Made by Peter Wamsley at the Harp and Hautboy in Pickadilly, 1735.
Peter Wamsley Maker at the Harp and Hautboy in Piccadilly, 17 London 51.
[Illustration: _Made by_ Peter Wamsley _at ye_ GoldenHarp _in Pickadilly London,_]
PART III. ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CLASSICAL MUSIC FOR THE VIOLIN AND OTHER STRINGED INSTRUMENTS.
The term “classical” as applied to music is a composition against which the destroying hand of time has proved powerless (Riemann), in other words, works which have been handed down to us by the old composers, and which at the present day are recognised as models of purity in musical art, are now considered as classical compositions.
Coeval with that remarkable epoch when the violin assumed its present admirable and unalterable form, which culminated with the closing year of the sixteenth century, is the dawn of musical composition for the instrument, and the musicians of the time vied with each other in producing works calculated to raise the violin from its hitherto subordinate rank as a mere accompanist to its proper position as a solo instrument, thereby ensuring prominence and with it rapid popularity.
It is to Italy that we have to turn for any certain knowledge of the earliest classics, and the first to claim our attention is Arcangelo Corelli (1655-1713). He was not only the founder of the Roman school, the earliest known, but probably the first to definitely fix the form of the sonata. In those times two kinds of sonatas were recognised, called respectively, _sonate da camera_, i.e., chamber sonata, and _sonata da chiesa_, or church sonata. The first-named consisted of a series of dance measures (allemande, courante, saraband, gigues, etc.), systematically arranged, whilst the latter was a subject treated in fugal and other learned styles, and otherwise rendered more in keeping with the dignity of the place in which such compositions were performed. In the time of Corelli, the sonata usually commenced with an _adagio_, and after two or three other movements finished with an _allegro_ or _presto_.
Corelli as a composer showed a great partiality for this class of music, and his compositions rapidly spread throughout the length and breadth of Europe. Tartini caused all his pupils to study the works of Corelli. There is not, it is true, evidence of a great amount of musical erudition, but what has conferred a remarkable longevity on his works is his melodic simplicity and pure harmony. His works are forty-eight sonatas for two violins and bass (Op. 1-4), produced 1683-94; twelve sonatas for violin and bass (Op. 5), 1700; twelve “concerti-grossi,” for two violins and ’cello as principal instruments, and two violins, viola and bass as accompanying instruments.