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
Mr. HENRY GATTIE, welcomed in his youthful days as a charming
solo-player, in which capacity he ran for a time a pretty close race
with Mori, has since contented himself, for the most part, with the less
ambitious employment of orchestral playing; but his finished taste, and
true musical feeling, ensured him a very favourable attention, when, on
the memorable occasion of the experiment at Quartett performances (to be
presently referred to), he took the Second Violin part among the
confraternity at the Hanover Square Rooms.
ANTONIO JAMES OURY was born in London, in the year 1800. His father, a
native of Nice, of noble descent, left home to follow the early
campaigns of the then General Buonaparte—was taken prisoner by the
English, and lodged near Southampton, at which place he married, in
1799, the daughter of a Mr. Hughes, not unknown in literary circles—and
then followed the joint profession of musician and dancing-master,
possessing, at the same time, great natural capacity for several
branches of the fine arts.
The subject of our present sketch, at the age of three years, commenced
his infantine attentions to the violin, under the tuition of his own
father, and of the father of our talented composer, George Macfarren. In
1812, young Oury became the pupil of three eminent professors—Mori,
Spagnoletti, and Kiesewetter. In 1820, he heard Spohr for the first
time: as a result of the impression then received, his perseverance
became so great, that, for the space of seven months, he practised no
less than fourteen hours a-day! In the same year, he went to Paris, to
study under those magnates of the modern French School of the
Violin—Baillot, Kreutzer, and Lafont. From each of these masters (and
without the knowledge of the others) our young artist managed to take
two lessons a week, for several successive winters, at the same time
studying composition under Monsieur Fétis. He then made his _début_ at
the London Philharmonic Society, at the Concert given for the widow and
family of his late master, Kiesewetter. He also became a member of the
“Ancient Concerts,” Philharmonic, and Opera orchestras, and joint leader
with François Cramer, at the Birmingham, York, Leicester, and Derby
Musical Festivals—and also made several operatic tours in Ireland and
elsewhere.
In 1826, Oury was engaged as Leader of the Ballet, Sub-Leader of the
Opera, and Solo-Violin, at the King’s Theatre; and, as successor of Mori
and Lacy, he held this tripartite post for five years—displaying,
whensoever the occasion permitted, the graces of a light and free
execution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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