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Scan 205
The Violin and its Music, 1881
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 181. See the scan on archive.org.
1Colonna, Chapel-master at Bologna, touching the vexed question of consecutive fifths—Corelli having committed the then unpardonable sin in his third sonata. According to the learned in the science of music the greatest luminaries in the art have been guilty of this dire offence with wondrous results. Whether the father of Violin-music contrived to extract good from evil I must leave the learned to decide; but I think it highly probable that Colonna is better remembered from his association with Corelli in relation to consecutive fifths, than from any musical work he himself left behind him.
3In the year 1686, we have it from Guidi, an Italian poet, that Corelli led the music of an allegorical opera given at Rome, in honour of the Earl of Castelmaine, the ambassador of King James II., the music of which was composed by Bernardo Pasquino, a celebrated organist, and the words by the poet above-named. Its allegorical nature is seen from its characters: London—Thames and Fame brought under the influence of the inevitable good and evil geniuses. The orchestra which Corelli led is said to have numbered one hundred and fifty bowed instruments; it must be confessed an extraordinary number, considering the character of the entertainment, and sufficient to throw doubt upon the correctness of the record. John Evelyn describes a similar operatic performance in France in 1651, where there were "29 Violins
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