The Violin: Some Account of That Leading Instrument and Its Most Eminent Professors, from Its Earliest Date to the Present Time; with Hints to Amateurs, Anecdotes, etc.Dubourg, George
History
The Violin: Some Account of That Leading Instrument and Its Most Eminent Professors, from Its Earliest Date to the Present Time; with Hints to Amateurs, Anecdotes, etc.
Dubourg, George
Violin; Violinists -- Biography
FRANÇOIS JOSEPH GOSSEC, a composer of some eminence, though not
expressly for the violin, fixed his residence at Paris in 1751, and was
soon afterwards attached to the suite of the Prince de Condé, as leader
of his band. In 1770, he founded the Concert of Amateurs, which enjoyed
a marked success during ten seasons, and had the accomplished but
volatile Chevalier de St. George for its “premier violon.” Gossec
subsequently filled an important post at the _Conservatoire_, and was,
in other respects, actively connected with the progress of music in
France. He died “full of days.” The symphonies of this master, and the
Quartetts of Davaux, which preceded, in France, those of Haydn, are
cited as advantageous specimens of French instrumental music of the
concerted kind; and some of them are still heard with pleasure.
PAGIN, who drew his excellence from that best fountain, the Italian
school, was born in France, in the year 1730. Addicting himself early to
the violin, and prompted by the desire to form his style on the purest
model, he travelled into Italy, expressly to receive instructions from
Tartini. His happy disposition for the art was turned to speedy
advantage by that master, and Pagin had scarcely reached his twentieth
year ere he returned to Paris, where the success that attended him, in
various performances at the _Concert Spirituel_, attested the value of
the means which he had taken for his proficiency. His enthusiasm,
however, in relation to his great preceptor, occasioned a check to his
career. He chose to play, exclusively, the music of Tartini and the
French musicians, resenting his choice, set about to oppose him. Their
jealousy, whether alarmed for national or for individual credit, took an
ingenious method of working out its purpose: it was by the ironical
applauses and sinister compliments which he received, at one of the
above concerts, that the unwelcome innovator was compelled to forego
appearing at any more of them. He was subsequently engaged in the suite
of the Count de Clermont. Dr. Burney, who heard him in 1770, has
recorded his admiration of the expression and lightness that
distinguished his performance.
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