Mori and others--Dando--Henry Blagrove, and his "Concerti da Camera"--Mr. Chappell and his "Monday Popular Concerts"--Henry C. Cooper, and the "Quartett Association"--M. Sainton, Hill, Piatti; John Carrodus, Herr Molique, and the Brothers Holmes--Progress of the Violin in Germany: Graun and Benda; John Sebastian Bach as Violinist and composer; Herr Joachim--Handel, influence of his compositions on the progress of the Violin--Haydn, and his Symphonies and Quartetts; A lady's ideal thereof--Mozart, and his "Method" for the Violin; his early attachment to the instrument--Schubert, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Fesca, and their influence--Louis Spohr and his works--Bernard Molique--Joseph Mayseder--Kalliwoda--Herr Ernst, Joachim and Strauss, with Herr Wilhelmj, and their concerts375-409
SECTION XV.--ANECDOTES AND MISCELLANEA CONNECTED WITH THE VIOLIN.
Hudibras and the Champion Crowdero--George Herbert's references to Music--Christopher Simpson's Trinity in Uni-ty--Shakespeare's Sonnet VIII.--Violins from a medical point of view--"A Musician"--Origin of Tartini's "Sonato del Diavolo"-- Dr. Johnson and the Violin--Dr. Johnson on the Difficulty of Playing the Violin--Dr. Johnson's Epitaph on Phillips, the Welsh Violinist--Dr. Johnson's Knowledge of Music--Dr. Johnson on Fiddling and Freewill--Haydn in London: a "Sweet Stradivari;" Letters of the Rev. Thomas Twining--Gainsborough as a musician--Garrick and Cervetto--The King and the Player--Sir Walter Scott on Music and Fiddles; the Duke of Hamilton's passion for the Violin--A Cinderella Violoncello--A Stolen "Strad"--The Missing Scroll--Another Wandering Scroll--A Montagnana Instrument shot through the body--Fiddle Marks and the Credulous Dabblers--"Guarneri" at a Discount--Dragonetti's Gasparo: Letter thereon by Mr. Samuel Appleby--The Betts Stradivari: Letter
by the late Charles Reade--Leigh Hunt on Paganini--Thackeray on Orchestral Music--Spohr and his Guarneri--Spohr and the Collector--The Ettrick Shepherd and the Violin--The Fiddle Trade: "Old Borax" and "Michael Schnapps," the Fiddle-ogre--The Prince and the "Fugal Vortex"--Sale of Cremonese Instruments at Milan in 1790--An Indefatigable Violinist--A Wish--Living Stradivaris--Pleasures of Imagination--A Royal Amateur--Pius IX. and the Musician--Ole Bull and Fiddle Varnish--Letter from Tartini on the Treatment of the Violin 410-507
INDEX 509
10
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FRONTISPIECE--Paganini's "Giuseppe Guarneri." 1743.
PLATE
FACING PAGE
I.
Stradivari Viola. 1672
16
II. Jacobus Stainer. 1669
Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu
Niccolo Amati. Grand Pattern. 1641 32
III. Violoncello by Antonio Stradivari 50
IV. Antonio Stradivari. 1734
The Gillott "Strad." 1715
Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu. 1734 66
V. Carlo Bergonzi Violoncello. Grand Pattern 84
VI. J. B. Guadagnini
Storioni. 1797 102
VII. Specimens of Scrolls 120
VIII. Giuseppe Guarneri. 1742
Antonio Stradivari. 1711
Antonio Stradivari. 1703 136
IX. Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu. 1737 154
X. Domenico Montagnana Violoncello 170
XI. Antonio Stradivari. Tenor. 1690
Antonio Stradivari. 1734 186
XII. Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu. 1738
The "Dolphin" Strad. 1714
Antonio Stradivari. 1718 200
XIII. Antonio Stradivari. 1702
Antonio Stradivari. 1722
Antonio Stradivari. 1703 232
XIV. Stradivari Violoncello 250
XV. Chapel of the Rosary, Cremona 266
XVI. Antonio Stradivari. 1708
Antonio Stradivari. 1736
Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu. 1735 282
XVII. The "Betts" Stradivari. 1704 298
XVIII. Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu Antonio Stradivari (Inlaid). 1687 316
11
XIX. Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu. 1733
Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu. 1741
Antonio Stradivari. 1726 332
XX. Gasparo da Salo
Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu. 1735 348
XXI. Antonio Stradivari. 1690 380
"Marriage at Cana," by Paolo Veronese 376
Tartini's Dream 428
THE VIOLIN
ITS FAMOUS MAKERS AND THEIR IMITATORS
SECTION I
The Early History of the Violin
1.
The early history of the Violin is involved in obscurity, and in consequence, much diversity of opinion exists with regard to it. The chief object of the writer of these pages is to throw light upon the instrument in its perfected state. It is, therefore, unnecessary to enter at great length upon the vexed question of its origin. The increased research attendant upon the development of musical history generally could hardly fail to discover facts of more or less importance relative to the origin of instruments played with a bow; but although our knowledge in this direction is both deeper and wider, the light shed upon the subject has not served to dissipate the darkness attending it. Certain parts have been illumined, and conclusions of more or less worth have been drawn therefrom; for the rest, all remains more hopelessly obscured and doubtful than the identity of the "Man in the Iron Mask" or the writer of the "Letters of Junius."
It is satisfactory to know that the most valuable and interesting part of our subject is comparatively free from that doubt and tradition which necessarily attaches to the portion belonging to the Dark or Middle Ages. When we reflect that Music--as we understand it--is a modern art, and that all instruments of the Viol and Fiddle type, as far as the end of the fifteenth century, were rude if not barbarous, it can scarcely excite surprise that our interest should with difficulty be awakened in subtle questions pertaining to the archaeology of bowed instruments.
The views taken of the early history of the leading instrument have not been more multiform than remote. The Violin has been made to figure in history sacred and profane, and in lore classic and barbaric. That an instrument which is at once the most perfect and the most difficult, and withal the most beautiful and the most strangely interesting, should have been thus glorified, hardly admits of wonder. Enthusiasm is a noble passion, when tempered with reason. It cannot be said, however,
