Books › Biographical notice of Nicolo Paganini, with an analysis of his compositions, and a sketch of the history of the violin, 1876 › scan 26
Scan 26
Biographical notice of Nicolo Paganini, with an analysis of his compositions, and a sketch of the history of the violin, 1876
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1Europe, even as far back as 1675, for Jean Jacques Walther, principal Violin soloist at the court of Saxony, published at this period several works, among which one is peculiarly remarkable, and bears for its title "Hortulus Chelicus" (Mayence, 1688, in oblong quarto of 129 pages), containing sonatas and serenades, to be performed on a single Violin, with double, triple, and quadruple strings. This work, which displays great invention, consists of twenty-four pieces. The title of the last may serve to show the novelties which Walther introduced to the art of playing the Violin: "Serenade for a chorus of Violins, Trembling Organ, small Guitar, Bagpipe, two Trumpets and Kettle Drums, German Lyre, and Muted Harp, for a single Violin." The various effects of this piece for a single Violin prove that Walther was the Paganini of his day.
3Giovanni Battista Bassani, a Venetian composer, was a pupil of Castrovillari for the Violin, and became celebrated for the excellent style of his instrumental music. Among many other compositions of various styles, there is a set of his sonatas "da camera" for Violin and Bass, published in 1679, and thirteen sonatas for two Violins and Bass, excellent of their kind, and which fixed the style of music for bow instruments at the period at which they appeared. Bassani had the honour of being the master of Corelli, the great artist, possessed of immense talent, who by the elevation of his ideas, and the perfection of his style, placed himself at the head of the Violin School, and hastened the progress of the art considerably. Arcangelo Corelli, a name justly celebrated in the annals of music, will descend to ages unborn without losing a particle of its glory, whatever revolutions may be effected in the domains of art. The great artist who bore that name, no less celebrated for his compositions than for his marvellous execution at that period, was born in 1653, at Fusignano, a small town in the States of the Church, and died at Rome, on the 18th of January, 1713. His contemporaries were not jealous of his glory, for the whole of Europe welcomed his talent with unanimous acclamations; his countrymen deposited his remains in the Pantheon, and erected a monument to him close to that
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