

his

Bohm,
was also

fiddle until
life

a long-threatening spinal affection

at Nice in 1865.

the master of this ideal of the virtuoso (Ernst),
the master of that ideal of an interpreter of

the classics, Joseph Joachim.



It

shows that



> os
fV
a teacher can nay, should only do so much
T
and not more. He may, like the sculptor
as it were, hew out of the raw block the general form
and outline of his statue inherited disposition, circumstances, etc., will then give it its feature, life, beauty,
and character. Joachim is, perhaps, the most remark;

modern

do anything like
exceed the space at
my command. Great as executant, great as teacher,
great as quartett player, every way one looks at him
artistically, and without blemish as a man, he deserves
a place beside the noblest artists of our noble instrument. Not meteoric like Paganini or the lesser stars
which followed in his track and shed lustre on their
path for a season, Joachim came to stay
J-jgntlike a good light-giving fixed star, around
1 111
which to this day revolves a whole planetary „. S ^ ^
Fixed Star
,
,
system of students, past-students, imitators,
admirers, and reflectors of his style.
As executant
he must rightly claim the distinction of having raised to
To
its highest possible level purely reproductive art.
fully appreciate his merit in this direction we need only,
by way of comparison, recall the life-work of such men
as Viotti, Rode, Spohr, whom we style the classical
masters. All of these were before all else exponents of
able figure in

violin art; to

justice to his importance

would

,

2 33

far

.

.

Story of the Violin
their

own

individuality, their

occasionally the

own

works of others

the exception, not the rule.

music.

They played
it was

(quartetts), but

With Joachim, on

the

contrary, although a composer of acknowledged merit

(Hungarian Concerto), his chosen path lay
preting in as objective a

manner as

possible

in interall

that

His interpretation of
Beethoven and Bach was once held to be \he unapproachable ideal. If to-day sometimes the message
is lost, or obscured by the method, let the violin world
rejoice that it still calls Joachim her own
him who once
enjoyed the friendship of Mendelssohn. Ah, it almost
takes one's breath away to think that he looked into
those large, luminous brown eyes, which shone into
this world like two stars out of the true wonderland
of melody.
is

best

in

violin

literature.



2 34

CHAPTER

IX.

VIOLIN-PLAYING IN FRANCE DURING THE SEVENTEENTH,
EIGHTEENTH, AND EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURIES.

Coming

to France,

we

find the early stages in the de-

velopment of violin art still less promising- than in
Germany; moreover, violin-playing and „
...
Violin Art
,
u
composition remained longer in an embry•'in _,
France
,.
* *
tu'
t,
onic state. This phenomenon is the more
surprising, as the political and social conditions in
France in the second half of the seventeenth century
seem, on first thoughts, to have been so much more
favourable to a rapid progress of this charming art than


.

,

,



in

Germany.

Louis XIV. had drawn around his Court a galaxy of
artists and literary men.
His reign marked the great
Racine,
classical period in French history.
1™ e
°
Corneille, Moliere, La Fontaine, Boileau,
T
Poussin 'like so many bright candles
around a throne blended their fame with that of their
great king. Music, too, was in the eyes of the world,
at least worthily represented, and enjoyed the sun,









There was the so" Grande Bande des 24 Violons du Roi," or " Les
Vingt-quatre Ordinaires de la Musique de la Chambre
shine of the sovereign's favour.

called

235

Story of the Violin
IX. (Fig. 40); and
with the permission
of the King-, organised in

Charles
Lully,

addition "

La petite Bande,"
same number of
players,
whose
duty it was to
perform the

music for the
ballet and at
Court festivities.
The seeming outward

splen-

dour of this musical life at
the Court of Louis very likely
induced many of Germany's
ambitious princelings to keep
orchestras of their own, just
as

it

inspired Charles

II.

with

the idea of his royal band of

twenty-four violins.
But these "vingtordinaires du
quatre
tjjjlL;
§Hp" roi " though they
thought themselves
the very cream of



The Cream the

— ONE

OF THE " VINGTQUATRE VIOLONS" DU EOI.

FIG. 40.

ence

—seemed

of the

w ith

Profession

that

profession,
the
is

conceit

born of ex-

clusiveness and self-indulgnot to have been in a hurry to change

236

Violin Art in France
their

music

and

standard of playing for the more

serious, higher one of the Italian masters.

°r

Corelli's failure in Paris shows significantly
iu 4. something
iu.that
was wrong.

?,

Failure

The monopoly which

Lully and his band held over
(which meant the musical life of
France) was too sweet to be easily wrenched from
them. They went on in the same old rut as long as they
could that is, as long as the King and his Court were
Thus it came to pass that, while Germany
satisfied.
could already pride herself on a line of excellent Italian
art-bred violinists by the beginning of the eighteenth
century, in France the art was still in an undeveloped
As a proof may serve the
state of infancy.
The se oi
fact that, at the end of the seventeenth
^_
.
century vocal music was yet used for the „_
Music for
,,
.1
,l.
r
instrument by these excellent "twenty-four, Instruments
as in mediaeval times; and matters stood
Parisian musical

life



,

.

better

little

during the

first

half

of

the

following

century.

The first French violinists (not violists) we meet are
two "Rois des Menetriers": Constantin, a member
of Louis XIII. Court-orchestra (died 1657),

and

his

pupil,

Guillaume Dumanoir,

who The
<

^?

es

followed in the dignity of kingship in 1659.
p re^2i
After Lully, who was made chief of the
violinists
band (though he was not Roi des Menetriers 1 ) in 1652, and died in 1687, we come to Rebel,
1

The

dignity of

" Roi des

Mene'triers "

position in the King's band.

237

was quite independent of the

Story of the Violin
Francois Francour, and Baptiste Anet.

was the

who

The last-named

and failed in the attempt to
introduce into Paris the art and art principles of Corelli,
whose pupil he was. The antagonism of the "twentyfour" drove him to Poland, where he died, an exile for
his

first

artistic

tried

Somewhat

convictions.

better fared his

(born 1687, died 1730), who
had become imbued with Italian traditions during a
pupil, Baptiste Senaille 1

-

several years'

engagement

at

Modena.

The same was

important and greatest
of early French violinists, Jean Marie Leclair
i
at least as far as outward immediate
,
Leclair
success is concerned.
By his work and
example he succeeded nobly in planting the best Italian
art principles on French soil. Leclair was for two years
a pupil of Somis in Turin. On his return to France the
"twenty-four," as usual, objected to the introduction of'
unwelcome new ideas but charitably, by way of compensation for his superior attainments, he was given an
inferior position in the grand chorus of the opera, with
a salary of four hundred and fifty francs, for which he
was supposed to play in the ballet and accompany the
After some years of drudgery in this position
chorus.
unworthy of his talents he resigned, and lived hencethe experience of the most

^

,

,



.

;





forth in retirement as teacher,

and composer

for his

This excellent artist was assassinated in
the streets of Paris on the evening of October 22nd,
He was born in 1697, at Lyons. Many of
1764.
instrument.

1
Also known by a charming
MaiCrts Classiques.

little

238

sonata published

among

Alard's

Violin Art in France
Leclair's compositions are counted among the best productions of the pre-Viotti French violin art.

Passing here as of secondary importance the names
1753), Guillemain (1705-70),
Jean Joseph Cassanea de Mondonville (1715-73), and
Antoine Dauvergne (1711-97), as well as the three
Tartini pupils already mentioned
Andrd
,** e
Noel Pagin (born 1721 in Paris), Pierre
Lahoussaye (1735-1818), and Joseph Touchemoulin (1727-1801), we come to the best known
of French violinists of the eighteenth century, Pierre
Gavini^s.
He is usually considered the founder of
of Jacques Aubert (died



the earlier (as compared to the post-Viotti) national
French school of violin-playing. To the fiddle world at
large his importance

is

centred chiefly in his twenty-four

Matinees or Caprices, which to this day have their
assured place in the educational diary of the violinist.
The composer, it is affirmed, wrote them in his seventyIn that case his
third year, and played them himself.
dexterity must indeed have been quite extraordinary, as
they are technical stumbling-blocks for the left hand of
many a younger player to this day.
Gavinids was born May nth, 1728, at Bordeaux.
Nothing is known of his youth. He may have been his
own teacher, and later profited from and formed his
style on hearing Italian masters; at all events, at the
age of thirteen he appeared at a concert spirituel in
Later he underParis, and aroused general interest.
took the direction of these concerts, and on the founding of the Paris Conservatoire de Musique in 1794
239

Story of the Violin
he was made a professor of the violin.
He died in
The best
1800, full df honours, admired and revered.
known of his numerous pupils were L'Abb£ Robineau1
and Capron, the teacher of Marie Alexandre Guenin
:

(born 1744, died 1819).
French violinists of reputation in their day were,
further: Hippolite Barthelemon (1741-1808), also known

England for his fine rendering of Corelli; Isidore
Berthaume (1752-1820), and his pupil, Jean Jacques

in

who succeeded Gavinies at the Conservatoire;
Mathieu Frederic Blasius (died 1829), also professor at
the Conservatoire Alexandre Jean Boucher, a celebrity
with a flaw, already mentioned; Hubert Julien (born
1749) and Guillaume de Navoigille (born 1745),
Leblanc, and La Croix (1 756-181 2).
Grosset,

;

1

Alard's Maitres Classiques.

240



CHAPTER

X.

violin art in France {continued).

Viotti once called Gavini^s the French Tartini. With
more right France might have applied the compliment
to Viotti himself.
Although born in Italy,
aI
the master gave the benefit of his ripe talents
"u,
T
not to his native land, but to its neighbour,
v .. .
France. With him, the bulk of the legacy
of Corelli, Tartini, and Pugnani slipped across the
.

.



Italian border.
While barely known at home unlike
Tartini, " il maestro della nazione," as he was called

became " le maitre de la grande nation." In
France his genius reached its glory in France he was
adored and spoiled yes and happy too, before misfortune took a nip at his heart; in France also he
taught and left to a circle of gifted and devoted pupils
not only his own precepts safely guarded, but the best
Viotti

;



tradition of the classical past.

With

Viotti, therefore, begins the illustrious period

French violin art, and the lustre has to this day
not passed away from it, although much
of it has since fallen on the younger sister
.
p
represented by the Belgian school of violinplaying.
The best-known pupils of Viotti were Jean
Baptist Cartier (1783-1841), August Frederic Durand

in

.

241

Story of the Violin
(born

at

Warsaw, about

1770),

Andr£ Robberechts

(1797-1860), the teacher of Charles de Beriot; Philippe
Libon (born at Cadiz, in 1775 ; died in Paris,

Best-known

upiso

jg^

.

(1771),

lady

also

Lou ; S) j ulien)

Alday

violinist

Castels de Labarre

jeune (born 1764), and the
Parravicini (born 1769, al;

le

who

enjoyed a great reputation between 1797
and 1804; and above all Pierre Rode, born at Bordeaux
in 1774.
After having from his eighth to
his fourteenth year received instruction on
the violin from a clever violinist, Joseph Fauvel, young
Rode came to Paris, where he became Viotti's pupil.
It is needless to comment on Rode's position as violinist
and composer. Every student knows him to be the
second in that bright cluster of stars Viotti, Rode,
and Kreutzer. His finely sensitive nature, which shows
itself in his compositions,, is described by Baillot in the
few sympathetic words regarding Rode's
t
_r
playing: "It was full of charm, purity, and
elegance, and quite expressed the lovable

Turin),

:

.

mind and heart." He died at Bordeaux
on November 25th, 1830, after a most brilliant career,
though not spared some bitter disappointments.
In Rudolph Kreutzer we meet not with a pupil, strictly
speaking, of Viotti, but an artist who no more than

qualities of his

° P
K-"

t

Rode was able to resist the influence of the
great Italian, which he blended with his own
individuality.

He was born on November
a musician, who

16th, 1766, at Versailles, as the son of

also .gave

him the

first

instruction on the violin; and

242

Violin Art in France
later, it is

noteworthy, he became the pupil not of any

representative of the French violin school, but of

Stamitz, a brother of the founder of the
school,

who had moved

to

Paris.

Anton

Mannheim

Under Stamitz's

guidance young Kreutzer's talent for the violin as well
as his gifts for composition developed at a remarkable
pace. Taking Viotti as his model, he eventually rose
to the highest positions attainable to a violinist in Paris.
First, he was appointed second professor at the Conservatoire, and on Rode's resignation, took the latter's
place, at the same time occupying various other
honourable positions. In spite of this strenuous official
Kreutzer found time to compose and travel.
life,
During one of these concert tours, he met Beethoven
in Vienna, who dedicated to him his famous violin
Contemporaries speak in
sonata, Opus 47.
Ivrcutzcr s
_,
the higrhest terms of Kreutzer as an exePlaying
....
cutant, but what gave him his unique position in the history of violin-playing was his work as a
composer. His forty studies are a household word
with violin students all over the world, a
standard work which no other one of the
„ f, y
able
to
reach.
Not
quite
ever
been
kind has
so popular but still of great pedagogic value are his
With this
concertos, of which he wrote twenty-one.
.

,

.

,

.

respectable productive facit to his credit, his fertility as
a composer, however, was by no means ended. Besides
violins

quartetts, fifteen trios for two
and duets, etc., he wrote no less than
operas, among which were thirteen for the

fifteen

and

thirty-six

string

'cello,

'

2 43

:

Violin Art in France
of forming' his taste and studying the violin with a pupil
of Nardini

—Pollani.

He

travels

as

secretary to his

benefactor, he meets Viotti personally, he

ministere des finances" in Paris, he

is

works " au

enlisted in the

army, etc.; but wherever he is and whatever he does,
he pursues his violin studies and gathers knowledge,
and one day in the fulness of time he appears in
Paris as violinist, and pleases his public so well that he
is appointed a professor at the Conservatoire.
Here at
last, in a position congenial to him and suited to his
viz., empty the
talents, he can fulfil his mission in life
contents of that granary.
He emptied them partly
into a work which has made him particularly famous
his Method de Violon. 1 This monumental work appeared
at the beginning of the new century, and was later
followed by a supplement.
He also instituted the first
regular quartett soirees in Paris, found time to tour,
compose, and teach, and spent a long life of usefulness
till his death in 1842, an artist truly worthy of the





gratitude of France.
Paris woke up to find herselt in Paganini's
It
and Paganini's grip was firm.
a New
meant a new phase in French violin art.
Phase in
French
Vainly Baillot and his pupil Habeneck 2 tried
to stem the wave that would roll over old Violin Art

One day

grip,

traditions.
1

a

The

national traits of brilliancy, emotion-

Written in collaboration with Rode and Kreutzer.
Habeneck (1781-1849), as founder and conductor of the famous

Conservatoire

concerts,

introduced Beethoven's Symphonies to the

Parisians.

245

18

Story of the Violin
and superficiality, which Baillot,
Rode, Kreutzer, had held long in check made a
younger fiddle-playing generation an easy victim to
the great usurper.
We now see in France a lively
tug-of-war between the new art and the
A ive y o £j traditions. On one side pulling hard,
™such clever men as Delphin Alard (181588), Sainton (1813-90), Francois Prume,
on the
D'Artot, Charles Dancla (born 1818), etc.
other, the more conservative French elements together
with an influence (partially at least) hitherto mentioned
only en passant, but since Paganini's time much in
alism, of showiness

j

;

evidence

in

France,

the

Belgian

school

of

violin-

playing.

By a happy combination of national characteristics,
and the preponderating individuality of its founder,
Charles de Bdriot, as well as the exceptional
e gia n

and by engrafting
new, strong elements from time to time,
this school has been, perhaps, the greatest power,
outside Joachim, in the latest stages of violin art.
It has,' at least, produced within a few decades, one
might say, greater violinists than any other since the
palmy days of Tartini and Pugnani. Space forbids
to go as much into detail on the subject as I should
l

like.

talents of his successors,

Some

of the

names of representatives of the

Belgian school are violinistic household words. Who
does not know Charles de BeViot (1802-70), the
prototype of grace and elegance as player and

composer, and his greatest pupil, Henry Vieuxtemps
246

Violin Art in France
(1820-81), one of the giants since the time of Paganini?
To him 1 we are largely indebted for another modern

giant— Eugene Ysaye (born

De

at Liege, 1858); and to
Beriot for that great virtuoso and sterling artist,

Emil Sauret '(born 1852), besides Joh. Christian
Lauterbach in Dresden, and Teresa Milanollo (born
1827), who with her sister Maria, at one time floated
over European concert-stages like a lovely apparition.

The

Belgian

in Paris (Franco-Belgian
represented by Lambert Joseph
Massart (born at Liege, 181 1 died in Paris,
Belgian
1892), a pupil of Kreutzer and master of

school)

is

influence

chiefly

;

-

Wieniawski, Lotto, Camilla Urso, Teresina
Tua, Joh. Wolff, Kreisler, Charles LoefHer,
and many others; while Hubert Leonard

,

"

_

(born at
died in Paris, 1890), a
1819
pupil of Habeneck, taught C6sar Thompson, Marsick,
Ovide Musin, Dengremont (born 1867 at Rio Janeiro,
died 1893), Henri Marteau, etc.
From the first a wise moderation has on the whole
characterised the representatives of the Belgian school.
It was unavoidable that Paganini's art left
it,
as on every school and chara- cter
its mark on
1 s °
almost every violin artist of his time. But , *£ ?
the Belgian
,„
i.
while the French extremist took greedily
School
with both hands, as it were, of these new
treasures more than was good for him, and in
Bellaire,

near

Liege,

;

1

,

,

.

.

consequence suffered from technical indigestion and
its other symptoms, the cooler Belgian appropriated
1
And Wieniawski.
247


Story of the

Violita.

only what he could well and easily amalgamate with
the safely-guarded and precious legacy of "his Viotti."

x

such matters as the technicalities of bowing
(I address myself here to the student), it is observable
how the best Belgian players have exercised moderation
and discretion. Note with nearly all of them the low
position of the elbow and the upper arm, 2 and the
admirable working of the wrist and forearm both
kept at perfect equilibrium and obeying the laws of

Even

in



as well as satisfying any demands made
upon them by bowing difficulties. These things have
come dowp from Viotti, who, it is said, was so
sensitive to the movements of the bow-arm presenting
aesthetics,

also lines of beauty, graceful curves instead of ugly

that he had a famous sculptor watch him
while playing and criticise the movements of his arm.
Paganini, self-taught, on the other hand is said to have
corners,

arm abnormally high, in order to better serve
bowing pyrotechnics.
Through this Belgian influence possibly, or in
consequence of the levelling work of time, the tugof-war between the new and old has almost ceased
The once new is new no more; the once
in France.
thought old grow almost young again. So now the
held the

his special

ultra-Frenchman
1

It

will

sits

with

the

Spohr-bred

be remembered that the teacher of

Robberechts, was

a.

De

Teuton
1

Beriot,

Andre

pupil of Viotti.

2
"This is to be understood as relatively low, for the position of the
upper arm, elbow, and forearm naturally changes with every string."
The Art cf Violin Bowing, Paul Stoeving; London.

248

*

Violin Art in France
admiring at the feet of Beethoven and of Bach, and
both go arm-in-arm to Berlin occasionally to get yet a
point or two from that "grand old man " of the fiddle,
Joseph Joachim.
Yes, like a stream growing broader and broader,
and ever quicker and quicker, when once released
from its narrow bed, so has violin art flowed
°
through the nineteenth century. Outlying
countries were drawn into the current,
_T
JN orwftv
swelling it by new elements and energies.
Soain
.

'

.

We

found Hungary infusing some of the

of her tokay and the moonlit-meadow-poetry of
her gipsies into the Austrian mother-stock in Ernst.
fire

Bohemia gave its share in Kalliwoda (1801-66),
Ferdinand Laub (1832-75), Leop. Jansa (the teacher
of Lady Hall£), and later Franz Ondricek, Halir, etc.
Poland, king and mazurka-haunted Chopin-land, had
already in Paganini's time contributed a violinist of the
big calibre, one who stalked in tenths over the fiddle,
but now she sent (the
Charles Lipinski (1 790-1 861)
heart of fiddlers waxes warm at the mere mention
;

Henry Wieniawski (1832-80), the glorious
and Isidor Lotto (1840)
and later

of his name)

virtuoso

;

;

Stanislaus Barcevicz (born 1858).

From Norway, with something like an aurora borealis
of northern poetry around his head, came, minstrel-like,
self-taught, that blue-eyed, blondeThaired Norseman of
fiddle, Ole Bull (1810-80), swaying enraptured
audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

the

249

Story of the Violin
Then Spain sent from her matchless sunny climes on
rhythms of Bolero, Malaguena Zapateado, that matchless, sunny artist, Pablo de Sarasate.
And now once more I have to take my reader from
this bright and ever-broadening view of the nineteenth
century violin art on the European continent back two
centuries, to these isles.

2.W

CHAPTER

XI.

VIOLIN ART IN ENGLAND.

Among the great European .nations, England, it must
be conceded, has had but a small share in the development of violin-playing. Her attitude towards this branch of musical art was in Receptive
r
e t an
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, *
f
and is yet, to a certain degree, receptive
rather than productive. To London flocked these
eighteenth-century birds of passage —-Italian, German,
French their fame preceding them as the March wind
,



heralds the arrival of our feathered guests in spring.
They stayed for a season, feeding on the fat of the

land

;

but few of them

—very

nest for themselves in the

few indeed

shadow of

St.

—made

a

Paul's and

Westminster Abbey, or left an impression strong
and permanent enough to produce a greater national
activity with

respect to violin-playing.

Whether the

reason for this undeniably unproductive attitude towards this most charming of arts lay in certain national

make the Englishman to this day
a greater lover, generally speaking, of vocal than of
instrumental music, make him appreciate a Handel
and the Messiah more than Mozart or a Ninth
characteristics which



2 Si

Story of the Violin
should not like to commit myself
whether the reason lay in another
direction, dating back to certain old-caste
prejudices, the remnant of a mediasval spirit
which found their fitting expression in the well-known
and oft-quoted advice of Lord Chesterfield to his
son 1
I do not venture to decide or even discuss here.
If this noble lord's opinion is to be taken as a fair
criterion of the general esteem in which professional
fiddle-playing in England was held in those times, it
is no wonder that under such existing conditions the

Symphony (though
on

this score)

I

— or

,

,



whose active devotion to
would have been of incalculable benefit to

better middle-class elements,

the

young

art

were withheld.

it,

This state of things as regards the

earliest stages of violin art in

surprising,

as with

Henry

England

is all

the

more

(1656-95) national
for the time its culmination.
Purcell

English music reached
But then it was chiefly vocal music with Purcell, and
after him, Handel's all-powerful influence lay in the

same direction.
That England produced, nevertheless, somewhat
later, a number of violinists, more or less distinguished,
goes without saying. The Geminiani, Giaroreign

dini, Veracini, Cramer, Viotti, etc., could
not have helped endearing that sweetest of
voices to the English; and gradually the prejudicial
cobwebs of earlier centuries were also swept away.
Great is now the number of its devotees of both sexes

Artists

1

for

Hart, The Violin

— " If you love music, hear

you, but never fiddle yourself."

2?2

it;

pay

fiddlers to play

Violin Art in England



all classes
greater, probably, than in any other
country in the world.
The first English violinist is usually considered to be
John Banister (born 1630), in London. He received his

in

instruction on the violin from his father,
English
one of the waits of the parish of St. Giles, and
was sent by Charles II. to France for further Vlo" msts
study.
On his return he succeeded Baltzar, *'
who died in 1663, as conductor of the King's r t
Band, but he fell into disgrace with his
monarch and lost his post, owing, it was said, to his
outspoken partiality for English compared to French
performers on the violin. He subsequently instituted
regular concerts at his house, later called the " MusickSchool, over against the George Tavern" in Whitefriars, which continued until near his death in 1679.
Both he and Thomas Baltzar lie buried in the
cloister of Westminster Abbey.
John Banister's son
He lived during
also became a violinist of repute.
the reigns of James II., William and Mary, and Queen
Anne.
To these two well-known names representing the
earliest phases of violin art in England must be
added that of one other not contained hitherto in
first

'

'

most musical
believe,

first

dictionaries.

Sir

Frederick

Bridge,

drew the attention of musicians

'

I

to one

Nicola Matteis as possibly the man who first acquainted English musicians with the Italian style of
violin-playing and composition, and influenced Purcell
Neither Banister
in the creation of his violin sonatas.

253

Story of the Violin
nor Baltzar could have done so.
At all events,
it appears from the autobiographical notes of Roger
North, a musical amateur, and contemporary of

Henry

Purcell's

father,

that

among

the

musicians frequenting the
said
Roger
p
North's
house was a Signer
Nicola
Matteis, a violinist of remarkable attainments, who for
a time made his influence felt in the London musical
circles in which Purcell, then a young man, moved.
Mattel's abilities on the violin were greatly admired, and
among other laudable things it is stated by Roger North
that the Italian violinist showed English players for the
first time how to hold the bow properly.
That surely
was a great thing to do for any man whom history has
not hitherto marked out as a hero nay, fails even to
Who this mysterious Signor Matteis was,
mention
whose pupil, or anything else about his antecedents,
Roger North's papers do not reveal. He stayed in
London for several years, playing and giving lessons in
some aristocratic musical families, and publishing some
compositions by subscription ; but perhaps the soil was
not quite prepared for a violinistic appearance like his.



!

He

London again, and

is said to have gone to Paris,
reduced circumstances. Whatever he
was, this hitherto unknown prompter of English musical
history, there can be little doubt that young Purcell
met him at Roger North's house, and, with the inquisitiveness of youth and the eagerness of genius, would
naturally have drawn from him the knowledge of the
main characteristics of the Italian sonata form into

left

where he died

in

254

Violin Art in England
which he eventually poured the fine, liquid gold of his
own inspired muse.
After Signor Matteis's departure, professional violinplaying in London seems to have again taken a long and
undisturbed rest, or it was carried on behind closed
doors, so that the historian did not get a chance of recording it. As late as 1713, John Playford, in his work
entitled " Introduction to the Skill of Musick, in three
books, containing: I. Ground and principles of music
according to the most easy method for young practitioners.

tenor,

II.

Instruction and lessons for the treble,

and bass

viols,

and also

for the treble violin.

The art of descant or composing musick in parts,
made very plain and easy, by the late Mr. Henry PurIII.



cell"
mentions the violin, together with the various
kinds of viols.
The year after, 1714, Geminiani came to London,

and the further history of violin-playing
is

in these isles
inseparably connected with the foreign artists already

mentioned, from Geminiani down to Spohr and to our

own

days.

Of English

players of the eighteenth century, the

honour of anciennetd belongs to Matthieu Dubourg (born
He made his first debut as a boy
1703, in London).
violinist (standing on a chair so as to be seen) in the
crowded historical music-room of John Britton in Clerkenwell.

On

Geminiani's arrival in the English capital,
his pupil, and was subsequently

Dubourg became
engaged

in

Dublin and London.

Director of the Royal Music.

255

He

Here he
is

died, 1768, as

said to have been a

Story of the Violin
distinguished

artist,

pathetic music.

excelling,

Dubourg's

particularly,

pupil,

in

slow,

John Clegg, accord-

ing to Gerber, excelled his teacher in dexterity, but

through over-work came to a premature and sad end in
1742 as an inmate of the Bedlam Asylum.
Further interesting is: John Abraham Fisher (born
in 1744, in London), who also made a name for himself
I give a translation of Pohl's
as a virtuoso abroad.
description of him and his comical method of advertising himself abroad: "A foreign valet in striking
livery,

carrying a magnificent carmine-red violin-case,

ornamented with gold, was followed by the
celebrated virtuoso, who, walking on tiptoes, was

richly

brown silk attire, with scarlet embroidery
and glittering buttons. So high was his powdered and
perfumed toupee that his small figure appeared divided
His breeches were held at the knees with
into halves.
diamond buttons, and the scent of perfume filled the
atmosphere of the room."
clad in a

Thomas
was a

Linley (born in 1756, at Bath; died in 1778)
His promising career came to

pupil of Nardini.

a premature end through the overturning of a pleasure
boat.

Of some

notoriety

must have been General Ashley
He had the honour

(died in 1818), a pupil of Giardini.

of performing Viotti's

double concerto in public

in

London with the master himself.
With the violinist Bridgetower for whom Beethoven
is said to have composed his sonata Op. 47, which he
eventually dedicated to


Kreutzer — the
256

list

of note-

Violin Art in England
worthy English bow-performers on the
eighteenth century

Of later
in 1811),

date:

is

Henry Blagrove (born

who began

violin

in

the

nearly complete.
at Nottingham,

the study of the violin at four,

appeared in public at five, became the pupil of Spohr,
was from 1834 leader of the Philharmonic Society
concerts, and died in 1872 in London; further, Antonio
James Aury, who made a name for himself on a concert
tour lasting nine years; and John T. Carrodus, a pupil
of Molique, who died in 1869, and is the grandfather of
the family of clever violinists of that name.

^5?

CHAPTER

XII.

THE LADY VIOLINIST.
in fiddle-land!
She was born in the
South with the first Amatis, Ruggieris, and Seraphins
which left their makers' shops in new glossy
coats, burstinef as it were with melodious
_,
Charms
waiting only for just such soft white
life
hands to be handled and fondled, for exactly such
little delicate, shell-shaped ears to pour their caressing voices into, and to rest on just such soft bosoms.
She was quickly responsive. Yet observe: she was
a child of the South, with an impulsive artistic
nature.
It was just such an Amati, Ruggieri, and
Seraphin she had longed for; they were the realised

Lovely flower





ideal of her

bosom: so

the touch as her

Hence

it

came

own

graceful, so light, as easy to
heart to the touch of Cupid.

to pass that

the lady violinist.

we got

She flourished

in all her

charms

in fair Italy 1 while

According to Lord Edgecumbe's reminiscences there existed in
at the time of Vivaldi (1660-1743) four large musical conservaThey were orphanages, supported by rich Venetian citizens,
tories.
1

Venice

where orphan

girls received a

One

musical education.

of these, the

Ospitale della Pieta (of which Vivaldi was musical director), was particularly noted for its orchestra,

which numbered

258

at

one time 140

girls

The Lady

Violinist

her sister in the colder North, the golden-tressed
maiden, still went about with the bunch of keys hanging
from her girdle, in snow-white apron, busy mainly in
kitchen and cellar, and only of a Sunday playing the
lute and dreamily glancing up at the angel with the
fiddle on the bright painted church window.
But
this changed. Like some flowers which wait for the late
summer to wed them, so the maiden of the North found
her Amati or her Klingenthal tardily but she found
it.
And now ? I will not startle you with cold figures
(they would be out of place here, methinks),
let numbers hide where charm reigns; but
r.
go to the next gala concert of our largest
music school. * Queen's Hall will be crowded, ablaze
with light. From where you sit (if you love, as I do, the
darker corners in the back), the distant stage, high



from among 1000 students, and assisted in the production in church
of oratorios, etc.
One violinist of fame sprang from this remarkable
institution, Regina Strinasacchi or Sacchi (born 1764), for whom
Mozart wrote his charming B flat maj. sonata for violin and piano. Of
other lady violinists of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth
centuries mention has already been made of Maddalena LombardiniSirmen, the recipient of Tartini's lessons by correspondence (dated
March 6th, 1760); also of Signora Gerbini (born after 1770), a pupil of
Pugnani, and Signora Parravacini (born in 1769), pupil of Viotti. But
only with the two sisters Teresa arid Maria Milanollo, in the forties of
the last century, the charm and poetry of violin-playing woman seems
Since then the increase in
to have fully dawned on the world at large.
amateur and professional violinistes has been phenomenal. Madame
Norman Neruda (Lady Halle) set the ball rolling in England, Camilla
Urso in America, and around these two stars cluster to-day a very
large wreath of fair executants of all nationalities.

2 59

Story of the Violin
and above the large, dark, heavy-breathing mass, will
look like a moving, glittering sea of white.
The
orchestra all budding dibutantes! As you listen to
the music gently rising, falling, rising,
through your
half-closed eyelids and a mist of heat and haze and
light
sound and movement melt together; childhood
pictures crowd on you; forgotten dreams gain shape
and life. You see the heavens open and descending
and ascending angels clothed in white with fiddles,
viols, 'cellis in their arms, radiant faces looking up in
rapture to the source of light and goodness, drawing
from it love and inspiration. And softly with them,
rising, falling,
rising,
amens,
float
the alleluias,







alleluias.

260

PART

III.

AN OUTLINE OF THE EVOLUTION OF VIOLIN
COMPOSITION.

CHAPTER

I.

IN ITS INFANCY.

What

stammerings on the newly-invented,
Perhaps as the violin
it took also from it its
repertoire, or it borrowed from the slender store of the
rebecca, here a romance, a canzona, there an old dance
tune, lively or slow.
Only from the beginning of the
the

first

instrument were we cannot tell.
began to supplant the treble viol

seventeenth century we get glimpses of the
musical tendencies to which the new instru- Be S lnmn &
°
ment inspired its devotees. On the one hand „
u

we

see

how Monteverde

(1607)

employed

Cent

on the other we have,
a "Romance for Violin and Bass,"
published in 1620 in Venice, by Biagio Marini, 1 and
some compositions 2 by Carlo Farina, whom we met
in his orchestra;

it

still

1

extant,

Gerber, in his

New

Musical Dictionary, gives a list of additional
it seems they are hopelessly lost.

compositions attributed to Marini, but
2

At the Royal

Private Library in Dresden.

261

19

a

Story of the Violin
at

Dresden

the

of

collection

old

Court in 1626.
dance -tunes and

Among
arias,



these

originally

set for four parts (although the solo violin
Carlo
part alone has been preserved) particularly
Farina and
of mterest ; s the conc l u ding quodlibet,



entitled Capriccio
Stravagante.
It
must
r
*
Caprtccio
been
considered
have
something
extraStravaordinary for the time, for the composer says
gante"
,.„

,

.

as

work gives

much

in his preface,

and at the end of the

explicit directions as to the rendition of

hi-s

opus, including rules for going into the third position (which is twice employed), for playing double
stops, the tremolo, the shake, etc., as well as for the

proper execution of such feats as the imitating of
caterwauling, dog-barking, the drum and fife and
the Spanish guitar, -all contained in his remarkable
work. Even if we were disposed (judging only from
this specimen of his muse) to suspect Carlo Farina
of having been something of a musical charlatan, a
-

Woldemar in embryo, this capriccio would stand as a
valuable document for the stage of violin technique at
the time but there is good reason to believe that the
composer was prompted by a perfect earnestness of
purpose, as it shows itself in the other pieces of the
;

Not having learned as yet to
n musical parables, he landed in the
crudest forms of tone-picturing as soon as
he tried to depart from the stereotyped dance-tunes and
collection.

ru e

one_

S p ea j

5:

;

arias.

But

it

is

significant

that

262

the

violin

should

from

In

Infancy

its

have invited a departure from the domain
accorded to the viol.
The player and
composer instinctively felt the hidden possibilities of
his instrument and was groping his way towards their
realisation.
Carlo Farina's example found evidently
ready imitators in Germany, for Joh. Jacob
^^tow
Walther (b. 1650), in his Hortulus Cheltcus,
published at Mayence, 1694, * strikes the
r
same note in the imitation of the cuckoo,
the

first

hitherto

;

'

the rooster, and the cackling of
Technically though, his productions mark an
appreciable advance on Farina's, the fifth position
nightingale,

the

hens.

being

employed

finger to the

— ),

(with

one excursion of the fourth

besides showing a very great variety

More scholarly than either Walther or
Farina was Franz Heinrich Biber. In his compositions
the desire for individual expression in clear, well-formed
musical language is unmistakable.
Italy's superiority in matters musical presently shows
itself.
The feeling for form, symmetry, and beauty
must be inherent with her people whatever
reason we wish to give for it. At all events,
while in Germany under the very eyes of Buxtehude
of bowings.

1

The

literal

title

(translated)

is

"Hortulus Chelicus:

well-planted violinistic pleasure garden, wherein

all

that

is,

musical amateurs

way to perfection smoothened by
and a most agreeable variety ; and also the most
charming harmony by touching two, three, and four strings on the
Through Joh. Jacob Walther, Italian Secretary to the Elector
violin.
of Mayeace," etc.
desirous of learning will find the

curious

pieces

263

Story of the Violin
and the father of Joh. Seb. Bach violin-composition still
its swaddling- clothes, kicking up its heels, as it

lay in

were, in vain struggles to get out of them,

we

already

have in Italy the well-defined Sonata da Camera and
Sonata di Chiesa, and the first attempts at the concerto.

264





CHAPTER

II.

THE REIGN OF THE SONATA.
Definitions as to the earliest character of either ot
these sonatas differ with different writers. 1
But it is
say that both had the general
i.e., they consisted
of several more or less loosely connected
fairly safe to

features

So " aU da

of our suite

.

,
oonata
and e

movements (usually three or four) all in j. Cniesa
the same key.
In the Sonata da Camera,
as its name chamber sonata— implies, the movements



were of a worldly character
(balleti),

— light

old

dance-tunes

the giga, gavotte, Bourre' (minuet)

ones

;

or

more

allemanda, pavane, corrente,
ciacona, etc.
or also arias, madrigali, canzone, etc.
In the Sonata di Chiesa (church sonata) they were:
adagios, largos, and allegros (fugues and fugatos)
that is, free contrapuntal inventions adapted for use in
connection with the musical services of the church. 2
serious

like

the

;

1
Frsetorius
Syntagma, vol. ii. p. 24 and Sebastian de Brossard
Musical Dictionary, 1703.
2 That there
were, independent of these two principal musical forms
(to which must also be reckoned Torelli's concerto form, see below),
some further compositions of a mixed character, the theme and variation
kind, is shown in that remarkable Ciaccona by Thomaso Vitali.
It
consists of a short characteristic theme and a number of very ingenious,
;

:

26^

:

Story of the Violin
Although

cannot be said that Corelli invented the
it was his undying nierit to have
given it its general outline and character.
y.
...
.
Corelli and „,.
...
,.
This he accomplished by appropriating
,
<,
with the right instinct of genius the best
suitable elements at his disposal, moulding them into
a logically-connected whole.
The working out of
the detail of the movements, the enlarging and
it

violin sonata, 1 at least
,

individualising of

,

them was

left

,

,

to his successors.

language, whether in the traditional
dance rhythms of the sonata da camera, or in the
adagios and allegros of the sonata di chiesa, is
throughout adapted to the nature of the instrument;
noble, dignified, and of rare euphony.
Some of his
slow movements rise to almost Olympian grandeur, or
are full of simple charm and naivete', while the construction of the allegros is always clear and plastic,
be it that the passages (or figurations rather) flavour
a little of the etude. They seem like a concession
that the spirit of the musica sacra, which is uppermost in the master, made to worldly conceptions of
variety.
As if wishing to emphasise the weight and
importance of the slow movement as compared to the
rest (or perhaps as a proof of the usual mental attitude
Corelli's musical

finely-contrasting variations, a worthy precursor indeed to that wonder-

Ciaccona which forms the concluding movement of Bach's fourth

ful

sonata for violin solo.
2

Giovanni Eattista Vitali (1644-92) is usually considered the first
who cultivated the sonata da camera, under the title of Balleti,

master
Balli,

Corrante, etc., da Camera.

266

Reign of the Sonata
of the composer when he followed the dictates of his
muse) he invariably begins his sonatas, even the sonata
da camera, with a grave. After this grave (prelude)
follows usually a livelier movement a corrente or
allegro; then again a slow one
an adagio, largo,
and another allegro, gavotte, or giga
or sarabande
concludes the work.
In general Corelli adhered to
this plan for his sonatas of either kind, whether written
for two violins and bass, as in Op. 3 and 4, or for
violin solo with bass, as in Op. 5 (his most popular
but minor changes are met with at every
work)
As an interesting item it may be mentioned that
turn.
occasionally he writes the slow middle-movement in





;

;

the parallel key, a proof

was

demands of

how

finely sensitive the

master

Besides the sonata
form, he cultivated the form of the concerto after the
style of Torelli, and in his famous "La Folia," also
But while the Corelli
that of theme and variations.
sonata represents the first great landmark in the
to the

variety.

evolution of violin composition, for the further and, in

a sense, final development of this form of composition
are indebted chiefly to Tartini.
A glance at this master's works reveal the great
It is
a progress in three
progress he effected.
_
directions viz., in the form, the musical
Tartini
contents, and the technical apparatus em-

we



ployed.

',

...

The stereotyped made

,

.

place for the individual,

by drawing on increased means of
and in this process
expression, expanded the form

and the

individual,

;

every detaij of the product benefited
267

in

proportion:

Story of the Violin
themes gained in breadth and importance, the
modulations became freer, and the passages more
the

varied, etc., etc.

Thus we find also that the Paduan master almost
discarded the sonata da camera, and instead cultivated
the sonata di chiesa and the church concerto, which
afforded him the required scope for free invention and
thematic elaboration impossible in the old sonata da
camera.
Besides his muse would have naturally
turned to forms in harmony with the church in the
service of which he was employed, and to which he
was devoted. 1
Tartini loved these golden chains of the house of God.
They were to him not chains to hold him fast to the
cold stone-floor, but they drew him up to the lofty
dome, or often transformed themselves for him into
butterfly-wings of inspiration to soar still higher. Only
at times he peeps, as it were, through the high churchwindows into the world below, and then his heart is
moved with strange earthly passions or feelings. His
violin begins to speak another language
the language
It is
of the world full of warmth and tenderness.
worldly, but not for long
it is worldly without quite
daring to be so even with the devil the master prefers





;

;

wrestling in front of the altar (note the interludes in
the Devil's-Sonata).
1

Fayolle

tells that

But how exquisitely tender he can

even as an old

man

Tartini would not let a

week

pass without playing his customary solo at the church of St. Anthony,

and when illness in his last days prevented him from walking, he
insisted upon being carried there for that purpose.

268

Reign of the Sonata
be

!

The

last

movement

of his

called " Dido Abbandonata ")
voll " of a maiden's heart.

G minor Sonata (formerly

is like

the " freud voll, leid

Tartini's influence on violin composition was farther
reaching than that of any other master of his" time.
In his track henceforth wandered all who

yet cultivated the violin sonata form.

His

ff

Inl s

form became the unalterable pattern for all
contemporary and succeeding Italian, German, and
French masters. For contents, of course, there is no
recipe, and in consequence hardly one of his imitators
reached, much less excelled, him.
A few only show
individuality, like his own pupil Nardini, whose D major
Sonata may be likened to a child's face looking out
of the folds of a surplice with surprised, wide-open,

sweet-worldly eyes;

who succeeded
of

his

national

in

and

Leclair, the

French master,

infusing into his creations

traits

of

lightness,

elegance,

some
and

piquancy. 1

By himself, towering in unapproachable grandeur,
stands alone John Sebastian Bach in his sonatas for
Although he also bows to the
*
given outlines of the Corelli and Vivaldi
camera
di
sonata di
and
chiesa, and uses
Tartini's technique as a vehicle for his abstract thoughts
the same forms, like everything this giant touched,
expand under his hands and appear almost new. In his

violin solo.



1

Handel,

who

gave us some charming blossoms of his muse in

this

form, can scarcely be called an imitator or follower of the Paduan
master.

269

Story of the Violin
fugues he climbs in his ciaccona he soars as on the
wings of the eagle to heights from where Corelli looks
than a child. 1
like a mite and Tartini not bigger
'&£>'
;

1
How the form of the old sonata changed into the modern sonata
form under the hands of Emanuel Bach, Haydn, etc., belongs pro-

perly to the story of

chamber music, to which the reader

is

referred.

CHAPTER
THE SONATA

III.

DI CHIESA YIELDS

THE SCEPTRE TO

THE CONCERTO.

With

Tartini under the auspices of the Church, the

di chiesa had reached its goal.
Once severed
from the Church it lost its raison d'itre, and died to
make place for something else; whether to the detriment
of violin art I do not wish to discuss here.
We may be

sonata

convinced of the necessity of our children leaving the
narrow sphere of their early associations to become use-

men and women, and yet regret to see them go,
and pine after them when they are gone. In these

ful

days of sloppy berceuses, stereotyped romances, stale
mazurkas, insignificant musical bric-a-brac for the
violin,

we may

easily regret the irrevocable departure

of that noble, solemn sonata a la Tartini. 1 At all events,
towards the middle and end of the eighteenth century

away from Mother
Church. This was natural enough.
The worldly successes of Lolly, Ferrari, and many

violin art in Italy gradually drifted

1

Is

not the resuscitating process of

eighteenth

these

old

treasures

of

the

century, which has been carried on by Cartier, Baillot,

David (Hohe Schule), and Alard (Maitres Classiques), and
by G. Jensen, Moffat, and others, sufficient proof?

271

in our days

Story of the Violin
Others would have, in any case, been too tempting for a
young generation to resist long but the strides which
technique had made almost demanded outlets other
than the Church offered, and forms other than those the
Church had sanctioned and made popular.
Moreover,
;

halls exclusively devoted to

the cultivation of instru-

mental music became more and more general in Italy,
as elsewhere, and in the absence of concert-halls, people
went to the theatre to hear their great violinists so the
latter became estranged from the old nurseries of their
art, and the voice of the violin ceased to be an essential
;

part of the Church services.

The growing supremacy of Germany

in

matters

musical, Haydn's revolutionary influence on chamber

and orchestral music, the increase of orchestras everywhere, and the steady increase of players who never
had known the privilege of laying down their best
at the altar of the Highest, who grew up with (in Protestant Germany) very different ideas of the best use
of their kingly instrument

sonata

di chiesa

and



all

tended to dethrone the

set the concerto in its place.

272

CHAPTER

IV.

REIGN OF THE CONCERTO.

Torelli

is

commonly

form of
be found that essentially

called the inventor of this

violin composition, but

will

it

concerto da camera, as well as the
concerto grosso, is yet the old sonata, the
difference being that while the sonata was

his

1

usually

accompanied by only a bass, Torelli raised the accompaniment from its position of absolute subordination to
greater importance. This he effected by adding two
orchestral (ripieno) violins, a viola, and occasionally a
lute and organ.
The concertos of Tartini and other violin composers
who wrote in this form were shaped after this model.
Only Vivaldi, with the instinct of the reformer or novelty-hunter, occasionally added
other instruments (reed), and varied his combinations; but something of a musical pot-boiler as
he poured rather poor wine
this "rosso preto" was
into his elaborate vessels, and his attempts left no lastSo,
ing impression or found imitators.
„.
under those circumstances it is not surprising that Viotti's concerto fell like a thunderbolt on
an unsuspecting world. It was a stroke of genius in





.

273


Story of the Violin
way as great as, some years later, the composition of
the " Eroika" or the " Freischiitz."
Not only did this
its

marvellous Italian wed the violin to the full orchestra,
but he did so in the modern sonata form, only shortly
before introduced by Haydn.
And how finely he
accomplished this feat
Nowhere the trace of an
inexperienced hand nowhere experimenting and mis!

;

calculating

new effects; no crowding out the solo
new unwieldy masses. As in a perfect

part with the

marriage, the two partners— solo violin and orchestra
mutually support and help each other (be it, that the
solo violin, as it should be, has the first and also the



last word).

Wise economy and

—happy contrasts everywhere

;

yet

nowhere monotony

here the string quartette

accompany, there two flutes with gentle discourse uphold the fluttering rhythms of the solo part,
Organically,
or a single oboe puts in a plaintive word.
themes, passages, and tuttis grow out of one central
idea, and a Mozartian simplicity is poured over all like
sunshine over a lovely landscape. But one
suffices to

_

e

particular feature of this

new

principality in

the realm of violin composition, the Viotti
concerto,

I

would

like to' point

out



viz.,

the passages.

and simple is an
often-discussed subject in these days of " never-ending
melody." The father of the passage was doubtless the
necessity for variety which in the fleeting world of music
is as great as in the other arts, and made itself felt
It was not a fullalready in the sonata da chiesa.

The

raison d'itre of the passage pure

fledged

passage

then,

it

was

274

only

figuration,

a

Reign of the Concerto
gymnastic exercise for fingers and bow-arm and for
the ear-drums of the listeners, which had been lulled
into inactivity by a drawn-out aria or adagio.
That
the loose-fingered and loose-wristed virtuoso presently
made out of necessity a virtue and passed off under the
screen of exercise the desire for display,
the justification of such proceeding

is

is

as true as

discutable /£but

the necessity of variety, the importance of the passage



means to effect contrasts, remained nay, it was
heightened with the broadening out of the form into the
modern sonata form, with its twofold thematic material
as we see it in the Viotti concerto. The themes had to
be set into clearer relief, in more effective light pure
thematic development, which plays such an important
part in the larger modern chamber music and orchestral
works moulded in the form of the sonata, being rendered
difficult by the essentially melodic character of the
if it
violin, the passage happily met the difficulty
could not entirely solve it, and Viotti seized his opportunity with a masterly hand.^
Modern composers of violin concertos have seen fit to
avoid the passage by laying the thematic development
partially in the orchestra, thus making the solo violin
Beethoven,
the subordinate, accompanying part.
Mendelssohn, and after them Bruch, Raff, SaintSaens, and Brahms have thus created a new style of
violin concerto, one of symphonic character, and in
many instances with beautiful effect. Yet it is by no
means proved that this proceeding which master-minds
made successful has a right to supersede entirely the

as a

;



275

Story of the Violin
older style.

Indeed, the unplayable, painfully ineffec-

one
them) in some later-date productions for the
violin, which do violence to its very nature, rather
favour the opposite assumption. We only need to think
of the piano concertos of Chopin and others where the
passage in its natural element reigns yet supreme,
and unfadingly beautiful, to prophesy a fair long life
and possibly a fairer resurrection to the passage also on
tive,

unviolinistic attempts (thematic gymnastics,

might

call

the violin.
If

we

look at Viotti's passages closer we find how
master draws from the natural resources

effectually this

The pure detacher passages flavouring of the antiquated contrapuntal exercise are there
yet, though they are mostly blended with relieving slurs,
and can be made still more tolerable by additional
dynamic shades; but more often in his best works we
of the instrument.



and other combinations effective,
of colour, fire, and triumphant
vigour, and with these the master works his contrasts
and dramatic climaxes.
Rode and Kreutzer, on the whole, walk in Viotti's
get double-string

new sounding,

full

footsteps, without, however, reaching him.

Rode's con-

while they bring out certain sympathetic sides, the lyric nature, of this noble
French master, lack mostly manly vigour
certos,

v

and the happy contrasts which form the

chief

charm

in

they are also less spontaneous and
less organic in structure, the orchestral accompaniment
appearing added rather than grown out of the solo part.

Viotti's creations

;

276

Reign of the Concerto
In

Kreutzer's

scholastic effort

concertos,
is

on the other hand, the

too preponderating over the free gift

of inspiration to yield pleasure as well as benefit to the

Some very brilliant passages and a good deal
of technical display (for Kreutzer!) cannot deceive us

player.

over the absence of real creative genius.
Coming to Spohr, it may be said that this great master
laid some of the finest jewels of his muse before the
throne of the concerto. He fills this form
with his individuality almost to overflowing,
and it gains, but also loses in proportion. The passages
appear still more organically developed out of the
thematic material than in Viotti's concertos, but since
this material is in itself essentially of a cantabile character, it means indeed in most cases the cantabile
carried into the passage, which, failing in its prime
object viz., to give variety rather adds to than
This is a defect
averts the monotony of the whole.
in Spohr's concertos for which all the noblesse of
design, the masterly details, and many moments of
His finest concertos are
great beauty cannot atone.
considered Nos. 7, 8, and 9, No. 8 being, and with
good reason, the most popular; it is like an autograph
which the great master wrote in the book of time, a
thing of his inmost self for future generations to contemplate with reverence.
Molique gave us five concertos of irreproachable
plastic structure, and with many graceful
Molique's
ideas note the theme in the last movement Concertos
but his music is cold; it is " Capell-meister
of No.







:

5



277

20

Story of the Violin
music." The passages in them are like rows of rosebushes with very few blossoms but plenty of thorns
(for the performer).
It is no wonder that Molique
concertos, on the whole, have been, like Kreutzer's,
relegated to the class-room.

What Mozart
concerto

m

has given us

in the

form of the

violin-

reaches occasionally sublime heights;

how

be otherwise ? As for Bach, hear
Ysaye play the master's E major concerto;
could

nothing more

is

it

wanted to convince any lover of the
and beautiful in music that these

truly great

old
style

belong

concertos

still

in

the

contrapuntal Vivaldi

to the finest to which composers have

been inspired by the

fiddle.

278



CHAPTER

V.

NEW PHASE OF THE CONCERTO.

We

stand next before Paganini. Just as this wonderful
was reformatory in the development of violin technique, so also he infused
e
-^
into the Viotti, or old classical concerto
ern
°
while leaving the general form untouched
_..
new elements. And since then we have
n
Concerto
...
conjurer of the fiddle



.

modern virtuoso-concerto which received
into its generous bosom all the modern achievements
It was the passage, of course,
in violin techniques.

the

which fattened, often to the extent of starving the rest.
Paganini wrote two concertos which were published,
like most df his compositions, after his death.
On
both he

left

the impress of his powerful

personality, and

may

,

,

no matter what the musician

think of their intrinsic musical worth, they are a
document to his originality. For this reason

striking
also,

many
of

and because they are
antiquated

time

make on

fairly

the

really effective, in spite of

trivialities,

well.

player

The
are

they have stood the test
technical demands they
of

a

more

healthy, legitimate nature than those in

of Paganirii's compositions.

279

substantial,

many

other

Story of the Violin
On this stock Lipinski grafted his pompous, somewhat bombastic, and now seldom heard "Militar
Concert," and Ernst his Concerto in F$
,

j

minor,

p

much

the
as

fruit

perhaps

of

individuality

his

the

wish

to

as

outshine

even Paganini in display of technique. A fine work
though, and likely to remain a favourite with
violinists, if not to the same extent with the general
public, on whom the kind of difficulties that abound
this is

here is usually lost.
Next, De BeViot creates on the lines of this modern
virtuoso concerto, yet in sympathy with the distinct

_ _,
De Beriot

nature of his graceful
talent, his Concerto.
s
'
T
It is a compromise, one might say, between
the eighteenth-century fantasie (of which more below)
The traditional
and the concerto a la Paganini.
.

.

.

.

.

.

.

sonata (concerto) form appears mutilated, cut down
fantaisie
proportions, without quite losing itsidentity.
Harmonics, staccati, etc., in short the
Paganini technical apparatus is discreetly, but with
Once great favourites
a good deal of effect, employed.
with players and the public, De BeViot's concertos
have now on the whole retired from active service in
the concert field.
Superannuated warriors, they only
frighten with their grim technical armour the aspiring
intermediate at our conservatories.
In the concertos of Vieuxtemps, De BeViot's great
pupil, we get an ddition de luxe,
eine illusp trierte Pracht-ausgabe," of
the older master's
work. Everything is magnificent here. Big passages
to

'

'

380

New

Phase of the Concerto

in diminished seventh chords,

octaves, startling staccato

melodies

runs,

etc.,

in sixths

and

alternate with

a soul-stirring cantilene. Only somehow the soul is
not stirred by them. Vieuxtemps's music is essentially
cold, though it seems full of warmth.
It lacks above
naivetd,

all

simplicity,

because most

in

sincerity.

his element, in

He

is

movements

happiest,
like the

E

major Concerto, which literally sparkles
and glitters with phosphorescent display in staccati,
sautill£, etc.
or in the form of the fantaisie, as
in the Ballade and Polonaise, Fantaisie Caprice, etc.
His orchestration, however, is as clever as everything
else in these concertos
it sets the passages off in
the brightest possible light
moreover, the desire
for thematic treatment and other signalements in
the passport of the good musician is everywhere
more or less in evidence, and helps to give Vieuxtemps's concertos a deservedly high place among
their kind.
They are still though not so much as
formerly the fine war-horses for the big virtuoso. I
say big, for it requires a certain grandeur of style
such as Vieuxtemps possessed himself to do them
last of his

;



;









full justice.

If

we

except the Hungarian concerto by Joachim

(one of the most difficult works in violin literature), in
which this master reaches out a friendly hand to the
virtuoso without

letting

go the

classics,

,

only Wieniawski, with the fiery spontaneity^
of his talent, has been able, after Vieuxtemps, to fill
His second concerto is still
the well-worn form.
281

Story of the Violin
waiting

for

a

successor.

It

is

the

last

virtuoso

concerto, and one of the best too at that.

What Alard, Leonard, Bazzini, Prume, and others
have given us are, generally speaking, feebler produc,

,

tion

in

the

De

B6riot concert form, with

about the same, or
greater technical

(in

the case of Bazzini)

demands on the

player.

Most of them have disappeared or are disappearing
from our concert programmes like countless fantasies
of the same period.
Even David's concertos, of
broader outlines and more musicianly texture, and
once deservedly popular, have with one or two
exceptions shared the same fate.

282

CHAPTER

VI.

LATEST PHASES OF THE CONCERTO.

Meanwhile, side by side with the virtuoso concerto,
and little heeding that smart brother's temporary
successes, the classical or Viotti-Rode-Kreutzer-and-

Spohr concerto continued on

its

nineteenth century.

first

It

halted

way through

the

before

Beethoven's genius until it had received its
The mighty master's D major Concerto 1
a tenth symphony with violin obligato rather is and
ever will be the pride of the fiddle-playing world. To
it Mendelssohn added in his happiest mood
~
the almost equally beautiful, though not
,
2
To
equally grand Concerto in E minor.
speak of it seems superfluous a gem such as even a
Or could
great composer writes but once in a lifetime
you imagine another like it by Mendelssohn ? The idea
seems like asking spring to blossom twice. Yes, how
beautiful this concerto is, how transcendently beautiful
it must have seemed to that audience which filled the



blessing.





!

1

for

Composed

for the
2

1806, dedicated to Stephen von Breunig; but written

Clement, a distinguished
first

time,

December

violinist of the day,

23rd, 1806.

Dedicated to David.

283

and played by him

Story of the Violin
small, old-fashioned concert-hall of the old Gewaridhaus

one night in the winter of 1845, to hear this
concerto for the first time, played by David and conducted by the composer. Ah, one could wish never to
have heard it for the sake of hearing it once again for
in Leipzig,

the

first

time.

Approaching our own time and the more recent phases

we

Max

Bruch, with rare
he is not a
violinist himself), devoting the
shall I say
cream? of his fine talent to the enrichment of the
fiddler's repertoire.
He wrote three concertos, besides an elaborate fantasia in concert form on Scottish
airs and several other works.
The first, in G minor,
rivals Mendelssohn's in popularity, so well written
it is, so fine all through, and grateful for the player.
Generally speaking, though, this German master's later
violin works lack rhythmical charm and gracefulness.
The music goes, one might say, too much four-abreast.
One would not mind seeing a little of this scholarly
solidity sacrificed for the sake of those two abovein the life of the concerto,

partiality

find

the

for

violin

(for





mentioned characteristics.
Just the reverse of Bruch full of piquant rhythms
and other niceties are Saint-Saens's contributions to
violin literature, among which stand out his
SaintB m nor Concerto (No. 3) and "Rondo
aens,^ a o,
c ap r j cc oso> » g u t j s not this music almost





;

& Benjamin
Godard

i

,

,

,

,

to ° c ' ever to ° e true, too clever also to be
really beautiful ?

genius, notwithstanding

It

many
284

lacks the true ring of

inspired flashes

and the

Latest Phases
incomparable attitude of the accompanying orchestra,
which throws out the solo part as a polished sheet
of bevelled glass the handsome form of an elegant

woman. Favourites with violinists are also Edward
Lalo's "Symphonie Espagnole" and Benjamin Godard's
"Concert Romantique." The latter in particular is
possessed of many happy individual traits adapted to the
nature of the instrument.
Passing over the concertos by Raff (2), Rubinstein,
Goldmark, Dvorak, etc., which cannot be said to rank
with the best or the most spontaneous of these
Raff
masters' works, and perhaps for that reason
.
have failed to become popular (not to speak
-,
M
of their effect being incommensurate with
mark
the difficulties they present), we reach, with
Brahms (Op. 77) and Tscha'ikowsky (Op. 35), the latest
in violin concertos.
All due and profound respect for their magnificent genius
but if
zr™ . "
both (as well as the above-mentioned com,
,
kowskv
posers) had spoken a little less volubly in the
orchestra, perhaps fiddlers would not mind, and still less
have heard them groan and
the fiddles, poor things
moan, and scratch and squeak, under the strain of trying to make their gentle voices audible in the terrific
onslaught of the orchestra.
'

,

'

;

!

We

285

CHAPTER

VII.

DIDACTIC VIOLIN LITERATURE.

Leaving now the concerto in its latest glory, we step
back once more into the eighteenth century to gather
up other more modest threads.
With Geminiani
(1740) and Leopold Mozart (1756) we had the first
systematically-arranged violin methods, the one based
on Corelli's teaching, the other on the traditions of



the early



Mannheim

The study-material in both
was small — wholly insufficient for
development, which became more and
school.

of them, however,
pupils' technical

more urgent as the general standard of violin technique
was being raised and difficulties in pieces increased. So
next

we

find the,

violin literature

until then,

—the

barren

field

of didactic

6tude, the unaccompanied study

and bowing and phrasing, cultivated. It has
been perhaps the most liked, and therefore the most
generally and happily cared for branch of composition
for violinists. Unhampered by considerations of accompaniments, or by a rigid form in which only the more
talented and scholarly could feel at home and at ease,

for fingers

the composer of Etudes was able to follow his fancy,
and the result Was that
style, and technical predilection
;

wealth of studies, etudes, caprices, etc., of every style,
grade, and quality which in course of time has accumulated, and now forms the mountains which the
286

Didactic Literature
student

is

supposed to climb before he may descend into

the valley of technical perfection.

From
that

the long-stretching sandy plains of this

method

some other

to the pleasant foot-hills of Maza's

Etudes, and thence across the

stately chain of Kreutzer's

'
'

forty," Fiorillo's

or

and

A L ° ng

" thirty-six," and Rode's " twenty-four," and
higher yet to the barren altitudes of Gavinid's Etudes,
past abysses of nerve-prostration and gorges of discouragement, until the awful glaciers of Paganini's
caprices and the eternal snow-region of the fugues ot
Bach are reached and safely passed is indeed a long
way for the present-day pupil. Fortunately for him that
he does not know it when he starts out
the mountains
seem so near and low to young and eager eyes.
The latest addition to didactic violin literature a sort
of St. Gothard or Mount Cenis Tunnel through the



;





mountains, a shorter cut as it is supposed to
_
be (though I am not sure of that) are the
works of Ot. Sev^ik, the teacher of our
latest fiddle wonders
Jan Kubelik, Kocsian, and Marie
Hall.
No one who has given these works a close and
unprejudiced perusal can fail to see there a will and a
master-mind fathoming the depths of violin didactics.
It is a whole Darwinian world of finger and bowing development. Unless another comes next with a sort of





flying-balloon

method

to carry fiddle students into the

promised land, Ot. Sevcik's remarkable works may
stand a good chance of becoming the violin method of
the twentieth century.

287

CHAPTER

VIII.

A PRODIGAL

Meandering through the eighteenth and nineteenth
company of the violin composition in state,
the Sonata and Concerto, and the violin composition en
negligee, the Method and Etude, etc. came a third, a sort
centuries in

,

.of

- .,

of

—the

small piece, "Character and
Fantasie Stuck." It was the oldest of them

prodigal brother

them



all,

all

....

who knows where and when

born

'

.

?

perhaps, in the tent of a minstrel as the
cross-breed of a dance and a chanson.
millon could doubtless

tell

Jean Char-

us more about

it,

but

we

not disturb him any more.
Since the days when
it imitated caterwauling and dog-barking and hens
cackling, it sprouted many varieties.
Not only Lolli,
will

Woldemar,

and

Jarnowick,

but

Franzl,

Lamotte,

Lafont, in short every travelling virtuoso had espoused
it

with fervency.

was only

It

was

after the

most congenial form
^

er y

Etude (which at best

for the four patient walls of the study) the

in

whom

for the violin

creative instincts

and

composer
talent did

not keep quite step with technical equipment
and ambition. It was elastic as india-rubber,
stretching in any direction, from an accumulation of
,

."

288

A

Prodigal

mere runs and trills a la Lolli to an elaborate fantasia
or a pretty romance and rondeau a la Jarnowick and
when it had reached the paradisiacal stage of the Air
Vari6, it made halt and waxed exceeding popular.
I need not tell you of the Air Varied
Its popularity at
one time can only be compared to that of certain domestic
;

preparations of to-day.

It

swamped

the'

concert-rooms and parlours, and threatened
v ,,
to invade the kitchen also.
The big and
the small all varied airs.
Paganini accommodated his
devils in this obliging abode.
Like the wild animals at
.the Zoo, they pizzicati, harmonics, etc.
each had a
separate cage to perform their tricks.
Ernst, too,
installed his gentler but not less exacting gnomes and
fairies there; and De BeViot, Vieuxtemps, Bazzini,
Alard, David, Leonard, Wieniawski all
"aired"
The Air Vane is practically dead now
varied airs.
died from over-prodigality; but it left us its
it







1



grandfather, the small piece.
Yes, the small piece, the "Character and Fantasie
Stuck," we have still with us. Under a hundred and

one names it figures on our publishers' lists
_,
and lives in the hearts of the people. Now,
the form in which Schumann, Chopin,
Henselt, Stephen Heller, etc., have given almost their
best on the piano at any rate their most spontaneous,
inmost self the small piece should also be the form of
expression best suited to the nature of the most graceBut alas! nothing demonstrates
ful of instruments.



more



painfully the doleful sterility in present-day violin

289

Story of the Violin
What
composition than the output in small pieces.
do we get ? Is it not the Character-stuck without the
character, the Fantasie-stiick without fane

p,

resent

tasVj

mus

;

ca i s i p for the most part, written

for teaching purposes at the instigation of

rather than the sacred call of
sweeping, and sdunds hard, but
look at our violinists' recital-programmes.
Generally
speaking, they have been fiddling away for the last
twenty years or more on the same old effective pieces
(I need not name them), just as they did on the Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Bruch,' etc., concertos, with
an occasional loan from an old master.
Paganini,
Ernst, Vieuxtemps, and Wieniawski still must do
service, and even their airs varies are suffered with a
grunt from the critic.
What is the reason of this sterility? Has the genius
for violin composition died out among violinists ?
Is it
the devil's hoof, that legacy of Paganini?
!
„ Y
Are the muses shunning a generation which
|
persists in shouldering the enormous weight
Has on this altar of techof present-day technique ?
nique been sacrificed the better, the more precious
thing? Has the modern violinist ho time for aught else

publishers

the

muses?

This

is

than drilling his fingers and memorising his difficult
solos when he is not up and about earning his bread
Since the time of Menby teaching or playing?
delssohn and David (never mind the few exceptions)
he has left it to his brother-musician the pianist composer and the Capell-meister to write violin-concertos

290

A
for

Prodigal

him while he practised his fiddle.
in the days of Viotti and Rode.
think, in spite of the Kubeliks and

It

was not so

once
I

Kreislers,

whose

triumphs ring in our ears, our time will go down to
posterity as a very uninteresting age in the
very n "
annals of violin art. Will the future redeem
interes n S
the present? Let us hope. What is needed
^
is perhaps not another Viotti who can write
classical concertos, a Vieuxtemps, a Bruch, a Brahms, or
a Tschai'kowsky who squeezes the fiddle like a lemon to
get the most tone out of it for the sake of his orchestra.
No; the violin world, I think, is waiting for its Chopin.
It is waiting for the man who possesses the master-key
with which to unlock as yet unexplored regions of
,

,

poetry and beauty.
I am convinced the last word in violin composition
has not yet been said. There are yet more treasures to
be got out of this wonderful treasure-box,
he Last
the Stradivari fiddle.
Even the concertos
«
of Beethoven and Mendelssohn, not forgetting,
&
» y e i0
t Spoken
Spohr, Ernst, and Vieuxtemps, etc., give
us each in its way glimpses only of the wealth which is

£

He
waiting to be raised by that Chopin of the violin.
will not be a Capell-meister or a pianistcomposer who writes symphonies and lhe ^ h °P' n
chamber-music, and for a change also for
v> .,
He will be a fiddler, heart and
the fiddle.
soul, who lives, dreams, dies for the fiddle; who loves
it with a great, beautiful love as in the old days of
Whatever he will give us, whether a concerto,
Tartini.
291

'

Story of the Violin
a fantaisie, or a song without words, it will be a new
thing of beauty, adapted to, and grown out of the
nature of the instrument as scent rises out of a
flower.
It will not be a long, winding concerto of the
old orthodox style, for the violin tone is like the perfume of certain flowers, too exquisite to permit a
surfeit; and a surfeit, who can deny it, we get in most
modern concertos. In proportion to the sweetness of
the native effect of the violin tone on the human soul, it

and

palls sooner,

way

is in this

quite different from that

of the piano.

Nor has the last been said in the way of accompaniment to the violin. Perhaps the last will be very much
like the first:

I

mean a

return to simplicity, transpar-

ency, to primary effects, only refined like gold after a
Is this struggling against impossiwitness in the modern concerto, in the
nature of the most gentle of instruments destined by
form and tone to administer to the most subtle and

process

of

bilities,

as

refined

of

fire.

we can

human emotions and

feelings ?

Compare

only the same violin in its true world among its own
Does it not sing most
kind the string quartett.
have become accustomed to the
sweetly there ?
accompaniment of a piano, although there is absolutely



We

no sympathy, no relation between the two instruments,
and their marriage in consequence is a sort of acousIt may be because " les extremes se
tical barbarity.
touchent " that the combination has its abiding, peculiar
charm for our modern ears but whoever will say that
some day a great one will not come to teach the world
;

292

Postscript
that something else sounds better

been just a

bit hasty, as far as

?

Have we, perhaps,

accompaniment

for the

overboard the clavichord and spinet and kindred instruments for the sake
of the concert grand ? Perhaps there are pearls yet to
be found among the effects once dear to our greatgrandfathers and great-grandmothers.
This Chopin of the fiddle, then, let us hope for him.
Perhaps while I write, the genius of the violin the
angel with the fiddle-bow has already picked him out,
and now bends over a squalling little figure in a little
cradle somewhere in the land (I hope it will be England), and whispers into his ears: "Be good, be still,
my son; thou shalt be the Chopin of the violin."

violin is concerned,

in throwing'





POSTSCRIPT.



And

so I have finished the task I set myself viz., to
I almost wish I could begin
the story of the violin.
tell
it
better;
so much more I should
to
again,
over
tell

and so much more I ought to have said.
But perhaps the reader will kindly remember that
too complex almost
the subject is very complex
hundred pages.
or
three
in
two
dealt
with
to: be
He may remark that I have given a rather disprolike to say,



portionately large space to the consideration of the
earlier stages of violin art as compared to the later de-

velopment
ing

all

— disproportionate

to the extent of suppress-

biographical notes on

293

men

so well

known and
21

Story of the Violin
De BeViot, Vieuxtemps, Joachim, Wienimany others but I would say in my defence

interesting as

awski, and
that since

I

;

was obliged

to

however inmore justifiable

to sacrifice details,

teresting, to generalities,

I

thought

omit where omission was

appreciation of the whole.

least

it

harmful

to

the

Personalities in the earlier

stages were really synonymous with epochs.
Corelli,
and Paganini, to whom I give

Tartini, Viotti, Spohr,

much

space, were the great corner-stones for progress;

in the later stages personalities

became submerged

in

the vastness of the whole, or stood out as only small
projections from a smooth surface.
Besides, as child-

hood and youth appeal to the imagination more strongly
and in sweeter accents than manhood, so also does
violin art in its youth as represented by those great
They lived with a young art, if I
old Italian masters.

may

say so, in a state of perpetual betrothal, with all
sweet delights, its little surprises and discoveries, its
hide-and-seek of affections.
Now it is a married state
of long-standing, and though it may be a happy and
prosperous one, many of the sweet illusions d'autrefois
are gone.
Just fancy the elation and excitement of him who first
discovered that by a certain knack, a little movement
of the wrist, he could make his bow produce whole
cascades of pearly arpeggios, or play twenty or thirty
notes in one bow staccato, firm or light, like beads
rolling off a string ; or the delight, half-mixed with awe,
of him who stole a first glimpse into that wondrous,
undreamed-of kingdom of artificial harmonics.
Our
its

294

Postscript
ever-improved elaborate instruction-books leave us no
room for new discoveries; they are like the official
charts for the mariner by which he may safely sail over
the great deeps.
Schools have lost their former-day significance ; conservatoires with dozens of teachers have generalised
what was once the precious property of a few, and turn
out by hundreds young aspirants as clever as many a
star of old.
I
may also be found fault with for allowing undue
space to the mediaeval fiddler and his wretched fiddle. I
agree.. Perhaps he does not deserve it, but would you
blame the story-teller for being a bit partial to some of
his heroes ?
Perhaps it is because we know so little of
him and he was so despised that he appeals to me.
Therefore I commend the foregoing pages to the indulgence of my reader.
After all, it is only a story I
purposed to tell.
He who seeks more will find it in
books which deal with the subject in detail. If the
perusal of this work only helps to spread the love for
"that dear fiddle," it has not been written in vain.

295

Appendices.

A.

Some Remarks on the Name Fiedel

the Early Ancestor of the Viol Kind



Bowed

of

Instruments

Agricola,

—Tuning

Gerle,

of the Rebecca

the

Works

Fontego

(Gigue) — Of

—Parts

the

of a Violin.

Chronological Table Showing the Descent of
Violin Playing.

C. Violin

D.

in

Pr^etorius, del

Evolution of the Bow
B.

as Applied to

Makers.

Books of Reference.

297

:

Appendix A.
Some Remarks on

the

name

Fiedel as applied to the

Early Ancestor of the Viol Kind.
Clearly enough defined as were the two principal forms or
species of bowed instruments of the violin family in mediaeval
times, the names applied at different times to various types of
either species by writers who incidentally mention them are
very misleading. It is indeed difficult to find one's way through
the maze of seemingly synonymous expressions. Thus we
find the designations fiedel, fidula, vedel, fiddle, viedel, crowd,
geige, gigue, even lira, rotta, rote, etc., to denote sometimes
an instrument of the rebec, sometimes of the fiedel (early viol)
kind. In many cases centuries lay between the actual existence
of an instrument and the time when a name was applied by this
or that writer to another similar one; therefore the muddle.
The first real musical authors, Virdung, Judenkiinig, Gerle, and
Agricola, did not make their appearance until the beginning of
the sixteenth century.

Ingenious deductions have been drawn by historians from
the significant resemblance of the word fiedel with the Latin
fides, fidula (?), fidicula and the Provencal fideille, with the
intent to demonstrate the descent of the violin from the lyre
and the monochord, both Greek-Roman instruments. The
writer in Sir George Grove's dictionary remarks, for instance
" Given the lyre and the monochord, the violin was bound to
be the result." Of course both these instruments may have
halped to shape the form of the fiedel, and no one can
reasonably deny the relation existing between the above-mentioned names, but does it prove anything beyond that ? None

299


Story of the Violin
of these writers, it strikes me, seem to make enough of the
real bone of contention, the vital point, the thing on which the
very existence of the fiddle hangs, the bow. Where did it
come from, given the lyre and monochord? How capricious
and misleading the names were which monks and others applied to instruments appears from Otfried von Weissenburg's
Liber Evangeliorum (ninth century), in which the two-bowed
instruments then in existence are called fidula and lira, although
,the latter is nothing else than a transplanted Arabian rebab
(and bow) in a modified form. Latin was the common language
for speaking and writing among the learned, the monks ; and
they only wrote about music.
I
venture to say that the
word fiedel, vedel, viedel (fidla) was as German (or may be
Teutonic, Gothic, Anglo-Saxon) as fides is Latin and fidula is
supposed to be Latin ; and as for fidelaer or vedelaer (fiddler), it
is on the face of it much more likely to be an original Teutonic
idiom than a derivation from any Latin word. What can be
more natural than that a Roman soldier, or a monk during
missionary work in a pagan country, when he met with an
instrument hitherto unknown to him gave it a name which he
was accustomed to apply at home to a similar instrument ? If
fides were used by the Romans and Latin-speaking Christians
for twanged string instruments in general, as we speak now of
the " strings " in the orchestra he called the new instrument
(though played with a bow) fidula, or he latinised the original
Teuton word as closely as possible, calling the instrument
vitula (see below).
So also the Provencal fideille appears to
me more like a Frenchified (Spielman's French) way of pronouncing fiedel than a complicated derivation from fidula (vitula),
through the middle form fidi-cula.
But even if it were
which is quite possible, as by that time (thirteenth century)
the Spieleute (minstrels) had long made the instrument their
own, name and all the word fiedel, vedel, would still remain
the original and point to the instrument being not of Latin, but
Teutonic (or if you will, Indian) origin.
I am not sure, but I believe that
"fiedeln" in mediaeval
German meant drawing across. It is probably an Indo-Germanic idiom, like many others, and fiedel and fides may thus be
still connected or related by the bond of a common origin on
the banks of the Indus.







300

:

:

:

A

Appendix

Branzoli, in his Manuale Storicho del Violinista, mentions a
certain Antiphor, orator, poet, and musician, who. in 352 brought
to Rome an instrument played with a bow which was called
vitula (violla), and players of the vitula were subsequently

termed

vitulari.
Branzoli does not give the source of this
information, but the logical conclusion from it would be that the
vitula must have been a foreign importation.
Why not from

some northern Roman province where

how

it

was

at

And

home ?

My

solution
that it was not at once called fidula ?
would be that vitula and fiedel were identical in the fourth
century, while fidula was Spielman's (minstrel) Latin of a much
later date.

1

is it

Martin Agricola, in his Musika Instrumentalis, published
529 at Wittemberg, mentions as existing at his time
)Discantus"|
Altus
I with
4, 5, and 6

Tenor
Bassus
2.

3.

Kleine Geigen (small viols) mit
Biinden (with frets)

do.

Kleine Geigen (small gigues or I ,,.
rebecs) ohne Biinden (with--! funnr
out frets )

strings.

j

/

with 4 strings.
with 3 strings.
J-

(.Bassus (or replaced
marine trumpet).

Tuning of Grosse

Geigen

Kleine Geigen (small

by the

viols)

(large viols)
Treble. Alto (Tenor). Bass.

Treble.

Alto.

Tenor.

Bass.



:

:

Story of the Violin
Hans
berg,
frets,

Gerle, in his Mustek Teulck, published 1533, at Nuremmakes a similar distinction between Grosse Geigen with
and Kleine Geigen without frets.

Michael Praetorius, in his Syntagma, published a century
later (1619), divides bow instruments of the violin kind geneviz., leg viols and arm viols (viol da
rally into two species
braccio), and subdivides them



:

1.

2.

3.
4.

5.

Very large bass viols.
Large bass viols or viols da gamba.
Small viols da gamba of 5 different kinds.
Tenor (5 strings) and alto (3 and 4 strings) viols da
gamba.
Discant viols (violettas) mounted with 3, 4, 5, or 6 strings

of 4 different kinds as to pitch.
Viola bastarda (mixed kind) of various sizes and pitch.
7. Viol da braccio (arm viols) tuned in 4 different ways.
In his Theatrum Instrumentorum, published a year later
6.

(1620) at Wolfenbiittel, we have the violin family, as we know it
to-day, complete.
Ganassi del Fontego (Regola Rubertina, published 1542, in
Venice) gives information as to the manner the Italian viols
were tuned. They had mostly 6 strings, and were tuned in
fourths, with a major third in the middle, similarly, therefore, to
Agricola's large viols.
It is noteworthy that the Italian viols
were tuned a fourth higher than the German ones at the time
of Praetorius's Syntagma. They must have sounded brighter
one might say, foreshadowing the
therefore, rather more
than the German viols.
future violin tone
Tuning of Italian viols in Ganassi del Fontego's time





Discant.

Tenor.

Bass.

\%

\m

\
zmz
-a-

J

Tuning of the Rebecca, or gigue with two strings, in the
thirteenth century, and scale in first position

302


Appendix

A

in0133

ife3

E^S
01234

Tuning of three- stringed Rebec:

i
interesting to note that only rebecs were tuned in
as the later violin.
It is

Of the Evolution

The bow, made of bamboo, is

of the

fifths,

Bow.

retained in India to this day more
i.e., the hair is clumsily fastened
at both ends, and the tension permanent. An improvement
came with the Arabs, who at some time or other gave their bow
a head or point where the hair is fastened, and a nut fixed in a
dovetail notch in the stick. In this form it was probably carried
into Spain in the eighth century. After various modifications in
the course of the Middle Ages, when we find bows depicted
either long or short, very much or less curved, according to the
use to which they were put, the stick began, in the sixteenth
century, to assume more and more the familiar shape.
It appears sometimes round, at others pentagonal, and beIn the seventeenth
coming smaller towards the top end.
century, with the bow used by Corelli, Vivaldi, and their contemporaries, the various degrees of tension (which we regulate
now by means of a little ferrule) were attained by a contrivance
called cremaillere. It was a band of metal divided into notches;
a movable loop of iron or brass wire attached to the nut served
to catch the nut to one of the notches. Tartini's bow, it will be
seen, was longer, and thus rendered more flexible and more serviceable for producing the great variety of bowings and dynamic
shades of expression which the master introduced in his music.
But only at the end of the eighteenth century, with Franpois
Tourte (born in Paris, 1747), the bow received its last, and since

or less in

its

rudimentary state

303

Story of the Violin
then unimproved, shape. It is significant that Viotti was the first
to use this new bow, and one naturally asks whether he had any
share in its creation. Perhaps he assisted the ingenious bowmaker with his advice and experimented with him; at all events
by his famous "sweep of the whole bow," in which the new
(Tourte) bow surely had its share, he won for it immediate
popularity.
The Tourte bows are still the finest in existence,
and one marvels at the unfailing instinct or insight of the maker,
who, it is said, was wholly without education, being neither able
to read nor write.
To him is also due the invention of the little
ferrule for regulating the tension of the hair.

Parts of a Violin.
'Belly

Back
Ribs

o
o
o

.

en
i*

"Sfr

>>

o

rt

1*

o

-c
f^ 00

3
2

O
*j

c

C
<u
0)

C

o

O

o
u

.a

CO

a

o
Pi
J3

bo

c

•5

c
3

Wig"

ST?

.S~o.

K

g>—

mi?

-*1

n

in

6

Is

-a"
2

Appendix
Makers

C

of the Brescian School

(mostly imitators of Paolo Maggini).

Petrus Sanctus Maggini, presumably a relative (not a son) of
Paolo.

Antonio Mariani (1568-1620). 1
Savietta Budiani (1580-1610).
Matteo Bente (1580-1610).
Nella Raphael (1652-70).
Domenico Pasta (1700-30).
Gaetano Pasta (placed by Fdtis among the followers of the

Amati

school).

Francesco Tortobello (1680), Florence.
Pupils and Imitators of the Amati School
(chiefly of

Nicolo Amati).

Giofredo Cappa, pupil of Jerome and Anthony-)
Cremona and
(1590-1640)
\
Saluzzo
odluzzo
j
Ofredo Cappa, son of the above (1640-88)
"Francesco Ruggieri (1670-1725)'
Giacinto
.,
(1690)
-

*Gio. Battista „
Vincenzio

Acevo (1620)

(1666-75)
(1690-1730)
y

Cremona

/Egidius Barzellini (1670- 1700)
Domenico Rogieri (1750)
Davido Camillio (1755)
Giuliani (pupil of- Nicolo)
1

All dates refer only to time of activity of the makers.

3°5

Story of the Violin
*Paolo Grancino (1665-90), pupil of Nicolo
*Giov. Bapt. Grancino (1690-1710), son of Paolo
Giovanni
(1696-1720)

Francesco
[Milan

-\

Mantagazza (1720)
*Carlo Antonio Testore (1700-30) followed also
Joseph Guarnerius.
*Florentus Florenus, pupil of Nicolo (i68?-i7iOl „
Bolo & na
Felice Tononi
,

(1730)
}
*Santo Seraphino (Venice, 1730-45), famous maker.
Alexander Mezzadie (1690) 1 ^
* errara
Dominicelli (1695-171 5)
J

-

-

Paulus Palma (Lucca, 1760).
Paolo Albani, pupil of Nicolo (Palermo, 1650).
David Techier (1685-1743)1

|Kome.

Guido Tononi

Paolo Castello (Genoa, 1750).
Antonius Gragnani (Livorno, 1780-1800).
Joannes Celionatur (Turin, 1734).
*Joannes Florens Guidentus (Bologna, 1740-80).
Carlo Brochi (Parma, 1744).
Giuseppe Dominichino (Verona, 1700).
Jacques Bocquay( 1700-30), see Violin-making in France.
Altmann and others (violin-makers in Germany).
Henry Jacobs (1690-1740), Cremona-Amsterdam.

Pupils and Imitators of Stradivari.
Pupils and their Imitators.

*Francesco and Omoboni Stradivari.
/ Michelangelo Bergonzi (1730-50).
*Carlo Bergonzi
(1712-52)
s
3
'\N1c0laus Bergonzi (1725-60).
Battista
f*Joannes
Lorenzo Guadagnini (Cremona, 1695-J Guadagnini, father
I
and son (Parma,
1742)

w

1750-85).

306

Appendix C
Alexander Gagliano (Naples,
i695-i73°)

fNicolo Gagliano (1700-41).
Giuseppe Gagliano (1740-50).
Ferdinando
Gagliano
(17401800).

^Gennaro Gagliano (1700-50).

Francesco Gobetti (Venice, 1690-1720).
*Domenico Montagnana (Venice, 1700-50)"! thought by some
*Gregorio Montade (Cremona, 1670-1730)
to be imitators

Tomaso

Balestrieri

(Mantua, 1720-50)

J-

J

only.

Imitators.

Pietro della Costa, or Caesta (Trevisa, 1660-80).
Michael Angelo Garani (Bologna, 1685-1715).
Carlo Guiseppe Testore (Cremona, 1690- 17 10), imitated also
Joseph Guarnerius.
*Giovanni Baptista de Gabicellis (Florence, 1745-60).
Gaspard Assaloni (1690-1710).
Hans Mans (Naples, 1710-50).
Lucas Maher (1714-1730).
Spirito Sursano (1714-20).

Francesco di Milano (1742).
*CamilIus de Camile (Mantua, 1720-50).

*Vincenso Panormo (1740).
*Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi (Milan, 1750-60).
Catena (Turin, 1746).
*Gio. Battista Gabrielli (Florence, 1745-60).
Antonio Bagetella (1782).
Laurentius Storioni (1780-1804), the last Cremonese maker.

* Those marked with

stars are the

more eminent

ones.

Various other Italian Makers.
Testator il Vecchio (1560), Milan.
Joh. Baptista and Peter Jacob Rugger (17th century)!
Vettrini (1630), Mezzabotte (1720)
J

3°7

B

s

:

Story of the Violin
Antonius Gouvernari(i6oi)

\

Pietro Balestieri (1735)
Giovanni Rudger (1650-1700)
Francesco Ruger (1640)
Sanzio Santo (1634)
Nicolo Garani (Naples).

Tomasso Circappa (Naples,

j

fCremona.
J

1730).

Alexander Zanti (Mantua, 1765), followed Peter Guarnerius.
Joh. Bapt. Lolio (1740).

.

Bartholomaus Christophori (1750-70).
Bartolomeo Obizi (Verona, 1780).

Anselmo

Bellosio (Venice, 1750-70).
Fr. Gofriller (Venice, beginning 18th century).

Renisto (1738).
Nicolo Gusetto (1738).
Nicolas Guletto (1790).
Petrus Joh. Montegratia (1780).

French, English, and

German Violin-makers.

FRENCH.
Bourdat, Sebastian (Mirecourt, 1620).
Castagnery, Jean Paul (Paris, 1655-65).
Me'dard, Nicolaus (17th century).
Paul, Saint (17th century).

Niggel (end of 17th century).
Me'dard, Francois (Paris, 1710).
Despont, Antoine (Paris, beginning 18th century).
Bocquay, Jacques (Paris, 1700-30).
Vuillaume, John (Mirecourt, 1700-40).
De Comble, Ambroise (1730-60).
Gavinies (Paris, 1734).

Verron

(Paris, 1720-50).

Pierray, Claude (1725).
Chapuy, Augustinus (1765).
Guersan, Louis (1760).
Lupot, Francois (1758).
Lupot, Nicolaus, son of the above (born 1758, died 1824).

308

Appendix C
Fendt (Paris, 1780).
Pique (Paris, 1792).

Pons

(Paris, 1790).

Nicola (Paris).
Claudot, Charles (Mirecourt).

David

(Paris).

Vuillaume, J. B. (born 1799, died 1875).
Gand, Francois (1802).
Chanot, Francois (1788-1824).

Modessier

(Paris, 1810).

Miremont

(Paris).

Sylvestre (Lyon, 1835).

Rambeaux

(Paris, 1840-60).

Simoutre, N. E. (Bale, 1880).

ENGLISH.

Raymann, Jacob

(at

Ye

Bell Yard, South wark, 1648),

Pamphilon, Edward.

Norman, Barak

(1688-1740).

Urquhardt (17th century).
Addison, William (1670).

Thomas (near Fetter Lane, Holborn, 1690).
Cuthbert (17th century).
Banks, Benjamin (Salisbury, 1727-85).
son (Salisbury, 1754-1820).


Kennedy, Alexander (1700-86).
John (1730); Thomas Kennedy (1784-1810).

Barret, John (at the "Harp and Crown," Piccadilly, 1718).
Cole,

Collier,

Samuel

(1775).

Collingwood, Joseph (1760).
Johnson, John (1750).

Henry (175°)Thompson, Robert (St. Paul's Churchyard, 1749).
Marshall, John (i75°)Wamsley, Peter (" Golden Harp," Piccadilly).
Conway, William (1750).

Jay,

Crowther, John (1760- 18 10).
Dickinson, Edward (1750).

309

22

Story of the Violin
Duke, Richard (Holborn,
John (175 5- 1823).

1768).

Botts,

Preston, John.
Fendt, Bernard (1756).
B. Simon and Jacob Fendt (18 1 5).


Dodd, Thomas.
and grandson (1739-1824).
Hare, Joseph.
Morrison, John (1780- 1822).
Hill, William (1741).
„ Joseph (1769).
Joseph and Lockey (1800-45).
,,
„ William E., and Sons.
Mayson, William (Manchester).

Forster, William, father, son,

GERMAN.
Klotz family: Egidius, Matthias, Georg,
(1660-1784).
Albani, Matthias (Botzen, 1621-70).
son (1650-1709).

,,
Kambl, Joh. Andreas (Munich, 1635).

Joseph,

Altsee, P. (Munich, 1727).

Hornstainer, Matthias (Mittenwalde).
Joseph (Mittenwalde, 1760).
Stadelmann, Daniel Achatius 1 ,,.
Knitl,



John Joseph

jV.enna, 1714-44.

Vogler, Joh. Georg (Wiirzburg, 1740).
Mayr, Andreas Ferdinand (Salzburg, 1750).
Mayerhof, Andreas Ferdinand,
Weiss, Jacob.
Kolditz, J. Matthias (Munich, 1740).
18th century).
Christa, Joseph Paul (Munich, 1730).
Jaug (Dresden, 18th century).

Altmann (Gotha,

Schorn, Joh. (Innsbruck, 18th century)
Eberle, J. N. (Prague, 1750).
Bachmann, Carl Ludwig (Berlin, 1765).
Ernst, Franz Anton (Gotha, 1760-80).

310

Sebastian

Appendix Q
Samuel (Leipzig, 1790).
(Leipzig, 1820).
Scheinlein (1750).
Hassert (Eisenach, 1 8th century).
Schmidt (Cassel, 1800-25).
Bausch, Ludwig (Leipzig, 1850).
Fritche,

Hunger

Otto (Gotha)

Hammig, W.

(Leipzig).

Riechers (Berlin;

etc.).

3"

—— ———— ———— —



Appendix D.
Books of Reference.
PART

I.

Notice of Anthony Stradivari. Translated by
Bishop. London.
Carl Engel Researches into the Early History oj the Violin
Family. London.
Sir George Grove Dictionary of Music.
Ambros Geschichte der Musik.
Reissmann Musikalisches Conversations Lexicon. Leipzig.
Sir William Jones Music of the Hindoos.
Dr. Kostlin
Geschichte der Musik.
Brendel Geschichte der Musik.
Geschichte der Bogen-instrumente mit Atlas.
Julius Ruehlmann
F.

J.

Fetis

J.

Brunswick.
Giuseppe Branzoli Manuale Sloricho del Violinista. Rome.
A. Vidal Les Instruments a Archet. 3 vols. Paris.
George Hart The Violin: its Famous Makers and their
Imitators.

Martin Agricola Musica Instrumentalis (1529 and 1545).
Michael Prsetorius Syntagma (1619), and Theatrum Instru-

mentorum
Silvestro

(1620).

Ganassi del

Fontego

Regola

Rubertina.

Venice

(IS42).

Niederheitmann— Cremona.
Prince N. Youssoupoff Observations sur I'Origin du Violon.
Dr. Burney History of Music. (Also John Hawkins's and
Busby's History of Music.)

312

—————— — ———— —
Appendix

D

Ueber den Beat und die Erhaltung der Geige tend
Otto, J. A.
alter Bogen-instrumente.
Hermann Starcke-«-2?z'e Geige.
Hermon Aller Violin-making as it was and is. London.
Henri Coutagne
Gaspard Duiffoprugcar et les luthiers





Lyonais.

W.
W.

E. Hill and Sons

Paolo Maggini.

Alfred Hill, and Arthur Hill— Antonio Stradivari:
his Life and Work.
London.
Hepworth (Wm.) Information for Players, Dealers, etc., of
Bow Instruments.
H. Saint-George The Bow: its History, Manufacture, and Use.
Hill,

PART
Fetis

F.

J.

A.

Pougin—

J.

W.

v.

II.

Biographic Universelle des Musiciens.


Paris.



Wasielewski— Die Violim und ihre Meister.

Branzoli Manuale Storicho del Violinista.
Regli Storia del Violino in Piemonte.
Fayolle Tartini, Paganini, de Be not.

Paganini.
Autobiography.
G. Conestabile La Vita di Niccolo Paganini.
Pohl Mozart and Haydn in London.
A. Vidal Les Instruments d Archet.
E. Hermon Aller Fidicula Opuscula.
Fe"tis

Spohr

Henry Lahe -Famous

Violinists.

Ehrlich Beriikmle Geiger.
G. Dubourg— The Violin, etc.

Guhr

Paganini's Kunst

5th ed. London, 1878.
die Violine zu spielen.


Leipzig.

;

Index.
***«*-

Abb£,

fils,

Sevin),

L'

(Joseph

Addison, William,
dix C
Agricola,

B.

S.

Appendix B

Martin,

139,
64,

Appen-

Bach,

de, Appendix B
Air Varie, popularity of, 289
Alard, Delphin, 246, 27 1,

Ahna,

289, Appendix
Alberghi, 184
Alday, le jeune,

;

282,

B
Appendix

242,

Aldred, 138
Amati, Andrew,
Anthony,
89;

166;
Jerome,
89;
Nicolo, 89-92; Jerome, son of
Nicolo, 91 ; school qf, 96, Appendix C
Amatis, the work of the, 93-95
87,

144,

imitators

of

the,

Ambrosius, 26
Anet, Baptiste, 172, 238, Appendix B
Arabia, influence of, 12, 23, 24
Arezzo, Guido of, 53
Art of playing the violin, 173
Arte, 1', del violino, 173

Alexander d',
pendix B
Ashley, General, 256

246,

Joh. Sebastian, 55, 67,
concertos of, 278 ; ciac266, 270
Baillot, Pierre Maria Francois de
Sales, 244, 245, 271, Appendix B

269
cona

B

Artot,

B

Appendix

A

pupils and
Appendix C

Attila, 41
Aubert, Jacques, 239
Auer, Leopold, Appendix
Aury, James, 257

of,

Baltzer, Thomas,
Baltazerini, 166

Bande,
236
Banks,

la

219

grande, la petite, 235,

Benjamin,

139,

Appen-

dix C
Banister, John, and son, 253
Barbella, 184
Barcevicz, Stanilaus, 249
Bargheer, 227, Appendix B
Barrington, .Daines, 34
Barthelemon, Hippolite, 240
Bassani, Giov., 168, 174
Bazzini, Antonio, 215, 282, 289,

Appendix B
Beethoven, L. van, 55, 67, 243
violin concerto of, 283
Belgian School of violin-playing,
characteristics of,
241, 246;
247
Benda, Franz, 220

;

Ap-

3*5

;

Story of the Violin
Bergonzi, Carlo, 120, 126, Appendix C; Nicolaus, 126; Michelangelo, 126, Appendix C
Beriot, Charles de, 242, 246, 289,
Appendix B ; concertos of, 280
Berlin court orchestra, 220

Bridgetower, 256
Brodsky, A., 230
Bruch, Max, concertos

Berthaume, Isidore, 240
Bertolotti, Gasparo (da Salo), 81
Biber, Franz Heinrich, 219, 263
Bini, Pasqualini, 184

Brussels Conservatoire, 76
Bull, Ole Bbrnemann, 249,

Bitti, Martinello,

175
Blagrove, Henry, 227, 257
Blasius, Mathieu Frederic, 240
Boccherini, 184
Bocquay, Jacques, 136, Appendix C
Bodini, Sebastiani, 198
Boghera, Marchesa di, 189
Bohm, Joseph, 231, 233, Appendix B
Borghi, Ludivico, 185
Borra, 185
Bott, Jean Joseph, 227, 229
Boucher, Alexandre Jean, 201,

240

Bow,

the, 2, 4, 9, 10, 16, 22, 30,
33, 38, 41, 42, 161, 300; evolulution of the, Appendix

A

Bowed

A

Ap-

Bruni, Ant. Bartolomeo, 185,

pendix

B
Ap-

pendix B
Burney, Dr., 3
Busby, 50
Busetto,

Johann Marcus

del,

88

Buxtehude, 264

Cambini, Giov. Giuseppe, 198
Campagnoli, Bartolomeo, 198, Appendix B
Canavasso, Giuseppe, 198
Cannabich, Christian, 221, Appendix B
Capriccio Stravagante, 262
Capron, 240, Appendix B
Carissimi, 68

Carminati, 184
Carnival de Venice (Ernst's), 232
Carrodus, John T. , 257
Cartier,

Jean Baptist, 241, 271,

Appendix B

instruments,

Indian, 12
first European, 30 ; progress of,
56 ; their pitch and number of
strings in the works of Agricola,
Gerle, Prsetorius, etc., Appendix
Bowing, art of violin, 248
Brahms, John, violin concerto of,

284,

of,

290

Castrucci,

Pietro,

172,

Appendix

B
Celestino, Eligio, 198

Chamber music, 270
Chanot, Francois, 137, Appendix
Charmillon,

Jean,

56,

58,

158,

160, 288

285
Branzoli, G., 33, 57, etc.
Brescia, 78, 86, Appendix C
Brescian violin-makers, 78, 84, 85,
93, 130, Appendix C
Bridge, violin, its influence on
tone, 115; on mediaeval fiddles,

Ciaccona of Bach, 266, 270 ;
Vitali, 168, 265
Clegg, John, 256, Appendix B

of

Clements,, Franz, 283, Appendix B
Cole, Thomas, 139, Appendix C
Comble, Ambroise de, 136, Ap-

pendix

162

316

C

;

;

Index
Concert spirituel (Paris), 203, 239
Concerto da camera, 273 grosso,
273; reign of the, 273; latest
phases of the, 283-285
;

Conestabile, G., 210, 215, Appendix
Conforti, Antonio, 185
Conservatoire concerts (Paris), 245
Conservatory of Prague, 222; of
Leipzig, 230
Constantin, 237

D

Corelli,

Arcangelo, 55, 157, 158,

168-171,
Appendix B
266,
pupils of, 172, 173, Appendix B

Coutagne, Henri, 74,
dix

etc.,

Appen-

D

Cramer, Wilhelm, 221, 252, Appendix B
Cremona, 86, 153, Appendix C

Cremonese Masters, 84-101, 110135, 145, 148, Appendix C
,

Crbner, the brothers, 222
Crowd, 32
Crwth, Welsh, 32, 34-37

Durand,

August
Appendix B

Dvorak,

Charles, 246
Dauvergne, Antoine, 239
David, Ferd., 227, 229, 230, 271,

Appendix B ; pupils of,
230 ; concertos of, 282
Demachi, Giuseppe, 198
Dengremont, Maurice, 247, Ap289,

B

Eck, Franz,

222, 226, Appendix B
Joh. Friedr., 222, Appendix

B

D

Engel, Carl, 22, etc., Appendix
Ernst, Heinrich Wilhelm, 231,
232, 249, 290, Appendix B
concerto of, 280; and the Air
Varie, 289
Esser, Michael Ritter von, 223
Evolution of violin composition,

261-289
Evolution of the bow, Appendix

Fahrende

Fauxbourdon, 163

pendix

Appendix

139, Appendix C
Dont, Jacob, 231, Appendix B
Dresden Court, the, 216, 219, 220
Dubourg, Mathieu, 255, Appendix

B

Ap-

B

Fetis, F. J., 6, 8, etc.,

Appendix

Fidaeler (fiddler), 45,

etc.,

D

B

Dufay, 55, 63

leute, 38, etc.

Falco, Francesco, 198
Fantasie-stiick, the, 288, 289, 290
Farina, Carlo, 167, 216, 261, 263
Farinelli, 167, 216
Fauvel, Joseph, 242

Dido Abbandonata, 269

Dodd, Thomas,

241,

violin concerto of, 285

Fayolle, 182, 195, etc.
Ferrari, Domenico, 183, 271,

Devil's Sonata, the, 268
Dittersdorf, Karl, 231,

Frederic,

A

Dancla,

pendix

Dufour, 225
Duiffoprugcar, Gasparo, 70-81,
136, 144, 166
Duke, Richard, "139, Appendix C
Dumanoir, Guillaume, 237
Dunstable, 55, 63

pendix

Ap-

A

Fiddle-playing in the romantic age,
IS9-I03
in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, 164

3*7

;;

Story of the Violin

Fiorillo, Federigo, 198,

Graun, Joh. Gottlieb, 184, 220,
Appendix B
Gregory the Great, 26
Grosset, Jean Jacques, 240

Fisher,

Griin, Jacob, 231

Fidla of Iceland, 42
Fiedel, 42, etc.

name

of,

;

remarks on the

Appendix

A

287
John Abraham, 256
Fodor, Joseph, Appendix B
Fontana, Battista, 168
Forty Studies, Kreutzer's, 243,
287
Fra Angelico, 58, 68 ; picture by,
57

Appendix B

;

Job,.,

288,
Ignaz, 221, Ap-

120,

126,

;

Guastarobba, Don Paolo, 184
Guenin, Marie Alexandre, 240,

Appendix B

219

Gabrieli, 69
Gagliano,

Lorenzo,

149, Appendix C; Johannes
Battista, 126, Appendix C
Guarneri, family, 98 ; Andrew,
Petrus,
99 ; Joseph, 99, 149
100; Petrus, son of Petrus, 101
Pietro, son of Joseph,
101
Giuseppe Antonio del Gesu,
101, 120, 128-134, 149, 154
;

Franco-Belgian School, 247
Francour, Francois, 238
Ferdinand,
Franzl,
221,

pendix B
Furchheim,

Guadagnini,

Alexander,

Appendix C
family, Appendix

127,

140,

C

Galeazzi, Francesco, 198
Gand, Francois, 137, Appendix

C

Gaudock, Russian, 42
Gavinies, Pierre, 239,
B ; fitudes of, 287

Geige, 32, etc.
Geminiani, Francesco,

Appendix

Guerini, 198
Guersan, Louis, 137, Appendix
Guhr, 215, Appendix
Guignon, Gian Pietro, 197
Guillemain, 239

Carl, 249, Appendix B
Hall, Marie, 287
Halle, Lady (Norman Neruda),

Halir,

259,
173, 252,

Appendix B
Gerber (New Musical Dictionary),
255, 286,

261
Gerbert, Martin the Abbot, 32, 33
Gerbini, Signora, 259
Giardini, Felice, 185, 252, Ap-

pendix B
Gigue, 32, etc.
Giorgis, Giuseppe, 198
Gobetti, Francisco, 127, Appendix

C

D

Appendix B

Handel, 67, 269
Harmonics on the
artificial, 206, 294
Hart, George, 115,

violin,

183

etc., AppenJohn Thomas, 139
Hauser, Miska, 203, 231, Appendix

dix

D

;

B
Haydn, Joseph,

67, 231, 270, 274
Helmesberger, George, 231, Appendix B
Hilf, Arno, 230, Appendix B
Hill, William Ebsworth, and Sons,

C
Godard, Benj., Concerto Romantique of, 285
Goldmark, violin concerto of, 285

318

85, 139, Appendix C ; William,
Joseph, 139, Appendix C; W.
Henry, Arthur F. (F.S.A.), and
Alfred Hill, no, etc.

;

Index
Kbmpel, A., 227, 229

Hindoos,- 14
Hohe Schule, David's, 183, 271

Kostlin, Dr. Heinrich,

Holmes, Henry, 227, Appendix B
Holzbogen, Joseph, 185, 222
Hornstainer, Matthias, 142, Appendix

C

Hortulus, Chelicus, 263
Hubay, Jeno, Appendix B
Hucbald of St. Armand, 53
Hurdy-gurdy, 61
Hume, Richard, 138

pendix

163,

Ap-

D

Kreisler, Fritz, 247, 291

Kreutzer, Rudolph, 242-243, 276,
Appendix B ; Sonate, 243, 256 ;
concertos of, 277 ; forty studies
of, 243, 287
Kubelik, Jan, 287, 291

Kumisch, 226

Labarre, Louis Julien
Idiosyncrasies of old nations,

Castels de,

242
Lacroix, 240

India,

11;
documentary records of, 13
music in, 21 ; disposition of
people, 21
7

6,

;

tradition

Janitch, Anton,
pendix

in,

186, 222,

Ap-

B

Jansa, Leop., 249, Appendix B
JarnowiclT(Giornovichi), 201, 288,

Lady

violinist, the,

258-260

Lafont, Charles, 288, Appendix

B

Lahoussaye, Pierre, 184, 239
Lalande, 178
Lalo, Edward, " Symphonie espagnole " of, 284
Lamotte, Franz, 222, 288
Lasagnino, Luigi, 166
Laub, Ferdinand, 249, Appendix

Appendix B

B

Jensen, G., 271
Joachim, Joseph, 209, 230, 233234, 249, Appendix B; Hungarian concerto of, 234, 281, 287
Jones, Sir William, 22, Appendix

D

Bartolomeo G., 168,
174
Lausa, Antonia Maria, 85
Lauterbach, Joh. Christian, 247,
Laurenti,

Appendix

B

Leblanc, 240

Jean Marie, 185, 238, 269,

Josquin des Pres, 55
Jubal, 5. 14

Leclair,

Julien, Hubert, 240

Leipzig Conservatorium, 230
Leonard, Hubert, 247, 282, 289,

Kalliwoda,

Joh.
249, Appendix B

Kammel, Anton,

Appendix

Wenzeslaus,

Appendix

C

Appendix B
Leuka (Ceylon),

7

Libon, Philippe, 242, Appendix

185, 222

Kerlino, Giovanni, 78
Kiesewetter, 25
Klingenthal, 142-144, 259
Klotz, Egidius, Matthias, Sebastian, 142,

B

B

Linley, Thomas, 256, Appendix B
Lipinski, Charles, 249 ; concerto
of, 280, Appendix B

A

Lira, 32, Appendix
Locatelli, Pietro, 172,

Appendix B

Kocsian, 287

3J9

173, 200,

Story of the Violin
Loeffler,

Charles, 247,

Appendix

Method de Violon

E
Lolli,

for

Antonio, 199-200, 271, 288,

289, Appendix B
Lotto, Isidore, 247, 249, Appendix

B
Lully, Giov. Batt., 168, 236, 237
Lupot, Nicolaus, 136, Appendix C
Luther, Martin, 4

Maggini, Giovanni Paolo,
1 14, Appendix C

84, 85,

Maitres Classiques (Alard's), 240,
271, etc.

Maler, Laux, 152
Mannheim Court, the, 22r; school,
221
Manfredi, Filipo, 184, Appendix

B

245
(Gemini-

173

Milanollo, Teresa, 247, 259, Ap-

pendix B Maria, 259
Mildner, Moritz, Appendix B
Militar Concerto, Lipinski, 280
Minnesanger, 45, 49, 161, etc.
Minstrels, wandering, 38, 45, etc.
;

Mirecourt, 136, 142, Appendix B
Mittenwalde, 142
Molino, Ludivico, 185
Molique, Bernhard, 229, 244, 257,
Appendix B ; concertos of, 277
Mondonville, Jean Joseph Cassanea de, 239
Montanari, Francesco, 184, 220
Monteverde, 82, 261

Morgan, John, 34

Marini, Biagio,
Antonio, 174

167, 261

;

Carlo

Mori, Francesco,

B
Marteau, Henri, 247, Appendix B
Massart, Lambert Joseph, 247,

B

violin

of,

25-29 ; in Italian churches, 1 74,
271, 272; of the primitive kind,

Maucourt, 226
Mayseder, Joseph, 231, Appendix

B
Medard, Nicolas and Francois,
136, Appendix C; Henri, 136
Meerts, Lambert, Appendix B
Meistersinger, period of, 50, 164
230, 290; violin
concerto of, 283, 291
Me'netriers, La Confrerie, 50 ; roi

Mendelssohn,

237
Meneghini, Giulio, 184, Appendix

B

;

286; Wolfgang A.,
67> 2 59; concertos of, 278
Music in the first centuries A.D.,

Matteis, Nicola, 253, 254, 255

Mestrino, Nicolo, 198

Appendix

Morigi, Angiolo, 184
Morrison, Meredith, 139
Mozart,
Leopold, 222

method

des, 50,

197,

B

Marine Trumpet, 60
Markneukirchen, 142-144
Marsick,
M.,
Appendix
247,

Appendix

ani),

(Baillot),

violin-playing

162
Musicians, wandering, 38, 43 ; in
the romantic age, 44-49
Musical records : Greek, Roman,
Chaldean, Egyptian and Assyrian ; in the Old Testament,
2, 3, 4, etc.

Musin, Ovide, 247, Appendix

Nardini,

B

Pietro, 183, 200, 245,
256, 269, Appendix B
Navoigille, Guillaume de, 240
Nazari, 184

Nibelungenlied, 41, 42

320

;;

Index
Niederheitmann, 73, etc.
Noferi, Giov. Batt., 198
Norman, Barak, 139, Appendix

Petrucci Ottavianola, 68
Society (London)
concerts, 227, 257

Philharmonic

C

Obermayer,

1S5
Olivieri, A., 185
Omerti, 22
Ondricek, Franz, 249, Appendix

Pichl, Wenzeslaus, Appendix B
Piedmontese School of Violin-

playing, 172, 185
Pierray, Claude, 137, Appendix C
Pisendel, George, 219, Appendix

B

B

Organistrum, 61

Pixis,

Orlando di Lasso, 55
Ospitale della Pieta, 258
Otto, A., 153, Appendix

Paduan

D

School of violin-playing,

175
Paganini,

Nicolo, 16, 205-215,
224, 226, 231, 245, 247, 279,
Appendix
B ; stories of,
290,
207 ; contributions to technique
of,

206 ;

caprices

of,

287

concertos of, 279 ; and the Air
Varie, 289 ; witches' dances, 22
Pagin, Andre Noel, 184, 239,

Appendix

Ap-

B
186,

Ap-

Prume, Francois, 246, 282, Appendix B
Pugnani, Gaetano, 185, 189, 241,
259,

Ap-

221,

pendix B
Polyphonic writing, 27 ; polyphony, 54
Pougin, Arthur, 195, Appendix D
Prsetorius, Michael, 64, 66, Appendix A

B
139,

Wilh.,

B

Playford, John, 255
Plectrum, 16
Pollani, 245, Appendix
Polledro, Giambattista,

Appendix

B

;

pupils of,

185, 186

Palestrina, Giov. Pierluigi da, 55,

68
Pamphilon, Edward,
pendix C
Pandarons, 8

Friedr.

pendix

Puppo, Giuseppo, 198
Purcell, Henry, 252, 254

Quanz,

181

Paris Conservatoire, 75, 239, 243,

Radicati,

245
Parravicini,

Slgnora,

242,

259,

Appendix B
Passage, the, raison d'etre of, 274
father of, 274; in the Viotti
concerto, 275, 276 ; in Spohr's
concerto, 277; resurrection of,
276 ; Paganini and, 279

Pemberton,

138
Persia, spreading of music through,
23
o
Petit, 184
J.,

Felice, 185
Joachim, violin concertos of,
275. 28S
Ravana, 7, 13, 14, etc,
tone of
Ravanastron, 8, 9, etc.
Raff,

;

the, 21

Rayman, Jacob,

138,

Appendix C

Rebab, 24; Arabian, 31
Rebec (rubebe), etc., European,
3i» 32, 39, S6-60, 163

Rebecca, tuning of

321

A

the,

Appendix

;

Story of the Violin
Rebel, 237

Remenyi,
Edward,
Appendix B
Renaissance, 68

203,

Ribouds, king of, 56, 15?,
Ries, H., 227, Appendix B
Rig Veda, hymns of the, 13
Robberechts, Andre, 242,

231,

B
248,

Appendix B
Robineau, l'Abbe, 240
Rochefort, Jean Baptiste

Sauret, Emilj 247, Appendix B
Savart, 147
Scarlatti, Alessandro, 69
Scheller, Jacob, 201, 223
Schmitt, Lorenz, 185, 222
Schradieck, Henry, 230, Appendix

Schubarth, 183, 199
Schuppanzigh, J., 231, Appendix

B
Bona-

Senaill£, Baptiste, 238,

Rode, Pierre, 226, 242, 276, 291,
Appendix B caprices of, 287 ;
concertos of, 276
Roi des Men£triers, 50, 237
;

Rolla, Alessandro, 212

Servetto, 211
Sevcik, Ot, 287
Signoretti, Giuseppe, 184
Simonetti, Matteo, 168
Singer, Edmund, 231, Appendix

B

Romano, Alessandro, 166
RomaYii, 185
Roman School of violin-playing,
169, Appendix B
Romberg, Andreas, 223
Ross, father and son, 138
Rovelli, Pietro, 244, Appendix B

Singing school, first, 26
Sirmen, Maddalena Lombardini,
183. 259
Sivori, Camille, 215, Appendix B
Soldat, Marie, Appendix B
Somis, Giov. Batt., 172, 185, 238,

Appendix

Rubinstein, Anton, violin concerto
of,

D

J., 32, etc.,

Appendix

Ruf, S., 103
Rust, Wilh., 220, Appendix

B

220

Saranguy, Indian, 40
Sarasate, Pablo de, 250, Appendix
Sarinda, 22

;

camera ; di chiesa,
and the, 266 ; the

Corelli

of,



Saint-Saens, Camille, 275
concertos and rondo capriccioso of, 284
Salo, Gasparo da, 7°> 81-83, ^S>
87, 136, 144, 166
Salomon, Job. Peter,

265

B

reign of the, 265-272
Spain, Mussulman conquest

Sainton, Prosper Philippe, 246,
Appendix B

B

da

Sonata,

285

Ruehlmann,

Appendix

B

venture, 71

Spielleute, 45 ;
dress
social position of, 47

of,

46

Ludwig, 224-228 ; 233,
291, Appendix B ; pupils of,,
229 ; concertos of, 277
Stadt-pfeiferei, 218

Spohr,

Stainer,

Jacobus, 102-109, r 4°.
141, 144, 147 ; pupils of, 142
Stamitz, Anton, 221, 243, Appendix B ; Joh. Carl, 221,

Appendix B
Hermann, 88, etc.
St. Georges, Appendix B
Starcke,

322

;;

Index
St.

Lubin, 227, Appendix

B

Urso, Camilla, 247, 259, Appen-

Stradivari, Antonio, 110-125, I2 8>

130, 149, 154, 155; pupils of,
126-127, Appendix C ; Francesco, 120; Omoboni, 120
Strinasacchi, Regina, 259

Strungk, Nicolaus Adam, 219
Sympathetic strings, 65 ; principle
of, 66
Syntagma, by
Appendix A

Prsetorius,

265,

dix

B

VACHON,

Pierre,

Appendix B

Vai, Gaetano, 198
Valentini, Giuseppe, 175
(see Fiedel), 42, etc.,

Vedel

Appen-

A

dix
Venantius, Fortunatis, 34
Veracini,
Antonio,
167,
174
Maria Francesco, 175, 176, 252,

Appendix B
Tartini,

Giuseppe,

175-183,
196, 203, 205, 241, 291, 294,
Appendix B ; pupils of, 183185 ; the sonata di chiesa and,

267-269

B

Thurn und Taxis, Count

of, 185
Tiburtino, Giuliano, 166
Tieffenbrucker {see Duiffoprugcar),

73
Toeschi, Carlo Giuseppe, 198
Tone picturing, 163, 262
Torelli, Giuseppe, 167, 220, 265,
273,

Appendix B

Touchemoulin, Joseph, 239, Appendix B
Tourte, Francois, Appendix
(see Evolution of the bow)
Traversa, Gioachimo, 185
Treu, Daniel Theophil, 219
Trillo del Diavolo, il, 177-178

A

Troubadour, 45, 48, 160, etc.
Trouveur bastard, 48
Tschai'kowsky, 153; violin concerto of, 285
Tua, Teresina, 247, Appendix B

Urquhart,
pendix

C

Appendix

D

Vienna, School of, 230
Vieuxtemps, Henri, 203, 246, 280,
concertos of, 280
289, 290
Ballade et Polonaise of, 281
Vingt-quatre ordinaires du roi, 235
Viola bastarde, di bordone, di
di
spalla,
gamba
64,
65
(bass viol), 66, 71 ; d'amour,
;

Teleman, Geo. Philipp, 219
Thompson, Cesar, 247, Appendix

Vidal, A, 37, etc.,
Vielle, 61

Cuthbert,

139,

Ap-

;

A

66, Appendix
Viol, predecessor of the, 39, 60
Viols, bass, tenor, treble, 64, 164;
construction of different sizes,

A

64, Appendix
Violin, the, see Prologue; origin of,
I ;
I ; gradual development of,
cradle of, 7 ; the coming of, 67;
art in Italy, 166 ; in Germany,
216 ; in France, 235 ;, in England, 251 ; makers of (Italian,
French, English, German), Apviolin-making in
pendix C ;
France, 136-138; in England,
138-140; in Germany, 140-144;
players and playing of, see Part
II.; descent of, Appendix B
composition, Part III.
Violins, old, age of, 149 ; varnish
of, 151; wood of, 146; workmanship of, 153

Story of the Violin
Viotti,

185, 187-196, 205, 224,
226, 228, 241, 242, 244, 248,
252, 256, 291, 294, Appendix
B ; concertos of, 273, 274, 275,
etc. ; pupils of, 242
Virtuosity, autocracy of, 200 ; seed
of,

173

Virtuoso, concerto, 279 ; the oldtime, 201-204
Vitali, Giov. Battisla, 266 ; Tommaso, 168, 265
Vivaldi, Antonio, 172, 175, 219,
220, 258, 269, 273, Appendix B
Volker, the spielman, 42

Vuillaume, J. B., 137, Appendix C
John, of Mirecourt, 136, Appendix C

Wasielewski, Jos. Wilh.
etc.,

Appendix

dix B
Woeiriot, Pierre, 71, 77
Woldemar, 201, 262, 288,

pendix

Youssoupoff, Prince Nicolaus,
73, Appendix D
Ysaye, Eugene,

209,

247,

Zanetto, Peregrino, 85

THE END.

SCOTT PUBLISHING

Ap-

B

Wolff, Johannes, 247, Appendix B
Wranitzky, Anton, 231, Appendix B

Walter

TUB WALTER

183,

Wieniawski, Henri, 247, 249, 281,
289, Appendix B ; second concerto of, 281
Wilhelmj, August, 230, Appen-

Appendix B
von der Vogelweide, 159
Walther, John Jacob, 219 263

v.,

D

CO., LTD.,

FELLIHC-ON-TVKB.

4-14

278,

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