=The Vienna School=.—The southern Germans had certain characteristics wherein they differed from their northern kin; they were in closer touch with Italy and were also influenced by their Hungarian neighbors. In Beethoven’s time considerable attention was given by Viennese violinists to chamber-music. Four names are prominent: =Karl Dittersdorf= (1739-1799), =Anton Wranitzky= (1756-1808), =Joseph Mayseder= (1789-1863) and =Joseph Bœhm= (1795-1876), the latter being the teacher of a number of famous violinists, =Hellmesberger=, =Dont=, =Remenyi=, =Ernst= and =Joseph Joachim= (b. 1831), the latter, representing the solid, classical style of his teacher, joined to a mastery of the technic of his instrument that enabled him to win and maintain the highest rank as virtuoso, quartet player and composer for his instrument. Up to the time of his death, August 15, 1907, he was director of the Royal High School of Music in Berlin. He was the teacher of hundreds of players, including many celebrated artists of the present day. [Illustration: JOSEPH JOACHIM.] [Illustration: NICOLO PAGANINI.] =Paganini=.—The most unique, most startling figure in music belongs to the violin, a law unto himself in his playing, one for whom the violin seemed to have been perfected long years before by Guarnerius and Stradivarius and one who seemed to have been made for the violin, the hero of fictions innumerable, to whom was attributed in his day all manner of occult power. This mysterious king of the violin was =Nicolo Paganini=, born in Genoa, February 18, 1782, died May 27, 1840. Never strong in body, in his early youth he gave himself up to dissipation to such an extent that he undermined his constitution, and passed through the world as a spectre rather than as a man. Paganini was self-developed, he belonged to no school and he founded none, yet so great was his command of the technic of the violin and the bow, that no other player so profoundly influenced contemporaries and successors on the matter of virtuosity. He taught but one pupil, =Camille Sivori= (1815-1894). Paganini greatly influenced the younger French violinists of his day, among whom may be mentioned =Alard= and =Dancla=. After these men come =Charles de Bériot= (1802-1870), who represents the Belgian School, his pupil =Henri Vieuxtemps= (1820-1881) and third generation in the line of pupilage, =Eugen Ysaye= (b. 1858). Others who belong to the Belgian School are =Massart= (teacher of =Wieniawski=, =Kreisler= and others), =Léonard= (teacher of =César Thomson=, =Marsick=, =Musin=, =Marteau=, etc.). At the present time the centre of interest in the violin world has shifted to Prague, where =Ottokar Ševčík= has sent out young violinists of the Slav race who display the most astonishing technical mastery. REFERENCES. Grove.—Dictionary of Music and Musicians, articles on Violin Playing, Sonata, Concerto, and players mentioned in this lesson. Stoeving.—Story of the Violin.