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Scan 346
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians;, 1904
15 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1VIOLIN-PLAYING
3the violins had merely to support and to double the soprano voice, the violin-parts were of extreme simplicity. Soon, however, we meet with indications of an independent use of the violin. As early as 1543 Silvestro Ganassi, in the first part of his Regula Rubertina (Venice), speaks of three varieties of violins as Viola di Soprano, di Tenore, e di Basso; and Castiglione, in his Cortigiano, mentions a composition as written for 'quattro viole da arco,' which almost seems to indicate a stringed quartet. Towards the end of the century we meet with the Balletti of Gastoldi and Thomas Morley, some of which were printed without words, and appear, therefore, to have been intended for independent instrumental performance. Nevertheless they are entirely vocal in character, and do not exceed the compass of the human voice. Among the earliest settings which are not purely vocal in character are the 'Canzoni da sonare' by Maschera (1593), — originally, perhaps, written for the organ, but printed in separate parts, and evidently therefore intended for performance by various instruments. The earliest instance of a part being specially marked for 'Violino,' we find in 'Concerti di Andrea e Giovanni Gabrieli — per voci e stromentimusicali Venetia, 1587.' Up to this time the leading instrument of the orchestra was the Cornetto (Germ. Zinke) — not, as might be concluded from its German name, an instrument made of metal, but of wood. The parts written for it correspond to the oboe parts in Handel's scores. In Gabrieli's the cornetti alternate with the violins in taking the lead. His instrumental compositions may roughly be divided into two classes, the one evidently based on his vocal style, the other decidedly instrumental in character. In a 'Sonata' belonging to the first class, we find an instrumental double-choir, a cornetto and three trombones forming the first choir, a violin and three trombones the second, the two being employed antiphonally; the setting is contrapuntal throughout, and the effect not unlike that of a motet for double-choir. The violin-part does not materially differ from that for the cornetto. To the second class belong the Sonatas and Canzoni for two or three violins with bass. Here the setting is much more complicated, mostly in fugato-form (not regular fugues), reminding us to a certain extent of organ-style, and certainly not vocal in character, but purely instrumental. The scores of Gabrieli contain the first beginnings of the modern art of instrumentation, and mark an epoch in the history of music. Not content with writing, in addition to the voices, obbligato instrumental parts, he takes into consideration the quality (timbre) of the various instruments. That this should have been brought about at the very period in which the violin came into general use, can certainly not be considered a mere accident, although it may be impossible to show which of the two was cause and which effect. Once the violin was generally accepted as the leading instrument of the orchestra, its technique appears soon to have made considerable progress. While Gabrieli never exceeds the third position, we find but a few years later, in a score of Claudio Monteverde (1610), passages going up to the fifth position: after an obbligato passage for two cornetti, enter the violins (1st and 2nd): —
5Violin 1.
7etc.
9The manner in which, in this example, the violins are used 'divisi' is worthy of notice. In another work of Monteverde's, 'Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, di Claudio Monteverde. Venezia, 1624,'1 we find modern violin-effects introduced in a still more remarkable way. Here we have recitatives accompanied by tremolos for violins and bass, pizzicatos marked thus, 'Qui si lascia l' arco, e si strappano le corde con duoi diti'; and afterwards, 'Qui si ripiglia l' arco.' That violinists were even at that time expected to produce gradations of tone with the bow is proved by the direction given respecting the final pause of the same work: 'Questa ultima nota va in arcata morendo.'
11The earliest known solo composition for the violin is contained in a work of Biagio Marini, published in 1620. It is a 'Romanesca per Violino Solo e Basso se piaci' (ad lib.) and some dances. The Romanesca 2 is musically poor and clumsy, and, except that in it we meet with the shake for the first time, uninteresting. The demands it makes on the executant are very small.
131 See Monteverde, vol. III. p. 253.
142 Reprinted in the Appendix of Wasielewski's Die Violine im XVII Jahrhundert.
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