Books › the history of the violin, 1864 › scan 201
Scan 201
the history of the violin, 1864
4 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 179. See the scan on archive.org.
1by "2 violette marine con violoncelli pizzicati." This violetta marina is said to have been introduced in the same year by Castrucci; Burney calls it a kind of viol d'amour with sympathetic strings, and the air in "Orlando" is the only one written for it, so it is to be presumed there were some objections to its use.
3Corbet was succeeded as leader of the opera orchestra by Castrucci, born at Rome about 1690, a pupil of Corelli; who is said to have been the original of Hogarth's enraged musician, though Trusler names another. He was difficult to manage, and was superseded by John Clegg, a very fine player, who became insane from over-study, and it was the fashion to go to Bedlam to hear him play. Clegg was born in 1714, and played concertos in public at the age of nine. Castrucci died in 1769, in reduced circumstances. Many instances have occurred in all professions, of the mind giving way from the effect of over-study or undue excitement, but Passenans, in "La Russie et l'Esclavage," gives a melancholy example of the pressure of arbitrary tyranny on over-wrought and sensitive nerves, inducing a fit of passion and resistance, which may be considered as a case of temporary insanity. A Russian noble, having a serf who showed great musical talent, sent him to Italy to study; he much distinguished himself there, and in due time was ordered home by his master. He was one day summoned to play before a numerous assembly, and when any new person of rank arrived, he had to recommence a brilliant concerto of Viotti. Worn out at length by three hours of this work, he asked to be allowed a little rest, when his brutal proprietor replied, "No, play on, and if you are capricious, mind that you are my slave, and that I can have you bastinadoed." The unfortunate young man ran down to the kitchen in despair, and cut off the first finger of his
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