Great Violinists And Pianists | Page 8

eminent virtuoso." As
the king had commanded the piece, the least he could have done would
have been to have waited till it was finished. "If they play at Naples,
they are not very polite there," poor Corelli must have thought! Another
unfortunate mishap also occurred to him there, if we are to believe the
dictum of Geminiani, one of Corelli's pupils, who had preceded him at
Naples. It would appear that he was appointed to lead a composition of
Scarlatti's, and on arriving at an air in C minor he led off in C major,
which mistake he twice repeated, till Scarlatti came on the stage and
showed him the difference. This anecdote, however, is so intrinsically
improbable that it must be taken with several "grains of salt." In 1712
Corelli's concertos were beautifully engraved at Amsterdam, but the
composer only survived the publication a few weeks. A beautiful statue,
bearing the inscription "Corelli princeps musicorum," was erected to
his memory, adjacent that honoring the memory of Raffaelle in the
Pantheon. He accumulated a considerable fortune, and left a valuable
collection of pictures. The solos of Corelli have been adopted as
valuable studies by the most eminent modern players and teachers.

Francesco Geminiani was the most remarkable of Corelli's pupils. Born
at Lucca in 1680, he finished his studies under Corelli at Rome, and
spent several years with great musical _éclat_ at Naples. In 1714 he
went to England, in which country he spent many years. His execution
was of great excellence, but his compositions only achieved temporary
favor. His life is said to have been full of romance and incident.
Geminiani's connection with Handel has a special musical interest. The
king, who arrived in England in September, 1714, and was crowned at
Westminster a month later, was irritated with Handel for having left
Germany, where he held the position of chapel-master to George, when
Elector of Brunswick, and still more so by his having composed a Te
Deum on the Peace of Utrecht, which was not favorably regarded by
the Protestant princes of Germany. Baron Kilmanseck, a Hanoverian,
and a great admirer of Handel, undertook to bring them together again.
Being informed that the king intended to picnic on the Thames, he
requested the composer to write something for the occasion. Thereupon
Handel wrote the twenty-five little concerted pieces known under the
title of "Water Music." They were executed in a barge which followed
the royal boat. The orchestra consisted of four violins, one tenor, one
violoncello, one double-bass, two hautboys, two bassoons, two French
horns, two flageolets, one flute, and one trumpet. The king soon
recognized the author of the music, and his resentment against Handel
began to soften. Shortly after this Geminiani was requested to play
some sonatas of his own composition in the king's private cabinet; but,
fearing that they would lose much of their effect if they were
accompanied in an inferior manner, he expressed the desire that Handel
should play the accompaniments. Baron Kilmanseck carried the request
to the king, and supported it strongly. The result was that peace was
made, and an extra pension of two hundred pounds per annum settled
upon Handel. Geminiani, after thirty-five years spent in England, went
to Paris for five years, where he was most heartily welcomed by the
musical world, but returned across the Channel again to spend his latter
years in Dublin. It was here that Matthew Dubourg, whose book on
"The Violin and Violinists" is a perfect treasure-trove of anecdote,
became his pupil.
Another remarkable violinist was an intimate friend of Geminiani, a

name distinguished alike in the annals of chess-playing and music,
André Danican Philidor. This musician was born near Paris in 1726,
and was the grandson of the hautboy-player to the court of Louis XIII.
His father and several of his relations were also eminent players in the
royal orchestras of Louis XIV and Louis XV. Young Philidor was
received into the Chapel Royal at Versailles in 1732, being then six
years old, and when eleven he composed a motette which extorted
much admiration. In the Chapel Royal there were about eighty
musicians daily in attendance, violins, hautboys, violas, double-basses,
choristers, etc.; and, cards not being allowed, they had a long table
inlaid with a number of chess-boards, with which they amused their
leisure time. When fourteen years old Philidor was the best
chess-player in the band. Four years later he played at Paris two games
of chess at the same time, without seeing the boards, and afterward
extended this feat to playing five games simultaneously, which, though
far inferior to the wonderful feats of Morphy, Paulsen, and others in
more recent years, very much astonished his own generation. Philidor
was an admirable violinist, and the composer of numerous operas
which delighted the French