Scan 22
Famous Violinists and Fine Violins: Historical Notes, Anecdotes, and …, 1896
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1FAMOUS VIOLINISTS
3Italian music is no longer quite the same thing. It has deviated considerably from the fine old paths so well trodden by Tartini, Viotti, Campagnoli, Rossini, and other celebrated composers. It now bears the impress of French and German influence, and has deteriorated accordingly. Though it is still replete with good taste and delicacy, it has lost a great amount of its former dramatic power. Some of the compositions of Tosti and Papini, for instance, are exquisitely beautiful, but in many we can trace the influence of Charles Gounod. In his later productions even the veteran Verdi is said to have given strong evidence of having felt the effects of the music of Richard Wagner. This is exceedingly curious when we recollect that the principal strain of the celebrated "March" in Tannhauser is almost note for note the fine air sung by Manrico in Verdi's Trovatore, which came out a few years before the first-named opera.
5The very first violinist of eminence was an Italian, a musician named Battista, or Giovanni Battista, to whom some old writers allude about the year 1590 as being a very clever performer. At the latter end of the sixteenth century, however, the violin was yet little known and appreciated, though both Italy and France could boast of some charming players upon the viola d'amore, a much larger instrument, which may yet make its appearance again in our drawing-rooms.
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