Books › Chats on Violins, 1905 › scan 59
Scan 59
Chats on Violins, 1905
9 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 41. See the scan on archive.org.
1increased, and judging by the growing payments made to the instrumentalists, both player and instrument slowly grew in esteem.
3The annual amount paid to the fiddlers in Queen Elizabeth's time was £230, 6s. 8d., and a year later in the Royal book of expenditure is found the following entry:
5"Item: to the vyolons; being viz. of them 2od. per diam for their wages, and £16, 2s. 6d. for their liveries, in all per annum £325, 15s." one of two readings
6"Item: to the vyolons; being viz. of them 20d. per diam for their wages, and £16, 2s. 6d. for their liveries, in all per annum £325, 15s." one of two readings
8Charles I.'s band numbered eleven "vyolons," amongst fifty-eight musicians; but it was not until the Restoration of Charles II. that the Royal band was entirely composed of stringed instruments. This gay monarch returning fresh from the French Court and its music, established in imitation of Louis XIV. the celebrated band called the "Four and Twenty Fiddlers." It was composed of six violins, six counter tenors, six tenors and six basses, and the honour of conducting it fell to the hands of such talented musicians as Baltzar, who astounded fiddlers by his invention of the shift, Henry Purcell, poor John Bannister, who was dismissed for remarking that
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.