Part 2 (1/2)
”Having, by 1654, obtained a proficiency in musick, he and his companions were not without silly frolicks, not now to be maintained.”-What should these frolics be, but to disguise themselves in poor habits, and, like country fiddlers, sc.r.a.pe for their livings! After strolling about to Farringdon Fair, and other places, and gaining money, victuals and drink for their trouble, they were overtaken, in returning home, by certain soldiers, who forced them to play in the open field, and then left them
But if this same fiddle you fain would play bold, You must go to his son, who'll be Young when he's old.
There's old Young and young Young, both men of renown, Old sells, and Young plays, the best fiddle in town; Young and old live together, and may they live long, Young, to play an old fiddle; old, sell a new song!
The zealous, ingenious, minute and gossiping Anthony Wood, to whose journalizing propensity we are indebted for a free insight into the state of music at Oxford, during the time of the Civil War (when musical sounds were scarcely any where else to be heard in the kingdom), was an ardent admirer of the violin, while its admirers were yet scarce; and has left us, in his life, written by himself, some particulars relating to the instrument, that are too pleasant, as well as curious, to be here pa.s.sed by. Let me introduce this quaint worthy, speaking of himself in the third person, and under the abridged designation of A. W.
In 1651, ”he began to exercise his natural and insatiable genie to music. He exercised his hand on the violin, and, having a good eare to take any tune at first hearing, he could quickly draw it out from the violin, but not with the same tuning of the strings that others used. He wanted understanding, friends and money, to pick him out a good master; otherwise he might have equalled in that instrument, and in singing, any person then in the University. He had some companions that were musical, but they wanted instruction as well as he.”
The next year, being obliged to go into the country, for change of air and exercise, with a view to rid himself of an ague, he states that ”while he continued there, he followed the plow on _well_-days, and sometimes plowed: and, having had, from his most tender years, an Proctor, a young man and a new comer:-John Packer, one of the university musitians. But Mr. Low, a proud man, could not endure any common musitian to come to the meeting, much less to play among them. Of this kind I must rank Joh. Haselwood, an apothecary, a starch'd formal clister-pipe, who usually played on the base-viol, and sometimes on the counter-tenor. He was very conceited of his skill (though he had but little of it), and therefore would be ever and anon ready to take up a viol[11] before his betters; which being observed by all, they usually called him _Handlewood_. The rest were but beginners. Proctor died soon after this time; he had been bred up by Mr. John Jenkins, the mirrour and wonder of his age for musick, was excellent for the lyra-viol and division-viol, good at the treble-viol, and violin, and all comprehended in a man of three or four and twenty yeares of age. He was much admired at the meetings, and exceedingly pitied by all the facultie for his loss.”
”A. W. was now advised to entertain one William James, a dancing-master, to instruct him on the violin, who, by some, was accounted excellent on that instrument, and the rather because it was said that he had obtained his knowledge in dancing and music in France. He spent, in all, half a yeare with him, and gained some improvement; yet at length he found him not a compleat master of his facultie, as Griffith and Parker were not: and, to say the truth, there was no compleat master in Oxon for that instrument, because _it had not been hitherto used in consort_ among gentlemen, only by common musitians, who played but two parts. The gentlemen in private meetings, which A. W. frequented, played three, four, and five parts with viols[12]-as treble-viol, tenor, counter-tenor, and ba.s.s, with an organ, virginal, or harpsicon joined with them; and they esteemed _a violin_ to be an instrument only belonging to a _common fiddler_, and could not endure that it should come among them, for feare of making their meetings to be vain and fiddling. But, before the restoration of King Charles II, and _especially after_, viols began to be out of fas.h.i.+on, and only violins used, as treble violin, tenor, and base violin; and the King, according to the French mode, would have _twenty-four violins_ playing before him while he was at meals, as being more airie and brisk than _viols_.”
Under the year 1658, he tells us that ”Tho. Baltzar, a Lubecker borne, and the most famous artist for the violin that the world had yet produced (!), was now in Oxon, and this day, July 24, A. W. was with him, and Mr. Ed. Lowe, at the house of Will. Ellis. A. W. did then and there, to his very great astonishment, heare him play on the violin. He then saw him run up his fingers to the end of the finger-board of the violin, and run them back insensibly; and all with alacrity and _very good tune_, which he nor any in England saw the like before. A. W.
entertained him and Mr. Low with what the house could then afford, and afterwards he invited them to the taverne; but they being engaged to goe to other company, he could no more heare him play or see him play at that time. Afterwards he came to one of the weekly meetings at Mr.
Ellis's house, and he played to the wonder of all the auditory, and exercising his finger and instrument several wayes to the utmost of his power. Wilson thereupon, the public Professor, the greatest judge of musick that ever was, did, after his humoursome way, stoope downe to Baltzar's feet, to see whether he had a huff (hoof) on, that is to say, to see whether he was a devil or not, because he acted beyond the parts of man.”
”About this time it was that Dr. John Wilkins, warden of Wadham, the greatest _curioso_ of his time, invited him (Baltzar) and some of the musitians to his lodgings in that Coll. purposely to have a consort, and to see and heare him play. The instruments and books were carried thither, but none could be persuaded there to play against him in consort on the violin. At length the company perceiving A. W. standing behind in a corner neare the dore, they haled him in among them, and play, forsooth, he must against him. Whereupon he, being not able to avoid it, took up a violin, as poor Troylus did against Achilles[13]. He abashed at it, yet honour he got by playing with and against such a grand master as Baltzar was.”
The restoration of monarchy and episcopacy in England (observes Dr.
Burney) seems to have been not only favorable to sacred music, but to secular; for it may be ascribed to the particular pleasure which Charles II received from the gay and sprightly sound of the violin, that this instrument was introduced at Court, and the houses of the n.o.bility and gentry, for any other purpose than country-dances, and festive mirth.
Hitherto there seem to have been no public concerts; and, in the music of the chamber, in the performance of _Fancies_ on instruments, which had taken place of vocal madrigals and motets, the violin had no admission, the whole business having been done by _viols_. Charles II, who, during the usurpation, had spent a considerable time on the continent, where he heard nothing but French music-upon his return to England, in imitation of Louis XIV, established a band of violins, tenors and bases, instead of the viols, lutes and cornets, of which the Court Band used to consist. Soon after the establishment of this band, Matthew Lock held the appointment of master to it; and the same t.i.tle was conferred, about 1673, on Cambert, a French musician, who had preceded Lulli in composing for, and superintending, the Opera at Paris, and who came over to England after Lulli had obtained the transfer of his patent.
From this time, the Violin Family began to rise in reputation among the English, and had an honorable place a.s.signed them, in the music of the Court, the theatres and the chamber; while the succession of performers and compositions, with which the nation was afterwards supplied from Italy and elsewhere, stimulated the practice and established the character of this cla.s.s of instruments, which have ever since been universally acknowledged to be the pillars of a well-ordered orchestra, and more capable of perfect intonation, expression, brilliancy, and effect, than any other that have ever been invented. It should be observed, however, that, although the revival of the theatres at the Restoration was followed by the introduction of what were termed _act-tunes_ (short compositions played betwixt the acts of the drama), whereby the public services of the violin were brought into requisition, yet the state of dramatic music was, for some years, too low to admit of those services being very important. The music of the drama had attained scarcely any separate development, but was still confounded with that of the church, to the disadvantage of both. All the most noted composers for the theatre, for several years after the Restoration, were members of cathedral and collegiate churches-a circ.u.mstance which encouraged a jester, Tom Brown, to remark that ”men of the musical profession hung betwixt the church and the play-house, like Mahomet's tomb betwixt two load-stones.”
A general pa.s.sion for the violin, and for pieces expressly composed for it, as well as a taste for Italian music, seem to have been excited in this country about the _end_ of Charles the Second's reign, when French music and French politics became equally odious to a great part of the nation. The hon. Mr. North, who listened attentively to every species of performance, says that ”the decay of French music, and favor of the Italian, came on by degrees. Its beginning was accidental, and occasioned by the arrival of _Nicola Matteis_; he was an excellent musician; performed wonderfully on the violin. His manner was singular; but he excelled, in one respect, all that had been heard in England before: his _arcata_, or manner of bowing, his shakes, divisions, and indeed his whole style of performance, was surprising, and every _stroke of his bow_ was _a mouthful_. When he first came hither, he was very poor; but not so poor as proud, which prevented his being heard, or making useful acquaintance, for a long time, except among a few merchants in the City, who patronized him; and, setting a high value on his condescension, he made them indemnify him for the want of more general favor. By degrees, however, he was more noticed, and was introduced to perform at Court. But his demeanor did not please, and he was thought capricious and troublesome, as he took offence if any one whispered while he played; which was a kind of attention which had not been much _in fas.h.i.+on_ at our Court. It was said that the Duke of Richmond would have settled a pension upon him, though he wished him to change his manner of playing, and would needs have one of his pages show him a better. Matteis, for the sake of the jest, condescended to take lessons of the page; but learned so fast, that he soon outran him in his own way. But he continued so outrageous in his demands, particularly for his _solos_, that few would comply with them, and he remained in narrow circ.u.mstances and obscurity a long while; nor would his superior talents ever have contributed to better his fortune, had it not been for the zeal and friendly offices of two or three dilettanti, his admirers.
These, becoming acquainted with him, and courting him in his own way, had an opportunity of describing to him the temper of the English, who, if humoured, would be liberal; but, if uncivilly treated, would be sulky, and despise him and his talents; a.s.suring him that, by a little complaisance, he would neither want employment nor money. By advice so reasonable, they at length brought him into such good temper, that he became generally esteemed and sought after; and, having many scholars, though on moderate terms, his purse filled apace, which confirmed his conversion. After this, he discovered a way of acquiring money which was then perfectly _new_ in this country: for, observing how much his scholars admired the lessons he composed for them (which were all _duos_), and that most musical gentlemen who heard them wished to have copies of them, he was at the expense of having them neatly engraved on copper plates, in oblong octavo, which was the beginning of engraving music in England; and these he presented, well bound, to lovers of the art and admirers of his talents, for which he often received three, four and five guineas. And so great were his encouragement and profits in this species of traffic, that he printed four several books of _Ayres for the Violin_, in the same form and size.”
Of the jealousy which attended the progress of the violin in public favor among the English, there occurs some amusing evidence in the ”_Musick's Monument_” of that rich, exuberant and right pleasant egotist, Thomas Mace, published in 1676. This worthy, who exalted the lute and viol, his own peculiar instruments, looked with distrust on the growing importance and credit of that which had been before so imperfectly understood and insufficiently employed. In speaking of the instruments till then in chief use, and the propriety of balancing their relative proportions of sound in concerted pieces, he remarks, complainingly-”_the scoulding violins will out-top them all_.” In a sort of dialogue, in rhyme, between the author and his lamenting lute, he makes the latter exclaim:-
The world is grown so slight! full of new fangles, And takes its chief delight in jingle-jangles, With _fiddle-noises_, &c.
CHAPTER II.
THE ITALIAN SCHOOL.
”Oh! known the earliest, and esteemed the most”
BYRON.
Having shown, on such evidence as I have been able to adduce, that the Italians are, most probably, the rightful claimants of the distinction which attaches to the _invention_ of the modern or _true_ violin, it is now to be considered by what bright array of names, by what successive efforts of skill and genius, they have likewise become ent.i.tled to the greater distinction of having been the first to develop the wonderful powers of the instrument, and the chief agents through whom its charming dominion in the realms of music was diffused, ere the great German composers, in more recent days, applied their powers to the extension and enrichment of the field for stringed instruments.
In casting a glance over the catalogue of bright Italian names, we find two, that demand to be especially noted for their great influence in advancing the progress of the ”leading instrument,” and that serve indeed to mark two main epochs in its history. These are Corelli and Viotti-the first const.i.tuting the head of the old school, the last that of the modern; and each (it may be parenthetically said) almost as interesting to contemplate in personal character, as in professional eminence. The intermediate names, most ent.i.tled to attention, are Tartini, Geminiani and Giardini. These, with others of considerable celebrity, though of less effective influence in the formation of what we have designated the Italian School, will be here noticed critically and biographically, according to their several pretensions and proceedings. Before we come to Corelli, however, there are some few to be treated of in the character of his predecessors, and as having prepared the way for his more dignified and important career.
BALTAZARINI has been already designated as the earliest violin-player of real eminence that the annals of music present to notice. His celebrity was much extended by the transplanting of his talent into France, where he acquired the new appellation of De Beaujoyeux, by virtue of the delight he afforded to a people whose natural gaiety of temperament could not but a.s.sort happily with the lighter range of sounds so readily evoked from the violin. It was in 1577, that Baltazarini, with _a band of violins_, was sent from Piedmont by Marshal Brissac to Queen Catherine de Medicis, who appointed him her ”Premier Valet de Chambre,”
and Master of her Band. France has reason to be grateful to his memory, and Italy may fairly be proud of it.