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Scan 168
the history of the violin, 1864
17 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 146. See the scan on archive.org.
1however, of any great repute, established themselves in Italy, where the wood probably was particularly suitable.
3Charles II, in imitation of the French court, introduced his celebrated band of twenty-four violins, or, as Durfey says,—
5 "Four and twenty fiddlers all of a row,
6 And there was fiddle, fiddle,
7 And twice fiddle, fiddle,
8 'Cause 'twas my lady's birth-day,
9 Therefore we kept holiday,
10 And all went to be merry."
12This band consisted of six violins, six counter-tenors, six tenors, and six basses, with salaries varying from 40l. to 100l. per annum. The celebrated Baltzar, the "incomparable Lubicer," who had come over to England a few years before, was at the head of it. The anthems and services in the Chapel Royal were sung to these instruments instead of the ancient wind instruments, and Evelyn complains of their French fantastical light way of playing there. The organ was also in use.
14At the commencement of Dryden's "Tempest," about 1667, the front of the stage was opened, and the band of twenty-four violins, with the "harpsicalls" and theorbos, which accompanied the voices, were placed between the pit and the stage. The band was therefore placed just as in the present time, and this seems the first notice of their having any regular position. These twenty-four violins were either the celebrated four-and-twenty fiddlers, or a rival company in imitation of them. Burney says that the different expressions of crescendo, diminuendo, and lentando, were first used by Matthew Lock, in the music to the "Tempest." In Lock's own piece of "Psyche," about 1675, no instruments are mentioned for the ritornels but violins.
16Music parties were now frequent. Anthony Wood,
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