[1] In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the name “Geige” violin,
then in ordinary use, must not be confounded with the violin of our
time. This term was not applied to the more modern instrument until
later.
[2] A more detailed account of the above stringed instruments and their
precursors is contained in my work, “The Violin and its Masters,” Second
Edition (Leipsic: Breitkopf and Härtel), and “History of Instrumental
Music in the Sixteenth Century” (Berlin: Brachvogel and Ranft),
therefore a repetition of what is there said is unnecessary.
[3] The “big fiddle” of the sixteenth century must not be confounded
with the stringed instrument of that time, of which the pitch answered
to our modern Contra-basso, and in Italy was already called “Violone,”
as appears from Laufranco’s “Scintille,” 1533.
[4] The word “beschriben” refers to the letters which, for the
convenience of the player, it was the custom to mark for the fingers on
the fingerboard.
[5] The artist who drew the sketches of the instrument for Gerle’s
“Musica Teutsch” has left out the bridge in the “great viola.” See page
2.
[6] See the article “Kerl.”
[7] Also at the present time it is a family name. We need only mention
G. H. Bruno Kerl, Professor of the Royal Berg Academy at Berlin.
[8] Other authorities, however, say he was a Breton--Fétis, Casimir
Colomb &c.--(_Tr._)
[9] The name Duiffopruggar doubtless came from the same source as the
surname Tieffenbrucker, still existing in South Germany.
[10] Mr. Heron Allen in his “Violin Making, &c.,” page 74, says that two
were recovered.--(_Tr._)
[11] The same Prince to whom Corelli dedicated his “Concerti Grossi,”
published in 1712.
[12] Herr Obernetter, of Munich, has taken two beautiful photographs of
this richly decorated instrument, which reproduce with great accuracy
all its peculiarities. As far as I know they can still be purchased.
[13] Here may be mentioned also a third magnificent gamba, that of
Vincenzo Ruger, said to have been made in Cremona in 1702. It is
distinguished not only for its beautiful exterior in every respect, but
also by an extraordinarily sonorous and unusually fine quality of tone,
which combines the resonant character of the gamba with that of the
violoncello. The latter circumstance is attributed to the fact that the
back, which is usually flat in the ordinary gamba, is arched in this
one. This instrument, which has been lately purchased by the Prussian
Government for the Berlin Museum, was formerly in the possession of Herr
Paul de Wit, in Leipsic. The account of instrument making published by
him contains (Vol. VI., No. 21) a description and illustration of the
gamba in question.
[14] Violuntzes is synonymous with the old French instrument, violonsse.
_Vide_ Grimm’s Dictionary of the German Language.
[15] The Kammerthon or chamber-pitch, as distinguished from the obsolete
“Chorton” or choir-pitch, which formerly prevailed in German churches,
was a tone, or even more, higher than the secular pitch.--(_Tr._)
[16] “Faburden,” according to Mr. Niecks.--(_Tr._)
[17] Concerning this, see my “History of Instrumental Music” in the
_Century_, page 107.
[18] By the word concert, Mersennus means concerted piece.
[19] Maugars is called in the “Historiettes de Tellemant des Réaux,”
as Fétis informs us, the “greatest fool that had ever lived.” His
“Réponse faite à un curieux” (completely unprejudiced, although somewhat
conceited) in no way agrees with this. It is easy to discover that
Maugars was not liked by his countrymen, because he openly declared that
French music was far behind the Italian. On that account he had incurred
the displeasure of French artists. The Parisian musician, Corrette, in
the eighteenth century, was guilty of the same offence. He had been
candid enough to say to the French that the standard of French violin
playing of the eighteenth century was, compared to the Italian, in a
disorganised condition. In retaliation they called his pupils scornfully
“les anachorètes” (“les ânes à Corette”).
[20] I give this and the following quotations from Maugars’ writings,
according to my translations in the monthly parts of the “History of
Music,” published in the year 1878.
[21] The English writers on music affirm that the well-known composer,
Ferabosco, who was born at Greenwich in the second half of the sixteenth
century, and who was also called Alfonso, was the son of the above
Ferabosco, with which the remarks of Maugars agree. Fétis doubts the
truth of the assertion made by the English writers on music. The younger
Ferabosco appears also to have been a gamba player, for he published, in
the year 1609, in London, “Lessons for one, two, and three viols.” He
died in 1665.
[22] See my work “The Violin and its Masters,” Part ii., p. 203.
[23] His name was usually written Sympson, but he sometimes himself
spelled it Simpson.--(_Tr._)
[24] This seems to have been the title of the first edition, a copy of
which is in the possession of Messrs. Hill, of New Bond Street.--(_Tr._)
[25] This work contains, besides the viola tutor, an introduction to
violin playing. It is the first attempt at a violin school.
[26] Thomas Campion was a physician, poet, and musician in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth, and an authority on music. He published two books of
Ayres, and various other pieces, besides the above.--(_Tr._)
[27] He has already been mentioned, p. 13.
[28] Michael Corrette ascribes this to Sainte-Colombe in his violoncello
school, which appeared in 1741, concerning which we shall speak farther
on.
[29] Concerning this instrument, Mattheson says: “The Angelique,
somewhat resembling the lute, must have been far easier to play, and
has more cords or strings, which one can accurately touch by reason of
their arrangement without moving the left hand much. There is nothing
specially besides to remember.” It was, therefore, an instrument of the
lute kind.
[30] He was perhaps a brother or relation of the instrument maker Tielke
mentioned pp. 7 and 8 of this work.
[31] Compare p. 8.
[32]
[Illustration]
It is worthy of observation that this second fugue (D minor) has the
theme which Mozart, nearly 100 years later, made use of for the second
_Finale_ of the “Magic Flute.” There is no doubt this was purely
accidental, as Mozart could hardly have seen Schenk’s work.
[33] A MS. copy exists in the Royal Library at Berlin.
[34] The MS. is preserved in the Royal Library at Berlin.
[35] It is to be found in the autograph collection of Count Wimpfen at
his estate near Gratz.
[36] According to Fürstenau, Abel was engaged as violoncellist at
Dresden. See his “History of Music and of the Theatre at the Elector of
Saxony’s Court,” Vol. II., p. 240.
[37] Sebastian Bach’s youngest son, Joh. Christian, was born in 1735, in
Leipsic, and died in London in 1782, whither he had gone in 1759 as Band
Conductor.
[38] According to Pohl, the number of these metal strings was raised to
twenty-seven. (S. C. F. Pohl: “Haydn,” I., 250.) Information regarding
the barytone and barytone compositions are to be found there.
[39] Pohl: “Haydn,” I., 257.
[40] Gerber mentions him as a violoncellist, which must be a mistake,
since in the Parisian Opera orchestra, up to 1727, as far as is
known, only gambists were employed. He may, however, have played both
instruments.
[41] See “The History of the Violin,” by W. Sandys and Simon Andrew
Forster. London, 1864.
[42] What would Gerber have said had he lived to see the present demand
for instruments required to make up an orchestra?
[43] Gerber’s “Old Musical Lexicon,” p. 617, and Note, p. 86.
[44] In the preface to the violoncello tutor already mentioned, by
Corrette, the untenable assertion is made that the violoncello was
discovered by Bonocin (Buononcini), “preséntement Maître de Chapelle
du Roi de Portugal.” A Bononcini, with the Christian name of Domenico,
actually lived in 1737 at the Lisbon Court. At that period, according to
Fétis, he must have been eighty-five years old. He must therefore have
been born in 1652. He could not have invented the violoncello (if one
could call it an invention), as it evidently existed before his birth.
It is not even certain that Domenico Bononcini was a cellist. Possibly
Corrette confounded him with Giov. Battista Bononcini mentioned later.
[45] Another inaccuracy in Fétis’s “Stradivari,” p. 46, is that the name
of violino “had already appeared in Lanfranco’s work ‘Scintille’ of
1533.” This announcement has caused some confusion. Before Lanfranco’s
work was accessible to me, I also in _bonâ fide_ had made the same
assertion in my “History of Instrumental Music of the Sixteenth Century”
(p. 73), and I now correct it. The word “Violino” is not mentioned by
Lanfranco, but in every case only the termination “Violone,” which is
bass viol.
[46] See monthly _Magazine for the History of Music_, Year XVI., No. 3.
[47] The well-known violin maker, Aug. Riechers, in Berlin, possesses a
violoncello by Gaspard da Salò (small size).
[48] The French call this kind of recitative accompaniment “le recitatif
italien.”
[49] Accompanying the recitative with the cello was customary far into
our century. I heard it in Italy at the representation of the old operas
up to the year 1873. I am unable to say if the practice is continued. It
has been abolished in Germany for the last ten years.
[50] The widespread opinion that Gius. Guarneri of the Gesù did not make
violoncellos is unfounded. Aug. Riecher informs me that Major H----r, in
Berlin, is in possession of a cello which is undoubtedly genuine. Yet it
seems as if this member of the Guarneri family had only made a limited
number.
[51] The above sketch is taken from Corrette’s Violoncello Tutor, which
was published in 1741.
[52] In my paper “The Violin and its Masters,” second edition (Breitkopf
and Härtel), I have given a more detailed account of it as well as of
the productions of the Italian, German, and French masters, which it
is unnecessary to repeat here. See also the fabrication of musical
instruments in Saxon Voigtland, by Fürstenau and Berthold, 1876.
THE
ART OF VIOLONCELLO PLAYING
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Violoncello.
In the seventeenth century the violoncello still occupied a very
subordinate and modest position; during the period mentioned, with
very few exceptions, it was employed only as a bass instrument in the
orchestra. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, however, there
was already a great change; for Mattheson says in his “Neu eröffneten
Orchestre,” which appeared in 1713:--
“The PROMINENT Violoncello, the Bass Viol, and the Viola da Spalla are
small bass fiddles (viols) similar to the larger ones, with five or six
strings, on which can be played all kinds of quick things, variations
and movements much more easily than on the larger machines” (Mattheson
means the contra-basso).[53]
It is, therefore, quite conceivable that some time was necessary, before
the players, who were unaccustomed to the undivided fingerboard of the
cello, were sufficiently confident of a finger technique differing
so completely from that of the gamba. They were at first limited to
the lower part of the fingerboard, as was the case primarily with the
violin.[54] The position of the thumb, by means of which the higher and
highest positions on the fingerboard could alone be fixed and maintained
with certainty, could hardly have been known before the beginning of
the eighteenth century. The violoncello at this time, as appears from
Mattheson’s account just mentioned, had sometimes a set of five or even
six strings like the gamba. On the five-stringed instruments the tuning
was:--
[Illustration]
The Abbé Tardieu already referred to, who played the violoncello,
according to Gerber, had the same tuning on his instrument. About
the third decade of the last century, those who used five-stringed
instruments gave up the highest string--(the D). From that time the
four-stringed instrument with the tuning C, G, D, A came very generally
into use. The latter was not altogether a novelty. Prätorius mentions it
in his “Syntagma Mus.” as the “Bass Viol de Braccio.”[55]
In Germany the use of the violoncello as an orchestral instrument
ensued later than in Italy, though much sooner than in France. For
although it had been introduced into the Parisian Opera in 1727, by the
cellist Batistin, to be mentioned later on, it had been already in use
since 1680 in the Vienna Hofkapelle. The Saxon Hofkapelle at Dresden
next followed by the installation of four violoncellists. Their names
are Daniel Hennig, Agostino Antonio de Rossi, Jean Baptiste José du
Houbondel, and Jean Prach de Tilloy.[56] As two of these players have
French names, it is to be assumed that the violoncello had already found
representatives in France at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
The example set by Vienna and Dresden was soon imitated also by other
German Courts. The band of Duke Charles Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp
affords a case in point. As this prince, the future son-in-law of Peter
the Great, found himself obliged, in 1720, to reside at the Russian
Imperial Court, his private musicians followed him thither, amongst whom
there was a cellist.[57]
As the gamba enjoyed a great amount of favour[58] in Germany, the
introduction of the violoncello was not effected without difficulty,
to which indeed the gambists, who thought their pretended rights were
thereby infringed, not a little contributed. For in a paper which
appeared in 1757 in the French language, “Observations sur la Musique,”
&c., it is said: “La seule basse de viole a déclaré la guerre au
violoncelle qui a remporté la victoire et elle a été si complète que
l’on craint maintenant que la fameuse viole, l’incomparable sicilienne
ne soit vendue à quelque inventaire à un prix médiocre et que quelque
luthier profane ne s’avise d’en faire une enseigne.”[59]
It was not quite so bad as the last words of the announcement lead
one to suppose. Even if the violoncello caused the gamba to be quite
superfluous in the orchestra, the latter was cultivated as a solo
instrument for some time longer, and many of the good old gambas were in
course of time metamorphosed into violoncellos, and made available for
further use; while the more insignificant specimens were destroyed, if
they were not required for completing instrumental collections and so
preserved from destruction.
The art of violoncello playing in the first stages of its development
was, as regards the method of treatment, not so much favoured as violin
playing. To the latter a definite direction for imitation was early
given, as soon indeed as the end of the seventeenth century, by the
Roman school founded by Arcangelo Corelli, which was soon followed
by the foundation of the Paduan and Piedmontese schools. Violoncello
playing lacked such classical parent schools. When a few prominent
artists of this instrument had brought it into greater consideration,
centres were formed by distinguished masters for the study of the cello,
which supplied the want of proper schools, about which we shall have
more to say farther on.
It is easy to understand how it followed that the violoncello was first
valued in the land of its birth--that is, in Italy, not only as an
orchestral instrument but also for solo playing. How this important
branch of art was there developed we shall see in the next section.