Violin-making in England began early and was at first more indebted to German than to Italian influence. Prominent names are Benjamin Banks of Salisbury (d. 1795), Richard Duke (till 1780), Charles Harris (c. 1800), William Forster (d. 1807), and several descendants, Bernhard Fendt (d. 1832), a Tyrolese, and his sons, and John Frederick Lott (d. 1853).
112. Early Violin Music and Violinists.—The rapid improvement
of the violin and its larger relatives was due to the recognition
of their remarkable artistic possibilities. These lay in
two directions, concerted or orchestral combinations and solo
effects. The more these were appreciated and the better became
the instruments themselves, the greater was the stimulus
to composers to devise and work out special effects, and to
players to overcome the technical difficulties involved. The
17th century, therefore, witnessed the foundation of violin music
and violin-playing, using both terms in the wide sense that includes
all bowed instruments.
In the later 16th century manifold experiments had been made with strange aggregations of instruments for concerted effect. All these lacked a settled principle of organization. But with the rise of the opera, particularly under Monteverdi (himself a violist of long experience), the true orchestra began to take shape with viols of different grades constituting almost half the total force. For more than a century further, however, solidity of harmonic structure was secured by the almost constant use of the harpsichord, though more and more the viol-quartet was pushed into the foreground. The complete emancipation of the orchestra as a body of solo instruments was delayed until after 1750.
It is instructive to compare the make-up of orchestras at different periods.
As early as 1565 we hear of accompaniments for intermezzi in
which 7 viols contended with three or four times as many wind instruments
and 2 harpsichords. In 1600 Peri did not use viols for 'the first
opera,' and Cavaliere only one for 'the first oratorio.' But in 1608 Monteverdi
in his opera Orfeo employed 16 viols (including 2 violins) with 14
wind instruments, a harp, 2 large lutes and 2 harpsichords. Late in the
century works by Legrenzi, Lully and A. Scarlatti show a preponderance
of bowed instruments, often with clear signs that the value of the string-quartet
as a nucleus was appreciated, if not always consistently maintained.
In the 18th century Bach and Handel applied the orchestra in very
different ways, each for his own purposes, but they contributed little to the
settling of the modern orchestra on its present lines. It remained for
Haydn and Mozart to make a permanently satisfactory adjustment.
