Scan 40
Famous Violinists and Fine Violins: Historical Notes, Anecdotes, and …, 1903
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1first time the plaintive sound of a mountain horn, breathing forth the few notes of a Ranz des Vaches. This so struck him that he noted it down and sent it in a letter to one of his friends. We fortunately possess that letter; it runs as follows:—
3"The Ranz des Vaches which I send you is neither that which our friend Jean Jacques [Rousseau] has presented to us, nor that of which M. de la Bord speaks in his work on Music. I cannot say whether it is known or not; all I know is that I heard it in Switzerland, and shall never forget it. Towards the decline of day I was sauntering along in one of those sequestered spots where flowers, verdure, streamlets, all united to form a picture of perfect harmony. There, without being fatigued, I seated myself on a fragment of rock and fell into a deep reverie. . . . Sounds broke on my ear which were sometimes of a hurried, sometimes of a prolonged and sustained character. I found that they proceeded from a mountain horn, and their effect was heightened by the tones of a plaintive female voice. I started from my daydreams, listened with breathless attention, and learned, or rather engraved upon my memory the Ranz des Vaches which I send you. In order to understand all its beauties, you ought to be transported to the scene in which I heard it, and to feel all the enthusiasm that such a moment inspired."
5I can well appreciate Viotti's feelings on this
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