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Scan 342
The violin and its music, 1885
4 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 317. See the scan on archive.org.
1French, is not to be supposed; both found their first great master in Italy, and each have been equally influenced by the example of Rode, Bailliot, and Kreutzer; but, withal, there remains that distinctive tone of thought and action which follows upon difference of origin, and which is not without its effects upon the art of Violin-playing and composition.
3In entering upon this branch of our subject, we cannot do better than begin with François Joseph Gossec, he who is so prominent amid the little group of musicians whose labours served to open up the path of modern instrumental music. The part Gossec played in this important work was both curious and unfortunate; as far as regards the credit it brought him, inasmuch as he found himself in the position of an author who, after dedicating his genius to the composition of a book, and fixing upon its title, discovered that a literary brother had been engaged upon the same undertaking. The reader will recognise the truth of the illustration when he is informed that Gossec, in the middle of the last century, held the post of conductor to the private band of the Fermier-général La Popelinière in Paris, and clearly recognising the slight character of French instrumental music, was led to compose symphonies, the first of which was played in 1754, five years previous to the date assigned to Haydn's first. Again, in the field of quartett writing he was an early contributor;
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