Among the Great Masters of Music | Page 8

presence; whereupon the ex-violinist would rush to the
unfortunate tormentor, snatch the fiddle from him, and seek to allay his
disturbed equanimity (which, much to the delight of those within
hearing, always took him a long time to accomplish) by playing
himself.
At the first performance of "Armide," at Versailles, some delay
prevented the raising of the curtain at the appointed hour. The king,
thereupon, sent an officer of his guard, who said to Lulli, "The king is
waiting," and was answered with the words, "The king is master here,
and nobody has the right to prevent him waiting as long as he likes!"
Hippolyte de la Charlerie, who painted Lulli as a boy in the kitchen of
"La Grande Mademoiselle," was a Belgian artist, who died young, in
1869, the same year that he sent this picture to the Paris Salon.

STRADIVARIUS.
Crowest, the English writer on musical subjects, says: "Two hundred
years ago, the finest violins that the world will probably ever have were
being turned out from the Italian workshops; while at about the same
time, and subsequently, there was issuing from the homes of music in
Germany, the music for these superb instruments,--music not for any
one age, 'but for all time.'"

"In the chain of this creative skill, however, a link was wanting.
Nobody rose up who could marry the music to the instrument. For
years and years the violin, and the music for it, marched steadily on,
side by side, but not united. Bach was writing far in advance of his time,
while Stradivarius and the Amatis were 'rounding' and 'varnishing' for a
people yet to come. It was not till the beginning of the present century
that executive skill, tone, and culture stepped in, and were brought to
bear upon an instrument that is, perhaps, more than any other,
amenable to such influences. Consequently, to us has fallen the happy
fate to witness the very zenith of violin-playing. A future generation
may equal, but can scarcely hope to surpass a Joachim, a Wilhelmj, or a
Strauss,--players who combine the skill of Paganini with a purity of
taste to which he was a stranger, and, moreover, with a freedom from
those startling eccentricities which, more than anything else, have made
the reputation of that strange performer."
The greatest violin-maker that ever lived, Antonio Stradivari, or
Stradivarius, was born in Cremona, probably in 1644. No entry of his
birth has been found in any church register at Cremona, but among the
violins which once belonged to a certain Count Cozio di Salabue was
one bearing a ticket in the handwriting of Stradivarius, in which his
name, his age, and the date of the violin were given. He was then
ninety-two years old, and the date of the violin was 1736. He was the
pupil of another famous Cremonese violin-maker, Niccolo Amati, and
his first works are said to bear the name of his master, but in 1670 he
began to sign instruments with his own name. His early history is quite
unknown, but a record exists showing that in 1667, when twenty-three
years old, he married Francesca Ferraboschi. For about twenty years
after his marriage, Stradivarius appears to have produced but few
instruments, and it is supposed that during this time he employed
himself chiefly in making those scientific experiments and researches
which he carried into practice in his famous works. It was about the
year 1700, when he was fifty-six years old, that Stradivarius attained
that perfection which distinguishes his finest instruments. The first
quarter of the eighteenth century witnessed the production of his best
violins,--the quality of those made after 1725 is less satisfactory.

During his long life (he died in 1737), the great violin-maker worked
industriously, and produced a large number of instruments, but a far
greater number are attributed to him than he could possibly have made.
His usual price for a violin was about twenty dollars, (Haweis says fifty
dollars), but a fine specimen from his hand now sells in the auction
room for hundreds of dollars. In 1888, a Stradivarius violin brought the
large sum of five thousand dollars, and double this sum was paid a few
years since for the celebrated "Messie" violin, made by Stradivarius in
1716, and still in perfect condition. Count Cozio di Salabue had bought
it in 1760, but never allowed it to be played upon, and when he died
(about 1824) it was purchased by that remarkable "violin hunter," Luigi
Tarisio. Thirty years later, he, too, passed over to the majority, and his
friend, the Parisian violin-maker Vuillaume, bought the "Messie" from
Tarisio's heirs, along with about two hundred and fifty other fiddles,
many of which were of the greatest rarity and value. Vuillaume kept the
"Messie" in a glass case and never allowed