Books › An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925 › scan 221
Scan 221
An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925
26 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 193. See the scan on archive.org.
1Then we have the reception given the famous Sonata which Beethoven dedicated to Kreutzer. That violinist called the work an "insane" one, and never played it. This stigma will always remain with the memory of Kreutzer, who should have gone down on his knees before this work, which Vieuxtemps has declared imperishable.
3Paganini is the father of modern violin technique. He was the first to make the violin sparkle with a radiance incomparable; he was the magician whose bow opened up illimitable horizons in the violin mechanism, and it was he who gave a hitherto unimagined richness to the most fantastic passages.
5The "Twenty-four Caprices" written by the great Genoese constitute a work whose powerful musicality, originality and invention merit the admiration of the most exacting musician. Brahms considered these "Twenty-four Caprices" a finished masterpiece.
7Paganini, by means of his compelling virtuosity, not only created numberless new possibilities for the violinist, but he also provided opportunities for the pianist and composer.
9Vieuxtemps, who followed the path blazed by Paganini, made discoveries of his own. At the same time he was often responsible for exaggerations, and, for instance, used ascending sequences of triple chords which compel a pressure on the violin strings that is rather disagreeable:
11Finale (Fourth Concerto) Vieuxtemps
13Thomson changes the passage thus:
15The above as played by Cesar Thomson
17This is far more violinistic, and, at all events, the violinist would have to possess the muscles of Hercules in order to express properly the atrocity first instanced.
19At the present time violin development has reached a halting point from which further progress will only be made when a new Paganini appears.
21Wieniawski was another artist who relied on a technique which was astonishingly musical, and who displayed a flamboyant virtuosity.
23At the present time the demands made on the violinist are very great, and the orchestra musician, to mention a case in point, is subject to tests which would have stupefied his ancestors.
25Liszt, as is well known, was the direct predecessor of Wagner, and was the first to overstep the narrow limits imposed on the orchestral violins in his day. This great artist gave the violins wonderful opportunities in his orchestrations,
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.