The Age of Bach and Handel (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 Excerpt: ...from Samson, or 'Sweet bird, ' from L'Allegro, could hardly have been written, since the skill they require in the singer would not have been gained; and without it, Bach's ' Chaconne' for violin alone, the harpsichord sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, and the 'Trillo del Diavolo' of Tartini must have been widely different from what they are. Again, the rage for technical skill had an important result upon the next generation, since it brought about a wider recognition of the legitimate resources of all the instruments at the composer's disposal, and thus had a good deal to do with the settlement of the orchestra into a regular and acknowledged entity. It would be difficult if not impossible to trace a continuous history of virtuosity, and it would be untrue to represent it as steadily advancing from the unaffected simplicity of the earlier days through successive stages of regular development to a condition where it monopolized public attention to the exclusion of all else. It is rather like an epidemic bursting out for no apparent cause in different countries and periods, and dying down again without any obvious reason. Its earliest appearance would seem to have been in the virginal music of the time of Queen Elizabeth; such a collection as the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book contains abundant instances of pure virtuosity, in variations, &c., of which the technical difficulty is the only attraction; but in the better specimens of the kind, it is curious to notice how the passages of purely technical interest are subordinated to those for which musical value may be claimed, so that after the utmost speed possible upon the instruments of the time has been attained, it is usual to find a concluding variation of massive structure, depending entirely upon harmonic s..