Books › Famous violinists and fine violins : historical notes, anecdotes, and reminiscences, 1896 › scan 42
Scan 42
Famous violinists and fine violins : historical notes, anecdotes, and reminiscences, 1896
12 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 22. See the scan on archive.org.
1teur, Lieutenant Dalayrac, who afterwards became a well-known composer and a great favourite with the French public.
3It was a fine summer evening, night was approaching gradually, and the two friends had seated themselves on one of the benches under the trees to avoid the dust of the thoroughfare. Viotti, always of a dreamy, thoughtful disposition, had yielded to one of those reveries which isolated him even in the midst of a numerous and brilliant society, whilst Langlé sat thinking over some of the airs in his new opera Corisandre.
5Suddenly they were both roused from their meditations by some harsh, discordant sounds, so terribly false that the two musicians, with astonishment depicted on their countenances, turned towards each other an inquiring glance, as much as to say, "What on earth is that?"
7Viotti was the first to speak. "It can't be a violin!" he exclaimed; "and yet there is some resemblance."
9"Nor a clarionet," suggested Langlé, "though it is something like one."
11The easiest manner of solving the problem was to go and see. They approached the spot whence the extraordinary tones issued, and saw a poor blind man standing near a miserable candle, and playing upon a violin; but the instrument was made of tin-plate, like a coffee-pot.
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