Up to the times of the celebrated violin-virtuoso, Paganini, there had not been, it would seem, much improvement made in performance upon this instrument. He startled and electrified the musical world, and in his wonderful playing developed and amplified such resources and effects, both as to instrument and performer, as were not, previously to his coming, thought possible. After him, and to be compared with him, have come Vieuxtemps, Ole Bull, Wieniawski, and Joseph White. The latter, although not as yet so well known as the others (he is only a little over thirty years of age), is considered by competent critics to be fully entitled to rank with them.
But these are "bright particular stars," men of genius. The instrument is so difficult of mastery, that few violin-students may hope to equal such marvellous players as those mentioned; although long-continued and severe application may make them good orchestral performers or fair soloists.
The violin is said to be the "king of instruments;" but, by this, reference is made to those powers and extensive resources of expression that are made manifest when the instrument is subject to the brain and hand of the very skilful performer.
At such a time it is made to sing a song, which, readily awakening the sympathies of the soul, causes the listener to recognize and feel the effects of the intonations of pathos, of passion, of deepest melancholy, or those of lightsomeness and wildest joy.
Indeed, this noble instrument, under the deft fingering and skilful bowing of a master-player, becomes almost sentient, and is shown to possess the superior and exclusive power of expressing nearly all the human voice can produce except the articulation of words. A music-teacher once wrote that "the art of playing on the violin requires the nicest perception and the most sense of any art in the known world;" and many there are who will agree with him.
The purity, the sweetness, of its tones,—to produce which calls into exercise the most delicate faculties of the mind,—and the power of these tones to awaken in the heart the most tender feelings, to lead the performer at times into delightful imaginations, into pleasing, restful reveries,—it is the possession of such charming qualities as these that has rendered the violin at all times the favorite companion of the leisure moments of men eminent in the walks of literature, of princes, and other persons of taste and refinement. Some among those first mentioned have excelled as violin-performers, notwithstanding their other occupations.
Girardini, when asked how long it would take to learn to play the violin, replied, "Twelve hours a day for twenty years." Another thus intimates how long and arduous must be the toil before its mastery can be acquired:—
"The difficulty of thoroughly mastering the violin—the difficulty, that is, of combining perfect execution with brilliancy of tone and perfect expression—is so vast, that nothing short of indomitable patience and perseverance, united with those indispensable faculties which all good players must possess, will succeed in overcoming them. 'Twelve years' practice,' says a musical critic, 'on the violin, will produce about as much proficiency as one year's practice on the piano.' If that is so, we may well imagine that a man, who by dint of perseverance has at length qualified himself to take his place in an orchestra, may content himself by merely maintaining his acquired skill, without attempting to rival the great heads of the profession.
"The time which some students will devote to fiddling is almost incredible. We have known a clever man to practise every waking hour in the day, rising early and sitting up late, and sparing hardly one hour in the twenty-four for meals, for two years together, in the hope of qualifying himself for the leadership in a provincial orchestra; which, after all, he failed in doing. We have known men who fiddled in bed when they could not sleep, rather than waste the time; and others who have carried a dumb finger-board in their pockets, in order to practise the fingering of difficult passages while walking abroad or travelling by coach."
It is, however, far from the purpose of the writer to discourage those who may wish to become proficient as performers on this delightful instrument, or to do otherwise than attempt to increase the number of those, who, having carefully listened to master-players, and having thus learned of the wonderful intonations and of the great refinement of musical expression of which the violin is capable, have resolved to become far more than mere "fiddlers;" and are therefore conscientiously and patiently addressing themselves to an endeavor to overcome its difficulties, and to take rank as real violinists. To many of this number a good if not a perfect degree of success must come, as it ever surely comes to the earnest, persevering student of any art.