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Scan 348
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians;, 1904
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1VIOLIN-PLAYING
3Burney and Hawkins, the first violinist who came to England. He appears to have greatly astonished his audiences, especially by his then unknown efficiency in the shift, in which however he did not exceed the third position. [See vol. i. p. 177.] Of far greater importance than Baltzar are two German violinists, JOHANN JACOB WALTHER (born 1650), and FRANZ HEINRICH BIBER (died 1698). WALTHER [see that article] appears to have been a sort of German Farina, with a technique much farther developed; he ascends to the sixth position and writes difficult double-stops, arpeggios and chords. His compositions are, however, clumsy and poor in the extreme, and if we consider that he was a contemporary of Corelli, we cannot fail to notice the much lower level of German art as compared with that of Italy. BIBER was no doubt an artist of great talent and achievement. [Vol. i. p. 324, and vol. iv. p. 506.] His technique was in some respects in advance of that of the best Italian violinists of the period, and from the character of his compositions we are justified in assuming that his style of playing combined with the pathos and nobility of the Italian style that warmth of feeling which has ever been one of the main characteristics of the great musical art of Germany.
5In tracing the further progress of violin-playing we must return to Italy. After Vitali it is TORELLI (1657–1716) who chiefly deserves our attention, as having added to the Sonata a new and important kind of violin-composition, the Concerto. In his Concerti da Camera and Concerti grossi we find the form of the Sonata da Chiesa preserved, but the solo-violins (one or two) are accompanied not only by a bass, as in the Sonata, but by a stringed band (two orchestral or ripieno violins, viola and bass), to which a lute or organ part is sometimes added, an arrangement which on the whole was followed by Vivaldi, Corelli, and Handel. If no remarkable progress in the technique of the instrument was effected by the introduction of the Concerto, it is all the more striking to notice how henceforth the best composers for the Church contribute to the literature of the violin. We have, in fact, arrived at a period in which the most talented musicians, almost as a matter of course, were violinists—just as in modern times, with one or two exceptions, all great composers have been pianists. The most eminent representative of this type of composer-violinist is ARCANGELO CORELLI (1653–1713). His works, though in the main laid out in the forms of his predecessors, and, as far as technique goes, keeping within modest limits, yet mark an era both in musical composition and in violin-playing. He was one of those men who seem to sum up in themselves the achievements of their best predecessors. Corelli’s place in the history of instrumental music is fully discussed elsewhere. [See vol. i. p. 604; SONATA, vol. iv. p. 507.] Here it remains only to state that in both main branches of violin-composition, in the Sonata and the Concerto, his works have served as models to the best of his successors. They are distinguished chiefly by conciseness of form and logical structure. There is nothing tentative, vague or experimental in them; the various parts seem balanced to a nicety, the whole finished up and rounded off with unerring mastery. His harmonies and modulations, though not free from monotony, are sound and natural; simplicity and dignified pathos on the one hand, and elegant vivacity on the other, are the main characteristics of his style. The technical difficulties contained in his works are not great, and in this respect Corelli’s merit does not lie in the direction of innovation, but rather of limitation and reform. We have seen how the violin at the beginning of its career simply adopted the style of the vocal music of the period, how later on it took in the orchestra the place of the cornetto, and how, though very gradually, a special violin style began to be formed. Now followed a period of experiments—all more or less tending towards the same end—a style which should correspond to the nature, ideal and mechanical, of the instrument. In both respects, as we have seen, remarkable progress was made; although exaggeration was not always avoided. The virtuoso par excellence made his appearance even at this early period. Corelli, by talent and character, had gained a position of authority with his contemporaries, which has but few parallels in the history of music. This authority he used to give an example of artistic purity and simplicity, to found a norm and model of violin-playing which forms the basis of all succeeding legitimate development of this important branch of music.
7Before mentioning the most important of Corelli’s pupils we have to consider the influence exercised on violin-playing by the Venetian VIVALDI (died 1743). Though by no means an artist of the exalted type of Corelli, his extraordinary fertility as a composer for the violin, his ingenuity in making new combinations and devising new effects, and especially his undoubted influence on the further development of the Concerto-form, give him an important position in the history of violin-playing. While in the Concerti grossi of Torelli and Corelli the solo-violins are treated very much in the same manner as the orchestral violins—the solo-passages being usually accompanied by the bass alone—Vivaldi not only gives to the solo-violins entirely distinct passages of a much more brilliant character, but he also adds to his orchestra oboes and horns, which not merely double other parts, but have independent phrases and passages to perform—thereby giving the earliest instance of orchestration as applied to the Concerto.
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