It may be that we are not a musical people, but if so the encouragement
and appreciation which the sister Art to painting has of late years
received in England is not a proof of the truth of the assertion
frequently made. Our Concert-rooms are always crowded to overflowing;
foreign artists think it worth while to come year by year to England;
schools of music are multiplying, and eagerly attended by amateurs as
well as professionals; and I think it may now be taken for granted that
a musical education may be as thoroughly acquired here as abroad. Every
kind of musical instrument is taken up, if not always with a really
serious intention; but no instrument has more rapidly or more certainly
come into favour amongst all lovers of music, as well with those who
study as with those who listen, than the Violoncello. It is therefore
somewhat surprising that up to the present time no book has been
published in English, either as regarding its History or its Literature.
This consideration, as well as the hope that not only those who devote
themselves to the Violoncello, either as professors or amateurs, may
be interested in its History, but also the general musical public who
delight in listening to its deeply pathetic tones as produced by the
great masters of it, has induced me to attempt the translation of Mr.
Wasielewski’s interesting work. We love to know and often take pains to
enquire into the history of any favourite picture, to learn something
of the artist’s life, the circumstances under which he painted it, and
often the origin of its conception. I therefore hope that the story of
the Violoncello will be acceptable to all who love it and give their
lives to the development of its many beauties and capabilities.
The account of the Violoncello’s forerunner, the Viola da Gamba, cannot
but be especially interesting, this instrument having been formerly
cultivated in England to so great an extent. The frequent allusions
which Praetorius in his “Syntagma Musicum” makes to English Gamba
players, with a decided preference to their manner of playing and
tuning their instruments, is a proof of how high their reputation was
abroad; and if any further evidence were wanting the dictum of Mersennus
that English Gambists excelled all other nations in Gamba playing, is
sufficient to show that in the sixteenth and part of the seventeenth
centuries they held the first rank. If for a short period we have no
violoncellist of extraordinary merit to chronicle, more modern times
have produced artists who will bear comparison with any of the greatest
players on the Continent. Concerning these and English Gamba players I
have ventured to add a few more particulars than Mr. Wasielewski has
given, hoping they would prove interesting to English readers. These
details have been gathered from Grove’s Dictionary, Leslie Stephen’s
Nat. Biography, and various other works. For the technical portion, Mr.
Niecks’s Dictionary of Musical Terms has been consulted, as well as
Mendel and Dommer. I have supplemented the Violoncello Schools by others
collected from Mr. Heron Allen’s Bibliography, and various sources,
introducing some of the old Instruction books for the Gamba.
I must here thank Mr. Wasielewski for his kind permission to translate
his valuable work, as well as Messrs. Breitkopf and Härtel for their
courteous assistance. I beg Mr. George Herbert to accept my grateful
acknowledgment for his most kind help and encouragement, and Mr. Heron
Allen for the interest he has taken in my work. To Mr. Arthur Hill I am
indebted for much kind advice, and to Mr. Nosèda of the Strand for his
courteous permission to reproduce from his oil-painting the portrait of
Robert Lindley as a Frontispiece.