Books › The violin and its music, 1885 › scan 279
Scan 279
The violin and its music, 1885
2 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 261. See the scan on archive.org.
1an opinion, I am inclined to think, few legitimate Violinists will disagree with. Blangini, on his return from Italy, spoke of the author with enthusiasm, and attested that his art bore no affinity to the manner of playing the Violin that all great masters had propagated until his day; that all was the invention of his talent, and that he was destined to revolutionize the art of Violin playing. Paganini and revolutionary Violin-playing was for years a subject much dwelt upon; it was the bogey of the principal Violinists of the day. Mendelssohn, writing to his sister, said, "I don't at all approve of your hearing Lafont, to speak of the revolution in the Violin since Paganini, for I don't admit that any such thing exists in art, but only in people themselves; and I think that very same style would have displeased you in Lafont if you had heard him before Paganini's appearance." Mendelssohn, in another letter, reverts to the subject: "Reformation is that which I desire to see in all things, in life and in art, in politics and in street pavement. Reformation is entirely negative against abuses, and only removes what obstructs the path; but a revolution, by means of which all that was formerly good is no longer to continue, is to me the most intolerable of all things, and is in fact only a fashion. Therefore, I would not for a moment hear that Lafont's playing could inspire no further interest since the revolution effected by Paganini; for if his playing ever had the power to interest me it would still do so, even if
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