Another early violinist, AGOSTINO AGGAZZARI, born of a noble family at Siena, and a scholar of Viadana, appears to have been the first who introduced instrumental Concertos into the Church; though Dr. Burney supposes that these Concertos must only be understood in the very qualified sense of _Salmi Concertati_, or psalms accompanied with violins; and he adds, that Concertos _merely_ instrumental, either for the church or chamber, seem to have had no existence till about the time of Corelli. CARLO FARINA, of Mantua, who published, in 1628, a Collection of “Pavans and Sonatas” for the violin, is recorded by Walther (in his Musical Lexicon), as having figured in the service of the Elector of Saxony, as a celebrated performer on the instrument. MICHAEL ANGELO ROSSI, a composer, as well as an able violinist, signalized himself somewhat oddly at Rome, in 1632, by performing the part of Apollo, in a musical drama, with the violin as the expressive symbol and exponent of his melodial powers, _instead_ of the classically attributed lyre. The strangeness of the anomaly was doubtless lost sight of amidst the enjoyment it was the means of conferring: nor would the example, were it taken up in our own times, by a competent artist, be likely to fail in producing a similar subserviency of taste to pleasure. If, in _these_ days, the man who plays Apollo Like charms could conjure from the fiddle’s hollow, _We_, too, should find the heaven-descended lyre Omitted “by particular desire!” And Phœbus, fitted with a fiddle so, Would dart fresh wonders from his newer _bow_! Though there was only one violin employed (observes Dr. Burney) in the first operas by Jacopo Peri and Monteverdi, yet, as the musical drama improved, and the orchestra was augmented, the superiority of that instrument was soon discovered by its effects, not only in the theatre, but in private performances; and the most eminent masters, without knowing much of its peculiar genius or powers, thought it _no degradation_ to compose pieces expressly for the use of its votaries. Among the most early of these productions, may be ranked the _Suonate per Chiesa_ of Legrenzi, published at Venice, 1655; _Suonate da Chiesa e Camera_, 1656; _Una Muta di Suonate_ (a Variety of Sonatas), 1664; and _Suonate a due Violini e Violone_, 1677.