EARLY VIOLIN MUSIC AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF VIOLIN TECHNIQUE
The origin of stringed instruments; ancestors of the
violin--Perfection of the violin and advance in violin
technique; use of the violin in the sixteenth century;
early violin compositions in the vocal style; Florentino
Maschera and Monteverdi--Beginnings of violin music: Biagio
Marini; Quagliati; Farina; Fontana and Mont’ Albano; Merula;
Ucellino and Neri; Legrenzi; Walther and his advance in
technique, experiments in tone painting--Giov. Battista
Vitali; Tommaso Vitali and Torelli; Bassani; Veracini
and others--Biber and other Germans; English and French
composers for the violin; early publications of text-books
and collections.
I
The origin of string instruments of the violin family is
involved in much obscurity and it would be impossible to discuss
here the various theories concerning it which have been stated with
more or less plausibility by musical historians.[42] A preponderance
of authoritative opinion seems to favor the theory that the direct
ancestor of the violin was the Welsh _crwth_, a sort of harp, which
seems to have been played with a bow. Venantius Fortunatus (570
A.D.) mentions this instrument in the much quoted lines: _Romanusque
lyra plaudit tibi, barbara harpa, Græcus Achillaica, chrotta Britana
canat_. (‘The Roman praises thee with the lyre, the barbarian sings
to thee with the harp, the Greek with the cither, the Briton with
the _crwth_.’) The fact that the old English name for the fiddle was
_crowd_ furnishes an etymological argument in favor of the _crwth_. It
is, of course, possible that the idea of using a bow with the small
harp was first suggested by some instrument already in existence. The
Arabs and other peoples had instruments roughly approximating the
violin type. One is inclined, however, to the assumption that the
violin was not developed directly from any particular instrument, but
came into being rather through the evolution of an idea with which
various races experimented independently and simultaneously.
[Illustration]
Ignace Paderewski.
_After a photo from life (1915)._
The immediate forerunner of the violin seems to have been the rebec,
of which there is a drawing in an extant manuscript of the ninth
century. The Benedictine monk Ofried, in his _Liber Evangeliorum_ of
about the same period, mentions the fidula as one of the two bowed
instruments then in use, though to what extent the fidula differed
from the rebec we are unable to ascertain. In the psalm-book of Notker
(d. 1022) there is also a figure of a rebec and a bow. Drawings,
written references and bas-reliefs enable us to follow the development
of the violin clearly enough from this time on. In the abbey of St.
Georges de Boscherville, Normandy, there is preserved a bas-relief
which shows a girl dancing on her head to the accompaniment of a
band which includes two instruments of the violin type, played with
the bow. The _Nibelungen Lied_ speaks of a fiddler who ‘wielded a
fiddle-bow, broad and long like a sword,’ and although this epic was
completed in the twelfth century it is probably safe to antedate the
reference considerably. There is in the cathedral of Notre Dame in
Paris a crowned figure with a four-stringed violin, and in the Abbey
of St. Germain des Près there is a similar relic showing a man with a
five-stringed violin and a bow. Both date from the eleventh century.
From these and similar evidences it is plain that a violin of a
rudimentary type was used extensively in the eleventh century. Its
musical possibilities must have been very slight, and probably it was
used chiefly to accompany the song or the dance.
As we may deduce from many contemporary references, the troubadours,
jongleurs, and minnesingers[43] of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
played a very important part in the development of the violin type
of instrument. There is extant, for instance, a manuscript of the
period, containing an illustration of a _jongleur_ playing upon a
three-stringed instrument very nearly resembling the modern violin.
Jerome of Moravia, a Dominican monk of Paris in the thirteenth century,
informs us in his _Speculum Musices_ that the two strings of the violin
then in use were tuned as follows: [Illustration: Music score]. His
_Speculum_, which is probably the earliest approach to an instruction
book for the violin, also contains this very definite indication of the
fingering:
[Illustration: Music score]
Under the influence of the troubadours and minnesingers the popularity
of the violin spread rapidly both among professionals and amateur
musicians. It was especially popular as an accompaniment to dances. In
the _Brunswick Chronicle_ (1203) we read of a clergyman who had his arm
struck by lightning while playing for dancers. We may infer from this
that it was considered quite a respectable recreation. The _Chronicle_
has the words _veddelte_ (fiddled) and _Veddelbogen_ (fiddle-bow)
without any comment, so that they must have been quite familiar
terms. A stained glass window, a Parisian manuscript and a miniature
painting from a manuscript called _Mater Verborum_ (1202-12) show that
the instrument then in use resembled in shape the modern violin. In
Ulrich von Lichtenstein’s _Frauendienst_ we read of an orchestra which
included two fiddles and which played a lively walking-tune or march
for the purpose of charming away the fatigues of the journey. We may
gather some idea of the vogue of violin playing during this period
from the character of a decree, issued in the year 1261 and now in the
archives of Bologna, which forbade the playing of the viol at night in
the streets of that city. Despite its great popularity it held a place
beside the harp as an instrument worthy of the dignity of a minstrel,
as we may gather from an allusion of a French poet about the year 1230:
‘When the cloth was ta’en away
Minstrels strait began to play,
And while harps and viols join
Raptured bards in strains divine,
Loud the trembling arches rung
With the noble deed we sung.’
By this time professional instrumentalists had become a strong class
and in various cities had begun the formation of fraternities which did
not differ much in essence from our modern musical unions. The first
of these, as far as we can discover, was the St. Nicholas Brüderschaft
which existed in Vienna as early as 1288.
The many and varied forms and sizes of viols illustrated in manuscripts
and elsewhere suggest that the instrument was used in the music of the
church. Certainly instruments of some kind (apart from the organ) must
have been taken into the church service, else Thomas Aquinas would
not have argued against their employment. The church was not very
sympathetic toward musicians and its attitude was reflected to a great
extent by the world at large. Synods and councils frequently issued
decrees against wandering minstrels and in the city of Worms they were
even refused the privilege of lodging in or frequenting public houses.
The fourteenth century brought much greater recognition for
instrumental art, which grew in popularity and in the favor and
patronage of those in high places. When the French _jongleurs_ united
in 1321 into the _Confrérie de St. Julien des Ménestriers_ they
obtained a charter which called their leaders _Rois des ménestriers_
(later _Rois des violins_). The same charter alludes to ‘high and low’
instruments, apparently treble and bass rebecs or viols which were
played in octaves to each other or perhaps in a primitive sort of
counterpoint. Technique must have been very inferior, for musicians in
Alsace were required to study only one or two years before taking up
music as a profession. Their incomes, on the other hand, were probably
substantial, as it is recorded that they were obliged to pay taxes.
It is interesting to note at this early period that the city of Basle
employed a violinist to play in a public place for the entertainment of
the citizens.
So far we have endeavored to trace the progress of violin music through
paintings, monuments and fugitive references in manuscripts, decrees
and other documents. These references are not on the whole very clear
and the nomenclature of early instruments of the violin family is
very loose and confused. We know practically nothing about the music
composed for these instruments. Their imperfect shape does not suggest
music of an advanced kind, nor does it mean that the technique of the
time was equal to very exacting demands. The famous blind organist,
Conrad Paumann (1410-73), who could play on every instrument, including
the violin, has left us in his _Orgelbuch_ several transcriptions
of songs which he may have played on the violin as well as on other
instruments, and the dances and other pieces of free invention composed
for other instruments may also have served as musical material for
violinists. But all this is mere surmise.
[Illustration]
Relatives of the Violin.
Top: Viola de braccia, Pochette, Viola bastarda.
Bottom: Viola da gamba, Violone, Viola d’amore.
Regarding the combination of the violin with other instruments we
know that at the end of the fifteenth century there existed in Louvain
an ‘orchestra’ composed of a harp, a flute, a _viol_, and a trumpet.
There is recorded an account of another ‘orchestra’ belonging to Duke
Hercules in Ferrara, who employed a great number of musicians. It
included flutes, trumpets, lutes, trombones, harps, viols and rebecs.
We should not assume, however, that all of these instruments were
played simultaneously. Each class of instrument had its own part and
if all of them played together they must have made noise rather than
music. We are also informed that previous to the year 1450 popes and
princes employed ‘orchestras’ which combined ‘the voices, organ, and
_other_ instruments into the loveliest harmony.’ In spite of the almost
entire lack of music for the violin we know that it was a favorite
instrument and consequently that the players must have produced on it
pleasing music of some kind. Indication of its popularity is found in
the works of Fra Angelico (1387-1455), whose famous angel holds a viol
in her hands, and in Boccaccio’s novels, where we learn that violin
music formed a considerable part of the entertainment of all classes.
II
The sixteenth century brought the violin to a perfection that was
still far in advance of the technique of the players. At the same time
there was a distinct advancement in the recognition of instrumental
music, although vocal music continued to maintain its preeminence. This
was due partly to the limited technique of the instrumentalists and
partly to the greater appeal of music wedded to words. Violin players
then knew nothing about changing of positions and therefore could play
only in the first position.[44] Thus the tone register of the violin
was small. Some players, however, attempted to reach higher tones on
the first string through the stretching of the fourth finger. Simple
melodic phrases or figures were lacking in even quality of tone, in
smoothness and in fluency. The art of legato playing was unknown and
violinists could not play two or more notes with ‘one bow.’ Neither did
they endeavor to conquer the technical difficulties of playing on the G
string. They made practically no use of the fourth string until the end
of the century. In addition, the instruments were badly constructed,
equipped with strings of inferior quality and tuned in a low pitch, all
of which militated strongly against purity and accuracy of intonation.
Hans Gerle (a flute player of Nuremberg), in his ‛_Musica Teutsch, auf
die Instrument der grossen und kleinen Geigen_’ (1532), advised that
intonation marks be placed on the fingerboard, and this naïve advice
was in use as late as the middle of the eighteenth century.[45]
The same writer points out that instrumentalists in improvising their
parts were prone to vie with each other in demonstrating their ability
as contrapuntists, a perfectly comprehensible habit, which must have
affected instrumental music in the sixteenth century as badly as
the vagaries of coloratura singers affected operatic music in the
eighteenth.
Gerle’s book, incidentally, contained a number of German, Welsh, and
French songs, and a fugue for four violins. Among other early books on
the violin mention may be made of these:
S. Virdung: _Musica getuscht_, 1511.
Judenkönig: A truly artistic instruction * * * of learning upon the
lute and violin, 1523. (Contains 25 numbers for violin and flute.)
Agricola: _Musica Instrumentalis_, 1528. (Here the author refers to the
vibrato as a device that ‘makes the playing more sweet.’)
La Franco: _Scintille di Musica_, 1533.
Silvestro Ganassi: _Regola Rubertina che insegna suon di Viola d’arco_,
1543.
Ludovico Zacconi: _Prattica di Musica_, 1592 (Zacconi stated here that
the compass of the violin was g-ciii).
M. Prätorius: _Syntagma Musicum_, 1619.
Touching upon the use of the violin in the sixteenth century there
is extant a wealth of historical references. From one of these, for
example, we gather that at a public festival in 1520 viols were used
to accompany songs. We may assume their popularity in England from the
fact that they were used in the family of Sir Thomas More (1530), an
ardent music lover, and that during the reign of Edward VI the royal
musical establishment increased the number of its viols to eight.
Violins were used at public performances in Rouen in 1558; at a fête
in Bayonne for dance music in 1565, and in a performance of a Mass at
Verona in 1580. In the year 1572 Charles XI of France purchased violins
from Cremona and a little later ordered the famous twenty-four violins
from Andrea Amati. In 1579, at the marriage of the Duke of Joyeuse,
violins were used to play for dances, and Montaigne in his _Journal_
(1580) refers to a marriage ceremony in Bavaria, where ‘as a newly
married couple went out of church, the violinists accompanied them.’
From this passage of Montaigne we may infer that, in Germany at least,
the popularity of violin music was not confined to the upper classes.
It must be remembered, however, that the terms ‘viola,’ ‘violin,’
‘viol,’ etc., were often applied indifferently to stringed instruments
of various kinds, and in view of this inaccurate nomenclature
historical references must be accepted with a certain amount of reserve.
We know little of the music that was played on the violin before the
last decade of the sixteenth century. Violins, we are aware, were
employed in ensembles, in orchestras, and in unison with voices,
and in looking for violin music we have not necessarily to consider
compositions written especially for violin. By way of illustration
we may cite a collection of French Dances (1617), published for
‘instruments,’ presumably for all kinds of instruments, and a
collection of ‘Songs’ edited in Venice (1539) bearing the remark ‘to
sing and play,’ and indicating no special instruments. Probably much
of this sort of music was played by violin. Among examples of specific
writing for the violin there has come down to us previous to 1539 a
_Fugue_ (Fugato rather) for four violins, composed by Gerle. It is in
four parts: Discant (first violin), Alto (second violin), Tenor (viola)
and Bass ('cello), perhaps the earliest specimen of a composition for
string quartet. The style is purely vocal, as we may see from the theme:
[Illustration: Music score]
There is no suggestion of the violin idiom in the piece and it throws
no light on the development of violin music. Cortecci and Striggio
in 1565 scored their intermezzi for two gravecembali, _violins_,
flutes, cornets, trombones, and several other instruments. D’Etrée,
an oboe player, wrote down the common lively tunes which had been
previously learned by ear and published them in 1564. As a practical
musician he undoubtedly considered also the violin. In the performance
of Beaulieu’s _Circe_ (1581) ten bands were used and in the first
act ten violin players in costumes appeared. The famous violinist,
Beaujoyeaulx (an Italian in the service of Henry III whose real name
was Baltasarini), wrote ballets (1584), dances, festival music, and
other compositions, which were very successful at the court. Doubtless
he played them himself. Castiglione in his _Cortigiano_ mentions a
composition as being written for ‛_quattro viole da arco_’ which almost
seems to indicate another specimen of early string quartet. Toward
the end of the century we meet with the _Balletti_ of Gastoldi and of
Thomas Morley, some of which are printed without words and may have
been intended for instrumental performances. Still, they are vocal in
character and do not exceed the compass of the human voice. Besides
these, there are other compositions and collections of dances, etc.,
that may be considered musical material for violinists of the time.
Most of them, however, deserve no detailed notice.
Up to 1587 the leading instrument of the orchestra was the Cornetto
(German ‘Zinke,’ an instrument of wood, not of metal). The earliest
instance where the Cornetto alternates with the violins in taking the
lead and where a part was inserted especially for _violino_ is to be
found in _Concerto di Andrea e Giovanni Gabrieli--per voci e strumenti
musicali_, 1587. Some of G. Gabrieli’s compositions, however, are still
in vocal style, but some are decidedly instrumental in character, as we
may see from the following illustrations.
[Illustration: Music score]
and
[Illustration: Music score]
[Illustration: Music score]
From a Sonata à 3 (1615).
and
[Illustration: Music score]]
(Note the last example, where the intentional contrast between _piano_
and _forte_ is distinctly indicated.)
In 1593 Florentino Maschera, one of the celebrated organists of his
time, published a book of ‘Songs to play’ (_Canzoni a sonar_). The
work consisted of seventy-one pieces which had family names for their
titles, a custom that was often repeated in the first half of the
sixteenth century. It is important to note that these pieces were
printed in separate parts, so that they may be considered as the first
specimens of independent though not direct writing for the violin.
These _canzoni_ were vocal in character and there was little that
suggested instrumental technique. The style was that of the vocal
compositions of the time--contrapuntal.
A genuine and daring innovator in the field of violin music was Claudio
Monteverdi (1567-1643), who in some violin passages went up as high as
the fifth position. Besides broadening the technique of the left hand,
he demanded tremolos for dramatic effects in accompanying recitative:
[Illustration: Music score]
This passage from _Combattimento di Tanceredi e Clorinda_ (1624)
offered so many difficulties to the musicians that at first they
refused to play it. As we shall see presently, however, Monteverdi was
not the first to introduce this effect (_cf._ p. 381). Another of his
new effects was the introduction of the _pizzicato_, which he marked
thus: _Qui si lascia l’arco, e si strappano le chorde con duo diti_,
and afterwards _Qui si ripiglia l’arco_. That Monteverdi expected
violins to produce a _crescendo_ with the bow is apparent with the
instruction _Questa ultima note va in arcato morendo_. ‘Monteverdi
with his two violins “_alla Francese_” in the score of _Orfeo_ (the
first printed reference to the violin as an orchestral instrument in
the modern sense), probably meant nothing more than that the violins
were to be in the fashion of the French, but in place of accompanying
a dance, the character indicated in the opera was accompanied by two
violins in a particular part of its music.’[46] In other violin pieces
by Monteverdi, as in his _Scherzi musicali_ and _Ritornelle_ (1607), we
see his superiority to his contemporaries, just as in his _Sonata sopra
Sancta Maria detratta_, etc. (1610), he showed plainly his desire to
improve violin music.
III
The first attempt at independent violin composition was made by Biagio
Marini (1590-1660), _maestro di cappella_ in Santa Eufemia in Brescia
and a court concert-master in Germany, who may be regarded as the
first professional composer-violinist. In his early compositions the
violin parts were not difficult for the players. There were mostly
half and quarter notes in slow tempi, displaying the quality of vocal
compositions, and without much use of the G string. Witness the
following example from his _Martinenga Corrente_ (1622):
[Illustration: Music score]
A passage from his _Il Priulino Balletto e Corrente_ (marked canto
primo, secondo, and basso)
[Illustration: Music score]
is more instrumental in quality, though the second part of the Balletto
reveals again the character of vocal music. The whole may be played on
the A and E strings. More violinistic passages are to be found in his
sinfonia _La Gardana_; for example:
[Illustration: Music score]
Marini’s dance compositions are characteristic of all dance music at
the beginning of the seventeenth century. Among them, however, is one
that possesses particular interest for us from the fact that it is the
first extant composition marked distinctly ‘for violin solo.’ It is
entitled _La Romanesca per Violino Solo e Basso_ (ad libitum), and has
four sections, each consisting of two parts. The first section, _Parte
prima_, has six measures in the first and second part; the second
section has five measures in the first part and six in the second. The
form of the third section is not so clear as that of the previous ones,
although, as we may see from the basses, the composer endeavored to
give clear-cut melodies. The same may be said of the fourth section,
where the figures are in the bass. The third section--_terza parte in
altro modo_--with new melodic and rhythmic material, has the character
of a dance. The violin part moves in figures of eight, and there are
sustained notes in the bass. The first few measures of each section
will serve as illustration.
Section I
[Illustration: Music score]
Section II
[Illustration: Music score]
Section III
[Illustration: Music score]
Section IV
[Illustration: Music score]
In his technique Marini does not go beyond the first position;
consequently the fluency of the melody suffers many a break, for when
he reaches the limit of the first position, he continues the melody an
octave lower. Yet he is responsible for several technical innovations
for the violin. He was the first to mark the bowing (legato playing)
and to introduce--seven years before Monteverdi’s _Combattimento_--the
coloring effect of the tremolo, thus:
[Illustration: Music score]
Tremolo con arco.
Other innovations are to be found in his _Sonate e Sinfonie Canzoni_
(1629) where in a Capriccio ‘two violins play four parts’ (_due violini
sonano quattro parti_), thus:
[Illustration: Music score]
and a ‘Capriccio to be played on the violin solo with three strings
after the manner of a lyre’ (_Capriccio per sonare il Violino solo con
tre corde a modo di Lyra_).
[Illustration: Music score]
Besides Marini there were others who seriously endeavored to write in
a distinctive violin idiom. Before considering them we may mention here
Paolo Quagliati, who in his _Sfera armoniosa_ (1623) made the violin
accompany the voices and used it also as a solo instrument with the
accompaniment of the theorbo in a toccata of the same opus. The violin
part usually consisted of sustained tones that were to be embellished
by the players according to the custom of the time. Quagliati himself
was not a violinist and this fact serves to explain the simple
technique of his violin parts.
Four years later Carlo Farina, a Saxon chamber virtuoso and concert
master, who may be termed the founder of the race of violin virtuosos,
published a composition for the violin, called _Capriccio stravagante_.
Here he strove toward new and unusual violinistic effects. The very
title, ‘an extravagant caprice,’ explains his object. While the piece
shows little improvement in form, the technique is noticeably advanced.
Farina goes to the third position and points out how the change of
position should be executed. Besides broadening violin technique Farina
was among the first to venture into the field of realistic ‘tone
painting.’ For he tried to imitate the whistling of a soldier, the
barking of a dog, the calling of a hen, the crying of a cat, the sound
of a clarinet and the trumpet. Farina’s experiments in tone-painting
were, however, rather the product of a desire for sensational novelty
than of a legitimate seeking after artistic expression. He lacks the
genuine qualities of a true artist.
Although Farina did not use the G string, and did not go further than
the third position, he recognized the power of expression latent in
the violin. Besides rapid figures of sixteenth notes and considerable
variety in bowing there are double stops:
[Illustration: Music score]
and a series of consecutive chords with the instruction that it should
be executed with the stick of the bow:
[Illustration: Music score]
It was also his idea--not at all a bad one--to mark double stops with
figures:
[Illustration: Music score]
The fact that he found it necessary to give instruction for the
execution of double stops and tremolos, and the production of the
required effects in his imitations indicates that these devices were
entirely new in violin playing.
According to Gerber he published besides the Capriccio, a collection of
‛_Sonatas_’ and ‛_Pavanes_’ (1628), which, if they existed at all, are
entirely lost. Of his other compositions (Dances, Arias) we possess the
first violin parts containing the melody. He used the G clef and the
term ‘violino.’
The compositions of Marini, Quagliati and Farina represent the
beginnings of independent violin solo music. The first to write sonatas
for violin solo was the violinist-composer Giovanni Battista Fontana
(1630). His works, compared with the sonatas of Gabrieli, show a marked
improvement in violin technique; they are characterized by the same
polyphonic style, but they are not so conclusively vocal in character.
The following selections will show the great improvement in violin
technique; they virtually comprise the first ‘runs’ composed for the
violin:
[Illustration: Music score]
From a Sonata for Violin Solo.
or
[Illustration: Music score]
or
[Illustration: Music score]
or
[Illustration: Music score]
Fontana strove toward a broader form and in doing so he took a part in
the evolution of the later sonata. But he was not capable of fluent and
even expression, hence the effect of his works on the whole is stiff
and dry. We should not forget, however, that he lived during the period
of transition from the old tonal systems to the new, and that, while
he endeavored to write in the new style, the old one had not lost its
hold upon him. The result was awkwardness in modulation and a general
vagueness and uncertainty.
About the same time (1629) another composer, Bartolomeo Mont’ Albano,
published his _Sinfonie_ for one and two violins (and trombones, with
the accompaniment of the organ). These pieces are incoherent and lack
inspiration and power. Their value is far below that of Fontana’s
compositions. Mont’ Albano is only worthy of mention as showing that
Fontana was not absolutely alone in his attempts to improve violin
music. It may be noticed that he called his compositions _Sinfonie_,
meaning nothing more nor less than Fontana meant in his sonatas--a
proof that the technical terms at that time were not yet strictly
defined.
Great improvement in technique is obvious in the works of Tarquinno
Merula (1633). He used the G string freely, demanded skips from the G
to the E string, also tremolos, changes of position:
[Illustration: Music score]
and octave passages:
[Illustration: Music score]
Mont’ Albano’s music was thought out rather than invented and it
would give little pleasure to the modern ear. In the history of
the development of violin music these early compositions should be
considered simply as efforts or studies to advance violin technique and
musical form.
While Merula helped the progress of left hand technique, Marco Ucellini
(1669) made more demands on the bow, writing rapid thirty-second
notes for certain tremolo effects in his _sinfonia_ entitled _La gran
Bataglia_.
A more pleasing musical quality is to be found in the sonatas of
Massimiliano Neri, who was the first to make a distinction between
the _Sonata da chiesa_ and the _Sonata da camera_. In his _Sonate e
Canzoni a quattro_ and in his _Sonate da suonarsi con vari strumenti_,
Neri followed the path of Gabrieli in writing for as many as twelve
instruments. The frequent change of time and the restless rhythm are
also reminiscent of Gabrieli’s peculiarities. Although Neri’s structure
of phrases and periods is more normal, his modulation more fluent, and
his music on the whole more agreeable to the modern ear than that of
Fontana and Merula, his works still belong to the practical experiments
of violin music, and are without great intrinsic merits. The same may
be said of the sonatas of Biagio Marini whom we have already discussed.
He may be termed one of the originators of the cyclical form of the
modern sonata, since his sonatas were in four movements. The first,
usually in slow tempo, was followed by an Allegro, this by a longer
or shorter piece that led to the last movement (Allegro). While his
style was still distinctly polyphonic, the development of his motives
was considerably more pleasing. Improvement in harmony and modulation
is found in the _Sonate da chiesa_ and _Sonate da camera_ of Giovanni
Legrenzi (1655), who did not otherwise accomplish much in forwarding
solo violin music.
Turning to Germany, it is to be regretted that the works,
which, to judge by their titles, might have shed some light on the
development of early violin music, are irretrievably lost to us. They
are _Auserlesene Violinen Exercitium aus verschiedener Sonaten nebst
ihre Arien, Balladen, Sarabanden, etc., and Musicalische Tafelbedienung
von fünf Instrumenten, als zwei Violinen, zwei Violen, nebst den
General Bass_, by Wilhelm Furcheim (1674), concert-master at Dresden.
The most important figure, among the earliest German composers for the
violin from the standpoint of technical advance, is evidently Jacob
Walter. His twelve _Scherzi da violino solo_ are in the style of the
_Sonate da Camera_ (Suite) or in the form of variations. Eight of them
are called sonatas, and contain three or four movements, mostly in the
same key but in a variety of tempi. From a musical point of view most
of Walter’s compositions are unattractive, as the form is stiff, the
rhythm awkward, modulation poor, and the melody heavy and clumsy. His
importance lies exclusively in the advanced claims his writings make
upon execution, for he ascends as far as [Illustration: Music score] and
writes many difficult double stops, chords, and arpeggios. Walter was
also fond of imitating other instruments, birds, echoes, and so forth.
In a set of variations we meet with imitations of the guitar by playing
pizzicato, of the pipes by going up high on the E string, of fanfares
by playing on the G string. In another composition the imitation of the
call of the cuckoo was his chief purpose; but we would hardly recognize
the cuckoo’s call, had he not in every case taken the pains to mark the
imitation. In another instance, in _Hortulus Chelicus_, he endeavored
to imitate the voice of some other bird. This work as a piece of art is
more valuable, since here he attempted to write a duet for one violin.
Another composition that is characteristic of Walter’s musical ideas
is a _Capriccio_, where the C major scale is used as basso ostinato in
forty-nine variations, as though the composer wanted to give as many
kinds of motions and figures as he could.
[Illustration]
Stradivarius at Work: ANTONIO STRADIVARI.
Walter was not an innovator in the art of tone painting, for Farina
had tried the same devices seventy years before. Still he cannot be
dubbed a mere imitator of Farina, though he was without doubt strongly
influenced by the latter. Walter’s technique is much more advanced than
that of Farina, but at the same time he shows little improvement in a
purely musical way.
IV
There is an obvious advance in musical value in the _Correnti e
balletti da camera a due violini_, 1666; _Balletti_, _Sonate_, 1667,
1669; _Correnti e capricci per camera a due violini e violone_, 1683,
and other instrumental pieces by Giovanni Battista Vitali, ‛_sonatore
di Violino di brazzo_’ in the orchestra of Bologna. Vitali’s melodies
contain much more pleasing qualities than those of his contemporaries.
In regard to form, his sonatas, in which rapid changes from quick to
slow movements mark the various sections, show the transition from the
suite to the _sonata da camera_. Vitali was one of those early inspired
composers, whose greatest merit lies in their striving toward invention
and toward the ideal of pure absolute music. In technique Vitali does
not show any material progress.
Of particular importance is Tommaso Antonio Vitali, a famous violinist
of his time. Of his works, _Sonate a tre, due violini e violoncello_,
1693; _Sonate a due violini, col basso per l’organo_, 1693, and
_Concerto di sonate a violino, violoncello e cembalo_, 1701, the most
famous and most valuable is his _Ciaccona_, which is very often played
on the concert stage by present-day violinists. The _Ciaccona_ is full
of poetic moods and its short, pregnant theme shows deep feeling and
genuine inspiration, qualities which we find here for the first time.
The whole is a set of variations upon a short theme, constituting a
series of contrasting pictures. Noteworthy are the harmony and the
advanced treatment of modulation. The ornamental figures, too, are
derived from the logical development of the theme, hence do not serve
the sole purpose of providing the virtuoso with an opportunity to
display his technical skill.
The first representative virtuoso-composer was Giuseppe Torelli
(1658-1708), to whom is ascribed the invention of the concerto, that
is, the application of the sonata form of his time to concerted music.
In Torelli’s concertos the solo-violins were accompanied not only by
a bass as in the sonatas, but by a stringed band, to which sometimes
a lute or organ was added. The solo-violins in his ‘Concerti grossi’
(1686) usually played together, though not always. That he had the
virtuoso in mind when he wrote may be gathered from the following
examples:
[Illustration: Music score]
[Illustration: Music score]
[Illustration: Music score]
[Illustration: Music score]
[Illustration: Music score]
[Illustration: Music score]
In his concertos Torelli was the direct precursor of Corelli, Vivaldi,
and Handel. His influence, however, was not so intense as that of
Giovanni Battista Bassani (1657-1716), whose music had more unity and
definiteness and on the whole ranked very much higher artistically.
This, added to the fact that he was Corelli’s teacher, gives him a
prominent place in the history of violin music. While the single
movements of Bassani’s sonatas on the whole show little improvement
in form, the composer established a higher standard in the evenness
and uniformity of his figures, in the smoothness of his modulation
and chromatics, in rhythms that were far superior to those of earlier
composers, in phrasing that was clear, especially in slow movements,
and in the almost complete abandonment of the ‘fugal’ treatment. His
influence upon Corelli is so evident that one could hardly distinguish
one of his later compositions from an early sonata of his famous pupil.
A few examples of Bassani’s writing may be of interest:
[Illustration: Music score]
Grave. From a Sonata for two Violins and Bass.
[Illustration: Music score]
Largo. From a Baletto e Corrente.
[Illustration: Music score]
Gige
[Illustration: Music score]
Sarabande. Presto
Before closing our account of the seventeenth century, reference should
be made to the prominent Antonio Veracini, the uncle and teacher of
Francesco Maria Veracini, whose sonatas are still played by violinists
today. Antonio Veracini’s sonatas, composed in the form of the _sonata
da chiesa_, do not lack a certain amount of beauty, inspiration, and
repose; they show, moreover, clearness, fluency and roundness. His
melodies are original, his modulations and contrapuntal combinations
good. While his Allegro movements show no improvement in comparison
with Bassani’s works, the Adagios and Largos are of more independent
finish.
There were numerous contemporaries, followers, and pupils of the
composers already discussed. Their works, however, were academic,
lacked individuality, and contained little that was worthy of
special consideration. The list of these minor composers includes
Laurenti, Borri, Mazzolini, Bononcini, Buoni, Bernardi, d’Albergati,
Mazzaferrata, Tonini, Grossi, Ruggeri, Vinacesi, Zanata, and others.
V
The first German composer of violin music of æsthetic value was
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (born 1638), a very prominent violinist
and composer of his time. Although frequently his form is vague and his
ideas often dry, some of his sonatas contain movements that not only
exhibit well-defined forms, but also contain fine and deeply felt ideas
and a style which, though closely related to that of the best Italians
of his time, has something characteristically German in its grave
and pathetic severity. His sonatas on the whole are of a much higher
artistic quality than those of his contemporaries. His sixth sonata,
in C minor, published in 1687, is a genuinely artistic piece of work.
‘It consists of five movements in alternately slow and quick time. The
first is an introductory _largo_ of contrapuntal character, with clear
and consistent treatment in the fugally imitative manner. The second
is a _passacaglia_, which answers roughly to a continuous string of
variations on a short, well-marked period; the third is a rhapsodical
movement consisting of interspersed portions of _poco lento_, _presto_,
and _adagio_, leading into a _Gavotte_; and the last is a further
rhapsodical movement alternating _adagio_ and _allegro_. The work is
essentially a violin sonata with accompaniment and the violin parts
point to the extraordinary rapid advances toward mastery. The writing
for the instrument is decidedly elaborate and difficult, especially in
the double stops and contrapuntal passages. In the structure of the
movements the fugal influences are most apparent and there are very few
signs of the systematic repetition of keys which in later times became
indispensable.’[47] It was characteristic of Biber that his ambition
was to create something original and that his works always showed
individuality. He was fond of variations and this form was not lacking
in any of his eight sonatas. Besides the variation form he frequently
used the form of _gavotte_ and _giga_, which he began and ended with
an organ point. In his eighth sonata he attempted to write a duo in
polyphonic style for one violin, writing it out on two staves. This
work is of little importance to us, aside from the fact that he sought
originality in changing the tuning of the violin from [Illustration:
Music score] to [Illustration: Music score] and sometimes to
[Illustration: Music score]. This kind of modified tuning, however,
was not his invention, for we know that Johann Fischer, a composer and
violinist in the same century, also attempted to write for differently
tuned violins.
One of the best violinists of the seventeenth century was Nicholas Adam
Strungk. He was also a good cembalist and once accompanied Corelli.
It was Strungk to whom Corelli said upon hearing him play on the
violin: ‘My name is Archangelo, but you should be called Archidiavolo.’
Strungk published _Exercises pour le violin_ (1691), besides sonatas,
chaccones, etc.
Our review of the violin music of the seventeenth century would
not be complete without mention of the compositions for violin
by non-violinist composers, such as, for instance, Henry Purcell
(1658-1695). Purcell imitated G. B. Vitali, and perhaps also other
contemporary Italian composers, to whom, however, he was superior
in originality, in vigor, in genuine inspiration and in a certain
emotional quality. His violin compositions did not accentuate
technique, since he himself was not a violinist. Concerning the sonatas
of John Jenkins (1600), Dr. Burney remarks: ‘Though written professedly
in the Italian style, he could hardly have been familiar with the
early Italian compositions of the same order, and though he had been,
he would not be deprived of praise on the score of originality, his
musical knowledge being quite equal if not superior to the composers
for the violin at that time in Italy.’ Among French composers we may
single out Jean-Baptiste Lully (1633-1687), leader of the famous band
of petit violins at the court of Louis XIV--the first large stringed
orchestra. Lully studied the capacity of the instrument and tried to
write in an idiomatic style, but on the whole he did not contribute
much to the progress of violin music.
The appearance of a great number of violinist-composers in the
seventeenth century indicates that the use of the violin was almost
general at musical affairs of the time. In Coriat’s ‘Crudities’ the
author speaks of hearing an ensemble in which ‘the music of a treble
viol was so excellent that no one could surpass it.’ He continues:
‘Sometimes sixteen played together, sometimes ten, or different
instruments, a cornet and a treble viol. Of these treble viols I heard
three whereof each was so good, especially one that I observed above
the rest, that I never heard the like before.’ Pepys (1660) made
references to the viol in his Diary: ‘I have played on my viol and I
took much pleasure to have the neighbors come forth into the yard to
hear me.’ Many other references in literary works of the time attest
the increasing popularity and the appealing qualities of the instrument.
There was no dearth of publications of collections for string
instruments, which gradually became more discriminating in the _kind_
of instruments to be used. The appearance of works designed to instruct
the amateur indicate the spread of the art of violin playing and gave
way toward the systemizing technique. A few of these publications
appearing at different periods of the seventeenth century may be
enumerated: Early in the century Dowland (1603-1609) printed a work in
five parts for lute and viols, named ‘Lacrimæ, or Seven Tears figured
in passionate Pavans, with divers other Pavans, Galliards, etc.’ In
1614 Sir William Leighton published ‘The Tears or Lamentations of a
sorrowful soule; composed with the Musical Ayres and songs both for
voyces and divers instruments.’ In this he included published vocal
music of different composers with the accompaniment of the lute, and
appended to the titles the remark: ‘Cantus with the Treble Viol.’
Orlando Gibbons (about 1620-1630) composed nine Fantasies, four for
treble viols. These fantasies are in fugal style. He also published
Madrigals, Motets, etc., ‘apt for viols and voices.’ From 1654 we
have reference to a work, which, if correctly described, would be the
earliest string quartet by an English author. It is a ‘Set of Ayre for
two violins, Tenor and Bass,’ by Dr. Benjamin Rogers. According to
Burney these pieces were never printed. In 1657 Matthew Lock published
the ‘Little Consort of three parts containing Pavans, Courants,
Sarabandes, for viols and violins.’ In 1659 Chr. Simpson published ‘The
Division violinist or an introduction to the Playing upon the Ground.
Divided into two parts, the first directing the hand, with other
preparative instructions, the second laying open the manner and method
of playing extempore, or composing division to a ground. To which are
added some divisions made upon grounds for the Practise of learner.’
This title clearly shows the content of the work. Roger L’Estrange, the
licenser of that time, addressed the reader in a second edition with
the following words: ‘the book certainly answers the pretense of the
title, both for matter and method, to the highest point of reasonable
expectation.’
John Lentor, a member of William and Mary’s state band, published ‘The
Gentleman’s Diversion, or the Violin explained.’ A second edition was
issued in 1702 with the title ‘The useful Instructor on the Violin.’ In
1676 Thomas Mace published ‘Musick’s Monument, or a Remembrance of the
best practical music,’ etc., where we find many interesting particulars
relative to viols.
In 1669 John Playford published ‘Apollo’s Banquet.’ It contained
‘Short Rules and Directions for Practitioners of the Treble Violin
with a collection of old Century Dances.’ In a preface, that Playford
calls ‘Advertisement,’ we read: ‘Several persons coming often to my
Shop for Books of tunes for the Treble-Violin, to accommodate each I
have made public this collection of Choice Tunes; and also of tunes
of the newest French Dances: All which are very useful to those who
use the Treble-Violin. Some will object, many of these tunes were
formerly printed at the end of the Book, Entitled, the Dancing Master:
I grant they were, but some which were choice I would not omit in this
collection.’
E. K.
FOOTNOTES:
[42] _Cf._ Vol. VIII, Chap. I.
[43] See Vol. I, Chap. VII.
[44] The various ‘positions’ in violin playing indicate the positions
which the left hand occupies in reaching the different parts of the
fingerboard. The first position is that in which the thumb and first
finger are at the extreme end of the instrument's ‘neck.’ With the
usual tuning the compass controlled by the first position is from a to
b".
[45] Leopold Mozart (father of Wolfgang Amadeus) referred to it in his
method for the violin (1758) and sharply condemned it. ‘Some teachers,’
he remarked, ‘in their desire to help pupils, label the names of tones
upon the fingerboard or make marks upon it by scratching. All these
devices are useless, because the pupil who is musically talented finds
the notes without such aid, and persons who are not thus inclined
should learn how to handle the ax instead of the bow.’
[46] George Hart: ‛The Violin and Its Music.’
[47] Parry in ‘Grove’s Dictionary,’ Vol. 4.
CHAPTER XII
VIOLIN COMPOSERS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Corelli, Vivaldi, Albinoni--Their successors, Locatelli,
F. M. Veracini, and others; Tartini, and his pupils;
pupils of Somis: Giardini and Pugnani--French violinists
and composers: Rébel, Francœur, Baptiste Anet, Senaillé
and Leclair; French contemporaries of Viotti: Pagin,
Lahoussaye, Gaviniès; Viotti--Violinists in Germany and
Austria during the eighteenth century: Pisendel, J. G.
Graun, Franz Benda; Leopold Mozart--The Mannheim school: J.
Stamitz, Cannabich and others; Dittersdorf, Wranitzky and
Schuppanzigh--Non-violinist composers: Handel, Bach, Haydn,
Mozart--Conclusion.
I
Corelli’s opus 5 was published in Rome in 1700. The four earlier
_opera_ and the _concerti grossi_ of 1712 occupy a place in the
development of chamber and symphonic music. The opus 5 may be taken as
the solid foundation of violin music, that is music for a single violin
with accompaniment. It consists of twelve solo sonatas, with figured
bass for harpsichord, 'cello, or theorbo. The first six of these are
similar in spirit to the _sonate da chiesa_. They are generally serious
in treatment. The other six correspond to the _sonate da camera_.
Five of them are made up of dance movements in the style of a suite,
though the order is irregular, and here and there the dance name is not
written in the score. The last consists of variations on a melody known
as _La folia_. The melody is very old. The sarabande rhythm suggests an
origin in connection with some sort of Spanish dance; and in a series
of Spanish dances published in 1623 there is a _Follie_. Also the
French clavecinist d’Anglebert wrote a series of variations which he
published in his set of clavecin pieces (1689) as _Folies d’Espagne_.
It is very doubtful that this melody, of which Corelli and Vivaldi as
well made use, was composed by G. B. Farinelli, though in England it
was known as ‘Farinelli’s Ground.’ Rather it is one of the old popular
songs, such as _La romanesca_, which composers employed as a _basso
ostinato_ in sets of divisions or variations, very much like a Chaconne
or a Passacaglia.
The treatment of the violin in these twelve sonatas has, and well may
have, served as a model during the years which have passed since they
were written. Music cannot be conceived more fitting to the instrument.
It is true that none calls for brilliant virtuosity. Corelli never goes
beyond the third position; but within this limit no effect in sonority
or delicacy has been neglected.
The polyphonic style of the first six is worth mentioning. It will be
observed that in all the first allegros, and in the last as well, the
violin is given a certain amount of two-part music to play. Usually
there is a strong suggestion of fugal style. The violin announces the
subject, and continues with the answer. Then the figured bass takes
it up. The first allegro in the fourth sonata offers a clear example.
Throughout the entire movement the instrument is called upon to play
more or less in polyphonic style--carrying _two_ parts. It is, however,
a graceful and flowing style. There is no suggestion of learning too
heavy for sound. The short, slow preludes at the beginning of each
sonata are all beautifully wrought. The smooth imitations in No. 2, the
use of a rhythmical figure in the bass of No. 3, and in all the free
independent movement of the two parts, speak of a composer of finest
instinct and true skill.
In the second six, on the other hand, the violin is not called upon to
carry more than one part. The style is consequently lighter, and on the
whole more brilliant. The rhythmical elements of the dances are brought
out prominently, and here Corelli shows himself no less a master.
Take for example the allemande in the eighth sonata (E minor), or the
gavotte in the tenth (F major).
The variations on _La folia_ present Corelli’s technical resources in a
nut-shell, so to speak. Such variations as the first, second, and third
show a command of counterpoint; but the fifth begins to reveal his
instinct for effects upon the violin, which is given freer and freer
play in the eleventh, thirteenth, and fourteenth. The contrast between
upper and lower strings is brought out in those mentioned. In the
twelfth and sixteenth he uses the rich thirds and sixths destined in
the course of the century to displace the polyphonic style altogether.
Finally the twenty-third brings an astonishing effect of vibration and
resonance.
It is neatness of form, surety of technique, and perfection of style
which give these sonatas their historical importance, which have made
them a foundation for further development. Their beauty, however, is
not a matter of history. We know of no music that speaks of an age that
is passed with more gentleness, more sweetness, or more dignity. There
is none that is more admirable. It is gratifying to note that such
music as this was in its own day beloved. The _Apothèse de l’admirable
Corelli_ written by the great French clavecinist, François Couperin,
is among the few whole-souled and disinterested tributes of one
contemporary to another. It describes in quaint music the entrance of
Corelli into the company of Lully in the Elysian Fields. Couperin held
that the combination of what was best in Italian music with what was
best in French would produce an ideal music; and obviously he prized
Corelli as representative of the best that there was in Italy.
[Illustration]
Early Masters of the Violin. Top: Archangelo Corelli.
Bottom: Antonio Vivaldi. Giuseppe Tartini.
It would be hard today to point to the music of any other Italian
master which has endured through radical changes of style and taste
and has lost nothing; or indeed to that of the masters of any nation.
Yet no subsequent developments have made a single quality of these
sonatas dim or stale. The reason may be found in the just proportion
in them of all the elements of music. The forms are slight; but they
are graceful and secure, and there is not in the emotional quality of
Corelli’s music that which calls for wider expression than they afford.
The treatment of the violin shows a knowledge of it and a love of its
qualities, tempered always by a respect and love for music as an art of
expression. Therefore there is no phrase which is not in accord with
the spirit and the law of the piece in which it is written, nothing
which, written then for the sake of display, may make a feeble show in
the light of modern technique. There is no abandonment to melody at
the cost of other qualities; nor even a momentary forgetfulness of the
pleasure of the ear in the exercise of the mind. Nothing has come into
music in the course of two hundred years which can stand between us and
a full appreciation of their beauty.
This can hardly be said of the music of his contemporaries, three of
whom, however, have lived to the present day, and one in more than
name. Tommaso Albinoni (1674-1745) and Giuseppe Torelli (d. 1708)
were both important in the establishment of the form of solo concerto
which J. S. Bach acquired from Vivaldi.[48] Albinoni was a Venetian
dilettante and spent most of his life in Venice in connection with the
opera. Besides the fifty-one operas which he wrote, there are several
instrumental works, from some of which Bach appropriated themes. A
beautiful sonata in D minor has been edited by Alfred Moffat and
published in a _Kammer-Sonaten_ series (B. Schott’s Söhne, Mainz).
Notice the cadenza at the end of the slow movement. Torelli was a
native of Bologna, but he spent at one time a few years in Vienna and
also a year or two in Ansbach.
Antonio Vivaldi, likewise a Venetian, is one of the most significant
composers in the history of musical form, and was second only to
Corelli as a composer for the violin and a player, if indeed he was not
fully Corelli’s equal. Among his works are eighteen sonatas for solo
violin and bass, opus 2 and opus 5, and a great number of concertos
for a single violin and a varying number of accompanying instruments.
Commonly it is said that much of Vivaldi’s music is touched with the
falseness of virtuosity; and to this is laid the fact that his work
has been forgotten while Corelli’s has lived. The fact itself cannot
be denied. Yet there is a fine breadth and dignity in some of the
concertos and in the sonatas, and warmth in the slow movements. He died
in 1743 as director of a school for girls in Venice. On account of his
red hair and his rank as priest he was known as _il prete rosso_.
II
From the time of Corelli to the time of Paganini there was an unbroken
line of Italian violinists most of whom were composers. The violin was
second only to the voice in the love of the Italians, which, it must
not be forgotten, was, during the eighteenth century, the love of all
Europe. The violinists rose to highest favor much as the great opera
singers, but unlike the singers, composed their own music. This under
their hands might move thousands to rapture, and still may work upon
a crowd through a great player. Such is the power of the violin. But
as a matter of fact most of this music has been allowed to sink out
of sight, and the names of most of these composers have remained but
the names of performers. With only a few are definite characteristics
associated.
Among these whose activities fell within the first half of the century
are two pupils of Corelli, Francesco Geminiani (1667-1762) and Pietro
Locatelli (1693-1764). From 1714 Geminiani lived, with the exception
of five or six years in Paris, in London and Ireland. He was highly
respected as a teacher, and his book, ‘The Art of Playing on the
Violin,’ is the first complete violin method. This was published
first anonymously in 1731, but later went through many editions and
was translated into French and German, and established Geminiani’s
fame as the greatest of teachers. Besides this he wrote other works,
on harmony, memory, good taste, and other subjects, founded a school
for the guitar, and composed sonatas and concertos for violin, trios,
quartets, and even clavecin pieces.
Locatelli was a brilliant virtuoso and seems to have travelled widely
over Europe. To him is owing an extension of the violin style, and a
few effects in virtuosity, especially in chromatics. And he is said to
have raised the pitch of the first string to bring new effects within
his grasp. One notes in both his and Geminiani’s music the frequent
use of thirds and sixths, the employment of high registers and of wide
chords.
Another especially famous and influential in the development of violin
music was Francesco Maria Veracini (1685-1750). He, too, was a wanderer
and an astonishing virtuoso. In 1714 the young Tartini heard him play
in Venice and was so struck by his brilliance that he himself decided
to retire and practise in order to be able to compete with him.
Some time before 1717 Veracini was for two years in London, where he
played violin solos between the acts at the Italian opera, as was the
custom not only in England but in the continental countries as well.
After this he was for some years in Dresden and in Prague. In 1736
he came back to London, but Geminiani was then at the height of his
fame. Veracini could make little of his gifts there and consequently
went to Pisa, near where he died. During his lifetime he published
twelve sonatas for violin and figured bass. After his death symphonies
and concertos were found in manuscript. One of the sonatas was
republished by David, and one in B minor is included in the series
of _Kammer-Sonaten_ previously mentioned. The final rondo of this is
exceedingly lively and brilliant, with a cadenza in modern style.
Other names of this period are Somis (1676-1763), Ruggeri and Giuseppe
Valentini. Somis was a pupil of Corelli’s, and in turn the teacher
of Pugnani, who was the teacher of Viotti, the founder of the modern
school of violin playing.
The most brilliant name of the century is Giuseppe Tartini
(1692-1770). He was intended by his parents for the church, but opposed
their wishes and went in 1710 to the university at Padua to study
law. Evidently music was more attractive to him than law, and even
more attractive than music was the art of fencing. In this he became
a great master. A secret marriage and elopement with the daughter of
Cardinal Carnaro involved him in serious troubles. He was forced to
flee from the wrath of the churchly father-in-law, and took refuge in
a cloister at Assisi. Here he lived in secret for two years, until the
anger against him in Padua had cooled down. During these two years he
worked constantly at his fiddle, and at composition as well. Later he
chanced to hear Veracini at Venice. Whereupon, full of enthusiasm,
he sent his wife back to his relatives in Pirano for the time being,
and went himself again into retirement at Ancona. Finally in 1721 he
acquired the position of solo violinist and leader of the orchestra in
the cathedral of St. Anthony in Padua; and this place he held to the
end of his life, refusing, with one exception, numerous invitations to
other towns and countries. In 1728 he founded a school for violinists
at Padua, of which Nardini was for many years a pupil.
Tartini was a man of brilliant though sometimes erratic mind. His book
on bowing (_L’arte del arco_) laid down practically all the principles
upon which the modern art of bowing rests. But his investigations
into the theories of sounds and harmonies are sometimes ill-founded
and without importance. Throughout his life he published sets of six
sonatas for violin and bass or harpsichord, and concertos. Probably
he is generally best known today by his sonata in G minor, called the
‘Devil’s Trill,’ which, however, was not published during his lifetime.
The story that he dreamed the Devil appeared to him and played a piece
of bewitching beauty, that he rose from his bed to play what he heard,
and could not, that with these unearthly sounds still haunting him
several days later he wrote this sonata, is well known.
Tartini’s playing was brilliant, but he played little in public,
seeming to have an aversion for that sort of display similar to that
felt later by the great Viotti. More than his contemporaries he had the
power to make his violin sing.
Pietro Nardini is the most famous of Tartini’s pupils. He was a Tuscan
by birth. During the years 1753-67 he was employed in the court
chapel at Stuttgart. After this he returned to Tartini, and after
1770 was court chapel-master in Florence. His publications included
solo sonatas, concertos and various other forms of chamber music. His
playing was distinguished by softness and tenderness. In the words of
a critic who heard him: Ice-cold princes and ladies of the court have
been seen to weep when he played an adagio.
Other violinists associated with the school at Padua founded by
Tartini are Pasqualini Bini (b. 1720), Emanuele Barbella (d. 1773), G.
M. Lucchesi, Thomas Linley, Filippo Manfreli, a friend and associate
of Boccherini’s, and Domenico Ferrari. Finally mention should be made
of the Signora Maddalena Lombardini, among the first of the women
violinists, who was a pupil of Tartini’s and won brilliant success at
the _Concerts Spirituels_ in Paris. She was, moreover, famous as a
singer in the Paris opera and later in the court opera at Dresden.
Two of the most famous violinists of the latter half of the century,
Felice Giardini and Gaëtano Pugnani, received their training in Turin
under Somis, the pupil of Corelli, who is commonly accepted as the
founder of a distinct Piedmont school. Giardini settled in London about
the middle of the century, after wanderings in Italy and Germany; and
here endured a changing fortune as player, teacher, composer, conductor
and even impresario. Luck was against him in almost every venture. In
1791 he left London forever, with an opera troupe which he led into
Russia. He died at Moscow in 1796.
Pugnani’s life was happier. He was a pupil not only of Somis but of
Tartini as well, and though between 1750 and 1770 he gave himself up to
concert tours and made himself famous in London and Paris as a player,
he was greatest and most influential as a teacher in Turin between
1770 and 1803, the year of his death. Only a few of his compositions,
which included operas and church music as well as music for the
violin, were published. A great part of the money won by these and his
teaching was given over to the poor, and he was not only one of the
greatest violinists of his age but one of the most beloved of men. His
compositions are noteworthy for a soft charm, rather than for fervor or
strength.
Giambattista Viotti, the greatest of his pupils, stands with Corelli
and Tartini as one of the three violinists of Italy who have had the
greatest influence upon the development of violin music. Through
Pugnani he received directly the traditions of the two great men whom
he was destined so worthily to follow.
Though it is nearly impossible sharply to differentiate the styles
of the host of violinists Italy gave to the world in the eighteenth
century, two tendencies show in the total of their work. One of
these was towards a noble and restrained style, the model for which
Corelli gave to all his successors. The other was towards the surface
brilliance of pure virtuosity, which comes out astonishingly in the
works of Locatelli. Viotti was a musician of highest ideals, and
chiefly through him the traditions that had been inherited from Corelli
were brought over into the violin music of a new era.
The time of Viotti is the time of the symphony and the sonata. He is
the contemporary of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, and of (among his own
people) Clementi and Cherubini. As a composer he gave up writing what
had so long been the chief work of the violinist-composers--the sonata
with figured bass or simple accompaniment. Only a few sonatas are
numbered among his compositions; but he wrote no less than twenty-nine
violin concertos with full orchestral accompaniment, all of which show
the breadth of the new form of sonata and symphony, which had come out
of Italy, through Mannheim to Paris.
III
Before considering Viotti’s work in detail something must be said
about the condition of violin music in France during the eighteenth
century, and the violinists in Paris, with the assistance of whom
he was able to found a school of violin playing the traditions of
which still endure. With but one or two conspicuous exceptions, the
most significant violinists of the eighteenth century in France came
directly under the influence of the Italian masters. This did not
always contribute to their material successes; for throughout the
century there was a well-organized hostility to Italian influences in
one branch and another of music. Nevertheless most of what is good in
French violin music of the time owes a great deal to the Italians.
Such men as Rébel and Francœur (d. 1787), who were closely connected
with the _Académie_ founded by Lully, may be passed with only slight
mention. Both were significant in the field of opera rather than in
that of violin music. Their training was wholly French and their
activities were joined in writing for the stage. The latter composed
little without the former, except two sets of sonatas for violin, which
belong to an early period in his life. Francœur advised the use of the
thumb on the fingerboard in certain chords, a manner which, according
to Wasielewski,[49] is without another example in violin music.
On the other hand, Batiste Anet, J. B. Senaillé and Jean Marie
Leclair, all trained in Italy, are important precursors of the great
violinists at the end of the century who gathered about Viotti and
the _Conservatoire_. Anet, who is also known merely by his Christian
name, was a pupil of Corelli’s for four years. Upon his return to
Paris, about 1700, he made a profound impression upon the public;
but the great King Louis refused him his favor, and he was forced
to seek occupation in Poland. It was largely owing to his influence
that Senaillé (d. 1730), after having studied in Paris with one of
the famous twenty-four violins of the king, betook himself to Italy.
He returned to Paris about 1719 and passed the remainder of his life
in the service of the Duc d’Orleans. Five sets of his sonatas were
published in Paris, and one of them was included in J. B. Cartier’s
famous collection, _L’art du violon_.
Jean Marie Leclair is more conspicuous than either Batiste or Senaillé.
He was for some time a pupil of Somis in Turin. After troubles in
Paris on his return, he retired from public life and gave himself
up to teaching. Towards the end of his life he sought lessons of
Locatelli in Amsterdam. He was murdered in the streets of Paris one
night in October, 1764. After his death his wife had his compositions
engraved and printed. Among them are sonatas for violin and figured
bass, concertos with string accompaniment, trios, and even one opera,
_Glaucus et Scylla_, which had been performed in Paris on October 4,
1747.
In spite of the Italian influences evident in his work, Leclair may be
taken as one of the main founders of the French school of violinists.
Form and style of his works for the instrument are Italian; but the
spirit of them, their piquant rhythms, their preciseness, their
sparkling grace, is wholly French. The best known of his compositions
today is probably a sonata in C minor (from opus 5), which, on account
of a seriousness not usual with him, has been called _Le tombeau_.
None of his pupils was more famous than Le Chevalier de St. Georges,
the events of whose life, however, are more startling than his
music. He was the son of a certain de Boulogne and a negress, born
on Christmas day, 1745, in Guadaloupe. He came as a child to Paris,
and was trained by Leclair to be one of the most famous violinists in
France. For several years he was associated with Gossec in conducting
the _Concerts des amateurs_; but subsequently misfortune overtook him.
He was a soldier of fortune in the wars accompanying the Revolution;
and he escaped the guillotine only to drag on a miserable existence
until he died on the 12th of June, 1799.
Following Leclair the list of violinists in France grows steadily
greater and more brilliant. A. N. Pagin and Pierre Lahoussaye were of
great influence. The former was born in 1721 in Paris, and went as a
young man to study with Tartini. The prejudice against Italian music
destroyed his public career on his return to Paris, so that he retired
from the concert stage and like Leclair gave himself up to teaching.
Burney heard him in private in 1770, and was struck by his technique
and the sweetness of his tone. He often played at the house of a Count
Senneterre in Paris, where such men as Giardini and Pugnani were heard.
It was here that he heard Lahoussaye, still a boy, play the ‘Devil’s
Trill’ by Tartini, which he had learned only by ear. He promptly took
the young fellow under his care and thus his influence passed on into
the foundation of the violin school in the Paris _Conservatoire de
Musique_ in 1795.
For Lahoussaye proved to be one of the greatest violinists France
has produced, and was appointed, together with Gaviniès, Guènin, and
Kreutzer, to be one of the original professors of the violin at the
_Conservatoire_. Owing largely to the influence of Pagin he was filled
as a young man with the longing to study with Tartini himself, and this
longing came in time to be gratified. So that Lahoussaye forms one of
the most direct links between the classical Italian school, represented
by Corelli and Tartini, and the new French school soon to be founded
after the model of the Italian under the powerful influence of Viotti.
The most brilliant of the French violinists toward the end of the
century was Pierre Gaviniès. Neither the exact date of his birth (1726
or 1728) nor his birthplace (Bordeaux or Paris) is known. From whom
he received instruction remains wholly in the dark. But when Viotti
came to Paris in 1782 Gaviniès was considered one of the greatest of
living violinists. The great Italian is said to have called him the
French Tartini; from which one may infer that in his playing he had
copied somewhat the manner of the Italian players who, one after the
other, made themselves heard in all the great cities of Europe. But,
judging from his compositions, he was more given to brilliancy and
effectiveness than Tartini; and though he may not be ranked among
violinists like Lolli who had nothing but astonishing technique at
their command, he was undoubtedly influential in giving to the French
school its shining brilliance whereby it passed beyond the older
classical traditions.
His compositions are numerous, and they exerted no little influence
upon the development of the art. Besides two sets of sonatas for violin
and figured bass he published six concertos, three sonatas for violin
alone (among them that known as _Le tombeau de Gaviniès_), the once
famous _Romance de Gaviniès_, written while he was serving a sentence
in prison after a more or less scandalous escapade, and finally the
best known of his works, _Les vingt-quatre Matinées_.
There were twenty-four studies, written after he was seventy years old,
as if to show to what an extent the mastery of technical difficulties
of fingering could be developed. Consequently they lack very deep
feeling and meaning, and unhappily the difficulties in them are
presented so irregularly that they are hardly of use as studies to any
but the most advanced students. They have been re-edited by David since
his death and published once again. The sonatas and concertos have
failed to survive.
Leclair, Pagin, Lahoussaye, and Gaviniès represent together the best
accomplishment of the French violinists before the arrival of Viotti.
Among others neither so famous nor so influential may be mentioned
Joseph Touchemoulin (d. 1801), Guillemain (d. 1770), Antoine Dauvergne
(d. 1797), L’Abbé Robineau, who published several pieces for violin
about 1770, Marie Alexandre Guénin (d. 1819), François Hippolite
Barthélémon (d. 1808), Leblanc (b. ca. 1750), and Isidore Berthaume (d.
1820).
Little by little the French had developed the art of playing the violin
and composing for it. The time was ripe in the last quarter of the
eighteenth century for the founding of that great school of French art
which was to exert a powerful and lasting influence upon the growth of
violin music. And now the influence of Viotti comes into play.
Viotti was by all tokens one of the greatest of the world’s
violinists. He was born May 23, 1753, at Fontanetto, in Piedmont, and
when hardly more than a boy, came under the care of Pugnani. In 1780
he started out with his master on an extended concert tour, which
took him through Germany, Poland, Russia and England. Everywhere he
met with brilliant success. Finally he came to Paris and made his
first appearance at the _Concerts Spirituels_ in 1782. His success was
enormous, not only as a player but as a composer. Unhappily subsequent
appearances were not so successful, and Viotti determined to withdraw
from the concert stage. Except for a short visit to his home in 1783,
he remained in Paris until the outbreak of the Revolution, variously
occupied in teaching, composing, leading private orchestras, and
managing in part the Italian opera. The Revolution ruined his fortunes
and he went to London. Here he renewed his public playing, appearing at
the famous Salomon concerts, in connection with which he saw something
of Haydn. But, suspected of political intrigues, he was sent away
from London. He lived a year or two in retirement in Hamburg and then
returned to London. He was conductor in some of the Haydn benefit
concerts in 1794 and 1795, and he was a director in other series of
concerts until his success once more waned. Then like Clementi he
entered into commerce. The remainder of his life was spent between
London and Paris, and he died in London on March 10, 1824.
The most famous of his compositions are the twenty-nine concertos
previously referred to; and of these the twenty-second, in A minor,
is commonly acceded to be the best. The treatment of the violin is
free and brilliant, and some of his themes are happily conceived. Yet
on the whole his music now sounds old-fashioned, probably because we
have come to associate a more positive and a richer sort of music with
the broad symphonic forms which he was among the first to employ in
the violin concertos. It was rumored at one time and another that the
orchestral parts of these concertos were arranged by Cherubini, with
whom Viotti was associated during his first years at the Italian opera
in Paris; but the only foundation for such a report seems to be that it
was not uncommon for violinist composers of that period to enlist the
aid of their friends in writing for the orchestra. Viotti was a broadly
educated musician, whose experience with orchestras was wide.
Second in importance to the concertos are the duets for two violins
written during his stay in Hamburg. These are considered second in
musical charm only to Spohr’s pieces in the same manner. That Viotti
was somewhat low in spirit when he was at work on them, exiled as he
was from London and Paris, is shown by the few words prefixed to one
of the sets, ‘This work is fruit of the leisure which misfortune has
brought me. Some pieces came to me in grief, others in hope.’
Viotti had a brilliant and unrestricted technique. He was among the
greatest of virtuosi. But little of this appears in his music. That is
distinguished by a dignity and a relative simplicity, well in keeping
with the noble traditions inherited from a country great in more ways
than one in the musical history of the eighteenth century. But as far
as form and style go he is modern. He undoubtedly owes something to
Haydn. Moreover, Wasielewski makes the point that there is no trace in
his music of the somewhat churchly dignity one feels in the sonatas of
Corelli and Tartini. Viotti’s is a thoroughly worldly style, in melody
and in the fiery but always musical passage work. He is at once the
last of the classic Italians and the first of the moderns, standing
between Corelli and Tartini on the one hand and Spohr, David, and
Vieuxtemps on the other.
The list of the men who came to him for instruction while he was in
Paris contains names that even today have an imposing ring. Most
prominent among them are Rode, Cartier, and Durand. And among those
who were not actually his pupils but who accepted him as their ideal
and modelled themselves after him were Rodolphe Kreutzer and Pierre
Baillot. These men are the very fountain head of most violin music and
playing of the nineteenth century. They set the standard of excellence
in style and technique by which Spohr and later Vieuxtemps ruled
themselves.
IV
Before considering their work, the development of violin music in
Germany during the eighteenth century must be noticed. The influence
of the Italians was not less strong here than in France. Both Biber
and Strungk had come under it in the late seventeenth century, Strungk
being, as we know, personally acquainted with Corelli and at one time
associating closely with him in Rome. The German violinists of the
eighteenth century either went to Italy to study, or came under the
influence of various Italians who passed through the chief German
cities on concert tours.
The most conspicuous of them are associated with courts or cities
here and there. For instance, early in the century there is Telemann
in Hamburg; a little later Pisendel in Dresden; J. G. Graun in Berlin;
Leopold Mozart in Salzburg; the gifted Stamitz and his associates
Richter, Cannabich and Fränzl in Mannheim; and the most amiable if not
the most gifted of all, Franz Benda, here and there in Bohemia, Austria
and Saxony. Though these and many more were widely famous in their day
as players, and Mozart was influential as a teacher, little of their
music has survived the centuries that have passed since they wrote
it. The eighteenth century was in violin music and likewise in opera,
the era of Italian supremacy; and in violin music we meet with little
except copies outside of Italy.
Georg Philipp Telemann, it is true, wrote that he followed the French
model in his music; but as Wasielewski says, this applies evidently
only to his vocal works and overtures, for his violin compositions
are very clearly imitations of Corelli’s. All his music, and he wrote
enormous quantities in various branches, is essentially commonplace.
Between 1708 and 1721 Telemann occupied a position at the court of
Eisenach. It was chiefly during these years that he gave himself to the
violin and violin music. Afterwards he went to Hamburg and there worked
until his death in 1767.
Johann Georg Pisendel is a far more distinguished figure. He was born
on the twenty-sixth of December, 1687, at Carlsburg in Franconia, and
died in Dresden, after many years’ service there, in November, 1755.
While still a boy the Marquis of Anspach attached him to his chapel,
on account of his beautiful voice. In the service of the same prince
at that time was Torelli, the great Italian composer for the violin;
and Pisendel was his pupil for a considerable period. Later in life
he was able to journey in Italy and France, and was apparently at one
time a pupil of Vivaldi’s in Venice. From 1728 to the time of his death
he was first violin in the royal opera house at Dresden. His playing
was distinguished by care in shading, and in his conducting he was
said to have laid great importance upon ‘loud and soft.’ As a composer
he is without significance, though some of his works--concertos and
sonatas--have been preserved. But his influence served to educate
violinists in that part of Germany, so that little by little Germans
came to supplant the Italians in that branch of music, and to find
occupation in connection with the opera house orchestra, which had been
up to that time almost entirely made up of Italians.
Most conspicuous among those who were actually his pupils was Johann
Gottlieb Graun, brother of the still familiar Carl Heinrich. But
Graun was not content with instruction in Germany alone, and betook
himself to Tartini in Padua. After his return to his native land, he
eventually found his place at the court of Frederick the Great, who
was still crown prince. With him at this time were Quantz, the flute
player, and Franz Benda. After the accession of Frederick to the throne
of Prussia, Graun was made first violin and concert master in the
royal orchestra; and he held this place until his death in 1771. His
compositions, like all others for the violin at this period, are hardly
more than imitations of the Italian masterpieces. And like Pisendel,
his importance is in the improvement of the state of instrumental music
in Germany, and especially of the orchestra at Berlin.
His successor in this royal orchestra was Franz Benda, who, not
only by reason of the romantic wanderings of his life, is one of the
most interesting figures in the history of music in Germany during
the eighteenth century. His father, Hans Georg, had been a sort of
wandering player, as well as a weaver; and his brothers, Johann, Georg,
and Joseph, were all musicians who won a high place in their day. Georg
was perhaps the most distinguished of the family, but in the history of
violin-music Franz occupies a more important place.
The Bendas were Bohemians, but most of them settled in Germany and
accepted German ideals and training. Franz Benda, after a changing
career as a boy singer in various places, finally came under the
influence of Graun and Quantz in the crown prince’s orchestra, at
Rheinsberg. The principal instruction he received upon the violin came
from Graun, who was himself a pupil of Tartini’s; so, although Benda
shows the marks of an independent and self-sufficient development, not
a little of Italian influence came close to him. He remained in the
service of the Prussian court from 1733, when Quantz befriended him,
until his death as an old man in 1786.
His playing was admired for its warm, singing quality, which showed to
such advantages in all slow movements that musicians would come long
distances to hear him play an adagio. Burney heard him in 1772 and was
impressed by the true feeling in his playing. Burney, too, mentioned
that in all Benda’s compositions for the violin there were no passages
which should not be played in a singing and expressive manner. He went
on to say that Benda’s playing was distinguished in this quality from
that of Tartini, Somis, and Veracini, and that it was something all his
own which he had acquired in his early association with singers.
He had indeed been a great singer, and he gave up public singing only
because after singing he was subject to violent headache. He trained
his two daughters to be distinguished singers of the next generation.
His works for the violin are numerous, but only a small part of them
was published, and this posthumously. In spite of the often lovely
melodies in the slow movements they have not been able to outlive their
own day. Wasielewski calls attention to the general use of conventional
arpeggio figures in the long movements, which, characteristic of a
great deal of contemporary music for the violin, may have been written
with the idea of offering good technical exercise in the art of bowing.
Among Benda’s many pupils the two most significant are his own son,
Carl, and Friedrich Wilhelm Rust. The former seems to have inherited
a great part of his father’s skill and style. The sonatas of the
latter are among the best compositions written in Germany for the
violin in the second half of the eighteenth century. Rust died in
February, 1798. His name is remembered as much for his sonatas for
pianoforte as for his violin compositions. Another pupil, Carl Haack,
lived until September, 1819, and thus was able to carry the Benda
tradition over into the nineteenth century. On the whole Franz Benda
may be said to have founded a school of violin playing in Berlin
which has influenced the growth of music for that instrument in
Germany. Its chief characteristic was the care given to simplicity and
straightforwardness, especially in the playing of slow movements and
melodies, which stands out quite distinctly against the current of more
or less specious virtuosity running across the century.
Johann Peter Salomon (1745-1815) has been associated with the Berlin
group, though his youth was spent in and about Bonn, and his greatest
activity was displayed as an orchestral conductor in London. It was
he who engaged Haydn to come to London and to compose symphonies
specially for a London audience; and he occupies an important place
in the history of music in England as one of the founders (1813) of
the Philharmonic Society. He published but little music, and that is
without significance.
One of the outstanding figures in the history of violin music in
Germany is Leopold Mozart, the father of Wolfgang. He is hardly
important as a composer, though many of his works were fairly well
known in and about Salzburg where the greatest part of his life was
spent; but his instruction book on playing the violin marks the
beginning of a new epoch in his own country. This was first published
in Augsburg in 1756, was reprinted again in 1770, 1785, and in Vienna
in 1791 and 1804. It was for many years the only book on the subject in
Germany.
Much of it is now old-fashioned, but it still makes interesting
reading, partly because he was far-seeing enough to seize upon
fundamental principles that have remained unchanged in playing any
instrument, partly because the style is concise and the method clear,
partly because of the numerous examples it contains of both good and
bad music. Evidently his standard of excellence is Tartini, so that
we still find violin music in Germany strongly under the influence
of the Italians. But the great emphasis he lays upon simplicity and
expressiveness recalls Benda and his ideals, so that it would appear
that some wise men in Germany were at least shrewd enough to choose
only what was best in the Italian art. Among the many interesting
points he makes is that it takes a better-trained and a more skillful
violinist to play in an orchestra than to make a success as a soloist.
Evidently many of the German musicians distrusted the virtuoso. Emanuel
Bach, it will be remembered, cared nothing for show music on the
keyboard. C. F. D. Schubart, author of the words of Schubert’s _Die
Forelle_, said that an orchestra made up of virtuosi was like a world
of queens without a ruler. He had the orchestra at Stuttgart in mind.
V
Meanwhile about the orchestra at Mannheim there was a band of gifted
young men whose importance in the development of the symphony and other
allied forms has been but recently recognized, and now, it seems,
can hardly be overestimated. The most remarkable of these was J. C.
Stamitz, a Bohemian born in 1719, who died when less than forty years
old. His great accomplishments in the domains of orchestral music have
been explained elsewhere in this series. In the matter of violin music
he can hardly be said to show any unusual independence of the Italians,
but in the meagre accounts of his life there is enough to show that
he was a great violinist. He was the teacher of his two sons, Carl
(1746-1801) and Anton (b. 1753), the latter of whom apparently grew
up in Paris, where the father, by the way, had been well known at the
house of La Pouplinière. Anton, as we shall see, was the teacher of
Rodolphe Kreutzer, already mentioned as one of the great teachers at
the Paris Conservatory in the first of the nineteenth century.
Christian Cannabich, a disciple if not a pupil of Stamitz, was likewise
a famous violinist, but again like his master, was more influential
in what he accomplished with the famous orchestra at Mannheim than in
his playing or composing for the violin. He seems to have spent some
years in Naples to study with Jomelli, and the Italian influence is
evident in all he wrote for the violin. Wilhelm Cramer, the father of
the now more famous J. B. Cramer, was another violinist associated with
the Mannheim school, until in 1773 he went to London on the advice of
Christian Bach. Here he lost one place after another as conductor,
owing now to the arrival of Salomon, now to that of Viotti. He died in
1799 in great poverty.
Others connected with the orchestra at Mannheim are Ignaz Fränzl,
whose pupil, F. W. Pixis, became the teacher of Kalliwoda and Laub, and
whose son Ferdinand (1770-1833) was a distinguished violinist in the
next century; and Johann Friedrich Eck (b. 1766) and his brother Franz.
Their father was, like Stamitz, a Bohemian. Indeed Stamitz seems to
have induced Eck the elder to leave Bohemia and come to Mannheim. Franz
Eck is most famous today as one of the teachers of Ludwig Spohr.
In Vienna the Italian influence was supreme down to nearly the
end of the century. The first of the Viennese violinists to win an
international and a lasting renown was Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf
(b. 1739), the friend of Haydn and Gluck. Though two of his teachers,
König and Ziegler, were Austrians, a third, who perfected him, was an
Italian, Trani. Through Trani Dittersdorf became familiar with the
works of Corelli, Tartini, and Ferrari, after which he formed his
own style. Practically the first German to draw a circle of pupils
about him was Anton Wranitzky (b. 1761). Among his pupils the most
distinguished was Ignaz Schuppanzigh, who, as the leader of the
Schuppanzigh quartet, won for himself an immortal fame, and really set
the model for most quartet playing throughout the nineteenth century.
He was the son of a professor at the Realschule in Vienna. From
boyhood he showed a zeal for music, at first making himself a master
of the viola. At the time Beethoven was studying counterpoint with
Albrechtsberger he was taking lessons on the viola with Schuppanzigh.
Later, however, Schuppanzigh gave up the viola for the violin. His most
distinguished work was as a quartet leader, but he won fame as a solo
player as well; and when the palace of Prince Rasoumowsky was burned in
1815, he went off on a concert tour through Germany, Poland and Russia
which lasted many years. He was a friend not only of Beethoven, but of
Haydn, Mozart, and of Schubert as well; and was the principal means of
bringing the quartet music of these masters to the knowledge of the
Viennese public. He died of paralysis, March 2, 1830. Among his pupils
the most famous was Mayseder, at one time a member of the quartet.
What is noteworthy about the German violinist-composers of the
eighteenth century is not so much the commonness with which they
submitted to the influence of the Italians, but the direction their
art as players took as soon as they began to show signs of a national
independence. Few were the match of the Italians or even the French
players in solo work. None was a phenomenal virtuoso. The greatest
were most successful as orchestral or quartet players; and their most
influential work was that done in connection with some orchestra. This
is most evident in the case of the Mannheim composers. Both Stamitz
and Cannabich were primarily conductors, who had a special gift in
organizing and developing the orchestra. Their most significant
compositions were their symphonies, in the new style, in which they not
only gave a strong impetus to the development of symphonic forms, but
brought about new effects in the combination of wood-wind and brass
instruments with the strings. Leopold Mozart’s opinion that a man
who could play well in an orchestra was a better player and a better
musician than he who could make a success playing solos, is indicative
of the purely German idea of violin music during the century. And
it cannot be denied that great as Franz Benda and Johann Graun may
have been as players, they contributed little of lasting worth to the
literature of the violin, and made practically no advance in the art
of playing it. But both were great organizers and concert masters,
and as such left an indelible impression on the development of music,
especially orchestral music, in Germany.
VI
Before concluding this chapter and passing on to a discussion of the
development of violin music in the nineteenth century a few words must
be said of the compositions for the violin by those great masters who
were not first and foremost violinists. Among these, four may claim our
attention: Handel, Bach, Haydn, and Mozart.
Handel is not known to have given much time to the violin, but it is
said that when he chose to play on it, his tone was both strong and
beautiful. He wrote relatively little music for it. Twelve so-called
solo sonatas with figured bass (harpsichord or viol) were published
in 1732 as opus 1. Of these only three are for the violin: the third,
tenth, and twelfth. The others are for flute. Apart from a few
characteristic violin figures, chiefly of the rocking variety, these
solo sonatas might very well do for clavier with equal effect. There is
the sane, broad mood in them all which one associates with Handel. In
the edition of Handel’s works by the German Handel Society, there are
three additional sonatas for violin--in D major, A major, and E major.
These seem to be of somewhat later origin than the others, but they are
in the same form, beginning with a slow movement, followed by allegro,
largo, and final allegro, as in most of the cyclical compositions of
that time. One cannot deny to these sonatas a manly dignity and charm.
They are in every way plausible as only Handel knows how to be; yet
they have neither the grace of Corelli, nor the deep feeling of Bach.
One may suspect them of being, like the pieces for clavier, tossed off
easily from his pen to make a little money. What is remarkable is that
sure as one might be of this, one would yet pay to hear them.
There are besides these solo sonatas for violin or flute and figured
bass, nine sonatas for two violins, or violin and flute with figured
bass, and seven sonatas, opus 5, for two instruments, probably intended
for two violins.
Among the most remarkable of J. S. Bach’s compositions are the six
sonatas for violin without any accompaniment, written in Cöthen, about
1720. These works remain, and probably always will remain, unique in
musical literature, not only because of their form, but because of the
profound beauty of the music in them. Just how much of a violinist
Bach himself was, no one knows. He was fond of playing the viola
in the court band at Cöthen. It can hardly be pretended that these
sonatas for violin alone are perfectly adapted to the violin. They
resemble in style the organ music which was truly the whole foundation
of Bach’s technique. In that same organ style, he wrote for groups
of instruments, for groups of voices, for clavier and for all other
combinations.
On the other hand no activity of Bach’s is more interesting, and
perhaps none is more significant, than his assiduous copying and
transcribing again and again of the violin works of Vivaldi, Torelli,
and Albinoni. Especially his study of Vivaldi is striking. He used
themes of the Italian violinists as themes for organ fugues; he
transcribed the concertos of Vivaldi into concertos for one, two,
three, or four harpsichords. And not only that, practically all his
concertos for a solo clavier are transcriptions of his own concertos
for violin.
But the polyphonic style of the sonatas for violin alone is peculiarly
a German inheritance. Walter and Biber were conspicuous for the use of
double stops and an approach to polyphonic style. Most remarkable of
all was a pupil of the old Danish organist, Buxtehude, Nikolaus Bruhns
(1665-1697), who was able to play two parts on his violin and at the
same time add one or two more with his feet on the organ pedals. Though
Corelli touched gently upon the polyphonic style in the movements of
the first six of his solo sonatas, the polyphonic style was maintained
mostly by the Germans. As Bach would write chorus, fugue, or concerto
in this style, so did he write for the violin alone.
Of the six works the first three are sonatas, in the sense of
the _sonate da chiesa_ of Corelli, serious and not conspicuously
rhythmical. The last three are properly suites, for they consist
of dance movements. The most astonishing of all the pieces is the
_Chaconne_, at the end of the second suite. Here Bach has woven a
series of variations over a simple, yet beautiful, ground, which finds
an equal only in the great _Passacaglia_ for the organ.
The three sonatas of this set can be found transcribed, at least in
part, by Bach into various other forms. The fugue from the first,
in G minor, was transposed into D minor and arranged for the organ.
The whole of the second sonata, in A minor, was rearranged for the
harpsichord. The fugue in the third sonata for violin alone exists also
as a fugue for the organ.
There are besides these sonatas for violin alone, six sonatas for
harpsichord and violin, which are among the most beautiful of his
compositions; and a sonata in E minor and a fugue in G minor for violin
with figured bass. It is interesting to note that the six sonatas for
harpsichord and violin differ from similar works by Corelli and by
Handel. Here there is no affair with the figured bass; but the part for
the harpsichord is elaborately constructed, and truly, from the point
of view of texture, more important than that for the violin.
Bach wrote at least five concertos for one or two violins during
his stay at Cöthen. One of these is included among the six concertos
dedicated to the Margrave of Brandenburg. All of these have been
rearranged for harpsichord, and apparently among the harpsichord
concertos there are three which were originally for violin but have
not survived in that shape. The concertos, even more than the sonatas,
are not essentially violin music, but are really organ music. The
style is constantly polyphonic and the violin solos hardly stand out
sufficiently to add a contrasting spot of color to the whole. Bach’s
great work for the violin was the set of six solo sonatas. These must
indeed be reckoned, wholly apart from the instrument, as among the
great masterpieces in the musical literature of the world.
Haydn’s compositions for violin, including concertos and sonatas, are
hardly of considerable importance. His associations with violinists
in the band at Esterhazy, and later in Vienna with amateurs such as
Tost and professionals like Schuppanzigh, gave him a complete idea of
the nature and the possibilities of the instrument. But the knowledge
so acquired shows to best advantage in his treatment of the first and
second violin parts in his string quartets, in many of which the first
violin is given almost the importance of a solo instrument. Eight
sonatas for harpsichord and violin have been published, but of these
only four were originally conceived in the form.
The young Mozart was hardly less proficient on the violin than he
was on the harpsichord, a fact not surprising in view of his father’s
recognized skill as a teacher in this special branch of music. But
he seems to have treated his violin with indifference and after his
departure from Salzburg for Paris to have quite neglected his practice,
much to his father’s concern. The most important of his compositions
for the violin are the five concertos written in Salzburg in 1775.
They were probably written for his own use, but just how closely in
conjunction with the visit of the Archduke Maximilian to Salzburg in
April of that year cannot be stated positively. Several serenades and
the little opera, _Il re pastore_, were written for the fêtes given
in honor of the same young prince. The concertos belong to the same
period. In Köchel’s Index they are numbers 207, 211, 216, 218, and 219.
A sixth, belonging to a somewhat later date, bears the number 268. Of
these the first in B-flat was completed on April 14, 1775, the second,
in D, June 14, the third, in G, September 12, the fourth, in D, in
October, and the fifth, in A, quite at the end of the year.
The sixth concerto, in E-flat, is considered both by Jahn and Köchel
to belong to the Salzburg period. It was not published, however, until
long after Mozart’s death; and recently the scholarly writers, Messrs.
de Wyzewa and de St. Foix, have thrown considerable doubt upon the
authenticity of large parts of it. According to their theory[50] the
opening _tutti_ and the orchestral portion at the beginning of the
development section are undoubtedly the work of Mozart, but of the
mature Mozart of 1783 and 1784. Likewise the solo passages in all
the movements seem to bear the stamp of his genius. But apart from
these measures, the development of the solo ideas and the orchestral
accompaniment were completed either by André, who published the work,
or by Süssmayer, who was also said by Mozart’s widow to be the composer
of a mass in B-flat, published by C. F. Peters as a composition of
Mozart’s.
In addition mention should be made of the concertos introduced between
the first and second movements of various serenades, according to the
custom of the day. Most of these are of small proportions; but one, in
G major (K. 250), written in Salzburg some time in July, 1776, has the
plan of an independent composition.
It was the custom for a master like Schobert in Paris, or Mozart
in Vienna, to ‘accompany’ the young ladies who played pianoforte or
harpsichord sonatas of his composition and under his instruction with
music on the violin. There are many sonatas for harpsichord published
by Schobert, with a violin part _ad libitum_. This in the main but
reinforces the chief melodic lines of the part for harpsichord or
pianoforte; and works with such a violin part, _ad libitum_, are not
at all violin sonatas in the sense of the term accepted today, i.e.,
sonatas in which violin and piano are woven inextricably together. They
are frankly pianoforte or harpsichord sonatas with the ‘accompaniment’
of a violin.
On the other hand, we have found the violin masters like Corelli and
Tartini writing sonatas for violin, with figured bass for harpsichord,
lute, or even viol. Such sonatas were often called solo sonatas, as
in the case of those of Handel, recently mentioned. The accompanying
instrument had no function but to add harmonies, and a touch of
imitation in the written bass part, here and there.
Between these two extremes lies the sonata with harpsichord
_obbligato_, that is to say, with a harpsichord part which was not an
accompaniment but an essential part of the whole. In these cases the
music was generally polyphonic in character. The violin might carry
one or two parts of the music, the harpsichord two or three. Very
frequently, if the instruments played together no more than three
parts, the composition was called a Trio. The sonatas by J. S. Bach for
harpsichord and violin are of this character. Though the harpsichord
carries on more of the music than the violin, both instruments are
necessary to the complete rendering of the music.
Mozart must have frequently added improvised parts for the violin to
many of his sonatas written expressly for the keyboard instrument.
Among his earliest works one finds sonatas for clavecin with a
free part for violin, for violin or flute, for violin or flute and
'cello. Oftenest the added part does little more than duplicate the
melody of the part for clavecin, with here and there an imitation
or a progression of thirds or sixths. But among his later works are
sonatas for pianoforte with added accompaniment for violin in which
the two instruments contribute something like an equal share to the
music, which are the ancestors of the sonatas for violin and piano by
Beethoven, Brahms, and César Franck. Among the most important of these
are six published in November, 1781, as opus 2. In Köchel’s Index they
bear the numbers 376, 296, 377, 378, 379, and 380. The greatest of them
is that in C major, K. 296, with its serious and rich opening adagio,
its first allegro in Mozart’s favorite G minor, and the beautiful
variations forming the last movement. Four more sonatas, of equal
musical value, were published respectively in 1784, 1785, 1787, and
1788.
VII
Looking back over the eighteenth century one cannot but be impressed
by the independent growth of violin music. The Italians contributed far
more than all the other nationalities to this steady growth, partly
because of their native love for melody and for sheer, simple beauty
of sound. The intellectual broadening of forms, the intensifying of
emotional expressiveness by means of rich and poignant harmonies,
concerned them far less than the perfecting of a suave and wholly
beautiful style which might give to the most singing of all instruments
a chance to reveal its precious and almost unique qualities. This
accounts for the calm, classic beauty of their music, which especially
in the case of Corelli and Tartini does not suffer by changes that have
since come in style and the technique of structure.
The success of the Italian violinists in every court of Europe, both
as performers and as composers, was second only to the success of
the great singers and the popular opera composers of the day. Their
progress in their art was so steadfast and secure that other nations
could hardly do more than follow their example. Hence in France and
Germany one finds with few exceptions an imitation of Italian styles
and forms, with a slight admixture of national characteristics, as
in the piquancy of Cartier’s, the warm sentiment of Benda’s music.
What one might call the pure art of violin playing and violin music,
abstract in a large measure from all other branches of music, was
developed to perfection by the Italian violinist-composers of the
eighteenth century. Its noble traditions were brought over into more
modern forms by Viotti, henceforth to blend and undergo change in a
more general course of development.
Perhaps only in the case of Chopin can one point to such a pure and
in a sense isolated ideal in the development of music for a single
instrument, unless the organ works of Bach offer another exception.
And already in the course of the eighteenth century one finds here
and there violin music that has more than a special significance.
The sonatas for unaccompanied violin by Bach must be regarded first
as music, then as music for the violin. The style in which they were
written is not a style which has grown out of the nature of the
instrument. They have not served and perhaps cannot serve as a model
for perfect adaptation of means to an end. Bach himself was willing
to regard the ideas in them as fit for expression through other
instruments. But the works of Corelli, Tartini, Nardini and Viotti are
works which no other instrument than that for which they were written
may pretend to present. And so beautiful is the line of melody in them,
so warm the tones which they call upon, that there is scarcely need of
even the harmonies of the figured bass to make them complete.
In turning to the nineteenth century we shall find little or no more
of this sort of pure music. Apart from a few brilliant concert or
salon pieces which have little beyond brilliance or charm to recommend
them, the considerable literature for the violin consists of sonatas
and concertos in which the accompaniment is like the traditional half,
almost greater than the whole. In other words we have no longer to
do with music for which the violin is the supreme justification, but
with music which represents a combination of the violin with other
instruments. Glorious and unmatched as is its contribution in this
combination, it remains incomplete of itself.
FOOTNOTES:
[48] See A. Schering: _Geschichte des Instrumentalkonzerts_.
[49] _Die Violine und ihre Meister._
[50] See ‘W. A. Mozart,’ by T. de Wyzewa and G. de St. Foix, Paris,
1912. Appendix II, Vol. II, p. 428.
CHAPTER XIII
VIOLIN MUSIC IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
The perfection of the bow and of the classical
technique--The French school: Kreutzer, Rode, and
Baillot--Paganini: his predecessors, his life and fame, his
playing, and his compositions--Ludwig Spohr: his style and
his compositions; his pupils--Viennese violinists: Franz
Clement, Mayseder, Boehm, Ernst and others--The Belgian
school: De Bériot and Vieuxtemps--Other violinist composers:
Wieniawski, Molique, Joachim, Sarasate, Ole Bull; music of
the violinist-composers in general--Violin music of the
great masters.
The art of violin music in the nineteenth century had its head in
Paris. Few violinists with the exception of Paganini developed their
powers without the model set them by the great French violinists at the
beginning of the century. Most of them owed more than can be determined
to the influence of Viotti. Even Spohr, who with more or less
controversial spirit, wrote of the French violinists as old-fashioned,
modelled himself pretty closely upon Rode; and therefore even Spohr is
but a descendant of the old classical Italian school.
The technique of playing the violin was thoroughly understood by
the end of the eighteenth century. Viotti himself was a brilliant
virtuoso; but, trained in the classic style, he laid less emphasis upon
external brilliance than upon expressiveness. The matters of double
stops, trills, runs, skips and other such effects of dexterity were
largely dependent upon the fingers of the left hand; and this part of
technique, though somewhat hampered by holding the violin with the
chin upon the right side of the tailpiece, was clearly mastered within
reasonable limits by the violinists of the middle of the century,
Tartini, Veracini, Nardini, Geminiani, and others. Indeed Geminiani
in his instruction book recommended that the violin be held on the
left side; and in range of fingering gave directions for playing as
high as in the seventh position. Leopold Mozart, however, naturally
conservative, held to the old-fashioned holding of the instrument.
The technique of bowing, upon which depends the art of expression
in violin playing, awaited the perfection of a satisfactory bow.
Tartini’s playing, it will be remembered, was especially admired for
its expressiveness; and this, together with certain of his remarks on
bowing which have been preserved in letters, leads one to think that he
may have had a bow far better than those in the hands of most of his
contemporaries. Whether or not he made it himself, and indeed just what
it may have been, are not known. Certainly it must have been better
than the bows with which Leopold Mozart was familiar. The clumsy nature
of these may be judged by the illustrations in his instruction book.
The final perfection of the bow awaited the skill of a Frenchman,
François Tourte (1747-1835), who has properly been called the
Stradivari of the bow. It was wholly owing to his improvements
that many modern effects in staccato, as well as in fine shading,
particularly in the upper notes, became possible. He is supposed not
to have hit upon these epoch-making innovations until after 1775;
and there is much likelihood that he was stimulated by the presence
of Viotti in Paris after 1782. No better testimony to the service
he rendered to the art of violin playing can be found than the new
broadening of violin technique and style accomplished by men like
Viotti, Kreutzer, Baillot, Rode, and Lafont, who availed themselves
immediately of the results of his skill.
I
Something may now be said of these men, whose activities have without
exception the glaring background of the horrors of the French
Revolution. Though Kreutzer was of German descent, he was born in
Versailles (1766) and spent the greater part of his life in and about
Paris, intimately associated with French styles and institutions. Apart
from early lessons received from his father, he seems to have been for
a time under the care of Anton Stamitz, son of Johann Stamitz. At the
Chapelle du Roi, to which organization he obtained admittance through
the influence of Marie Antoinette, he had the occasion of hearing
Viotti. The great Italian influenced him no less than he influenced his
young contemporaries in Paris. Concerning his activities as a composer
of operas little need be said, though one or two of his ballets,
especially _Paul et Virginie_ and _Le Carnaval de Venise_, held the
stage for some years. As a player he ranks among the most famous of the
era. His duets with Rode roused the public to great enthusiasm. In 1798
he was in Vienna in the suite of General Bernadotte, and here made the
acquaintance of Beethoven. Subsequently Beethoven dedicated the sonata
for violin and piano (opus 47) to Kreutzer.
By reason of this and his book of forty _Études ou caprices pour
le violon_, he is now chiefly remembered. His other compositions
for the violin, including nineteen concertos and several airs and
variations, have now been allowed to sink into oblivion. To say that
the concertos are ‘more brilliant than Rode’s, less modern than
Baillot’s’ distinguishes them as much as they may be distinguished
from the compositions of his contemporaries. They are dry music, good
as practice pieces for the student, but without musical life. But
Kreutzer was a great teacher. He was one of the original professors of
the violin at the Conservatoire, and with Baillot and Rode prepared the
still famous _Méthode_ which, carrying the authority of that sterling
institution, has remained, almost to the present day, the standard
book of instruction for the young violinist. His own collection of
forty studies likewise holds still a place high among those ‘steps to
Parnassus’ by which the student may climb to the company of finished
artists.
Pierre Rode (1774-1830) was the greatest of the players of this period.
He was for two years a pupil of Viotti, and when he made his initial
public appearance in 1790 at the Théâtre de Monsieur he played Viotti’s
thirteenth concerto in such a way as to win instantly the admiration of
all musical Paris. Considering that he was then but a boy of sixteen,
and that Paris was accustomed to the playing of Kreutzer, Viotti,
Gaviniés and other violinists of undisputed greatness, one can have
little doubt that Rode had the power of true genius. This is further
borne out by the fact that when he passed through Brunswick on a
concert tour to Poland in 1803, Spohr heard him and was so struck with
admiration for his style that he determined to train himself with the
ideal of Rode in his mind. Later his playing fell off sadly and even in
Paris he finally ceased to hold the favor of the public.
Like Kreutzer he came into contact with Beethoven. Beethoven’s sonata
for violin in G major (opus 96) was completed for Rode, and was
apparently performed for the first time (1812) by Rode and Beethoven’s
pupil, the Archduke Rudolph. Even then, however, Rode’s playing
was faulty, and, according to Thayer, Beethoven sent a copy of the
violin part to him that he might study it before attempting a second
performance.
Like Kreutzer’s, Rode’s compositions, with the exception of
twenty-five caprices written as exercises, have been nearly forgotten.
And yet, though Rode was without conspicuous musicianship, he had
a gift for melody which made his compositions widely popular in
their day. Of his thirteen concertos two, the first, in D minor, the
eleventh, in A minor, were in the repertory of Paganini, who, moreover,
professed a high admiration for Rode. And among the earliest of his
compositions was a theme in G major, with variations, which won such
broad success that it was transposed and arranged for the voice,
and sung again and again on the stages of Paris.[51] Perhaps only
Paganini’s variations on the ‘Carnival of Venice’ have been so popular.
Pierre Marie François de Sales Baillot (1771-1842) was the last of
the great French violinists of this time. Though as a mere boy he was
an accomplished player, and though he spent some years in Italy as a
pupil of Pollani (who was a disciple of Nardini’s), he seems not to
have decided to take up the profession of music until 1795. At this
time, according to Fétis, he first became thoroughly acquainted with
the masterpieces of the Italian classical composers, Corelli, Tartini,
and others, and the enthusiasm they stirred in him settled the future
course of his career. Upon the founding of the Conservatoire he was
appointed professor of violin playing, with Kreutzer and Gaviniés.
Subsequently he was active as a teacher, and not only as a solo player
but as a quartet leader. His was the greatest share in the preparation
of the _Méthode_ which has already been mentioned. He was a friend
of Mendelssohn and of Ferdinand Hiller, and was much admired by them
for his qualities both as a player and as a leader. His compositions,
including fifteen trios for two violins and bass, various studies, nine
concertos, and a series of twenty-four preludes for violin in all keys,
have suffered the fate that has overtaken the music of his friends
and colleagues, Kreutzer and Rode. But his instruction book, _L’art
du violin_, is still worthy of most careful study, not only for the
technical advantages of its many exercises, but for his own remarks on
the condition of violin music in his day. These offer to the student
the best analysis of the qualities of the Paris school of violin music,
and of the relations of that school to the past.
II