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
A considerable share of originality appears to have marked the style of
this artist, who, if he derived essential aid from the great man that
called him pupil, was any thing but his slavish imitator. “Dubourg’s
performance on the violin,” says Sir John Hawkins, “was very bold and
rapid—greatly different from that of Geminiani, which was tender and
pathetic;-and these qualities, it seems, he was able to communicate; for
Clegg, his disciple, possessed them in as great perfection as himself.”
According to the same authority, the talent of Dubourg won for him many
admirers, and among them a Mrs. Martin, who had become, from a Dutch
widow, an English wife, and, being possessed of a large fortune, came to
reside in London, where, during the winter season, she had frequent
Concerts, resorted to by citizens of the first rank, and at times by
some of the nobility. A picture of Dubourg, painted when he was a boy,
was, it seems, a conspicuous object in Mrs. Martin’s Concert-Room.[56]
As a composer, Dubourg is, or rather was, known by the _odes_ he
officially set to music in Ireland, and by a great number of _solos_ and
_concertos_ for the violin, which he wrote for his own public
performances. Though alleged to have possessed much intrinsic merit,
none of these appear hitherto to have been printed; nor is it likely
that they will ever now meet with that honour, as the change of fashion
in music would hardly admit of their being rescued from “the dreary
_fuimus_ of all things human.” For a long time, however, his works (in
their aforesaid manuscript state) continued in the possession of one of
his pupils; and perhaps they are not yet scattered, but may be at this
moment reposing in some dark old chest, undisturbed, save by the
nibblings of the worms. In the faint hope of yet bringing some of them
to the light, although with no view towards their multiplication, I have
had recourse (but without success) to the friendly aid of that oft-times
efficacious doubt-cleaver and knot-cracker, known by the name of “Notes
and Queries.” As to the _odes_ above referred to, they were _ex-officio_
celebrations of royal virtue, from the now-forgotten hand of Benjamin
Victor, the poet-laureate, who has achieved for himself _no_ realization
of the classic wish, “victorque virûm volitare per ora.” Of several of
these stately effusions, I have the words now before me. They might
serve to provoke the smiles of another and a very different laureate,
the living Tennyson; but, as a stimulus to _music_, I can say nothing
for them—and can only _hope_ that my progenitor’s attempts, in
association with them, may have been worthy of better company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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