Books › Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883 › scan 211
Scan 211
Old Violins And Their Makers, 1883
2 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 197. See the scan on archive.org.
1to be in Europe, Paul Wheeler, Mr. Mell, and others, till this prodigie appeared. I can no longer question the effects we reade of in David's harp to charme evil spirits, or what it is said some particular notes produced in the passions of Alexander, and that King of Denmark." A very interesting account of a performance at Oxford by the same artist in 1658 is given by Anthony Wood. North says the violin "had a lift into credit" by Balzar, who "did wonders upon it by swiftness and doubling of notes, but his hand was accounted hard and rough." At the Restoration, Balzar was appointed leader of the "four-and-twenty," and is credited with having introduced the art of shifting and the use of the upper part of the finger-board. He died in 1663, and was buried in the cloister adjoining Westminster Abbey. The reader may be inclined to recognise in this distinguished artist that "upstart young fiddler" and "all-to-be dignified young man" who, innocently striking a nail into the "chest of viols," so incontinently raised the wrath of old Mace, but his agile fingers were cold in the grave twelve years before Mace wrote his book, and, in the meantime, other performers had crowded into the country from France and elsewhere, and, although the "French manner of Instrumental musik" made great strides, it did not complete its conquest, as, in the country districts, the viols still held their own. The treble viol was, however, entirely laid aside, and the violin took its place. After a time the "French fashion" was supplemented by the "Italian fashion," and Nicola Matteis coming to England in 1672, another new departure was effected, and he was probably the artist who inspired Mace's regrets and
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