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Scan 153
The Hawley Collection of violins, 1904
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 79. See the scan on archive.org.
1ANALYSIS OF WORK OF THE FOLLOWERS OF GREAT MASTERS
3his very great astonishment heare him play on the violin. He then saw him run up his fingers to the end of the fingerboard of the violin, and run them back insensibly, and all with alacrity, and in very good tune, which he nor any in England saw the like before. . . . Wilson, thereupon, the public professor, did after his humour some way, stoop down to Baltzar's feet, to see whether he had a Huff on; that is to say, to see whether he was a Devill or not because he acted beyond the parts of a man." Baltzar, after the Restoration, was appointed leader of the king's orchestra, and did much to place the violin in the highest rank among musical instruments in England, as Lulli was doing in France at the court of Louis XIV. at the same time.
5The same epoch produced in Germany Franz Heinrich Biber (died 1698), who was instrumental in laying the foundation of the German school of violin-playing. At the same time flourished the family of Bach, to whom more than any other agency the world is indebted for the dignified and noble in music. This family, although it offered many other sons at the altar of music, produced that marvelous intellectual giant, Johann Sebastian Bach, who was born in Eisenach, March 21, 1685.
7In France up to the time of Leclair, the musical influences were Italian and German. Although violin music was very popular there, no Frenchman of that period or until the beginning of the eighteenth century took rank as a violinist with those of Italy and Germany. It will thus be seen that violin-making and violin-playing were developed at the same time, and largely by the same influences.
9The patronage of the church, and those loyal worshipers at the shrine of music among the nobility of Italy, France, Austria, and Germany, were the two most potent agencies, by the aid of which the violin and violin-music were developed. The nobles of Italy retained innumerable small bands at their courts, and had their favorite violinists and violin-makers, many of whom were supported by yearly grants. The example of Rome, and of the reigning nobles, was felt everywhere, in every grand cathedral or country church. Palestrina, at the time that Giovanni Paolo Maggini was evolving the future form of the violin at Brescia, was remodeling the music of the church on the artistic lines which have since prevailed. Following closely in the wake of all these events, the violin came into general use in the musical service. Every church of importance had its orchestra and a regularly appointed musical director. The nobles of Mantua, Modena, Florence, Venice, and other important centers throughout the peninsula were devotees. The King of Poland sent an envoy to Stradivari with an order for a set of instruments and gave him instructions not to leave Cremona until they were finished. The princes of Hungary, Austria, Germany, France, and Spain, many of whom were able to perform on violins and 'cellos, did much, by their support to makers of violins and writers of violin-music, to establish the lasting popularity of the violin. The natural consequence of growth in the interest in the music of the violin, was the establishment of the art of violin-building in all parts of Italy and the rest of western Europe. In Italy, the country with which we are most concerned, violin-making existed for two and a half centuries, not in one or two localities, but from Venice in the north to Palermo and Syracuse in the south. Here violin making and repairing were not confined alone to professional violin-makers, but every professor was an amateur maker of violins, and was expected to be skilled in the art of repairing his pupils' instruments. In consequence of this wide-spreading interest, schools of violin-making
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