Books › Famous violinists and fine violins : historical notes, anecdotes, and reminiscences, 1896 › scan 44
Scan 44
Famous violinists and fine violins : historical notes, anecdotes, and reminiscences, 1896
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1to hear the conclusion of the bargain, and little dreaming that he was so clever a violin-maker, no doubt desired to push forward a business so well begun.
3But Viotti was quite satisfied with one sample of this merchandise. The illustrious violinist never parted with that instrument. He had it with him when he came to reside in London. It was sold at London with the other effects of the great musician after his death, and realised a few shillings only. An amateur of curiosities offered a large price to the purchaser if he, or any one else, could inform him how such a mysterious piece of workmanship came into the possession of the celebrated Viotti.
5In my "Biographical Sketches of Celebrated Violinists" I said it was not known how Viotti came to be a violinist, and I could only trace his musical career from the time when, at the age of thirteen, he was placed under the celebrated Pugnani at Turin. Some have asserted, however, that he took his first lessons on the violin from his father, who was a blacksmith—truly he must have been the real "harmonious blacksmith"—and from a wandering minstrel named Giovanni, who happened to "wend his weary way" to the little Piedmontese village of Fontaneto.
7This would tend to show that, like the father of Nicolo Paganini, the parent of Viotti was a musician, and had perceived a latent talent in his child
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