Famous Violinists of To-day and Yesterday

by Henry Charles Lahee

But if this same Fiddle, you fain would play bold,

You must go to his son, who'll be Young when he's old.

There's old Young and young Young, both men of renown,

Old sells and young plays the best Fiddle in town,

Young and old live together, and may they live long,

Young to play an old Fiddle; old to sell a new song."

In the course of time the English learned to esteem all arts more highly, and in no country was a great musician more sure of a warm welcome.

Two celebrated violinists were born in the year 1630, Thomas Baltzar, and John Banister, the former in Germany, at Lubec, and the latter in London.

Baltzar was esteemed the finest performer of his time, and is said to have been the first to have introduced the practice of "shifting." In 1656 Baltzar went to England, where he quite eclipsed Davis Mell, a clockmaker, who was considered a fine player, and did much to give the violin an impetus toward popularity. The wonder caused by his performances in England, shortly after his arrival, is best described in the quaint language of Anthony Wood, who "did, to his very great astonishment, hear him play on the violin. He then saw him run up his Fingers to the end of the Fingerboard of the Violin, and run them back insensibly, and all with alacrity, and in very good tune, which he nor any in England saw the like before."