The next to call for notice is Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), a most prolific composer, especially for the string family. Attached to the service of Prince Esterhazy, a patron immensely rich and passionately fond of music, Haydn enjoyed a combination of circumstances all concurring to give opportunity for the display of his genius. It has been vouchsafed to few musicians to pursue their art under such favourable conditions as Haydn. He did not compose to please either publisher or the public. So long as his patron was satisfied with his productions, things went on merrily with him.
Let us see what Haydn did for the instrument he loved so much. Here they are—eighty-three quartets, three concertos, twenty-one trios for two violins and bass, six violin solos.
No review, however short, could lay claim to completeness without mention of the following—viz., Mozart, Weber and Beethoven. To this noble trio violinists owe much. It is, of course, quite beyond the province of this work to even enumerate the many compositions from the pens of these immortal musicians in which the violin took part, but I would call attention to Beethoven’s glorious Concerto in D, Op. 61, and his two lovely Romances in G and F respectively.
Another great German musician who exercised considerable influence on compositions of classic mould was Louis Spohr (1784-1859). His great fame as a composer, combined with his reputation as a violin virtuoso of the highest order, places him in a conspicuous position in the history of music. The works of Spohr are probably so well known that no useful purpose can be served in recounting their great merits. Suffice it to say they are of the highest possible pitch of excellence, and require more than ordinary technical ability to do them justice. Considered only as a composer, he has been indefatigable in the production of every style of music, and he was especially happy in that for the strings. His beautiful D minor Concerto is one of the finest examples of this class of music to be met with, and its first introduction by the great master himself made a great sensation. As one of Spohr’s commentators truly said, “Mozart had written solid and simple concertos, in which the performer was expected to embroider and finish the composer’s sketch, and Beethoven’s concertos were so written as to make the solo player merely one of the orchestra. But, as Mozart raised opera to a higher standard, so Beethoven uplifted the ideal of the orchestra, so Spohr’s creative force as a violinist and writer for the violin has established the grandest school for this instrument, to which all the foremost contemporary artists acknowledge their obligations.”
Before taking leave of the German school I would mention two other names—Joseph Mayseder and Kalliwoda, both of whom contributed much that is good, and their works consequently attained wide popularity.
Let us now turn to our own country. We have not, it must be admitted, occupied a front rank as composers of violin music, hence the scarcity of classical works handed down to us; but let us hasten to add, we have produced the finest critics in the world, and, what is more, we are thoroughly well posted up in all the best pieces that have emanated from the thoughts of the greatest composers.
One of the earliest who wrote for the violin was one Rogers, who, in the year 1653, wrote airs in four parts for violins. He was followed by John Jenkins, who wrote twelve sonatas for two violins and a bass, printed in 1664, which were the first sonatas written by an Englishman.
James Sherard also composed several sonatas in the beginning of the last century, and they are said to bear such a resemblance to Corelli’s that they might have been taken for that composer’s.
The compositions of Handel materially advanced the violin in this country, and the establishment by him of Italian opera was the means of bringing us in touch with the great Italian performers and writers.