The Violin

Passing from these general remarks to a consideration of the German School of the Violin, in particular, we may observe, that, although derived originally, like all the others, from that of Italy, and contracting no inconsiderable obligations to it in its progress, it has been, on the whole, much less indebted to the Italians for resources and support, than the School either of France or England. The cause of this arises out of the admitted fact, that the Germans are essentially a more musical people50– are more deeply imbued with a musical character of their own – than the natives of the two latter countries. They have been less willing, as well as less needing, than these, to incur the debt to Italy – and certainly less willing to add to its amount. The love of the instrument diffused itself very speedily among them (the Germans), and their own powerful musical organization enabled them not only to modify more promptly, after their own character, the hints which they received from its original Italian cultivators, but to be satisfied with a smaller quantity of confirmation from the same source. Their comparative independence, however, or disinclination to borrow, has been somewhat unfavourable to the completeness of their success as performers on the violin. They have, as it were, impressed their own stamp and character upon it – that is to say, they have attained an honest solidity of execution, of high value in orchestral playing; but, with a few prominent exceptions, such as Kiesewetter and Mayseder, they seem to have neglected, as uncongenial to them, the lighter graces and refinements which have been so readily caught up by the more imitative Frenchman. As violinists of display, therefore, they must be content to rank below the French. They are below them in that which their dignity has not thought proper to make the subject of competition – the “manual exercise” of the instrument. They are inferior in execution, and therefore less effective as solo-players; for though the German violinists have, in recent times, enjoyed some repute for their skill in fingering difficult passages with the left hand, they have frequently been deficient with the right; that is to say, indifferently versed in the dexterities of the bow.

The ingenious author of “A Ramble among the Musicians of Germany” has considered the Violin School of that country, at present, to be inferior, not only to the French – which there is no contesting – but also to that of England. In this latter notion I cannot help thinking him mistaken – and I would appeal to his own declaration, that although in Germany “one may find no band equal to that of the Philharmonic Society, fifty may be found, only inferior to it.” This fact supposes of necessity a very large body of good sound violin-players, whose united merits render it scarcely possible to regard the state of the art in their country as inferior to what it is in ours.

The Germans have, after all admitted drawbacks, a high renown in connection with that leading instrument which it is the business of these pages to celebrate. They have the renown that justly attaches to the production of the greatest writers of all for the Violin Family. Their compositions for the instrument, in its single state, are perhaps over-laboured, over-full of chromatic passages, and wanting in the broad, simple, vocal character of the Italian music of the same class; – they have been content, individually, to talk with the violin, whilst the Italians have sung with it; – but – they have tasked their own genius to find scope for its powers in the aggregate – to develop its resources in combination with those instruments that are its immediate relatives; and, in this collective character, they have given new triumphs to it. The names of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, at once suggest themselves, and assert for their country, under this view, a superiority which the world does not seek to dispute. In the quartetts, and other instrumental pieces, up to symphonies inclusive, which have been produced by these great men, all the higher capabilities of bowed instruments are consulted and brought forward, with a nicety of discernment, and a richness, variety, and grandeur of effect, which excite equally our surprise and gratification. – Let us now consider, in their order, the principal German masters whose eminence relates particularly to the violin.

It is hardly necessary to enumerate all the early performers mentioned with commendation by Walther in his Dictionary, since their fame and influence do not appear to have travelled beyond their own country. We will therefore commence with David Funk, originally a singer at Reichenbach, where he was born in the early part of the seventeenth century. He was an excellent musician, and a capital performer on the violin and the viol-da-gamba, besides displaying talent on the harpsichord and the guitar. He was, moreover, a general scholar, and one of the most elegant versifiers in Germany. Independently of his excellence as a practical musician, he obtained credit as a composer, in a variety of styles; and his compositions for the church and the chamber were much admired. His talents, brilliant and diversified as they were, suffered some tarnish from his immoral conduct. It was in 1670 that he began to shine as a composer, by the publication of a collection of pieces for the viol-da-gamba. He was under the patronage of the Princess of Ostfrise, during seven years. That Princess, however, dying in 1689, Funk, then more than sixty years old, returning to the place of his nativity, succeeded in obtaining several appointments; but these he had scarcely retained for a year, when the extreme irregularity of his life deprived him of them, and reduced him to the necessity of quitting the town as hastily as possible. It was in the depth of winter; and in his flight, through frost and snow, he arrived at the gate of the castle of Schleitz. The sordid state of his habiliments made so repulsive an impression on the porter, that he refused him admittance; but his good fortune, prevailing, brought to the spot the chapel-master, Liebich, who, acquainted with his merit, though previously a stranger to his person, expressed his desire for the honor of his friendship, and, in the name of the lord of the castle, whose favour and protection he himself enjoyed, invited the fugitive to his patron’s table. The Count was so delighted with his musical talents and various knowledge, that he retained him as his friend and companion, till letters arrived from Wohnsiedel, claiming him as a moral delinquent, to answer for some part of his past conduct. The Count, disposed to favour him as much as the nature of the case would admit, advised him to depart secretly, and afforded him every assistance for his journey. Funk, once more a wanderer, with out knowing whither to go, was, a few days afterwards, found dead, behind a hedge, in a field near Arnstadt!

It is doubtful whether any of the violin compositions of this master are extant; but, among his sacred instrumental pieces, there is one which has received the encomium of all real judges of music: it is a drama passionale, the words of which, as well as the music, were his own.

Thomas Baltzar, born at Lubeck about 1630, was esteemed the finest performer on the violin of his time. He came to England in 1658, at which time the instrument had not yet been enabled to manifest its real powers among us, nor to emerge (as it shortly afterwards did) from the low estimation in which it was held. Baltzar may be considered as having helped in no small degree to prepare the way for its rescue from humility in this country. He lived, for about two years after his arrival here, in the house of Sir Anthony Cope, of Hanwell, in Oxfordshire. He is said to have first taught the English the practice of shifting (that is to say, of what is termed the whole-shift), and the use of the upper part of the finger-board – in like manner as Geminiani is believed to have been our first instructor in the half-shift.51 It is certain that the power of execution and command of the instrument, exhibited by Baltzar, were matter of novelty among us, although we had a native performer, of no mean abilities at that period, in the person of Davis Mell, who, in delicacy of tone and manner, seems even to have exceeded the more potent and renowned German. Baltzar was of a Bacchanalian turn in his habits, and was believed to have brought his end somewhat the nearer thereby. His remains obtained the honor of a place in Westminster Abbey, in the year 1663. Dr. Burney has characterized his compositions as discovering “genius and a strong hand.”

Henry John Francis Biber, vice-chapel-master to the Bishop of Salzburg, seems to have been one of the best violin-players of his time; and his solos, which he published in 1681 (with a bass), are stated by Dr. Burney to comprise more of fancy, as well as of difficulty, than any music of the same period. One of the pieces is written on three staves, as a score for two violins and bass, but is designed to be played (as regards the violin) in double stops. Others are played in different tunings of fourths and fifths, as for a treble viol.

Godfrey Finger, a Silesian, was a voluminous composer for the violin; in a style of less power than that of Baltzar, but of more polish, and approaching somewhat to the Italians, Bassani and Torelli. He was some years resident in England, having received, in 1685, the appointment of chapel-master to King James II. On returning to Germany, he became chamber-musician to the Queen of Prussia in 1702, and, in 1717, chapel-master to the Court of Gotha.

John Gottlieb Graun, brother of the celebrated chapel-master of that name, and born about the year 1700, was an excellent performer on the violin, and a respectable composer, of the old school. He was concert-master to the King of Prussia, and there are extant of his writings, several overtures, symphonies, concertos, a “Salve Regina,” and some masses. He transmitted, through several good pupils, the serviceable solidity of his talent.

Francis Benda, usually commemorated as the originator of a distinct style of violin-performance in Germany, was a native of Bohemia, and born in the year 1709. At the age of seven, he commenced vocal studies, and, two years afterwards, became a sopranist in the choir of St. Nicholas, at Prague. He soon afterwards went to Dresden, where he was immediately received among the élèves of the Chapelle Royale, in which situation he continued eighteen months. About this period he began to practise the violin, and had no other resource than that of engaging himself with a company of itinerant musicians, who attended fêtes and fairs. While thus situated, he formed an acquaintance with a blind Jew, of the name of Loebel, a virtuoso of no mean order, who became his master and his model. At length, tired of this wandering life, he returned to Prague, and took lessons of Kouyezek, an excellent violinist of that town. He was now eighteen; and, eager in the pursuit of professional excellence, resolved to visit Vienna, where he soon found an opportunity of profiting by the example of the then celebrated Franciscello. After a residence of two years in that city, he went to Warsaw, where he was nominated Chapel-Master. In 1732, at the recommendation of Quantz, the Prince Royal of Prussia (afterwards Frederic II) received him into his band. Anxious for further improvement in his art, he became the pupil of Graun, for the violin; then studied harmony under his brother; and afterwards learned composition of Quantz himself. In 1732, he replaced Graun as the King’s Concert-Master, which situation he held till his death, at Potsdam, 1786.

Of the peculiar qualities of Benda, as a violinist, Dr. Burney, in his Travels, thus speaks: – “His manner was neither that of Tartini, nor of Veracini, nor that of any other leader; it was purely his own, though founded on the several models of the greatest masters:” – and Hillar, in his Biography, tells us “that his tones were of the finest description, the clearest and most euphonious that can be imagined. The rapidity of his execution, and the mellow sweetness of his altissimo notes, were unequalled. With him, the violin had no difficulties. He was master of all its powers, and knew when to use them.”

John Stamitz, Concert-Master and Chamber-Musician at Mannheim, and regarded, like the preceding artist, as the founder of a distinct class of German violinists, was born in 1719, at a small town in Bohemia, where his father was a school-master. Besides the high repute he enjoyed as regards the formation of pupils, Stamitz has attained a just celebrity by his written works. These (which include a curiosity in art – a duett for one violin) consist principally of symphonies or overtures, concertos, quartetts and trios. Though exhibiting a masterly character, they convey the impression, at this period, of belonging too peculiarly to the old school, and have been considered, by some critics, to savour too much of the Church style.

The successors of Benda and Stamitz, still adding some improvements to the precepts or the practice inculcated by those eminent directors, may be said to have created a school of their own, at the head of which we should place Leopold Mozart (author of “Der Violinschule”), Fraenzl, and Cramer, who made some approach to Tartini, his contemporary, and flourished long in England, as a concerto-performer and leader. Of the first and the last of these three professors, some account shall here be subjoined.

Leopold Mozart, father of him who, in the fullest sense permitted to sublunary credit, may be called, “The Undying One,” was born at Augsburg in 1719. After having completed his studies, and particularly a course of jurisprudence, at Salzburg, young Leopold entered the family of the Count of Thurn, in the somewhat odd quality of Valet-de-Chambre Musicien. The situation of a violinist having become vacant in the chapel of the Prince Bishop of Salzburg, he obtained it in 1743. His compositions made him favourably known in Germany but his reputation was extended principally by the Method for the Violin, which he published in 1756, and which, for half a century, was considered as the best work of the kind.

In 1762, Leopold Mozart obtained the post of Second Chapel-Master at the Court of Salzburg. Of seven children whom he had by his marriage, there remained to him only the son, afterwards so famous, and a daughter, whose success in childhood promised a talent which was never realized. The musical education of the children occupied all the time which his duties and his works left to the father. A little while after his nomination as Second Chapel-master, he commenced long tours with his son and daughter, visiting the principal courts of Germany, Holland, England and France, and passed many years in Italy. Returning to Salzburg, rich in the hopes that centered on his son, – but with an exchequer nearly exhausted by the charges attendant on so much itinerancy – he did not again quit the residence of his Prince till 1775. Anxiously careful about ameliorating the condition of his family, he failed to secure that object, and became more and more impoverished. The forms and practices of a scrupulous devotion furnished him, however, with some consolation in his griefs, and alleviated his sense of suffering from the gout. He died at Salzburg, in 1787.

Of the Symphonies composed by Leopold Mozart, it suffices for their commendation to say, that some of them have been attributed to his son. His Method for the violin is entitled “Versuch einer Gründlichen Violinschule,” Augsburg, 1756, 4to., with a portrait of the author, and four plates representing the different positions for holding the bow and the violin. This work, composed according to the doctrine of Tartini, contains (says M. Fétis) some excellent things, and will always be read with profit by such violinists as are disposed to reflection on the subject of their art. The second edition, completed, appeared, under the title “Gründliche Violinschule,” in 1770. A third edition was published in 1785. It has since been frequently reprinted, and translated into several languages.

William Cramer was a native of Mannheim, and born in the year 1730. Influenced by an early passion for music, and aided by the bounty of Prince Maximilian, he soon acquired excellence on his favourite instrument, and, at the age of twenty, obtained a situation in the chapel of the Elector Palatine. Not, however, receiving on the Continent encouragement commensurate with his continual and rapid improvement, he, in 1770, came to England, where he soon obtained the situations of Leader of the Opera-House band, and of the King’s Concerts. In 1787, under John Bates, the Conductor, he led the performances given at Westminster Abbey in commemoration of Handel, and led them in a style that proved his thorough comprehension of the music of that great master. Though Cramer failed to obtain in Germany sufficient patronage to induce his remaining in that country, his claims were admitted there by all real judges of executive talent; and in England he was esteemed the first violinist of his time. It used to be asserted of him that he joined the emphatical expression of Benda with the brilliancy of Lolli. The decision and spirit which characterized his playing, gave him great advantage as a leader. – The latter days of Cramer were somewhat clouded. The emoluments arising to him from the Opera House, and from his employment as a private teacher of the violin, had been considerable during many years; but talent is too frequently a bad economist, and his was one of the cases in which it proved so. The embarrassment he sustained in his affairs, and the transfer of the post of leader of the Opera-band to the greater Viotti, combined to exercise an injurious effect on his health and spirits. His death occurred in October 1799. Cramer was twice married, and had two sons by his first wife – John-Baptist the great Pianiste, and François, of whom presently.52

John Peter Salomon was born at Bonn, in 1745. Director, purveyor, composer and performer, he was one of those whom the musical historian must delight to honour. He was educated for the law; but the voice of music was too powerful within him to be restrained. While very young, he became a performer in the Electoral Chapel at Bonn. In 1781 he went to Paris, with a result of more fame than profit. His enterprising spirit, regulated by discretion, found a happier field in London, where his cheerful disposition, polished manners, good sense, and general attainments, soon obtained for him the friendship of all who at first patronized him for his professional talents. His concerts in 1791 form an epoch in musical history – for, to them we are indebted for the production of Haydn’s twelve Grand Symphonies, known everywhere as “composed for Salomon’s Concerts.” Salomon had formed his project, and digested its details, in the previous year. In order to give every possible effect, as well as éclat, to his concerts, he determined to engage that “par nobile,” Haydn and Mozart, not only to write exclusively for them, but to conduct their compositions in person. For this purpose he went to Vienna, where, after several interviews with both these great musicians, it was mutually agreed that Haydn should go to London the first season, and Mozart the next. They all dined together on the day fixed for the departure of the two travellers. Mozart attended them to the door of their carriage, wishing them every success, and repeating, as they drove off, his promise to complete his part of the agreement the following year. This, however, was an abortive hope. L’homme propose, Dieu dispose: – Mozart, who had filled a short life with durable deeds, was carried, within that stipulated interval, to the grave! – The terms on which Haydn undertook so long a journey and so responsible a duty, were, £300 for composing six grand Symphonies, £200 for the copyright of them, and a benefit, the profits guaranteed at £200. Salomon re-engaged Haydn for the season 1792, on the same terms, except that, for the copyright of the last six Symphonies, the increased sum of £300 was paid. In the first concert of this year, Yaniewicz played a Violin Concerto. At the first of the series in 1793, Viotti made his début in London, in his favourite Violin Concerto. In 1794 and 95, Haydn, having visited London a second time, was again at the same post of pianoforte president. In 1796, Salomon’s discriminating judgment brought out of obscurity, and placed in their proper sphere, the extraordinary vocal powers of Braham. Of Salomon’s subsequent subscription concerts, engagements at private music parties, attendances at the Prince of Wales’s Carlton-House Concerts, compositions of canzonets, songs, glees, &c. it is not requisite here to treat. His public career extended to the period of the formation of the Philharmonic Society, in 1813, of which he was one of the original and most zealous promoters and assistants. He died Nov. 28th, 1815. His remains, followed to the grave by a long train of professional and other friends, were interred in the great Cloister of Westminster Abbey.

Salomon was one of the few whose right to contend for the honour of being considered the greatest performer in Europe on the violin, was manifest. His taste, refinement, and enthusiasm, as Dr Burney has observed, were universally admitted. His profound knowledge of the musical art served to add solidity to his fame. His judgment and vigour, as a leader, are traditionally well known. Among his pupils, Pinto proved the extent of his master’s skill, and his ability in communicating it. Unfortunately, this extraordinary young man, whose musical progress reflected so much honour on his teacher, possessed qualities that are but too frequently the regretted concomitants of genius, and he perished just as he was ripening into finished excellence. Salomon, besides other works, published two Violin Concertos, arranged for the pianoforte, with full accompaniments; and six Solos for the violin, printed first in Paris, afterwards in London. Among his unpublished compositions, are some Violin Quartetts, Trios, and Concertos.

Charles Stamitz, eldest son of Stamitz the famous, was born at Mannheim, in 1746. He was made a violinist by his father, and his father’s pupil, Cannabich; and was afterwards engaged in the chapel of a German Prince, till the year 1770, when he went to Paris, and made a durable impression there, both as a concerto-player on the violoncello and tenor, and as an instrumental composer. His writings had all the fire and spirit of those of his father, as well as an admixture of later improvements, without servility of imitation, as relating to any style. Many of them were published at Paris, Berlin, and Amsterdam. This artist died at Jena, on his journey to Russia, in 1801.

John Frederick Eck, born at Mannheim, in 1766, became Concert Director to the Court of Munich. Noted as an artist in his day, he is further noted as having assisted to develop the great faculty of Louis Spohr.

Andreas and Bernard Romberg, cousins to each other, and scions of a family of some note in the annals of music, were for several years joint participants in labours connected, immediately or incidentally, with the violin. About the year 1790, the two cousins held situations in the court-chapel of the Elector of Cologne, at Bonn, where Andreas was already distinguished by his excellent performance on the violin, and his compositions, both vocal and instrumental; and Bernard no less for his violoncello-playing, and the pieces he had written, either for his own instrument, or the full orchestra53.

When the French armies entered Bonn, at the commencement of the revolutionary war, the Elector’s musical establishment was broken up, and the two cousins proceeded to Hamburgh, where they readily obtained engagements in the orchestra of the German Theatre. In 1795, they left Hamburgh, and, continuing their mutually beneficial compact, made journeyings together through several cities of Germany and Italy, establishing everywhere the reputation of being among the best violin and violoncello players of the day. Their duetts and concertante performances, in particular, had that perfect harmony of finish which the constant habit of studying and playing together could perhaps alone bestow. The familiar interchange of ideas was likewise of advantage to them in the compositions which they produced, whether conjointly or separately. They may be styled, by no very forced parallel, the “Beaumont and Fletcher” of the musical world.