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Scan 196
The Violin and its Music, 1881
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 172. See the scan on archive.org.
1development of its music greatly. It is, however, Carlo Farina, of Mantua, born about 1580, to whom we seem to owe the earliest instance of solo-writing from pen of a Violinist. Farina held the position of solo-Violinist at the Court of Saxony, and in 1627 published at Dresden a collection of Galliards, Courants, &c.,* the best portion of which is appropriately named "Capriccio Stravagante," wherein the Violin is made to imitate the braying of an ass and other sounds peculiar to the animal kingdom, as well as the fife of the soldier and the twanging of guitars. This, it must be confessed, is not high art, and points to a disposition on the part of the Violin to return to its old companions of the Fiddle. Perhaps we ought not to expect to find at this stage of its independence that punctiliousness associated with its behaviour when in the company of the Viols, and we must also bear in mind that Corelli had not yet taught it to be dignified even though engaged in playing a jig.
3Giovanni Battista Fontana supplies us with the earliest indication of the removal of the Violin as a solo instrument to a higher sphere of composition. In 1641 was published at Venice eighteen sonatas with accompaniment for two or three Violins with Bass. This work is noticed by Wasielewski in "Die Violine," Bonn, 1873, as also many others I shall have occasion to refer to. Mauritio Cazzati, a native of Mantua, is mentioned by Roger North as the com-
5* Copy in the Dresden Library.
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