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By the 18th century, the violin had greatly risen in the estimation
of the public.  No longer were its players considered "rogues and sturdy
vagabonds".  Tutors for the instrument were in great demand, and the
virtuosi were much admired and sought after.

from v.d.Straeten p. 64

Bishop Earle's description, as contained in Hawkins' History of Music gives a fair
idea of the social position of the professional violinist of that time: "A poor 
fiddler is a man and fiddle out of case, and in worse case than his fiddle.  One
that rubs two sticks together (as the Indians strike fire), and rubs a poor living
out of it; partly from this, and partly from your charity, which is more in the 
hearing than giving him, for he sells nothing dearer than to be gone.  He is just
so many strings above a beggar, though he have but two; and yet he begs too, only
not in the downright for God's sake, but with a shrugging God bless you, and his
face is more pin'd than the blind man's.  Hunger is the greatest pain he takes,
except a broken head sometimes, and the labouring John Dory.  Otherwise his life
is so many fits of mirth and 'tis some mirth to see him.  A good feast shall draw 
him five miles by the nose, and you shall track him by the scent.  His other
pilgrimages are fairs and good houses, where his devotion is great to the Christmas,
and no man loves good times better.  He is in league with the tapsters for the
worshipful of the inn, whom he torments next morning with his Art, and has their
names more perfect than their men.  A new song is better to him than  a new jacket,
especially if baudy which he calls merry, and hates naturally the Puritan, as an
enemy to his mirth.  A country wedding and Whitson Ale are the two main places he
domineers in, where he goes for a musician, and overlooks the bagpipe.  The rest
of him is drunk and in stocks."

An Ordinance made in 1658 contains the following clause:  "And be it further
enacted, that if any person or persons, commonly called fiddlers or minstrels,
shall at any time after the said first day of July (1657) be taken playing,
fiddling, and making Musick in any inn, ale-house, or tavern, or shall be taken
proffering themselves, or desiring, or entreating any person or persons to hear
them play, or make Musick in any of the places aforesaid, that every such person
and persons so taken, shall be adjudged, and are hereby adjudged and declared to 
be rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars, and shall be proceeded against and 
punished as rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars within the said statute, any law,
statute or usage to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding."
Quantz
57
...At present the style of their [Italian] singers differs greatly from that
of their instrumentalists.  There is no longer agreement between them.  Although
the Italian instrumentalists have the advantage over those of other peoples, in
that they hear so many good things sung from childhood on, they nowadays
accustom themselves to employing a style so different from that of the singers, that
one would hardly take them to be of the same nationality.  For the most part this 
difference lies in the execution, and in an excessive addition of extempore
embellishments.  The change was originated by several celebrated instrumentalists
who distinguished themselves from time to time in composition, but more particularly
by performing many difficult feats upon their instruments, They must have been of
very different temperaments, however, since one was mistakenly led into one style, 
the other into another, both of which have been subsequenly propagated by their
adherents, so that a bizarre and unbridled style has arisen from a well-grounded
one.  The antagonism that always prevails between singers and instrumentalists in
Italy, and between vocal and instrumental composers, may also have contributed
somewhat to this contrast.  The singers do not wish to grant that the 
instrumentalists can move the listeners as well as they do with singable ideas, and
arrogate to themselves without any distinction a superiority over the instrument-
alists.  The latter do not wish to submit to the former, however, and thus try to 
prove that it is possible to be just as pleasing with a different style.  As a 
result, they have almost succeeded in doing the reverse, to the detriment of true
good style.

58
Two celebrated Lombardic  violinists [Vivaldi and Tartini] who began to be known
about thirty or mre years ago, one not long after the other, have independently
contributed much to this stated of affairs.  The first [Vivaldi] was lively and
rich in invention, and suppied almost half the world with his concertos.  Although
Torelli, and  after him Corelli, had made a start in this genre of music, this 
violinist together with Albinoni, gave it a better form, and produced good 
models in it.  And in this way he also achieved general credit, just as Corelli had
with his twelve solos.  But finally, as a result of excessive daily composing, and
especially after he had begun to write theatrical vocal pieces, he sank into 
frivolity and eccentricity both in composition and performance; in consequence his
last concertos did now gain as much approbation as his first.  ...because of his 
character change in his manner ot thinking in his last years almost completely
deprived the above-mentioned celebrated violinist of good taste in both performance
and composition.

59
  The second of the two Lombardic violinists mentioned above [Tartini] is one of the
foremost, and one of the greatest, masters at performing difficult feats upon the
violin.  It is asserted that he withdrew completely from musical society for
several years in order to produce an individual style of his own making.  This style
proved to be not only completely opposed to his own previous one in certain respects,
but also impossible of imitation in singing ; hence it remains peculiar to just
those violinists who seem to have little feeling for the good and true singing style.
Just as the first violinist sank into frivolity and eccentricity as a result of the 
multiplicity of his musical works, and thereby departed considerably from the style
of others, the latter completely departed from everyone else in abandoning the
singing style, or at least its good and pleasing qualities.  Hence the success of 
his compositions has not been equal to that of the works of the aforementined
composer.  In them one finds nothign but dry, plain, and very common ideas, which,
in any case, would be more suitable in comic rather than in serious music.  His
playing, to be sure, since it seems to be something new, excites much admiration
among those who understand the instrument; the pleasure it excites, however, is
proportionately less among the others.  And since he has invented many different 
kinds of difficult bow-strokes which distinguish his execution from that of all
others, various German violinsts have, out of curiosity, come under his influence, 
to their own detriment.  Many have adopted and retained his style, while others have
abandoned it after a good singing style has given them a better idea of what is 
truly beautiful in music.  Yet just as a copy rarely mirrors the original exactly,
and we often mistakenly imagine that we hear a master in his pupils, estimating the
former by the latter, to his detriment, so it may well be that some of the pupils of
this celebrated violinist (and he has already trained a considerable number of them)
have contributed much to the unfavorable opinion we have of him.  Perhaps they have
not rightly understood his style, or, carried away by its unusual character, have
made it still more bizarre, thus reproducing what they have learned from him in a
much deteriorated form.  Hence it is probable that he himself would not consider 
many things to be good that are found in various persons who pride themselves on
playing in his style.

60
  I have not cited these two celebrated and, in more than one respect, worthy men
to assess their merits, or to disparage the genuinely good things they have done.
My only purpose has been to discover to some extent the reason why present-day
Italian instrumentalists, particularly violinists, have adoted a style so contrary
to good singing style, although a style that is good and true ought to be universal.
Some among them do not lack either knowledge of, or feeling for, that which pertains
to good singing; yet they do not try to imitate it upon their instruments, finding
that which they hold excellent among the singers too poor and too slight upon their
own instruments.  They praise the singer if he sings distinctly and expressively,
but consider it good to play obscurely and without expression upon their instruments.
They approve of the singer's modest and flattering execution, while their own is
wild and eccentric.  If the singer makes no more embellishments in the Adagio than
the melody permits, they say that he sings masterfully; yet they themselves crowd
the Adagio with so many graces and wild runs, that you would take it for a jocular
Allegro, and can scarcely perceive the qualities of an Adagio in it any more.

61
  You also find that almost all of the modern Italian violinists play in the same
style, and that as a result they do not show up=7P:4→P12y]⊂0r;_w:0sYP4w⊂_wvx0\4ywwβE;tz~⊂:42Zy⊂82Y2qry\wy9Wλ⊂#7yλ:42vH:42P_7{yz≤7urVλ;t4qZ⊗⊂64ZrP:4→P:7w→ztw3H7w⊂;Zw2⊂εB4w9z≤:vrw≥9V⊂4\P:42H10yt\P37yλ64{2[<P6z\tqpvλ0y:4Xzv0z~ww⊗⊂≠s:2wλ9ry;→yV⊂6~urP:~2FE;Zw210YP7s⊂_P10s\4x2Vλ7w6<R to make the instrument sound like a hurdy-gurdy.  They
seek the greatest beauty at the very place where it is not to be found, to wit,
the extremely high register, or at the end of the fingerboard; they climb about in
the high register like somnambulists upon the rooftops, and meanwhile neglect the
truly beautiful, depriving the instrument of the gravity and agreeableness that
the thick strings are capable of giving it.  The Adagio they play too boldly, the
Allegro too lethargically.  In the Allegro they consider the sawing out of a lot
of notes in a single bowstroke to be some special achievement.  They perform
shakes either too quickly and in a tremulous manner, which they consider a defect
in a singer, or use shakes in thirds.  In a word, their execution and their method
of playing are such that it sounds as if an able violinist were giving a comic
imitation of an old-fashioned fiddler.  In consequence liseners of good taste must
often take great pains to conceal their laughter.  And if fashionable Italian
violinists of this sort are used as ripienists in an orchestra, they usually do more
harm than good...

62
  In the //composition of the modern Italian instrumentalists/, with few exceptions,
more eccentricity and confused ideas are found than modesty, reason, and order.
They seek to invent much that is new, but as a result lapse into many low and common
passages which have little affinity with anything good that they may intermingle
with them.  They no longer produce such moving melodies as they did formerly. Their
basses are neither majestic nor melodious, and have no particular connecion with the
principal part.  Neither the fruits of labor nor anything venturesome is apparent in
their middle parts; you find simply dry harmony.  And even in their solos they 
cannot endure a bass that occasionally has some melodic motion.  They much prefer it
if the bass moves along quite tediously, is but rarely heard, or alays drums upon 
the same tone.  They pretend that in this fashion the soloist is least obscured.
But perhaps they are ashamed to admit that they write the bass, or have it written, 
in this manner so that the virtuoso who is completely unacquainted with harmony
and its rules does not as often run the risk of betraying his ignorance.  They pay
but little attention to he proportions of the work as a whole or to metrics.
They take too much liberty in harmonic progression.  They do not seek to express 
and intermingle the passions as is customary in vocal music.  In a word, they have
altered the style of their predecessors in instrumental music, but they have not
improved it.

76
  If, finally, one wished to characterize briefly the national music of the
Italians and the French, considering each from its best side, and contrast the
differences in their styles, this comparison would, in my opinion, turn out 
about like this:
  In //composition/ the //Italians are uninhibited, sublime, lively, expressive,
profound, and majestic in their manner of thinking; they are rather bizarre, free,
daring, bold, extravagant, and sometimes negligent in metrics; they are also
singing, flattering, tender, moving, and rich in invention. They write more for
the connoisseur than for the amateur.  In //composition/ the //French/ are 
indeed lively, expressive, natural, pleasing, and comprehensible to the public,
and more correct in metrics than the Italians; but they are neither profound nor
venturesome.  They are very limited and slavish, always resembling themselves,
stingy in their manner of thinking, and dry in invention. They always warm over
the ideas of their predecessors; and they write more for the amateur than for the
connoisseur.
  The  //Italian manner of singing/ is profound and artful; it at once moves and
excites admiration; it stimulates the musical intellect; it is pleasing, charming,
expressive, rich in taste and expression, and transports the listeners in an 
agreeable manner from one passion into another.  The //French manner of singing/
is more simple than artful, more spoken than sung, more forced than natural in the
expression of the passions and in the use of the voice ; in style and expression it
is poor, and always uniform; it is more for amateurs than for connoisseurs; it is
better suited to drinking songs than to serious arias, diverting the senses, but
leaving the musical intellect completely idle.
  The //Italian manner of playing/ is arbitrary, extravagant, artificial, obscure,
frequently bold and bizarre, and difficult in execution; it permits many additions
of graces, and requires a seemly knowledge of harmony; but among the ignorant it
excites more admiration than pleasure.  The //French manner of playing/ is slavish,
yet modest, distinct, neat and true in execution, easy to imitate, neither profound
nor obscure, but comprehensible to everyone, and convenient for amateurs; it does 
not require much knowledge of harmony, since the embellishments are generally
prescribed by the composer; but it gives the connoisseurs little to reflext upn.
  In a word, Italian music is arbitrary, and French is circumscribed.  If it is to
have a good effect, the French depends more upon the composition than the 
performance, while the Italian depends upon the performance almost as much as upon
the composition, and in some cases almost more.
  The Italian manner of singing is to be preferred to that of their playing, and 
the French manner of playing to that of their singing.