Books › The violin: its famous makers and their imitators. : With several wood engravings from photographs of the works of Stradiuarius, Guarnerius, Amati, and others, 1880 › scan 261
Scan 261
The violin: its famous makers and their imitators. : With several wood engravings from photographs of the works of Stradiuarius, Guarnerius, Amati, and others, 1880
6 lines. Read by computer on 29 August 2026. Printed page 243. See the scan on archive.org.
1and simplicity of his modulation, he greatly surpassed that composer in the fertility and originality of his invention; not only in the subjects of his melodies, but in the truly cantabile manner of treating them. Many of his adagios want nothing but words to be excellent pathetic opera songs. His allegros are sometimes difficult; but the passages fairly belong to the instrument for which they were composed, and were suggested by his consummate knowledge of the finger-board and the powers of the bow. As a harmonist, he was, perhaps, more truly scientific than any other composer of his time, in the clearness, character, and precision of his basses, which were never casual, or the effect of habit or auricular prejudice and expectation, but learned, judicious, and certain." It would be difficult to add to this judgment of the compositions of Tartini. The truth of Burney's remarks are better understood at this moment than when penned. During the space of nearly a century, the sonatas of Tartini lay dormant, and only within the past few years have their beauties been again recognised. Such works as Tartini's are all-important links in the chain of musical progress.
3Pietro Locatelli, a pupil of Corelli, introduced a style of playing quite in advance of his time. His compositions abound with novel combinations, double stops, harmonics, and arpeggios are displayed with wonderful results. Burney says that "Locatelli had more hand, caprice, and fancy than any Violinist of his time." He was a voluminous writer of Caprices and Sonatas. His "Art de Nuova Modulazione" is probably his greatest work.
5The immediate follower of the style of Locatelli
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.