Scan 81
The violin : solo playing, soloists and solos, 1905
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 65. See the scan on archive.org.
1now think of adopting the style of Corelli, Tartini or Viotti. Before we can give much attention to tradition, we wish to see it more properly unfolded, and its real worth duly estimated by unprejudiced persons. There is a great difference between violin playing of their day, and of the present day.
3But I have no wish to under-value tradition, for I think it may be advantageously consulted, although by no means implicitly followed, and I am ready to assign to it its proper rank and importance. We are bound to appreciate the worth and importance of tradition or testimony, in reference to certain works and players, such as Joachim shows. It proves a salutary check to one's youthful exuberance; and it is by the knowledge of it that we reject false tradition. There is a wide difference between the tradition of the sixteenth and seventeenth, and of the eighteenth centuries. There was a development in violin playing; an invention, and addition continually going on.
5We rest, then, in a conclusion of this sort; we are to regard tradition in its proper light. I would not advise my readers to always tread in the footsteps of such venerable men as Corelli, Pugnani, and Viotti. Spohr, Paganini and Wieniawski are better models I will warrant. Certainly we owe respect and reverence to the first set; but they are not our only guides, and we cannot persistently follow them, if we wish to race with the present times. We are not to form our views or principles in a contracted manner, or with an arrogant spirit, or think our decisions must be infallible. Listen with respectful deference to all opinions, and when you are certified of their truth follow them, and imbibe their spirit when it is pure.
7Most of the controversies which arise on the subject of virtuosity, spring from the hurry with which some men find fault with what they have not examined, and speak ill of what they do not understand. Why do so many men attack technical perfection, which all violinists contend for? Is it because they are sworn enemies to it,
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